mriversinco

Thanks for the report. About how far north of the piers are the nets?

I'll be out of Port Sheldon tonight and let you know. If you're out, feel free to radio "Rivers Edge" on 68 and I'll let you know where and how we're doing.

Since I just got into this lately, I've got a wide assortment of reels. The 209's I've got are fine but I did have to drop $5 into them for new drags and they work very well. Yes, they are slow but the drags are awesome and with alot of newbies on the boat they seem to not let anyone horse fish in. If it were me, I wouldn't buy them new though. I'd save up for a better reel, or buy those better reels used. If you watch different sites, better reels come up often for quite a bit cheaper than 209's new. Most of those used reels are still very serviceable. About the only thing you might need to do is upgrade the drags. For the $8 per reel for drags, you're still ahead of the game. Of course this is for reels that are better quality. I wouldn't buy (used, or new) any reel in lower quality than the Okuma Convectors. For other brands, the lowest one I would buy are: Shimano tr200g, Daiwa sealines, etc.... But keep your eyes open and you'll find some great deals. If you go cheap, you'll be looking for better reels in a year or two and you won't be able to dump those cheaper reels easily. Hope this helps.

yep, you don't have enough line on so it's counting too many revolutions.

Nice job Ben! It's a great feeling to do all that work on your boat and finally go get some fish.

Try crossing the solenoid with a couple of screwdrivers. If it kicks over then it's the solenoid. If it doesn't then it's probably the starter.

This is great, and thanks but it sure is a surprise how little people use the radio now. When I was a kid, listening to the radio was vital to knowing where to fish, and with what.

Ok, I don't remember if I posted this last year but I thought I'd post it this year. I know another members mom does this in her science class but here's ours: Once again, my 6th grade science class at Kraft Meadows Middle School in Caledonia did the Salmon in the Classroom project. We started out with approximately 200 eggs, and this past Friday released a whopping 17 fingerlings. Couple difficulties came up with water quality, and EMS (early mortality syndrome) from the DNR supplied eggs which is simply a lack in thiamin from the parents (it's called beri beri in humans). Overall, this project is awesome as the kids see the development of the fish and are involved in the hands on project of raising them. We released them into the Grand River and they're hopefully on their way.

I didn't see any nets, we went out to about 120 just south of the pier. We didn't go north of the pier until we were down to 60' of water or so.

Finally got out again Wednesday to see what we could do. Ended up boating 3 fish and lost probably 6-8 others. Had at least 3 a ways in when they came unbuttoned. Seemed the fish were swatting at the spoon instead of biting it. 2 of the 3 fish we landed were barely hooked in the corner of the mouth and the rest of the treble was in the side of the face. 50-60 foot of water was the best, and we had pretty much everything go for us since someone (duh) forgot the electric hookups for the downriggers. Anything from a 3 color to full core worked as well as one on a dipsy at 1 and 100' out. The full core was the hottest. Combo's of orange and green and well as green and blue dolphins. The last fish came just before dark on a moonshine mongolain beef.

Forgot to answer the kind, I agree with starcraft getting good bang for buck. I never really agreed with the whole welded versus rivets thing. Both are fine..... I will say that if you want the boat to hold it's value then Lund is the way to go. They simply don't go down in price!

I love mine for it's ease of pulling it. I can fish sag. bay, and any port along lake michigan without any worries. It's a 4 stroke motor so it sips fuel, fill the 14 gallon tank once every 5 or 6 trips. The main negatives I have with it is that it bobs like a cork on heavier seas, and it's an open bow so my young kids don't like riding on it because it doesn't have a potty. Bought it for dual use of duck hunting and fishing and have found that I only use it for fishing.

For marine vinyl start here: http://www.cabelas.com/product/Marine-Standard-Floor-Vinyl/699999.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dmarine%2Bvinyl%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts&Ntt=marine+vinyl&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products You can do better on price, but it's really nice to have down. I've never slipped on mine, and it's flat out awesome.

I had the same problem on a pontoon boat a few years back... killed it with bleach but it came back. After getting tired of it, I pulled the carpet and the wood was punky and wet. That was the problem. After redoing the boat, put vinyl down and absolutely love it.

Very nice boat!

Check alan tani's website at http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=322.0 It pretty much tells you all about the reel. If I remember correctly, some of the tekotas can have bearing failures if you don't keep them lubed, and the drags can go bad over time. Switch to carbon fiber and will be a reel that would last a LONG time.

very nice, thanks for the live updates.

I've run core the last 3 trips. My 2 color was fairly hot a couple times with silver blue husky jerk, but all the others (1,5,7) didn't get a hit. You know what, now that I think about it I was going to replace my leader for the 2 color cause it was getting pretty short (under 10 ft.) but I forgot. Maybe that's what was going on.......

pm sent.... I'll take the rod holders.

Agree with the bags. If you want to try a cheap alternative just take 2 five gallon buckets and drill a bunch of holes in the bottom. Drill 2 holes just below the strength ring on the top part of the bucket for ropes. Tie the buckets up and put it on cleats in the boat. Throw them overboard and see what happens. With me, it did awesome at slowing it down and surprisingly made the boat much more stable. My plan was to try this and graduate to trolling bags, but the buckets work so well that I haven't decided to spend the extra money on the bags.

I think I'm going st. joe but I can't see it being less muddy. Not sure what to run in that mud dirt but we'll try........

That's a sharp boat. congrats

Exactly what Twill said.

Very nice looking boat. Great job on the teak!

Nice job. Feel lucky to have a wife that's pushing to go out.... Sure makes it easier to get out.