Eyefull

During my two week stint in Ludington, my FishGilz glasses finally broke after two long seasons. I thought I would hit a few places in town and pick up a good quality pair of whatever brand glasses in the $70-90 range. I thought I would. What I found was the $150-200 Costa Del Mars, Maui Jim's, and Raybans. Also a great selection of $12-15 junk at most stores. Nothing between. What are you guys using that your happy with and is there any hope of finding quality in my targeted range? I know that the lens quality is definetly in the upper end glasses, but I also know that they aren't any more able to withstand me sitting on them than a $15 pair.

Good luck guys, I am hoping to get back over in a couple weeks again.

Sounds like the big blows did good for the fishing, the bank has been producing as it should the last couple days I'm told. Adam, don't hesitate to go out to the 230-270 fow in off hours for bonus steel and cohos. I set down one afternoon at 3:00 and had them going before three rods were in.

One thing I forgot to mention was that the Streak Minis seemed to get bit more than the normal size or mag spoons we always use fishing salmon. Maybe associated with the bait size they are currently feeding on? Anyways, the hooks on the walleye size spoons take a real beating from kings, so we ended up switching out almost all of them to Gamis, and even then still had to be real careful when pulling a king.

I just got home from two weeks in Ludington. Our annual trip was a week earlier than normal so that comes into play with my assumptions. My overall impression was that the fish were about two weeks behind schedule and my trip was a week ahead, meaning it was much more like fishing in early July than August for me. The fish were scattered and pounding numbers was tough. The normal morning and evening whack fest on the bank was spotty and almost non existent.

No on to the results which I was still pretty satisfied with. My morning trips averaged a mere 1-3 fish per trip. I leave the dock at 6:00, so I missed the best bite by almost an hour from what my charter friends were telling me. I also got my first Lake Michigan skunk this year on a morning trip! I didn't change things up much from the past, running up to the bathouse and setting up in 50fow, trolling north to the point and beyond. I ran a 9 rod spread with the usual Silver Streak spoons, a couple plugs, and a Flasher Fly thrown in at times for good measure. I would usually pick a fish on the pass in shallow, then get another fish, maybe two fishing out deeper from the point to the west. Thinking back, all of the morning fish came on UV Streaks either off riggers or wire divers.

My afternoon fishing was much better and actually, for me at least, made my whole trip. From tips from CJ and Paul, I began to look out in 230-270 fow straight out from the harbor. A very nice mix of kings, steel, and bonus cohos were out there in decent numbers. I set up in 230 fow and trolled north, working the top 50 fow. I put the riggers at 40 and 55 feet down, wires at 50 and 85 feet back. Two 150's, two 250's and a 350' section of copper were the go to rods out there, accounting for most of the deeper fish. Again, Silver Steak Minis in a variety of UV colors took most of the fish. The afternoon trips did see plugs taking a few bites as well as an occasional flasher fly bite. Surprisingly the normal "orange" spoons didn't seem to make much difference to the steelhead catch. But having too much orange in the spread did seem to lower the kings and coho bites. My evening trips left the docks at 4:00. We averaged 5-7 fish per evening trip, with two evenings coming in with 9 and 10 fish respectively. The catches were almost always an even mix of kings, nice size steelhead, and bonus cohos and lakers.

So with all that said, it looks to me like the best fishing is still coming. It seemed like each day, there were more fish around, and as luck would have it, looked like the fleet did real well the last couple days in on the bank, after I left:lol: My biggest kings came on morning trips on the bank. The offshore kings were nice fish, but not the 20# pigs we got in close. The average size of the steelhead out deep was very encouraging, lots of 8-10# fish and one that was at or around 15#. Sorry for not giving all the details, but this novel would have been much longer if I spelled out each fish and what it came on, hopefully the generalities help. Sorry, those that fished with me can attest that I didn't have a camera along, so no photos. I am hoping to get back over there at least three more times, when the tuna wars get going in full strength.

Sorry for the late reply Mike. I do have one Wolverine Charter Choice 8'0" two piece rod with a Diawa Sealine 27H non linecounter left. Make me an offer. Probaly would be better to pick up or meet someplace for delivery, shipping will be horrible, probably as much as the purchase price.

I do have have several other setups with 47H's that I will most likely part with after silver season is done.

I still have one Wolverine Charters Choice 8,0" one piece rigger rod with a Diawa Sealine 27H. Make me an offer and pick it up.

