Daybreak

I sure wish I could get Tom at Moonshine to paint my rod tips for me! I always thought that would be perfect for night fishing, but the off-the-shelf glow paint doesn't even last 10 minutes. I'd be in for a set of Flounder Pounder Rod Tips! I love my LED Spreaders and they are worth every penny. They barely get warm, let alone hot, and together they both burn like a 5% of the power that one halogen bulb does. They also scatter the light better as opposed to a "beam" on most halogens. I get light at almost 90 degrees to both sides from the lamp. They are more expensive, but I think they are worth it.

For getting Leadcore deeper...yes. But I am unclipping the drop-weight when I still have tons of line in the water infront of the fish. But I wouldnt run the set-up above. Not a fan of having a weight clipped to the mono just in front of the spoon, unless its 100'+ in front of it. I dont like weights flying around while I am trying to net fish. I do use a similar set-up for fishing DEEP. Its usually a 6-8 color leadcore with a 10-12oz. weight in front of the leadcore, which gets the bait a good 60' below the cannonball. I clip it deep in the release on a max setting, and send it down. Usually I am only running 1 rigger when fishing that deep, but we were catching fish 300' down last year all day long on this rig, fishing the shipping channels off Manistique.

Gusts today(2-18-11) of almost 70 kts at The Rock, with sustained winds of 63kts!! Probably need to be jigging with 15lb. cannonballs today to find the bottom!! http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=stdm4

I heard there was still plenty of good ice on LBDN, but the fishing has been slooooow! Good luck and have fun! The temps are already fally this morn and its suppoesed to be back to "normal" by tonight, with snow showers tommorow. The UP200 Dog Sled Race is also going on this weekend, starting Friday in Marquette and going just over 200 miles before finishing back in Marquette on Sunday Morn. Its a qualifier for the Ididarod race so all the "big dogs" are here for it.

Thanks for the comments guys! Dan, feel free to give me a call anytime if you have questioins about the Marquette area. I can definatly get you out on the water in September, which is our best time of the season for near-shore Lakers and Salmon. Going to Stannard Rock that time of year may be a little testy though. I have had some years with 6-10 runs out there in September, or like last year, the winds blows like crazy for weeks and limits me to only a few runs if were lucky. We can always play it by ear and watch the weather. There are also lots of cool short hikes near Marquette such as Sugar Loaf Mountain, Hogs Back Mountain, and Little Presque Isle, as well as Presque Isle Park and the Dead River falls. As Bromley said though, for a longer adventure and some of the best scenery anywhere in the country, the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore just East of Munising(40 miles East of Marquette) has no equal! Give me a call if there is anything I can help you with, fishing related or not! And congrats on the Wedding.....and more importantly, a Bride that wants to go to the U.P for a honeymoon....now thats a keeper!

