Twill23

Tony, I've tried to send you a pm, but I'm not clear if they are actually transmitting....

It's a goofy set up, don't get to see your sent, but they do go through.

I'll toss him a text for ya!

Tony Childs is top notch.

Eyefull here on the forums.

Hopefully he'll see this, if not toss his a PM.

Ande Backcountry is also an awesome product for rigger lines.

The net issues on the east side is absolutely horrible. I would willing to make a donation as well as be interested in the tournament. If it means swaying the odds in our favor when it comes to commercial netting, every penny will count. It's an absolutely horrific situation if it isn't dealt with correctly.

Hey Randy,

There has to be a balance between the two, and it really depends on how crazy your structure is.

The most important thing you need to find out first, is where the range of active fish are holding. Are they in 110-130? 70-110 north of some landmark? Are they holding only in a specific water temperature? Figured out where they are first, will help you immensely in targeting those fish. IE getting your troll direction figured out.

You have to remember, water depth normally is not the reason fish are holding in one specific area. It normally has nothing to do with it. Water temperature, Bait, and current are MUCH more important.

Dave,

I like the point you brought up here, and i agree with it in some ways. I REALLY prefer there to be more of a separation in Pro division vs Amateur divisions.(Rules as well as payouts).

I truly believe that a payout scale that DOES NOT payout 20 places would really help the amateur side. I feel as if it's a children's softball game. EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY! WOO. Not. Come on, its grown men competing. I feel as i don't deserve a dime if i finish 20th out of 60 boats.

This is where the big red really ticks me off. Having the same rule set for both divisions, just different entry and different payout scales. Although, the rule thing is a completely different subject.

My point is, rather than trying to split up the money with all the competitors at the end, make it possible to actually cover expenses, by paying more money to less places.

Then again, i don't support a single tournament that doesn't use observers.

I've been on this boat! It catches fish! Great setup!

Goodluck Jon!

June is a very tough time to fish in our area. It sits directly in the middle of several transitional periods. My first suggestion to you would be to NOT have a predetermined spread for every day of fishing. Running presentation that are not catching fish is a common issue. Dont be scared to load up. If your spoon bite is great, dont try to make them bite meat or a fly. Or vice versa.

As the year progresses so should your weapons of choice. Putting the setups in the water that are going to target active fish is much more important than trying to follow the magic bait trends. June is an ever changing month, kings becoming neutral, and steelhead and coho beginning to show up. Make some phone calls to find out what rods are producing fish. Get some info from Muskegon down to Saugy. Aaron at Lakeshore always knows whats going on out there.

An awesome box of 10 big kings is not always doable. Consider opening your spread up to target some different species. June is a fantastic time to pound for trout and or specifically target steelhead.

Here's a thought. How about splicing a piece of 40 # mono every 100' in your copper to attach boards. Use a small spro 80 # swivel on each end of the splice. Then you can set a 500 copper at 100,200 300,400 or run all way to 500. This will cut down on how many rods you have to carry to fish copper at different depths , especially for those with smaller boats!!!

On paper that is an awesome theory! Economical and effective! But unfortunately it's not practical. It'll cause some SERIOUS headaches.

Here's why.

Board hopping Board Hopping Board Hopping. If you've ever run a monofilament backer in any type of wind you know EXACTLY what im talking about. This is when line from one rod going to your planerboard will cross and go underneath the planerboard next to it. This is caused from extreme bow in the line. Yes, running one on each side will fix this, but totally defeats the purpose of copper. Spacing does not help because it creates more bow. This is why those mono backing material and heavy monofilament just are not practical. Secondly, having extraweight on the front of a planer board will cause the board to dive when fish over about 15lbs hit the bait, and make any type of run.

My suggestion is for the economical fisherman is to buy the most productive copper setups for the year. Somewhere between the 225 and 300 mark. These lengths of copper are solid choices for the majority of the year. For the weekend warrior that is a rod you can use pretty much every trip!

Don't be discouraged by the amount of fish in comparison to last year. You have to remember that last year produced much higher than average numbers of fish caught per fishing trip.

After being apart of the crash of Lake Huron,both before and after, i am happy to say Lake Michigan is in a much different situation than Lake Huron was.

The awareness level is much higher in Lake Michigan, than it was in Lake Huron. Biologist and fisherman are working together to get this stuff right! Collecting as much data from fisherman is crucial to keeping things running smoothly, and they're doing a much better job of it now than they had previously.

Over concern of personal success vs lake wide health is a real issue. There is a very large learning curve when it comes to successfully targeting king salmon in Lake Michigan. Not everyone, even in the best of years, can put a full box of fish in the boat on every trip.

There are countless factors to keeping our fishery as stable as possible, and unfortunately not every port can have every boat going out and catching 20fish per trip. The lake will just not be able to sustain such a fishery.