Yes and no. With my two week stay in Ludingtion coming up this week, I found myself with only a pair of rigger and diver rods capable of salmon fishing. Thats what happens when you end up sellin rods right out of your rod holders at times:eek:. I dropped some coin and bought out a long time salmon fishermen of all his equipment. I kept the combos that were of use to me and sold the rest of the stuff at pretty nice deals. So yes, making room, although I had room apparently, but not for new rods that I want, as there just isn't enough time for that, not to mention those waiting for rods while I goof off fishing.

Great stuff as usual. Looking forward to coming back this next spring and putting on another casting demonstration if your nerves can take it:lol:.

I am loading two Diawa Sealine 47H LC's with 1000' of Blood Run Wire. My two reels don't have the starting pin to attach the wire to, so I am leaving 50ft of backer (25# mono) so the wire doesn't slip. What is the best knot or method of attaching the wire to the mono? I know it has been asked many times but my memory is crazy short. I was thinking maybe a really small crimp, covered with shrink tube? Should really never get to that point on the spool anyways?

What he did

Thanks Nick. Looks like all that is left now is the Eagle claw rigger rod with a Diawa Sealine 27H. Thanks to Danthebuilder for purchasing the spoon box full of spoons. Also thanks to Adam Bomb for taking the rods.

The three Charter's Choice rods are gone also, leaving only the Eagle Claw/27H sealine combo still available.

The spoon box is sold, thanks Dan.

I have a bunch of stuff that is sitting around wanting a new home. First is a Maxi-Mate spoon box full of over 300 spoons. 50 plus Stingers, 40 Dreamweaver, the rest is a mix of ProKings, Northport Nailers, Fishlanders, Streaks, Northern Kings and a few others.

I will be taking silent bids with a $150 minimum for the box full of spoons. The Maxi-Mate box is worth most of that itself. The fist person to contact me with a bid of $200 gets the box, this won't last long. Hopefully we can work out some kind of delivery deal that doesn't involve shipping.

I also have a couple of landing nets that are in very good condition. The one on the left has a massive size hoop, the one on the right a more standard salmon size.

$30 each or both for $40, again no shipping, we'll work out delivery.

I also have four rods for sale. Three of them are Shakespeare Charter Specials.

Two are 8'0" 6-25# rigger rods, one with Diawa Sealine 47H LC, the other with a Diawa Sealine 47H levelwind. The Linecounter combo is $45, the levelwind combos are $40, or $100 for all three. The third is an 8'0" 12-30# version with a Diawa Sealine 47H reel. The fourth rod is an Eagle Claw Downrigger rod with a Diawa Sealine 27H reel, $30. The rods are all in good condition with no bad eyes and tight reel seats.

I have two pairs of wooden planer big boards. One set is a larger salmon size set made from what appears to be redwood.

The other set is a smaller walleye size version.

Make an offer for either or both sets of planer boards.

Please post, PM, email, or call me at 989-397-0236 if your interested in anything listed above. I'll update the post as things move. Thanks for looking. I will be in Ludington from July 20th thru August 4th, so I will be happy to bring something over and deliver to a purchaser in the area.

Awesome, all cleared up. Done with therapy and even back working in the rod shop again.

Adam, I'll be in Ludington from July 20th thru August 4th. We'll have to hook up for at least a BS match.

Happy B-day Terry.

Finally got around to pulling the pictures from my wifes camera from the haul Captain Don got us on last Sunday afternoon. The kids in the photo did 100% of the catching, and ended up something like 17 for 19. There are some fairly average fish that entirely fit in the mouths of some of the pigs we got into that trip. It took three of us to wrestle the box onto the dock!

I knew the fish was large, but when I saw the looks on Mark and Dons face when it came to the surface with the diver, my knees got wobbly. I just kept thinking "Don't do anything stupid and lose this one!" LOL

Sorry Don, I forgot about the ones my wife took. They are on her camera. I'll post them when I get done with therapy this morning. Grandpa passed away last evening, thought you should know.

Welcome aboard Joe. Everyone on this site loves to help out and even help you spend your money LOL! No shortage of the best up to date information here.

Yep pretty close, 10' leader plus everything else.

I edited out about 18 minutes of footage, the fight was about 20 minutes long. You can here Don poking fun at me, asking "Want me to put it in reverse?" The fish fought like a king.