Its a bit of a read, but here is some good info.... Deep Salmon Breakthrough DEPTH IS NO BARRIER FOR KINGS BY MATT STRAW WITH MARK CHMURA Captain Mark Chmura tells the first mate to “send one downtown.†When the cannonball hits 400 feet, it’s not there yet. When this crew sends a bait “downtown,†people speaking Chinese pick it up on sonar. Chmura, the salmon-pro, angling-theorist, Renaissance man who came up with the Stability Zone, which we chronicled in our June 2007 issue, would like to announce that king salmon are biting, right now, in depths exceeding 500 feet all over the Great Lakes. Recent findings by scientists working for the U.S. Geological Survey back this up, meaning king salmon go deeper than anyone previously believed, deeper than common lake trout, and on a regular basis. Roger Bergstedt, research fishery biologist for the U.S.G.S., says he implanted recording devices called “depth tags†in chinook salmon and released the fish into Lake Huron. “The data chip records depth, temperature, and time,†he says. “I’ve got over 30 tag returns from anglers, and these tags tell us there are more deep movements of kings than people think. “Kings make a lot of vertical movements. They’re not hanging in there at 54°F all day. Any day. Movements to deep water are common and I’ve got to believe they’re down there on business. They’re hunting, and if you put a lure in front of them they’re probably going to take it.†Bergstedt says one of the tagged fish journeyed into the deepest water in Lake Huron, into depths exceeding 700 feet, during the night in winter. At daybreak the next morning, that salmon traveled from the bottom to the surface in a matter of minutes. “One of the most interesting things we noticed in the preliminary analysis was that salmon were close together at night, and just after dawn they really spread out,†Bergstedt says. “Some actually went deeper at dawn, some shallower. If we plotted maximum depth by hour during late summer, they’re tightly grouped during the night at 55 to 60 feet. Once the sun came up, some fish went deeper than 400 feet. In winter, the deepest one we marked was within a meter or so of the deepest point in Lake Huron, or a little over 700 feet. In winter, the chinooks we tagged were 400 feet down at night, but they would come right up to the surface in the morning. They would be up there very briefly and head right back down to bottom. Tagged salmon were making daily vertical movements of 400 to 600 feet in a matter of minutes, sometimes once every hour or so. These were larger specimens, too. It seems smaller salmon are drawn to warmer water much of the time, but in winter they all head deep.†Like a scattering of lost pieces from a jigsaw puzzle, these findings fit snugly into the overall picture of salmon movements in Chmura’s mind. But just because he knew they were there didn’t mean it would be easy catching them. “This is bigger than telling people we can catch salmon 500 feet deep,†Chmura says. “The real news is that we’re on the right track with respect to understanding salmon behavior in the Great Lakes. From an angler’s point of view, this could be the biggest change in perspective in salmon trolling history.†About four years ago, Chmura and his crew were fishing on The Shelf, a startling piece of structure well offshore on the Michigan side. “We were marking fish deeper than we were fishing,†Chmura says. “So I dropped a rig down 200 feet, and we caught fish. I kept going deeper every time out, wondering, what’s the lower limit of all this? After four years, we’ve learned there is no limit. I feel certain that salmon are using the bottom of Lake Michigan, in 900 feet of water. I haven’t been down that deep yet, but I know salmon are down there because I’m fishing down to 470 feet, catching fish and still marking salmon deeper.†The effort to probe deeper than 400 feet with conventional gear proved difficult. The benthic depths are guarded by powerful, twisting currents. These produce a barrier of sorts—a troller’s nightmare, replete with tangled cannonballs and snapping wire. “If you put two downrigger balls down past 150 feet, they find each other and tangle in the deep currents of the Great Lakes,†Chmura says. “The only way to create a spread of lures is to think laterally. Any additional rigs need to get down at a different angle. I’m getting a second line down there with wire on ocean reels like the Daiwa Dendoh-style Tanacom Bull. The Bull holds 700 yards of 30-pound mono, or 1,100 yards of 60-pound braid. It’s one of very few reels that function at these depths. I spool it up with 30-pound-test Malin wire from Howie’s Tackle. “Three years ago I approached Rick Laroche and John Williams of Big Jon Sports to see about getting a downrigger with a stronger motor, one with the capacity to lift 24 pounds. I needed a smaller diameter spool for better torque, too. They provided me with a spool that holds 750 feet of cable and they’re designing one now that holds 1,000 