BenLubbs

Just curious Tony, what kind of foam is it (ie is it sheet foam or is it filler foam). I know that when we put swivel seats in our 16 ft aluminum boat, the benches were filled with foam sheets underneath.

That is a mess of fish there, good job.

Tony,

Having backing is always better because you spread the force out over a larger area, reducing the stress in the fiberglass. Howevever, with 3/4" of glass I think you would alright. If you do end up trying to put something to back it, you can get like 10" round covers that you cut a hole and mount a ring that they twist in and out of (sorry I can't explain it better), those might work. On my boat the fiberglass on the tops of the gunwales is only 1/4" so I had to put backing, but they are also open the entire length of the boat.

Just run one of every Flounder on the rods and a double trouble on the rigger you will be happy with the results:)

I have heard good things about area 51 and bought one, sadly it is still in the package. I will have to change that.

You reminded me of something, I meant to run sliders yesterday but forgot Gonna have to do that next trip.

Nice job Ben. Put a moonshine on every pole you have during that golden hour, and get ready!

How is the boat running?

Thanks Ken, for some reason last night when we got to the launch it didn't want to idle and kept dying but once I let it run at a higher RPM for a bit then it was fine. Definitely a lot funner fishing out of this boat than the old 16 ft'er.

Nice job breaking in the boat! Thanks for the report and story. Looks like you scaled him pretty good getting him out of the net

Yea, I would have liked the picture a lot more if the fish wasn't so beat up. I don't know how the hook got so tangled in the net and it only got worse with the fish flopping all over the place (he was realll spunky)

Oh, and you can tell it's been way too long since I caught a fish because while cutting the very first fillet I tried to cut my finger tip off Luckly it didn't get very far. Gonna have to get back into the swing of things I guess.

We were running moonshines on 5 of the 6 poles but apparently the Green Flounder Pounder was the one doing it for them.

Decided last minute to make a trip out tonight. Brought one of my sisters, one of my brothers, and my best friend out. Left the launch at like 7:45 PM. Ran strait out to 90 FOW and set up. Went with two wire mag dipseys, 10 color, 5 color, and downriggers. Marked some fish in ~110 FOW then nothing. My Dad called a little later and I was talking to him on the phone, looked at the fish finder to tell him what depth we were in, saw a mark going right through the line of the DR ball, turned to look at the rod, saw it pop, then hung up and proceeded to reel the fish in. First fish coming on board the new boat was a 7 lb. king that came on a Moonshine Green Flounder Pounder on a DR parked at 60 ft. in 132 FOW. In the process of netting the fish, the hook got really tangled in the net so I was messing with that for a while. Once I got everything set again, made a turn south at the 150 mark with no fish on the graph. Turned back toward the spot where we had picked up the fish. got to 128 FOW and the same rod went again. Gave my friend the pole and started to get the net ready. While he's working on that one, my brother sees the wire dipsey set at 175 (setting 1) with a Green Flounder Pounder start moving. My sister takes the pole and starts working the fish. We get my friend's fish to the boat and it's a 5 lb king. My sister gets the fish her fish two the boat and lands her first Big Lake fish, a 7 lb. King Continued trolling till 80 FOW then decided it was getting pretty dark and nasty out so we headed in at 9:45.

Ended up 3/3 in less than two hours, defiantly the best trip I've ever had. Talked to someone else on the radio who went 10/12 in the same depth of water. SOG was 3.0-3.2 All of the fish had empty stomachs

Now some pics

Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing. The tails and fins on those fish almost look inproportionate compared to a king

All of the rod holders and the newer Rivieras with the bases are sold. I would defiantly consider trades for any salmon gear, especially copper setups.

Wow, good job. I can't wait to get out this weekend.

The farthest I've heard is from Grand Haven, I don't think it has the range to reach Muskegon.

I got the autopilot on the boat working tonight. While we were out Friday my brother pointed out that one of the wires was not plugged in (its always the obvious things isn't it ) Well anyway, I plugged it in to night (it was the helm position sensor wire) and was able to get the autopilot to turn one way or the other by holding a wrench next to the compass. Now I just need to try it out on the water (maybe on wednesday evening)

Good Job on the fish Jimmy, looks like the kids had fun.