Lake Michigan is built on a cycle. There are going to be our bad years(2008) our great years(2012) and our exciting years(2013..or as i like to call it "the year of the big fish"). It's a very delicate balance that isn't easily maintained. Hundreds upon hundreds of variables play a huge roll in it. Don't get too concerned about a "downer year." Everything that can be done, is being done to try and help keep a sustainable fishery in Lake Michigan.

What happened to the Browning guy at the beginning? Otherwise, 4 fish on the deck at the same time couldn't get better. Put them fish in the cooler/livewell. Don't want to slip on that deck now, lol.

That was two different pieces stuck together. We have a lot of footage to stick together, and really want to end up with just an action packed film. A lot of it is like the second portion of the video with several fish hooked up and laying on the deck.

We are also putting together a "gag reel" Break offs, botched nets, fighting for a rod that goes off. The funny things that happen... in hindsight of course.

Hey Guys,

We've sent a large portion of our video in to get edited. Here is a very very small piece. Hoping for some thought and opinions on what could make it better!

Thanks a ton!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byZa73i0rXo

Only about 4mins long.

Fishing has slowed tremendously in both Holland and saugatuck.

Unfortunately, north of holland has not been holding as many large kings since prior to the waypoint. But keep plugging away, there's a push of big ones coming

What an exciting week its been. All members of Bending Limits were able to get together and fish over the weekend. Tony even brought his father and brother all the way from Bay City!

We were lucky enough to fish twice per day every day from Friday, and ending Wednesday am. There wasn't much change in the fish, but sizes did vary.

We are fishing in 70-90FOW early in the morning and after sunset. Low divers back 70feet and braided high divers back 100 both with Big weenie meat rigs and 10in spin doctors really put a beating on fish. 250-300-350ft Blood run coppers with Big weenie Meat Rigs and 10in spin doctors were also VERY good early. Our outdowns were at 45-60ft with Moonshines. Free sliders also took several fish in the am.

As the day progesses we have been able to still catch fish in 110-130fow. Low divers back 115 and wire high divers back 165. 300-350-400-450 coppers are also really good. We were running big weenie meat rigs, and 10in spin doctors on all of those rods. Our outdowns were still really good for coho at 60-70ft with a number of magnum sized spoons.(i can't remember what baits exactly!!!)

Tuesday night we did some trout fishing, and found that they are EXTREMELY willing to bite. We were lucky enough to put 7 trout in the boat, while losing 5 more in about an hour and a half. Just north of Saugy is where it's at. These were taken on chrome 00 dodgers, and white 00 dodgers with white spin n glos.

The 10in spin drs that worked for us were, Hammer time, White Crushed, Showtime, UV/UV. Paird with, No fish nick, Blue Moo Moo, Moo Moo, Purple haze meat rigs.

Also would like to send out a congrats to Fly catcher on winning the Goldcoast tournament over the weekend! Nice job guys! We were lucky enough to finish in 6th, but with a MUCH smaller box than Brian!

The team

Second largest box of the year! Taken Monday am. 6fish from 21-23 and one at 19!

Goldcoast tournament box.

Tony's pig(he's struggling because he's sea sick!!!)

Thanks buddy! I'll see ya down at the tent I'm sure

We can't thank you guys enough for everything you do! Top notch product made by top notch people!

Happy to hear you made it back safely!

Most common length among everyday fisherman is around 5ft behind the 11in paddle.

Are you working on any northern michigan weigh station in Ludington, Manistee area? To far of a drive from either of those ports to Benton Harbor.

Too far for $15k ?! Lol.

Great fishing continues south of Holland in 75-95fow. Catches range from 8-17 fish per trip. Pounding bottom for trout continues to provide constant action. Mixed in with those trout are coho, steelhead, and the occasional king. Short coppers tipped with magnum silvstreak mixed veggies, Carmel dolphin and blue froggie are taking fish on a daily basis. More kings have started to show up as water warms rapidly. Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!

Very nice!! What are you doing for this year if that wont be ready til 2014?

We're fishing several tournaments on The Black Pearl....Mark's boat(CasseyII on GLF).

That's keeping me pretttty busy for the remainder of the season.

Lol. For the price thats on it I sure would. Hahaha. I'm sure that won't be up there long.

i run them to not release also..anything larger than a 250 i run the tx-44

That is the best way to do it! Definately dont want them to release.

The tx-44 is a fantastic board for large spreads and deep coppers! They'll pull up to 1000' and still run farther forawd than an offshore!!

Thank you for the report and nice box of fish. I need to get up there again one of these weekends.

Thanks Matt,

Fishing around here is pretty good. Those targeting trout specifically are really getting into them. 20+ per day.