feet. They’ve been very helpful in all this, but that’s just the beginning. Fishing this deep requires specialized equipment, and even when you obtain that equipment, you’re forced to fish a thin spread. “We have to baby these rigs. Dropping and lifting 24 pounds through a liquid medium creates a tremendous amount of stress on equipment. If the cable nicks, you have to trim it back. And, until now, I haven’t been able to read temperature down there. Remote units won’t transmit that far. But Depth Raider is making a down-temp unit I’m putting on my downriggers with 1,000 feet of cable. “For the past four years, I’ve been catching 6 or 7 additional kings each day, fishing deeper than 300 feet with only one line. Whatever works up on top of The Shelf in the morning is what I drop down deep in the afternoon. You have to feel for the bottom. If you’re not near bottom, you’re not going to catch kings. I stop catching lakers at about 250 feet. I’m not bringing up any juvenile kings from 300 feet, either. The only fish that deep, in Lake Michigan, are big kings. At about 9 to 10 a.m., it’s typical for that shallow bite to shut down. I head out into deeper water at that point.†All of this begs questions nobody can yet answer. Like, what are they eating at that depth? We can’t trust stomach content, because kings may have been 400 feet higher in the water column mere minutes before being hooked downtown. Dr. Jeff Schaeffer of the U.S.G.S. says alewives and other baitfish have declined severely in shallow-water habitat throughout Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. “Salmon could be going deep because that’s where the most prey exists,†he says. “The prey I suspected was the bloater chub, but we don’t find them any deeper than 350 feet. We don’t have much data from deeper than that. We know sculpins can persist down to 150 meters (492 feet), so they’re probably found in the deepest areas of the lake. On Lake Superior, during the course of deep exploration with a submarine, fish of various species were found at the deepest points of exploration, over 1,000 feet down.†Sculpins, like gobies, have no swim bladders and cannot suspend off bottom, which could be the reason Chmura always finds deep, active salmon pinned to structure. And Chmura’s 10 a.m. schedule plugs nicely into Bergstedt’s data, which revealed that summer salmon were grouped tightest during the low-light periods of morning and evening, usually somewhere between depths of 45 and 90 feet. At daybreak every day, some of those fish went deep, but some moved even shallower. During the day, tagged salmon moved up and down like yo-yos, and were scattered widely from 50 to 500 feet at any given moment. “I just changed from 500 feet of cable to 750 feet on my Big Jon downriggers,†Chmura says. “Some spools hold 2,000 feet. This year, I’m going down until I find their maximum depth range. I think kings are using the deepest water, depths of 900 feet and greater, in Lake Michigan. At any rate, adult salmon are biting near bottom as deep as I can troll. And I wouldn’t know where to troll without the split-screen zoom function on my sonar. Without it, you’re not going to see these fish. I’m using Si-Tex sonar right now, but I’m thinking of switching to Ray Marine. The Ray Marine E-Series includes a model that has GPS in 3D that shows you nooks and crannies at those depths. I set the zoom at 10 feet above bottom, making it far easier to locate fish when you’re talking about sounding through 500 feet of water column. Trying to locate and zero in on suspended fish at 500 feet is like targeting mosquitoes with a slingshot. Using a 24-pound downrigger ball near bottom, I caught kings as deep as 436 feet, which was my maximum operating range last year. This year, I’m goin’ way downtown, but staying on structure. “My Si-Tex graph, with the zoom showing the bottom 10 feet, always shows activity, every month of the year. I thought they were whitefish and lake trout at first, but the majority of those fish are kings. How many times have you had people say their depthfinders suddenly lit up with fish? When I hear salmon fishermen say it, I believe those fish suddenly rose from the depths.†The Davy Jones Program “When currents are strongest, you can only go one way,†Chmura says. “You can’t get a ball downtown plowing into the current. If the wind is coming out of the north for days, it creates a cold current, and salmon rise up on top of The Shelf, or any similar structures, in depths of 60 to 100 feet. That’s the highway, where the average guy spends most of his time and where I like to spend the least possible time. If that current’s coming out of the south, it’s a warm current and more salmon seem to be deep more of the time. “I’m using 120-pound-test cable. I’d like to go thinner, but I’ll lose too much gear. If I go thicker, I get too much resistance. But resistance is what’s telling me which way to go. Watch the cable angle. Keep it as straight as possible. When it’s