Twill23

Lol. I do need someone to keep the dam ducks off my swim platform! I work mostly in Pennsylvania west Virginia, little in Michigan doing security for a seismic company.

Actually I'm driving down to Pennsylvania right now. will hopefully be back at the end of July.

I had my Pancakes do the same thing a couple weeks ago.

I stopped using them and went back to my balls

Good choice, especially since the current is rippin right now!

Were the weights pancakes or any type of finned weights?

After a poor showing at the Grand Haven Offshore Challenge, we decided to test our theory, that once the water flattened out fishing again would be great.

We were 100% correct.

Monday morning we left the dock on Mark's boat(CasseyII), after just motoring through some spots we had considered during the tournament, we ran out to 150fow about 3miles south of Port Sheldon. We set up going NW, and taking bites the whole way to 200fow. 120down on a Poofster Paddle and Fly was very good. Our hookup ratio was horrible, going 3-10 at one point.

Finally 11am rolled around(which has been our best bite for several weeks now) and things started to fire. 140 down on the chute with a white fishscale paddle was great. Pulling several kings 15-18lbs. Also the white coho dot spinnie was good, taking the big king of the trip tipping the scales at Lake Shore Outfitters at 21.4lbs. 450 copper with a 3oz dive bomb and a Fat nancy spinnie also took fish. We had NO spoon bites, and finished the day with our 10 fish, with 6 being over 12 pounds.

Monday evening we left the dock on Mark's boat again, joined by his lovely wife Amy, Aaron from Lakeshore, and his fiancee Jess. Aaron, knowing how deep our fish were, decided to bring along the 1000copper rig. Although we first though of it as kind of a joke, we decided to toss it out there. We put a 10in spinnie on it, and a fresh alewife. The rig wasnt out 10 minutes when it fired..... 18# lake trout! Of course we made Aaron reel the thing in! We ended the short night with 7 kings too. All on the exact same things we did in the morning.

Tuesday we decided to chase after some of the metal heads we had heard about in shallower water.

Around 1pm we made our way into 110 FOW and immediately began taking steelhead. 5 and 7 colors were on fire. Unfortantely we never had a bite on a silver streak. They were tearing up the stinger spoon coyote. We also took kings on riggers at 51 and 61 on Pink panties and Mixed Veggie SS. We ended up going 7-toomanytocount on the steelhead, and also landing 3 kings.

Here are some pics from the last couple days.

Lots of inland fish have those growths. REALLY common in pike. They're old scars that didn't heal correctly. Cut that piece of meat out, and the rest is OK.

The fish hawk is an EXTREMELY easy install. Just a normal transducer mount, and running the wire. Other than that, there isn't much to it.

Here's your pic Steve,

I'm considering picking one of these up, and just wanted a few opinions on the system. My boat comes in at under the recommended maximum of 16,500lbs. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with cable steering and outside of spendng at least $3200 to convert and choose a different AP system, this seems to be my best option.

Opinions from those who are familiar with the unit??

It sure was a good time, and hope to do it again next year! I do have a new found respect for all 6th grade teachers. Lol

If your fishing around decent amounts of bait, fish will also head strike a spoon to stun it. Normally they get hooked poorly when they do this. Also i agree with ken, your troll direction plays a part in how the fish strike.

Fish 5-17 with Paulywood and Harperman on my boat. We were lucky enough to boat, i believe 18 total fish, but taking over 30 bites. Best water was 116 just inside the bait at 120. Best baits were happy meal and a green spinny/fly.

Thursday evening we fished Mark's boat(CasseyII). Jimbobber and here fishy fishy joined us. We went 9-21 all kings, including one brute. 95 fow was best. Fished seemed to be really scattered from top to bottom, as almost everything took bites from top to bottom.

Friday we ran south. We took 20 fish in 65-100. Again fish were really scattered. Everything from top to bottom took fish. Happymeal and uv blue dolphin were by far our best baits.

Saturday we fished the steelheaders tourney. We managed to pull out a first place finish. We weighed almost 56lbs with 5 fish. We caught a total of 13 after we lost our first 5!!! We ran down just south of saugatuk. 75fow with happymeals on riggers were great. Also we had bites on our high divers with spoons. I cant for the life remember the name of the spoon. Again 150 coppers with uv blue dolphin.

Hopefully Mark will see this and post a few pics!

