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danthebuilder

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Posts posted by danthebuilder

    River Fishermen

    in Pier and River Fishing Discussion

    Posted

    I fish the black river & pier in South Haven. Lost a steelhead this morning had it hooked up and next to the pier. It swam into the rocks that are next to the pier and broke the leader. If I wasn't alone I would have had him. I was kicking myself for even considering landing him in that spot while alone. Live and learn I guess.

    South Haven

    in Pier and River Fishing Discussion

    Posted

    The end of the north pier guys use spoons for steelhead. Mainly orange spoons. As for windspeed thats up to you. The waves are more of the killer for me. I only carry a 1.5 oz pyramid weight and if that isn't holding too well. I use that as a sign that its time to go. When the wind isn't out of the west as its been. You can normally fish one of the piers as the other will protect you from the waves. Saying that the north pier is where 90% of the pier fishing is done.

    There is a small craft advisory throught wednesday afternoon also if you look at tomorrow's forecast for LM845....

    Tuesday

    West winds 10 to 20 knots. A slight chance of showers until midday...then showers likely in the afternoon. A slight chance of waterspouts through the day. Waves 4 to 6 feet.

    If you drive to South Haven and its a little nasty you're not out of options. If you go by the boat launch. You can fish the park there. If you drive past the boat launch to the end of the road. Take a right. Go to the end of that road and there will be a turn around. That area there is set aside for fishing. This is where you'll run into the locals. They rather fish there than the pier. A lot of steelhead end their life in that ~200 feet section of river. The land that is vacant on the other side of the little stream that is there is also city owned. You can fish there. The city is currently trying to get a grant to fix that side of the stream up. Grant money is a little hard to come by these days so it might take a few years but they're pretty determined to eventually get it done. I think they've been rejected 4x so far.

    You can also park at the kal-haven trailhead behind the court house and walk a quarter mile down the kal-haven trail past blue star highway & fish the boardwalk area that's in the turn in the river. You can fish on the land also past the boardwalk all the way to the covered bridge on the kal-havn trail as its all state owned. Its shy of a mile down the trail the parking lot. I like to fish there when its blowing on the pier but its a trek.

    There is a steelhead tournament the saturday after thanksgiving so figure it out before then and come take everyones money.

    SS Badger still waiting on word from Department of Justice about consent decree with

    in Great Lakes News

    Posted

    Think of this for just a moment: in the old old days most ships on the great lakes were all steam ships powered with coal fired boilers. Their ash too was dumped overboard as waste, but never affected the integrity of the clean water. Had this been true then, we would now have a very contaminated group of great lakes, totally unfit to swim or boat in. Is that the case? No, it's not. Even cigarette companies in the 60's advertised that charcoal filtered cigs. were not as toxic to ingest. This ash actually helps purify the water, not contaminate it. It's another EPA ploy to interrupt free enterprise for the sake of an agenda. The Badger will be storing the ash in the future in bulkheads, and unload it for upland dumping in Wisconsin from what is being said now. Is this a safer way to dispose of the ash? And with this added expense to the operation, whom do you think will pay for it? The consumers that sail on her will, with higher ticket prices for passage.

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    If these are the people you get your facts from. Its no wonder you feel the way you do.

    okuma reel service

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Pretty easy to do it yourself too. You can buy the parts from Tuna Tom's website. Full schematics of all okuma reels are availible online.

    I agree. Really easy to do yourself. Some reels have youtube videos if you search showing you how to replace everything.

    The Wisconsin DNR

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I had a run in where I was in the wrong and I could have gotten a $350 ticket for my mistake. The C.O. chewed me out & then told me to go home for the day. I was very embarrassed that I missed the rule I violated & was very happy for the getting only the chewing.

    There are quite a few people who fish without a license. I'm all about them checking for it. If they had more officers and did more checks license sales would definitely go up.

    Grand Haven 8-24 PM

    in Michigan Waters Fishing Reports - Salmon and Trout

    Posted

    You think that's bad. I went pier fishing some 75+ times before I caught a fish. I put in hours too. 4-6 hr days.

    Now when it comes to salmon fishing via a boat. I can skunk better than you. Their are two things that I know that causes me the skunks. One thing is that I can't normally get out before the sun is high in the sky. The other thing is that I don't have any copper setups.

    Copper accounts for 50% of the fish caught on this forum. Its not a secret. Its also not a secret that sometimes the bite dies once the sun comes up. I have spent 90% of my time fishing from noon until 7pm. I have caught 80% of my fish an hour before sunset until an hour or two after sunset. Many nights have been a skunk until around/after sunset the decision has been made to go in and that has turned into a double/triple as the rods were being pulled. The sun touching the water does magical things at night.

    My advice if you wanna catch fish. Go with someone and watch them to make sure you're doing the basics right. Then go buy a couple copper setups & go at 4-5am.

    South Haven Perch 8/24

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    My uncle came to town and we went perch fishing in south haven along with everyone and their mom(perch tournament today). Here is what we did.

    Started at 7:30ish. After the tournament people all left. No waiting at pyles or launch. :cool:

    Fished the trailer park a couple miles north. Moved 3-4 times in the area. Caught 2... Slow...

    Went north 6-7 miles north of pier near the northern pack. Caught a handful + the biggest perch I ever caught. Started in 40 fow and moved 5-6 times and drifted twice & fished our way into to 25 fow. Probably caught 10ish by this time. 25 fow was a hard hat area. One boat was into the gobies. The gobies were pitched at someone in another boat. The batter had a tennis racket and they were flying through the air. It was very entertaining. Fishing died we drifted for a bit and then we went South.