pointing out, behind the boat, it’s time to turn around. You’re going with the bulk of the currents when you’re trolling with the least resistance. Those deep currents drag your rig way out there if you’re trolling into them. It takes time, unless you’re out there a lot. And to keep a cannonball down over 400 feet, you’re restricted to about 2 mph. Any faster and the rig rises out of the zone. “Zebra mussels persist way down there,†Chmura says. “That means you can’t drag bottom. To stay in the zone, I touch bottom three times. Touch bottom once, troll 50 feet or so, drop it to bottom again, repeat the process once more, and the rig stays within 10 feet of bottom. Again, with that much cable out, the angle of the cable tells you which direction you need to be trolling. Once you’ve determined that, just keep going. Don’t troll back to point A. Circle back. “My presentation consists of using the center rigger to send one cannonball down 450 feet. In addition to special downriggers, you need to use red Off-Shore releases. The black ones release at 180 feet. A second lure can be sent down with the Dendoh-style Tanacom Bull from Daiwa, which holds 3,800 feet of Malin multi-strand wire. Using 2- to 4-pound balls on wire line, looking for a 2:1 ratio, is the only other way to go deep. Using a 4-pound ball, you might be able to get down 500 feet with 1000 feet of wire out, depending on the currents. Last year, I could only put my center rigger down, but that one bait accounted for a dozen or more kings some days at depths between 350 and 440 feet. “Before going downtown, hook up a glow J-Plug, a glow spoon, or a glow flasher and charge it with a camera flash. The key is simply using whatever was working on top in the morning, with the added attraction of phosphorescence. “The Stinger Nitro is one of my favorite glow spoons,†Chmura adds. “The Nitro glows for 6 hours on a single charge from a camera flash. I use the Mag and the Sting Ray, the two largest sizes. Increased surface area means more glow. We assume it’s rather dark at such depths. I’ve pulled dodgers and flies and dodgers with meat down there, too. Those fish are coming up to feed, but the lure has to be close enough to see in the dark. Glow versions of the Stinger Nitro and the standard size #4 Luhr Jensen J-Plug have been my best baits downtown. “I start out on top of The Shelf in an area I call the Firecracker. It consists of two shelves, the first dropping from 50 to about 160 feet. Three miles out, another shelf drops all the way from 350 to 700 feet, then gradually tapers to 900. Fish are on bottom in all these depths all year. It’s very consistent. “I tell my first mate we’re going downtown. He knows that means 350 feet or deeper. At those depths, scales come off easy on the fish we bring up, but they’re beautiful and in great shape otherwise. If you don’t force them up, I think they’re releasable, though very few kings are released in this business because, as a rule, they’re not releasable. Salmon are worn out, partially drowned, can’t be revived from a moving boat, and seldom go back down. When you’re fishing deep, you can stop the boat. You only have one other line to haul in, if that. If you baby these salmon up, they’re releasable.†Salmon can dump air, relieving pressure on their swim bladder as they rise, just like lake trout, meaning there is no reason not to accept Chmura’s premise. Bergstedt captured all of his kings for the study by trolling and, obviously, kings can be released and live out the rest of their lives, even after surgery, with a tiny computer tucked snugly in their abdominal cavity. “On top of these breaks from 300 to 700 feet, steelhead often persist because of currents that run just under the surface,†Chmura points out. “I think those steelhead are in the top 20 feet in the same areas where salmon are 400 feet down. I think they generally merge as they approach shore together in fall, because we start catching them at the same time with the same program in the same areas every fall. They merge when the temp on top begins to equalize with the middle of the water column, and I think both species are in heaven in 49°F water.†But that’s a different program. And the “downtown†program might be a tad difficult to swallow, which is okay. Centuries passed before Europeans could admit the world is round. Most of them were, however, illiterate, giving rise to the term “Dark Ages.†Obviously, you can read, so don’t try to think like a salmon. Unless you have a brain the size of a pea, it will hurt. And trying to “think like a fish†obviously didn’t help any of the millions of salmon fishermen out there realize how deep salmon are willing to go. We all need to completely reevaluate everything we think we know from time to time. Salmon fishermen don’t deserve any free passes in that regard. PRINTED FROM IN-FISHERMAN.COM COPYRIGHT © 2010 INTERMEDIA OUTDOORS Depth Is No Barrier For Kings http://www.in-fisherman.com/print/3765 Hope that helps a little!

