Far Beyond Driven

Glorious night out of Holland. Set lines at six pulled them at 7:40 going 11/11 all browns. Threw back two small ones and kept a two man one girl limit. Eight of the nine rods got hit, mix of sticks and spoons. Direction didn't matter but one area was much better than others with a triple on the first pass and a double on the second. Nothing huge but a nice pile of fine eating for my guest, who routinely raids their budget for my boat gas, or as he calls it "grocery shopping with a chance of drowning".

We caught an almost black laker a few years back. Wished I got pictures. Beck of a better catch than my o-fer out of south haven last week.

How do you tell a splake from a laker? Have a picture? Seems like a pretty rare catch. Last splake plant in lake Michigan was 2008 in Escanaba. Lose Huron gets then in Hessel each year.

And 90% of the buyers won't know crap about boating....

Sharing is great. Posting about a small area that can't take pressure is not. Being called out about that, after I answered that guy's pm's about walleye fishing on the big lake, shows his true character.

Yes, let's all beat the same small area to death and wonder why it doesn't produce any more. I feel bad for those like the poster above who was doing well until the herd showed up.

If the wolves fail they should reintroduce lynx and woodland caribou, which were in the island before the wolves. Some other islands in superior already have caribou. Cool place to go regardless.

Excellent post. I know when six shooter had five fish in the first half hour in the dark he was kind enough to point out that I needed to fish warm water. And nailer scraping kings off the bottom in August, well, have not been able to duplicate that but he didn't keep it a secret.

I ran the whole season mostly in a row boat with.my nine year old as a first mate. Kid is a savant about driving a line while trollinv. Thing I've found with kids is they have their own tournies and that's great but being able to hang with the adults is an even.bigger source of pride. I'm not too keen on having charter captain's or even first mates fish these. Not so fair when they're on the water day in and day out and have a huge network. I'd catch a he'll of a lot more fish if I could pick up running the same program that worked the day or two or all week ago and be calling my charter boat buddies all morning. Having to fish a tournament against these people really stacks the deck. Maybe we put all the charter captain's in a room and put twenties on the table And see who can design a control arm bushing the fastest? I mean that's what I do 60 hours a week.

Came out of year end retirement to hit the Todd farm one more time. Drew poorly no cover wind wrong. Had to set well away from the decoys just to have a place to hide and the few that looked were too far away. Missed a pair at the fringe of range then about noon a flock skirted my side and I punched the last bird in the flock backwards. So with that I'm really done for the year.

South haven is a great port. Leave the points for species as they are. Makes it more interesting. If the fishing was like some days last year every event will be a laker fest if I can average 20 points on those. With a shotgun start, if you have a slow boat just stay by the piers and wait a minute while every body motors off. That's what we do in the 14'. Boundaries as far as you want to go as you're burning your fishing time that being the early bite while running. I won one of these and burned less than 2 gallons in my row boat never going more than 200 yards off shore. Way back in the northern king challenge my battery was dead and we didn't get running until 6 am and I knew my buddy had a good all day bite before north of Muskegon so we ran from Port Sheldon and ended up near Duck lake. But then I have waypoints for Milwaukee and know how to pull cheese head browns....

Finally got a hunting season after two falls spent working 70 hour weeks. Focused on getting my daughter a bird and hitting all seven managed areas. Daughter got three shots on the youth hunt. She's shooting off a stand on landed birds only. She centered one but it took off unharmed. We switched her to a tighter choke and 6 shot. Opening day in traverse city our common ground spot changed hands and we hand to scramble to find a new spot, sleeping poorly in the Jeep. She decided to sleep in. I landed four ducks in the first five minutes. Ended up coming up home with two mallards, three wood ducks, and a merganser. Skipped opening day down here to hit Nyanquing point. Hit all seven units with my buddy and daughter and took 34 birds, not bad as four of them were completely new to us. Buddy got a band out of it. Daughter got one shot as managed area birds don't land very often. One of my stand by spots was more than kind to me, yielding two wood ducks each time to my 20 gauge. Both times they landed on the opposite side of the spread from my daughter. She came out on a diver hunt the day after thanksgiving when it was 17 with a biting wind. We left with 4 buffies, a mallard (landed in an all diver spread), a canvas back (a first), and four mergansers, one of which she smoked after I knocked it down. A later hunt there gave us 7 goldeneye and a couple more mergs. Then came the todd farm. Of the three hunts this year where I didn't shoot, all were there. Yet we had a day where we limited on geese and got some ducks, with geese working after we limited. Had a day we saw 4000 ducks, but only worked three. All were shot feet down. Another day took a newbie out and was working a group out front when he cut loose on a single I didn't see that worked into the pocket. Four geese killed on the unit that day, and we got one of them. And we ended by getting the zone I wanted yesterday and having four birds work perfectly, getting three of them stone dead. The last two were a pair at the edge of range and we shot the same bird, letting the other one escape. So after a piss poor year of salmon fishing - 75% of my catch was browns and steel this year with 12 mature kings all year and only 4 lakers, it was nice to get back into form after a few years off. And the time spent with my daughter was great, even if she falls asleep 5 minutes into any trip just like her mother.

Never seen water beyond 7B.. The corn starts about half way down zone C and goes all the way to the east. These zones are your typical corn to hide and hay out front for the decoys. This will all change when they get the diking done down there but I don't think that applies to this year. We did have a couple nice hunts in 7A but always a bird or two, not an epic hunt. But then most of my duck hunts at the Todd Farm are a bird or two...

