BenLubbs

My Mom says I'm a hoarder. I guess she could be right since this is what the corner of my room looks like right now.

Personally I like Walleye boards. The way I've always set them up is to set the drag so that when there is a hit the fish will start pulling drag out. I haven't lost a fish yet doing it like this and I haven't had any shakers either.

I'm working on setting the boat up right now. I hope to have it ready to fish by the first week of April.

Name: Ben Lubbers

Age: 21

Residence Location: Zeeland, MI

Area(s) Most Often Fished: Holland, MI

Years of Experience: Been fishing as long as I can remember, Salmon fishing for 5 years

Boat Size and Info: 1974 Slickcraft SS-235 (23.5')

Boat Name: Undecided right now

I'm the oldest in a family of 6 kids. I picked up fishing from my uncles and cousins because my dad never really fished much. For as long as I can remember i've been asking my parents to take me fishing and they have obliged for the most part for which I am thankful. There have been more time than I can count that they have gone out of their way to make me happy, even to the point of spoiling me. I've been fishing out of a 16' tin boat for 10 years mostly on inland lakes. I love to fish for anything from bluegills to catfish using anything from stick and line to a fly pole. In the past five years I was introduced to big lake fishing by some friends at church and have been hooked ever since. After being kept off the water a lot this year by conditions and having trouble trying to take friends out in such a little boat I decided to upgrade and bought the Slickcraft. I haven't had the boat on the water yet but can't wait to get out this spring. I'm hoping that I get the chance to take a lot of family and friends out with me.

Thanks for posting that picture up Ken, I was actually going to ask for one after our talk saturday:thumb:

Tim, thanks for setting this up, I had a great time and got a lot of nice stuff to set up the boat with. Thanks Jimmy for the slammers and rod holder and thanks Arron for the diseys.

Well that's too bad, I was looking forward to this. Thanks for trying Mike.

I'd be interested in testing some, I plan on being on the water a lot this spring summer and fall

What colors do you guys recomend for meat rigs? I've only every owned one and it was one that I pulled up off the bottom of Holland channel. I'm looking at expanding my lure selection this year but don't want to get a bunch of stuff that won't produce.

Never ice fished it but usually end up there once a summer. It has some pretty nice specs too if you can find 'em. Good job on the gills.

I fish out of Holland and I've always managed to pull in a couple steelhead a year. Most of them come on a double orange crush on a full core. I've never been out past 150 fow so I can't attest to how productive it is out further.

the 19th works for me for the salmon clinic. As of right now I don't plan on being at the walleye one.

Wish I could have been there. Merry Christmas.

I found it at the Barnes and Nobles in the RiverTowne crossing mall

I might have to stop by and pick it up this in the next day or two. Did they have multiple copies?

What type of backing do you have and how old is it. I recently replaced the fireline I was using on a few of mine. I had an extra reel laying around that I used to reel all of the leader and lead on to and then stripped the backing. It worked well if you happen to have a spare around.

We run two downriggers of the back corners out to the sides. I have a short track just up from the rear cleat that holds two berts ratchet holders and a longer track up by the back of the front seat. Here we have our Berts Tree's that rotate "worth the dough" and another berts ratchet holder. We also run two berts ratchet holder spaced out accross the back that I run high lines on, especially nice in the fall up close running short stuff. So far this has worked very well for us over the past few years. One much used addition is a 36" bag, this really settles the boat down in rough water and allows us to get the right speed. Oh, take the rear jump seats out, this makes life much nicer.

Thanks for the advice. The previous owner already removed the seats in the back, I never even saw what they looked like:thumb: When you say you run a bag, I'm assuming you mean a drift bag. Where do you run it from?

I've been thinking about this too since I am going to be adding some lights to my boat. Personally I think I'm going to go with halogens just because I like the light better. LED's are bright, but I've never been impressed with the spread or intensity of the LED lights I've seen. These could be different though.

I reworked my leadcore setups for about the 5th time since September tonight. Still got a bunch of stuff to do on the boat but after that's done the Fever is really going to dig in.

Not a 30 pounder, but this is a 25 pounder we caught 3 years ago in late August out of Holland. The kid next to the fish is my 7 year old brother.

only 3 more days of school and then I have all the time I want to work on the boat, I cant wait

I will be there buying for sure

I'd also be interested in fishing in the WMFL next summer to. I usually only fish out of Holland. To me, 9 rods vs. 8 doesn't really make a difference. The biggest issue for me would be the time and days that the tournaments are, since I'm going to be taking full time classes this summer:mad:.

Oh, and Saturdays work better than Sundays for me

It's funny that you bring this up. I'm currently taking a thermodynamic engineering course and this was one of the first things that the Professor brought up to us. The heater uses electrical resistance heating, which is one of the most inefficient ways to heat a space. Not only does it also cost a lot initially, it also costs a lot to operate.

In the past I have run a similar tack as you. However, in August I was fishing with an acquaintance of mine who used a GPS when fishing. We were not marking anything in 50fow but got a fish on and marked the way point. After getting the fish in, we did a sweeping loop back to the way point. We got in the area again and picked up another fish. Of the 5 fish we caught on that trip, 4 came from the same area where we caught that first fish. That's why I bought a GPS for my new boat because I think it will help me put a lot more fish in the boat by knowing where exactly I caught fish already.

Worked some more on the boat Saturday and this afternoon. Saturday go the old stinky carpet out. Today I spent a lot of time un-stringing and restringing wires throughout the boat. Whoever added the electronics to the boat didn't give two hoots about making it look good or even making good connections. Right now the boat looks really messy because the seats are torn out of it, there is dirt all over from under the carpet, and wires are hanging out all over the place. The good thing is that I am getting the boat set up the way I want it, which is better in the long run because I am a bit obsessive about making things work right and look nice.