I get everything from Mike, the owner of Mikes Eyeflies. http://www.eyeflies.com/products.html Not sure of the exact make of them, but the ones he has glow like crazy! I have tried many other glow beads trying to find the ones with the most "lasting" power. Mikes got em! As I have said before, color of the fly aside, the glow beads are a MUST as far as I am concerned. I have done tons of experimenting with this, and have proven to myself beyond the shadow of a doubt, the glow beads can make all the difference. I have had few days where the fish would hit both the non-glow and the glow stuff equally, but NEVER a day where the non-glow outperformed the glow. Never. And remember, glow isnt just for the dark! Especially with all the really deep fishing I do, glow really shines!(no pun intended!) IMHO, the best way to enhance any fly is with glow beads under the skirt....cause we all know its whats under the skirt that counts

From the end of the loop knot to the bend in the treble. (I use a single/treble hookset)

Its funny to hear all the Green stuff being the best for you guys! Up here on the North tip of the Lake, BLUE is the ticket, and has been for a few years. Spoons, Flasher/Fly, Meat rigs, ect... Not to say green dosent work, just that around here(Fairport), Blue baits triple the catch of any other color. This was my stud last year, and the fly in the pic took well over 50 Kings in July and still looks great!! Blue/Glow Spin Doctor. 23" Leader to a Mikes Eye Fly "UV Double Blue Eye". And MOST importantly, 3 large Super Glow beads.

Allout.... Check out this link for info on the Furuno. Then even if you dont want Furuno, give this guy a call. 1 (847) 746-0100 His name is John and he is the owner. He is the most knowledgeable guy I have ever spoken with and has 30+ years experience with this stuff. He is also more than willing to talk to you and answer any questions, no matter how long it takes. He is not like most of these guys that only reccomend things they want to sell you. You get his honest opinion with no BS mixed in. He is also familiar with the SimRad stuff so ask him about that to. Gaurentee when you get off the phone you'll say...WOW, thats the nicest guy i have ever talked to! http://www.technicalmarine.com/products/furuno-navpilot511

Problem is, they are designed to work at much higher speeds than we are used to. I had a buddy that was interesed in these last year. After talking to a few others that had used them, he decided against them. Even on their website it states they dont start to work properly until you are over 3kts. I think they are more designed for Ocean trolling at higher speeds.

The 3 best peices of advise for mid-day bites are... -FISH MEAT -FISH DEEP -FISH SLOW

Furuno Nav-Pilot 511. For a few extra dollars, get the unit that FAR outperforms the Garmin and Raymarine. , and is know to be as bulletproff as the rest of their products. On a boat that size and spending that kind of money... I wouldnt think twice.... If you dont want to spend the whole time screwing with your new AP, only to have it still not working properly after 2seasons, then get the Furuno! Do some searching on the internet and see what you find. There are lots of comparisons out there. I like Garmin products as well, but their AP's have gotten a lot of bad reviews, especially for Great Lakes Fishing/Trolling.When it came time to drop $3K on a unit, I wanted the tried and true, and the one chosen the MOST by customers in all walks of life. After 2 seasons with it...I have NO regrets. Since then, I have 3 friends that have removed different units(2 Raymarine and 1 Garmin), took a huge loss, and did what they should have done from the start...bought a Furuno!

Never personally used them.....yet. But I have heard good things from many different people around here that love them.

I use 12-15lb. for Rigger rods. There is not a fish that swims in Lake Michigan that requires any heavier. ANDES Slate Blue Backcountry Mono. The best mono I have ever laid my hands on! I am not a fan of the Big Game as it seems to get brittle faster than anything else. http://www.alltackle.com/ande_premium.htm -This is All Tackle.com They carry a lot of the high end stuff in bulk at good prices.

This will either Help your cabin fever....or make it worse!

I just toss the foam away when using meat inside of it. You dont really need it anyways, the scent is coming from the meat, and the foam is just a pain in the a**. Another note... I buy these "unrigged" because they are much cheaper that way and I can set them up the way I like them. If you get them pre-rigged, be sure to take the stock treble hook off and throw it in the garbage!! The worst factory hook on any peice of tackle I have ever seen! Slap a nice Owner Treble on instead and you'll be good to go!