Daughter, college buddy and I went across the state to hunt nyanquing for the first time. Drew 21 out of 23 but had done our homework. Took a zone that got five on the am hunt with the guy saying the mallards would not work all the way to the zone. He was right but the Widgeon looked and the woodies piled in like lost friends. We picked our shots trying to get some to land for my daughter. Ended up with two drake Widgeon, a drake mallard, and four woodies with the only hen sporting a band. And right at hours I put four geese in the pocket only to choke on all three shots after hitting four for four before that. Buddy doubled. They killed 44 geese last year in almist 3000 hunts and I choked. Good trip for going in blind. I'm sure people that drew better didn't do as well.

Depends on the year for water. Will be mostly pass shooting on the geese. If you drop one behind you best of luck finding it. The trees in that area are all dead now not sure if that will change. There is no corn, you will need a layout bind and then grass it up. Or just try to hide in the grass. To be honest I would pick 7d to g before a or b any day. Had a 14 duck morning in e one time...

Went south from Port Sheldon to try to find some lakers that don't have 50- boats on top of them like south of Holland. Figured that people catch lakers there because that's where people fish for lakers. Maybe I fish for lakers some where else and find them. Nope. Not really. Stayed in 90' until tunnel park bouncing between 2.0 and 2.8 on the gps by pulling the bags as needed as the wind changed. Down speed doesn't work. After we turned north nothing happened. Set up at 7 pulled them at 10 after looking at the radar. 1 color SWR 55' down flounder pounder 11# king Mag wire diver on 2 240' back green glow spinny ps fly 16.3# king. Guy with us first time on the lake first fish from lake Michigan took it to almost 500' on the counter. He was pretty spent when that one hit the net. Trash can green glow squid pounding bottom 21" laker. Trash can green white spin and glow pounding bottom 18" laker. Who knows how long those two hitch hiked probably dragged them past all the big lakers. 7 color J-11 orange rapala 10# steel that jumped twice and swam to the boat. Same 7 color 7# steel that went nuts including after being netted. Jump run jump jump run jumpity jump jump. With a couple kids on the sticks, our laker trip turned into a nice box of silver at 100% hooked to landed. Not a bad morning rain started right after we put her on the trailer.

Shotgun starts aren't that much fun when there's only one other boat around but we dropped the bomb on the 350 anyway and for the second year in a row I think we caught the first fish as the second rigger we put on the bottom in 65' took a small laker. Fish in the box 13 minutes into a tourney. However, not a sign of things to come. Got the spread in turned south and slid to 80'. Seven color exploded with a nice steel that cartwheeled 20 times easy. Kids took turns horsing the thankfully tripped board to the boat, then Andrea took over until we were on mono, and Lauren closed the deal. 11.44# good for 18th and a trophy. Shortly thereafter a wire diver meat rig got rocked but came unbuttoned. That was it, got hot wind died flies got brutal not wanting to freak out my youngest as she isn't sold on fishing yet, the oldest said we didn't need to get her a fish ( not that I could ) that would score big so we bailed at 10 am. Thanks to the guy behind me at weigh in that joked about checking my daughter's I.d. She has a genetic disorder that affects her growth and is about 8" shorter than the kids in her class. You made her cry as it's a sensitive issue for her. Funny thing is with the supplements she takes at 43" tall she can pace me for 1/2 mile when I jog and smoke me at any distance shorter. Thanks to the sponsors and all the people behind the scenes that make this happen. 109 kids. How awesome is that.

Set up north in 65' all by ourselves and never had a boat within a mile all morning. Had five lines in mag double trouble out 80 on a slide diver goes for a ride. Hand that off half core trips figured I didn't set the release deep enough. Netting the 8# king and see something jumping, so hand my rookie that rod and he pulls in a 7# steel on a double oc dw. First time on the big pond and two fish in 20 minutes. Got the rest of the spread in and about 8 missed a rip on a bloody nose mailer off a 7 color. Wandered as far as 129' and as close as 60' but went back to 80' and trolled south. Rigger down 20 back 100 happee meal starts thrashing and an 11# steelie put on a show. Later grabbed a 5# king on the same 7 color. Pulled them at ten set up at piers had a huge hit on a slide diver out 30 but didn't stick. Called it good lots of bait but no hooks out front.

I've never had to grab 4wd on even the steepest / wettest ramps with my jeep. But I recall some awesome 1 wheel burnouts with my dad's old f 150. Stupid open diff...

I tow a 22' glass boat with a grand Cherokee. 203k on her still yanks that boat around like nothing, like it has for the 14 years I've owned both. I also have an expedition with a 5.4l in it, and it pulls the boat better. But it does not stop better, or control the boat better. Given my choice I take the jeep when I can. I have way more confidence in the jeep over that 7000# pig of a truck that I have no clue how Ford ever sold for the money they asked for it. So you would be ok as long as you don't get too heavy, however, you'd be amazed how fast the weight piles up. Full tank of gas is 300# in my boat. Second battery, pile of gear, etc,etc.

Why is this ok? Any net that is poorly marked or left one day after season should be pulled immediately, and the Fisher and the issuer of the permit fined stupid, and that permit revoked forever. The way these jack wads have been running things that would have thinned out 80% of the nets in the past few years.