BenLubbs

Just so everyone knows, there are DNR nets between Holland and Portsheldon in like 150 FOW. They are marked with orange bouys. I did not see them personally but I kept hearing about them on the radio.

Sign me up Ken, hopefully the weather cooperates this time

I was at the Outdoorsman in Jenison last night and he was saying that the fishing was horrible Monday and last night. Hopefully it improves for this weekend. As far as the flies, I had problems with them a couple of evening trips this year. Someone said to spray the floor/inside of the boat down with a 50/50 bleach mixture and it keeps them away, but I haven't tried it yet.

With the water warming and fish starting to move deeper in the water column I am starting to think about running some of the dive bombs that I picked up over the winter. My question is about running them with other lines off of boards.

How close to the end of the line should they be run (I should mention that I am planning on using them on lead core in 2, 3, and 4 oz sizes)?

Also, when setting lines on planerboards, with multiple boards per side, am I going to run into issues trying to get a line with a dive bomb out past a line with no dive bomb? (Say if I run a 4 oz bomb on a 3 color and want it out with a 10 color).

Is the best way to do it to put the lines with dive bombs on the inside?

Should I be putting dive bombs on all of my lines to move the entire presentation lower in the water column? Thanks for any help.

Good Job Ryan, looks like some nice fish. The Moonshine Flounder Pounders have been rocking this year

Nice Job out there, and good job helping out another boat in need. When I was heading out last Friday there was a group of fisherman from Saugy pulling a pleasure boat into the Holland boat launch. Anything that will make people think twice before they cut across my leadcore is a good thing.

I strongly agree with Adam Bomb and Pitmaster's posts. Both make reel good sense. I am surprised though about the driver being required to have a license, that's pushing it for me, but as AB stated, it's the best investment for all. Anyhow, what's more expensive, the $75 fine, or the $7 license? Have fun and enjoy our fintastic waters.

A drivers license isn't required for every one, only if you are getting a resident fishing license. I if you don't have a driver's license, then you need to get a DNR sport card for identification along with the license ($1).

As to Kevin, that is actually what I had in mind. We regularly have people from our international plants here on visits and I have fun bringing them out on the lake. Letting a guy from Mexico who's only been fishing once before (also on my boat) fight a 16lber on a full core is fun for everyone on the boat

I know on other forums I'm a member of they have had issues with some web browsers. I use firefox and have never had issues.

When I went Friday out of Holland all of the fish we caught had bait in them. Not surprising since we were marking bait the whole night. We caught at 16 lber that had 7 big fresh alwives stuffed into it.

Looks like a nice bunch of fish you got there Ken, good job (and thanks for the tips Friday). Also looks like I'm going to have to get the Dog on my boat some time

Erik, I like the addition of the web cam picture to the page:thumb:

It costs me well over $100 every time I tow my Four Winns to the lake and run around for a while. If you can't find $7 for a day license, I don't need you on my boat.

If you can't get one the night before or on-line and make me tow the boat all over the place during the prime time to be fishing, don't yell at me when my friend has 8 in the cooler before we launch.

I see where you are going but that's not really the way I look at it. I just like bringing people with me, especially if they haven't ever or rarely get the chance to fish. If we catch fish, great, it makes it more fun, if not, well we got to spend time on the water

The fish I was catching last week were all empty, but the ones I caught last night all had alwives in them. The 16lber I caught had 7 big fresh alwives in it and still hit my Glow wonderbread. Good job on the fish

If you are open next week, I get out of school at 2:15pm Mon, Wed, Thurs and would be willing to come take a look. I'm by now means a master but I have done some wiring in my day and have had some classes on it. From the sound of it, it is probably not getting the power it needs for one reason or another.

So I headed out tonight with two guys from work and my two little brothers. Left the dock around 6:30. I had checked the web cam around 2:30 in the afternoon and the lake was flat. Got out there to find 1-2s and a pretty good chop. Ran out to 80 FOW and started setting lines trolling west with the waves. Well, setting lines turned out to be a PITA, mostly because of the waves and my stupidity. Probably reeled in empty cores about 5 times because a wave would rip on the board good and long. Also, somehow I switched my dipseys around in the boat working on it this week and so I was putting the wrong one on the wrong side and couldn't figure out why it kept crossing behind the boat .