    It was around noon we moved south of pier to deerlick creek just outside the pack in 35 fow. For those of you who aren't familiar with the area. 2-3 miles south of town there is a very nice red house right on the edge of the lake is built next to deerlick creek. Got very lucky where we put our anchor. Finished out the day there. It was fun.

    We setup 2 rods each and they hit all 4 rods at once. They would leave for 15 minutes then come back and hit all 4 rods. Lots of doubles. Lots of throw backs. Decent number of big fish. For a bit people on all sides of us were not catch anything and just staring at us. We weren't doing anything special. No secrets. Minnows on 2... size 8 Snelled Aberdeen Hooks 1 & 3 feet up from the 3/4 oz sinker. Only thing we did was cover many miles and move what felt like a million times to find that spot were we got lucky. If I was any of the neighboring boats. I would have left and found better fishing. Eventually, the fish stopping visiting us so we decided it was time to go in.

    Kept 35.

    Also saw 2 20+ pound kings brought into the cleaning station. Someone also was kind enough to give me the spawn for pier fishing in the winter. :thumb:

    Ramp coming in was a circus. People were grouped up around the corner. If you know how to launch or retrieve a boat in under 45 minutes... You are not the norm. Luckily, everyone somehow stayed away from the jetski/VIP :rolleyes: ramps and I had no waiting.

    Overall, if you wanna catch some perch. Now is that time to go. And please don't keep those small/borderline ones unless you kill them accidentally removing the hook. Those are for next year. If you only catch small fish keep moving it happens to everyone. You'll find em eventually.

    perch advise?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Drop your line to the bottom. Reel in the slack. lift your weight a few inches off the bottom and let it fall. If you can feel bottom. Your weight is big enough. If you can't... You need a bigger weight. I use I believe 3/4 oz weights for the most part. It might be smaller. It definitely isn't bigger.

    I use an ultralight rod shimano but the shakespear are also fine. I use a 5'6''. They are cheap & it makes it more enjoyable.

    As for fishing line I use very small braid with a 6 foot or so leader of 4 pound test.

    I use those gold snell hooks that come in those 6 pack with the 6-8inch leader. Size 8 I believe. Tie one hook a foot up from the sinker and another one 3 feet up from the sinker. No so swivels or any other fancy hardware. Put minnows on that and fish that. I let everyone else in the boat try special perch rigs & other rigs. If they can outfish me. I will admit defeat and switch over. That almost never happens besides an occasional bait change. Probably the cheapest rig on top of that.

    I took out someone fishing who had this new "special" bait earlier in the year. He was offended that I wouldn't try what he brought. Finally, I told him... "the only way you're going to sell me is if you outfish me while i'm using minnows". If you go with multiple people. I'd suggest someone always fishing with the rig i described. Its a solid base to judge how well everything else does. Don't let everyone in the boat use the same rig/bait unless its working or you have faith in it.

    As for minnows I wouldn't bother going out without purchasing $10 worth of minnows. keep them out of the sun and add water through out the day and throw in a few occasional ice cubes to keep it cold. The day you only buy 3 dozen minnows they will be hot & you will run out.

    The true secret to perch fishing and most important part is to keep on MOVING. If you're not catching fish where you're at. Move... Don't get frustrated keep moving. If it takes you a few hours and 15 different locations to find the fish that's fine. When you're done for the day. You should know what depth they were best at. Don't be afraid to cover miles of shore testing different depths and places.

    If perch fishing is your thing. Buy a minn kota if you don't own one. Save up during the winter etc. It makes moving so much easier. Allows you to move without half the hassle. You can cover so much more ground so you're going to be more successful.

    If you go and find some awesome territory and someone does a driveby. I suggest you let out some slack and look discouraged and don't reel anything in. Shake your head from left to right. If he's close enough to chat. Then chat it up with them make sure to say, "man, sure is slow today. heard it was good a few days ago I wonder where they went" Ask them if they tried 5 miles north of you by some wierd structure on the shore everyone knows. Then say "yah, I think i'm gonna run up there next" Then when you go in with your limit. Brag at the dock and wait for everyone to calls you a liar between themselves. Then you throw all your fish on the cleaning station table and they wonder wtf you did differently. Then inquire if they're using wax worms too when you used minnows all day... Oh wait, ignore that last paragraph.

    Boat Budget/1st post

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Welcome!

    18 foot aluminum boat with no leaky rivets. 75 hp 2 stroke from 1992. A salmon trip gas costs us no more than $20. That is cheap. sunscreen/launch fee/snacks/truck gas/pop/ice/that new spoon on that report posted yesterday combined will cost you more than gas.

    You will spend more a year on repairs & maintenance than you will with gas. Whatever motor you purchase acquire a repair manual for it and read the maintenance section on it. maintenance/repair wise almost everything you need to know how to do there is a youtube video for it. You can save quite a bit of coin if you've got the time and patience.

    You're probably also going to want to run a kicker. Using your main for that long on low rpm's is hard on the main. Make sure your transom is also solid. I frequent Iboats forum and there seems to be a guy who purchased a boat each day who finds out the boat they bought 2-3 months ago needs a new transom. That's not something you want to go through unless you plan to do it from day #1 and its factored into pricing.

    You also then got insurance & a subscription to towboats.us if towing isn't included in your insurance.

    Boat Shopping

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I use this to search craigslist

    http://www.searchtempest.com/

    It enables you to search by a mile radius. So you can look at all boats listed within 150 miles or so without going to each individual craigslist page.

    There of course is boat trader... Which have just about everything...

    http://www.boattrader.com/browse/commercial-vessels/make/oil-tanker

    Have you narrowed down what you want?

    also this site

    http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1938/United-States-Navy-PT-8-2114061/Franklin/LA/United-States#.UfU02Y3bNio

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