OldCool

What would you suggest when rods are limited to six? I have two downriggers availalbe two dipsey rod holders and two regular rod holders. Options for me to consider will be received with many thanks.

Thinking about going to see these from my boat? Anyone have any suggestions, ideas, pros, cons? I have never fished out of South Haven so I dont even know where to lauch.

I would be very wary about anything this group, the "Food and Water Watch" has to say. They are an offshoot of the group Public Citizen, which subscribes to the Progressive ideology. On the surface it sounds good but the long term goal ne'er has a positive outcome. Remember, the Progressives are the ones that gave us the 16th Amendment to the US Constitutuion, and I alway look forward to April 15th... Don't you?

I'm on FB as well but prefer this site (GLF) over Facebook.

Good luck. Are you still fishing out of that 16' with the small outboard? I thought you had a new boat?

The fishing is good with minnows. Went on Sunday and on Tuesday and both times the best place marking them and catching them was on the east part of the lake almost to the marsh. they are in 12-14 feet of water. I would post a picture but was hungry and now they are gone.

I'm voting "Rod Ben 'der"

We went on April 4th out of South Heaven, out of the 15 we caught two had gobies.

How's the boat launch? I read it would not be dredged this year so it would be best to launch from Grand Haven?

I have a 16.5' myself and because I don't have the time or money to do it over, I want to do it right and have been looking at this issue for almost a year. I first looked at the location & type of motor and would I ever need to install a kicker. All of these can determine the number of downriggers and where you place them. Because I took out all but two of the seats in my boat, I have a lot of real estate to fish but I still have to factor in the beam of my boat. Because I have an outboard I'm going with two; had I had an inboard I might have gone with three downriggers; one down the middle. I have read recommendations that "if you have less than an eight foot beam you should rig your boat with two downriggers. These two downriggers can be placed as either boom downriggers or corner downriggers depending on your boats layout."

The number of diver rod holders you will want to rig your boat with is based on the number of divers you like to or feel comfortable running. I'm going to rig mine with two at first but will eventually rig it with four diver rod holders. I think the extra rod holders will come in handy when I get comfortable running more divers and the extra holders will come in handy as an extra holder to move rods around when you get a fish on.

By far the most difficult decision I have to make is determining the position of my planer board rod holders. There are so many on the market. Things would be a little easier if I had a hard top because I could mount my rod holders on a rocket launcher directly on my hard top. Because I have no top at all, I'm leaning towards a rod holder tree (port and starboard) so I can hold four rods at a time and still have room on the gunwale to add two diver rod holders later (as I said in paragraph #2, I eventually want to be at four diver rod holders). You can always install tracks and install them on the gunwales which gives you some advantages as far as moving them towards bow or stern or remove them all together.

I think it goes without saying that get some quality gear as it will cost you less in the long run. It does not have to be new, you can always find folks selling some good pre-owned stuff here (GLF).

I bought a 16.5 with a 40 hp and it was all I needed until I got hooked on Big Lake, I'm now looking for a 19+ & more hp. If I were you and could afford it I would go with the bigger boat.

You can find them at Meijer or Walmart often time on clearance. It's where I found mine for $2.00

Two words...AWSOME

Two years ago I restored a boat that came with similar horns, after spending a significant amount of time tryint to fix it I gave up and spent a few buck on a new horns. If I had to do it over again I would have saved myself the time and hassle of trying to fix the old stuff and just gone new.

Welcome Aboard

Welcome

Welcom aboard.

Welcome Brian

The Crappies were bitting today. Hot spot is close to and between the boats on the slip by Rose's Restaurant. Sure is good.

Welcome James. There is a great community of folks here. All ready and willing to lend a hand.

Congratulations on your new baby. You think things are great now, well, wait until later...when that baby smiles because he recognizes you...I think every dad can agree it’s a wonderful feeling words can't describe. I think heaven must be a little bit like that.

Found it. Boat Maintenance & Rigging.

Thanks guys, the boat was at the shop longer than I would have liked but they did a little customer TLC by throwing a quick paint job on the lower unit so it would better match the rest of the motor. Little things like that goes a long way to make you forget the discomfort they caused.

I can not wait to get her on the water. My next thing will be how to best outfit her to be effective at big lake fishing? Any thoughts? What forum would be best to post this question?

-Senez

I will be there also. Me and a buddy drive in from Grand Rapids and we were glad we did.

Thanks! Did you get the boat running correctly yet? What did the they find?

When they put on the new lower unit they did not adjust the shift lever and the throtle would not accelerate past the reverse speed. They fixed that but after I took out again, it would not shift out of reverse, Promptly got it back to the shop. I received a call today that it was fixed. Whan I asked what was wrong they said a shift rod had come loose and they made sure it would not happen again. I hope they are right.

Right now that boat has spent more time in the shop than in the water and I dont care who you are, that a sin. On a positive note, it is still only May.

Thanks for asking.