danthebuilder

Sorry you didn't get any replies. I have zero knowledge of betsie and platte. I use 10lb test to river fish. I'd guess most guys use 8lb. I mainly fish using floating spawn sacks off of the bottom. If I was you i'd go find some experienced guy fishing the local rivers that is willing to talk. You'll shorten the learning curve really quick that way.

Here is a picture from my buddy last weekend in northern WI started st 345am had his limit by 5am

That's the secret right there. Its a night fishery.

The DNR should plant stripers. They're the 2nd best sportsfish after kings. They almost planted them in the 60s but instead went with the kings. They like warmer water so they would be closer to shore in the summer and higher in the water column. They eat tons of stuff and not just alwifes. No more long coppers needed.

The most popular setup probably is the 45lb copper 300 on a convector 55.

I'd guess the guy was going to actually use the equipment instead of selling it. That's why he only took the spinning gear. I'd go check the pawn shop in benton harbor anyways. Good luck on hunting down your stuff.

I was fishing a week ago or so and there was some guys there fishing for cats. One of the guys was clearly jacked on meth. Pacing on the pier. Yelling at any boat that passed. He couldn't sit still. He couldn't leave a line in the water longer than 10 minutes without reeling it up. He had a couple teeth left. There was kids on the pier and they were asking what was wrong with that guy. It was a sad site to see.

How high are your splash well holes above the water? Do you keep your cooler up front? Spare gas tank? i'd probably add something like this to your boat. http://www.wavewackers.com/

Was that other report being serous about perch being caught outta st. Joe????

Yes, there was even a picture someone posted on M-S.

Water flipped last week and we caught skams off the pier. Well, our rods did. We kept handing them off to random kids. Fireworks night we got a brown in 45 FOW on a 2 color core. Moonshine spoon agent orange spoon.

If you want perch. Head out of the pier heads and turn south and go about 20 miles. =)

Before it flipped we did best to the north in 80 FOW with meat rigs. Good luck.

You need to find a job as a first mate and see if that is actually the life you want. One of the license requirements is that you must have had 360 days on the water. Nothing counts before your 16th birthday so the first mate job will help you reach that part of the license requirement.

The st joe C.O.'s come up and handle the boat checks out on the lake in SH. They have been in town quite a bit this year. We've haven't been checked out on the lake in the last 3-4 years. This year it happened. It was a good site to see. They pulled up 30 feet off our starboard and yelled at us to hold up licenses/life jackets and asked a few questions. They did not ask us to reel in any rods.

The local C.O. over the area has met me at the dock at the return of a trip. He's met me fishing along the river. He's also met me on this pier. All this year. Its been a good year. No performance awards handed to me. He does have a trainee for the next few months.

The local C.O. if you know who he is and what he looks like sometimes you'll see him out on the pier with his kids fishing. He also has a boat and fishes the big lake. He cares about the fishery. He's a really nice guy. I know a few people who just river/pier fish that got performance awards from him and they were all well earned.

I'd just let it out until it bounces off the bottom and come up with a rough formula. We're at about a 1 foot down for every 2 feet out ratio with wire we keep ours at 1. With the current and boat speed it varies though.

That's a great deal.

60-75 feet. (wire slide diver)

We got a decent king in SH last night that put on a good show. Pro King crystal spoon on a 200 copper. ~90 FOW. 2.3 south troll. There was a decent amount of fish at the cleaning station(they weren't lakers). We only fished about 2 hours. They're definitely out there.

Well that's a helpful response. Care to elaborate in an even more condescending manner? Something like "why are you asking where the silver fish are? Everybody was catching them everywhere you idiot":thumb:

We did very well this year catching cohos, browns, steelhead from the pier in SH. More walleyes have been caught this year than last. If you look at 2013 charter reports for the month of April in south haven. You'll see that 300+ lake trout were caught and 1 king was caught. The kings just don't always show up in any real #'s until the lake warms up a little more. Everyone wants to say the sky is falling. We've been here before.

King plants are also 1/3 of what they were for us. 45k fish to 15k fish. You guys better get used to going after a more mixed bag real quick or you're going to be very disappointed. Everyone knows this time of the year you can go out to 50' of water and hammer the lake trout. Or you can work the river plume and the shore near the pier and catch a very nice mixed bag. The kings are scattered. Everybody knows this. That doesn't change the fact there are a ton of nice healthy fish to catch. The guys on the piers are catching fish so why can't you? You should always be able to do better than a guy on the pier. You can cover a hell of a lot more water.

If you didn't catch a ton of fish this spring its your own fault.

The bridge is going up and down for the boats. The bridge is however not open for the cars. Sometimes they leave the bridge up for hours. So on your way to the launch don't be surprised if its open and its not anywhere near a half hour.

In SH. We've been catching steelhead/coho/browns/walleye on the pier(shh...). So there is fish out there. The charters have been going out to 50' of water and hammering the lake trout. There is a ton of fish out there.

I'm guilty. I enjoy reading and hardly ever reply. You're not posting on the wrong forum.

Black river in south haven. Only due to the fact its 3 miles away from where I live. Berrien springs always does better. You ever try the Dowagiac River below Pucker Street Dam? I only ask because I see the creel reports and it looks good in that area.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/st-joe-creel-summaries-species_266269_7.pdf

This is the perfect time of the year. I haven't been able to get out much. I did get out for 2 hours a couple days ago. I caught a female brown full of eggs. I haven't heard great reports but I don't really care what others say. I remember your last post was about spawn under a bobber. I tried that about 3 weeks ago. Caught a nice steelhead. That was a ton of fun. Where are you from? What rivers do you fish?

There are still fish around. Haven't done a good job of catching em but they were jumping tonight.

Great job.

I have tried unsuccessfully. I learned I was doing it wrong. I had line in front of the bobber and it would go too fast. I found this video and it explained it well. I'm going to give it a shot again this fall.

http://vimeo.com/16220735