Well, the issue with the limit catches in an amateur division is cheating. I'm not saying everyone who fishes is willing to cheat to win. But let's face it, there are people who do it. Pro boats have observers to MAKE SURE they dont pass their limit, while amateur boats do not. Having a no limit, cull tournament cuts out the possibility of cheating vs say a catch 15 tournament.

I believe all the amateur divisions should be cull events. Neither you, nor I know how many of these fish actually survive. But we sure do catch a lot that have prior marks in their mouths from previous fisherman.

As far as the fishery crashing, i sure hope your just not turning a blind eye, because it did happen, and it happened almost overnight.

That's extremely impressive!

NICE work. Holy cow - 100 feeshes. Your arms must be ready to fall off.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

Lol. Legs too.they never seemed to hit rods right next to each other. Boat is only 11ft wide, but I swear I ran 10 miles this weekend. Lol

I forgot to mention how awesome this tournament is! The food alone is worth going for! They served us 3 great meals, including a prime rib dinner on the final day of the tournament. They also offered a breakfast buffet both days before the tournament for only $5dollars.

Also, West Basin marina offered FREEEEEE slips for a total of 4 nights for tournament participants. They even supplied FREEEE ice.

Everything ran extremely smooth, and we had an absolutely awesome time!

This weekend we fished the Shu's summer challenge in St. Joe.

Unfortunately we didn't finish where we wanted to, but we had some absolutely outstanding fishing.

I won't bore everyone with the details, so here is the quick rundown.

Tuesday Afternoon Fished in the 15's-16's from noon till 1:30. Boated our ten fish, including an 18lb lake trout. 120-140fow NW troll rocked. 70ish down on the riggers with a white paddle, and also a glow back blue dolphin. 240 on the divers with paddles.

Thursday we went back to the same spot, and took our 15fish by 9am. Same spot, same baits. We had really decent fish that day also.

Friday morning(first day of the tournament) We set up in the same spot. Lemon berry SS on riggers, and divers with paddles back 240 were hot.

Rules of the tournement were, catch a boat limit(culling is allowed), but weigh 5. Friday we caught 45 fish. About 60-40 coho to kings. We just did not have the big bites like we had earlier in the week. 142fow was where the majority of the fish were. Lemonberry mini SS on a free slider was on fire, as well as the lemonberry as the main line down 69. Our big fish was only just over 7lbs, and we only weighed 31lbs for day 1.

Day 2 we had a whole new plan. To run farther, and catch bigger fish. Well the storms and lightning changed our mind. We ran back to the same spot.

Saturday we boated just over 50 fish. All but 5 of which were kings. All of these fish seemed to be brother/sister, weighing about 6lbs each. We did manage to boat one just over 11lbs and one just under 10. Giving us a 5 fish total of just over 41 pounds, moving us up 11 places. Lemonberry mini SS and Mixed veggie mini SS caught nearly 30 fish combined on free sliders with riggers down 63 and 66.

Fun fishing down there is absolutely unbelievable right now. I encourage you to get out there and fish! Nearly a hundred fish in two days is pretty unbelievable in my eyes! Get out while fishing is good! It's almost june!

I'd like to give a quick thanks to Sly Selea here on the forum(John). As well as Nick(can't remember your username buddy). Thanks a ton for fishin the tourney with us.

About 20-25 gallons on the 30' and about half that on the 23 trophy.

Ill take em off your hands Eric!!!! Lol. For us they're a must have. They pull so good. Keep your rod tip low when fighting fish and lift at the right time. It just takes some practice. Make sure your backing is 50# minimum tho. They do pull realllllly hard. Frequently check your spliced in mono that you connect your board to (between your copper and backer) for wear.

I absolutely love them for 225 or more.

Thanks again Mark! Was a blast the three trips we took this weekend. We took a complete total of 54 fish in the three trips!

On a side note, Mark sure is scared of flashes of light and loud booms! Hahaha!

Divers back 240. Riggers anywhere from 45-100.

We took 15 this morning. 100-130. Lotsa fish around 170 tho too.

Its not just bait.its the number of alewives reaching adulthood. (4-7years). Population of immature alewives is "ok" but if enough don't make it, then there's no reproduction of alewives.

It's tough to get the average person to believe that dirtier water is better, but for us as salmon fisherman, dirty water=more fish.