I, by no means, am saying these are the next greatest thing. Just another peice of tackle to play with. Like many other things, they take some time to get used to and figure out before they become very productive. Throwing one in at noon one day for a 2 hour soak and then giving up on it is not the way to do it! Work them into different parts of your spread to see what works best. I used them in my spreads alot as the "oddball" bait. If I was running a full spread of spoons for Steelies, I would stick one of these right in the middle of all the spoons. Flashers/Fly or Meat rig spreads for Kings....a clean Brads plug right in the middle of all of it, and usually just below. Quite often, the "oddball" bait is the hottest of them all. Another plus for the plugs is the work at pretty much any trolling speed. Weather I am cruising around in search of Steel at 3-4mph, or draggin one just off the bottom at 1.5mph for lakers, they have a great action all the time, and are leaving a scent and particle trail in the water the whole time. After lots of playing around, my favorite "filling" for Kings is just plain Tuna in Oil. I also add a couple teaspoons of minced garlic to the mix --Hey Mike... On Lake Superior next year, mash up some fresh sucker meat and pack a few of these full of it. Put them about 40" behind a White Spin Doctor, and send it down, about 25' behind the ball.

600'?? Not true! My best set-up for these was run with NO flasher, on the SWR rod, just below the rest of the spread. On lake Superior, a "Watermellon" Plug, 40" behind a White Spin Doctor, and all of it 20' behind the ball. They were also great for early spring Coho up here, run behind 1-5 colors of leadcore off the boards. Definatly worth a try!! We caught tons of fish on these last year, from Lake Trout to Salmon and from Lk. Michigan to Lk. Superior. They caught fish while run behind a flasher and while run clean with no flasher. They caught fish while packed with herring, tuna, sucker, and nothing at all! They caught fish behind riggers, divers, and lead core. They flat out catch fish! Our 3 biggest fish last year came on stannard Meat Rigs.....the next 5 biggest all came on a Brads Cut Plug (Shamrock) For Lakers, packing them with sucker meat is the ticket! For Lake Michigan Kings, Tuna is the ticket!(Especially for guys who dont like their hands to get smelly....even thougn they are fishing?) Tuna packed in oil works the best, and for about 10 bucks you can get enough tuna to last all summer, and if you dont use it all at once, you can just make a sandwich with the rest! I dont mind my fingers smelling like herring....it makes it easier to explain to people how I caught the winning fish of the weekend

Here is an aireal shot of the Lighthouse. North is at about 2o'clock in this picture. And here is a pic of the actuall "Rock" that sticks out of the water to the south of the lighthouse. This pic is taken looking to the NNW. The whole reef itself is about 5 miles long and 1 mile wide, running in a NE direction. The shallowest areas are around the lighthouse, and from there to the actual Rock. There is only 1 peice of the reef that sticks out of the water and thats about 150yards SE of the lighthouse. There area between the Rock and the Lighthouse averages about 5-15feet deep. The only other dangereous area is directly on the North side of the lighthouse. From the base of the light and out to the North about 100yards is a shelf that is about 2' deep for quite a while. Thats why almost every picture you see is taken from the south side of the light. Those are the only 2 areas that you could actually hit bottom with a boat.

Power Pro here too! 30-40lb test for Dipsy and Slide Divers. Buying a bulk spool is the way to go. The best prices I have found are on E-Bay. Far better than most tackle shops prices!

http://greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20576

10-15 percent should be the average tip IF IT IS DESERVED! Coming from a Captain, I can tell you TIPS SHOULD BE EARNED, NOT EXPECTED. If you feel you crew and Captain did all they could to show you a good, safe, fun time.....then tip accordingly. I have also been on a couple charters that I can tell you they did NOT earn a big tip, so they didnt get one. Remember too, it not only about catching fish. Some of my best experiences as a charter customer in other ports were not the best days fishing, but they were EXCELLENT experiences! Thats what I book a charter for. When I run my boat, I try to put myself in my customers shoes, cause I have been there before! Have fun in DR!! Thats a cool place with some GREAT fishing!!