While that was going on we did end up picking up a small king on a Blue Flounder (Thanks Ken ) on the rigger 45 down in 120 FOW. My coworker Hassan reeled it in to make it his first ever fish.

We finally got turned around in 156 FOW and started to fight the waves back in heading strait east. By this time the waves were steady 3's with 4's thrown in for good measure. It was a fun ride back in to the fish (I neeeeeeed to get some trolling bags)

We finally hit 80 FOW again ans started marking fish like crazy. The waves were quite a bit calmer in shallow so we turned south to make a pass. Picked up an average king on a regular Glow Easter Egg on the 10 color.

We turned back north after a while, staying in the same depth of water and still marking fish. Finally another rod went at 10:00. After a good fight Javier was able to land a 16lb king . Coming in the boat I would have sworn the thing was at least 20, but then again I haven't caught that many big fish. The fish came a regular Glow Wonderbread Stinger on a 7 color.

We trolled around for a while longer but no matter what I did we couldn't pick up another fish. Headed in at 10:30. By that time it was fairly calm.

We have owned the same ss235 since it was new in 74. It has always been sloppy at low speeds and yes it makes it very difficult to fish in any type of seas. We added 2 36" bags last year which really help keep it straight in rougher water.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm planning on getting a set of bags soon, now I know that size I want

I have a question about the license requirements/interpretation of them for Michigan. With my new boat I am planing on bringing a bunch of first timers out on the water.

If I only fish the number of poles allowed for the number of licensed/eligible (under 17) persons on the boat and only keep the limit for the said individuals, can I still get in trouble if I have people with who don't have a license? I know I can have them with, but can I let them catch fish (not posses).

I'm curious how others do it. I don't want to break any laws or getting in trouble, but at the same time I don't want to make the guys I take along go and buy licenses if its the only time they will ever be out. (I know there are 24 and 72hr licenses, but they're still $7 and $21)

Thanks

for me, i usually have a chosen location before i leave the dock and most likely a back up. my location to start fishing is usually chosen for many reasons, mainly networking and fishing days prior. Like stated, marking fish on the graph does not always correspond to catching fish, and vise verse.

I catch some of the fish i mark, but the majority that I catch are ones that I never marked.

There's also something to be said about trusting your gut. When I went out memorial day evening, I set up in 100 FOW (I'd been catching them in 120 FOW in the morning). When I was talking on the radio, other boats were telling me I should be deeper. Well, I picked up 3 in the first 30 minutes of fishing, so I was pretty happy where I was

All of the fish I've caught so far this year have been empty.

Your Lc is based on a full spool. The more line on it the more accurate it'll be

What he said. I believe I read somewhere on here that most line counters are set up to read accurate when the reel is 3/4 full I would add more line. If you want to know exactly how much line you have out, do what you did and then keep the ratio in mind when seting the rod (so for every 25 ft of line you want out, the reel should read 33 in your case).

Seems like this year is turning out to be like last year, every time I'm going to go fishing the lake picks up and ruins the plan

I here ya Mark, this has been one of my goto baits for about 3 years now,

it works in all 3 sizes from the mag. to the mini..

I just picked up a couple last night from the Outdoorsman because I always see them in your reports Good job on the box for the tourny.

BACK in action.

New starter' date=' new pickup in the distributor and new rotar.

30mph and right up on the water.

KNOCK ON WOOD.

Darn it this boat is killing me this spring.[/quote']

I hope it stays running for you.

Well I got everything back together, made sure everything was tight and such. I inspected the steering cable along the entire length and there are no cracks, it looks like it has been replaced since the boat was new. Seems like there is less slop than there was, but there is still some. Looking at the outdrive closer, I did notice that there is some chucking between the drive and steering spline. I think right now it is just a stack up of little things that are adding up to the amount i'm seeing. We'll have her out later this week and see how she goes.

Ken, I was looking at the Dreamweaver BFK tournament page on facebook and it said something about the registration dealine being June 2? Is that accurate?