Nice Job.

Some of Tim's flies on my boat already and love the looks of them. Still have to get them wet but that will happen this weekend

I like Meal Time and the UV farthest on the right

Just heard Jimmy on the radio, this really is sweet

Well with the boat running I'm going to be trying to tweak the setup to make it run as smoothly as possible. The first trip out i only ran one lead core per side, one wire dipsey per side, and downriggers of the corners. At one point I tried to add a dipsey on powerpro and a 10' rod (the wire rods are 8.5') but ended up with a tangle before I even got it out all the way:(. Given, my dad had accidentally started turning in the fog and the SD on the dipsey going in as close to the wire rod but I'm wondering what my approach to adding lines to the spread or resetting lines should be (especially high divers or short cores that will run outside of lines that are already in the spread).

Thanks for the help.

Very cool idea, I will have to monitor this on the days i'm thinking about going out. Thanks for posting.

Were you driving the boat around Yacht Basin on friday night? I thought I saw you as we were just passing then end of the first dock. Good job on the fish.

Depends on the spoon, there are some that come with good hooks out of the package (ie JP slammers) and some that come with crap hooks. If I don't like the hooks, I change them out with VMC's. Same goes for flies and plugs.

Went out of Holland tonight, went 0/1, with the hit being a really short rip on the 7 color with a Mag Blue Dolphin on it. Fished from 30 - 80 FOW and never marked a fish. Heard a bunch of people on the radio but only heard of one fish being caught all night. Was foggy at first then cleared, then started getting foggy again. Had a good shake down and will hopefully be back out tomorrow some time.

So this evening was the maiden voyage of the boat. Got gas in it at 5:30. Put 25 gallons in and bumped the gauge from 1/4 to 3/4. After some delays getting the family going we got out of the driveway about 6:00. We got to the launch by 6:45. Boat loaded off the trailer great. After a couple tries with the throttle the motor fired right up and purred like a kitten. Mac was dead calm once we got out of the no wake zone and the boat got up on plane great. Went over a couple of wave and guess what, I didn't get wet (probably one of the worst things about fishing out of a 16 aluminum boat). The boat cruised at 29 MPH fine. Got to the NO WAKE zone before the channel and were met by soup. Visibility was less than 100 ft. and I was thinking oh great:mad:

It was literally so bad that when we got to Big Red we couldn't see it from the other side of the channel. When we got the end of the piers we decided to turn around because we couldn't see and it wasn't worth the risk. Once we got turned around the went back thru the channel the sun was peeking out thru the fog and it was starting to burn off quick. We rode around a bit more in the NO WAKE zone to see if it would disappear. By the time we made it around it was looking a lot better so we decided to go out fishing for a while. Heard some chatter on the radio and tried to get a radio check but didn't get any response after several tries. Finally figured out that it was in hailer mode and then got a response. Set lines in about 35 ft headed strait West. Went with a 5 color, 7 color, two wire divers (90 and 75 out) and two downriggers.

The fog continued to burn off and for a while we could actually see the tops of the dunes. We trolled out to 80 ft, made a turn south, then turned back toward the peirs. Had one very short rip on the 7 color with a blue dolphin in 65 ft but otherwise just washed the lines. I had one tangle when I tried to let out a third diver with a SD on it that was a combiniation of driver and my error.

Got back to the launch and got the boat on the trailer pretty easily. All in all it was a good shake down other than not getting any fish. I'm very happy with the boat and glad I made the decision to upgrade last fall.

BTW, saw Just Hookn' on our way out, not sure if they just were heading back in or if they didn't go fishing because of the fog. Also heard Plumbcrazy on the radio. Only hear of one fish caught all night so it didn't sound like anyone was doing real good. I will probably try to get out there some time tomorrow again if the storms hold off.

Thanks for the report, planning on making a trip out tomorrow evening.

Thanks for the report. Good job on the fish.