georgeb

Does the rigger use a brush or brushless motor - it makes a big difference on what is hardest on the motor. Either you are running the motor with high current when pulling a heavy ball or longer duration when using the block and tackle method.

I was thinking about a vacation day tomorrow for Holland harbor fishing. But, after reading this and the other weekend reports, I think I will just go to work...

Port Sheldon PM 8-14 Fished straight out to slightly South from 6:00Pm till dark. Setup in 140 FOW and fished out to 200 and back into 155. Lost a big King on a SUV Reel Flasher and meat rig 72' down and 20' back on a rigger in 155 FOW on a S.E. troll. He was all twisted up in the meat rig and broke off taking all the hardware. We put a nice 10.5 Lb. Laker in the box off a 10 color with a Mag Blue Dolphin Stinger off a S.E. troll in 180 FOW. At dusk we were marking bait with hooks 160 down in 170 FOW, overall we saw lots of marks in the 155 to 170 FOW deeper than 175 the graph went blank. We finished 1-2 and to add to the lost flasher and meat rig pain, when I pulled the probe I managed to knock the cannon ball off it and it went to the bottom. Beautiful night on the pond, expensive but beautiful.

Port Sheldon 3/19/17, 2:30 - 6 PM Last day of winter and the weather / water was perfect for my shakedown trip. Fished around bubbler dropping lines just after 2:00 PM, also fished N of bubbler in 10 - 20 FOW. Ended up 2-3 with a 10" laker we threw back and put a 5.5 Lb. Brown in the box. Laker hit a mixed veggies supper slim and the Brown hit a Michael Jackson Stinger, both on single color of lead core on an inline board. Laker was next to the bubbler, the brown was N. of the bubbler. I know I said 2-3, well the third one that got away was a bird. Had a gull pick up a small body bait while setting lines and it was a pretty good fight until he let the lure go. He was trying to fly away with the lure 30' of lead core line and a board, he was not able to. Lucky for me he was not hooked, just had the lure in his beak and did not want to let go of his dinner. He finally gave up and flew away screaming at us. Ended up with just the one fish in the box, boat ran great and all equipment worked. Made a list of things I need to make and or repair before my next trip. A very good shakedown trip with a nice eating fish for my crew to take home for dinner.

Remember ice will flow from the big lake into the channel on Pigeon lake. I was out in the lake a few years ago and had to push large ice blocks away to get back in the pier heads. Not fun pushing ice blocks bigger than my boat. Glad I had a canoe paddle with me. Use caution and keep an eye on the pier heads for ice if you get out.

all the ramps are out of the water at Port Sheldon.

We fished PS Sunday evening from 6:30 - 9 and went 1 - 1 boating a nice chubby 7 Lb King. The fish hit on a S. troll on the deep rigger with a mag moonshine double trouble off a 1 color SWR down 70 in 95 - 100 FOW. Ran 4 meat rigs on the wires and riggers with J's on the cores until sunset started without a bump. Switched to spoons on the riggers and wires and finally took a fish right at sunset. We were looking at the smelly kitty in the cooler (again!) until the rigger quietly pulled back and bounced 1 time - not an exciting hit, but he went into the cooler with great relief !

At least 1 was last weekend

Finally got the shakedown cruise in and ended 4-4 with a 4Lb steel, 2 1.5Lb browns and a shaker King that was returned. I got a tip from a friend that black and gold was a good choice and he was right. the first brown was on black and gold body bait and the steel and other brown were on a black and orange spoon that I have no idea of make or name. Shaker King was on greasy chicken wing stinger. Spoons were on 1 colors and body baits were flat lined all behind inline boards. We never went deeper than 10 FOW and went north first. Great early May evening on the pond, motor ran perfect, caught fish and never needed to change from shorts and a T-shirt.

This was my shakedown trip for this year - better late than never... Setup in 70FOW headded SW with a 6 mag Moonshine spoon spread and just as I got the last rod set the 10 color with a double trouble took off screaming and went to 700' in a couple of seconds. My friend fought that in about half way when it just left. Next up was a hugh rip on the wire diver with a green dot half moon on it back 150' grabbed it but no one was home. While I was resetting it it got hit again and I allmost lost the rod overboard ! We spun around headded NE and went back through that water and took a double of Cohos off the riggers with the smaller 5Lb on a green flounder pounder down 35' and the largest 7Lb on a seeded water melon down 45'. Turned around and repeated out original troll taking a 1.5Lb coho off the seeded water melon that I sent back. If a couple of minutes, the same rigger fired and I really believe the same fish was on it. It had the hook hole in it's lower jaw exactly where I just took the hook out of it. I could not release this one as it ate the spoon. We saw lots of bait balls suspended 20' - 60' down. While I did not put the big fish in the box, we had good action all evening with a really nice moon to enjoy headding in. It was a fun first trip and we were able to put some really tastey Cohos in the cooler - Nice...