Mark

I usually go about 4 feet or so with my sliders. Any longer than that makes it tougher for me to land them with the main bait at the tip of the rod. The baits on the slider go all the way down eventually, more so on the inside turn rods. My friend had a camera on the downrigger ball that showed the sliders to the bottom end in about half an hour or so, if I remember correctly.

I run just the basic chrome and colored chromes and even painted some black ones, which were on fire last year. I usually put one out real short like 60 back and the other twice that or more and let them out further as the day goes on and I get deeper. I trailer an old school 19 foot '72 Starcraft Holiday up to Glen Arbor and Frankfort as both are only 15 minutes away. Fishing has been decent at both ports, but not as good as further south. Kings have been chunky and full of bait.

I've been going straight spoons, mostly regular size, but have put out some mags also. I lengthened my leader too. I've also considered going lighter than the 17 pound that I'm currently running but am pretty sure that I'd bust it on any decent fish. Maybe it's just not what they're looking for up here yet. The riggers and core have been almost even, with a few more fish on the lead.

I got out of Frankfort late Saturday morning for an hour or so and picked up a 5 pound king on a full core and that was it. It seems that the dipsey program has been extremely slow so far this year for me and have had some southern friends say the same. Has anyone been getting the dipseys going? Just curious.

Someone caught a 37 pound fish off of Frankfort yesterday. There was a picture of it in the TC paper this morning and I gotta say, it is a PIG. Still unsure if it is a brown or an Atlantic salmon...there are overlapping similarities. I've seen several browns over 20 pounds out of Huron and they had a similar body shape but more traditional lake brown markings...either way, it's a new record and an awesome fish.

I was wondering how often you guys change your leadcore. I put it on new at the end of the 2005 season and it still looks good. I also have Fireline on my dipsies; put on same time as the leadcore. I stripped about 200 feet off it and it still looks pretty good too. On a side note, the fishing in Frankfort is, in a word, SLOW.

Looks like a beautiful weekend and I plan on going out of Frankfort tomorrow. I was considering running the brown trout program but, since the browns have been few and far between around Frankfort, I've decided to put the king program into gear way early. Somebody has to be the first to land a big king up here this year:D Good luck to all!

I voted for Rapture, but I'm not sure if they make the "No-see-um" fly which I use the most......I will tell you though, the kings can definitely "see-um"!!!

The last week of June /first week of July was as good as it gets in Frankfort last summer. Try to get a slip early or get to the launch before the 5am crowd shows up and you will be in good shape.

Just wondered what your general plan of attack is when headed out early season for kings. I boated three 10-12 pounders at the end of April last year in Manistee. Two were on 2 colors of lead at the pierheads and one was a rigger 75 down in 150 feet of water...all on mag spoons. The early fish around Frankfort are pretty scattered too, with cold temps around 40 and I usually like to target the upper third of the water column in 100 plus depths. Most times I'll get one or two, but that's about it. Any suggestions?

Ditto Priority 1's set up....except I pull the squid over a green seaweed fly. Did not change that dipsey combo until August last year.

Fished Platte Bay this weekend and had one bite. One guy on the surf had two browns, both about 2-3 pounds on spawn. Water temp was 38 deg and the big east wind blew me out of there in about two hours. Opener on the upper river was pretty interesting....8-10 inch planters would not allow any bait to reach halfway to bottom without being destroyed. Fished Frankfort harbor Friday with no bites. Did not see or hear of any fish landed. Pretty early , but still fun to be pulling stuff around the lake.

I still run like crazy when a rod goes off. When running sliders, I've been with guys who grab the rod and pull back and reel like no tomorrow. With others, they leave the rod in the holder and reel until the slack is taken up and THEN grab the rod. What do you guys do?

I run 4 riggers off my boat with a 6' beam and don't have a problem tangling unless I throw sliders sometimes. I will run the spinnies up to 40' back and stagger them between spoons on the riggers and keep them at least 5 feet apart in depth. Some days when the current is bad I'll only run 2 riggers and if temp is down past 80 feet, I'll run 3 at the most. What is an SWR?

We used to use 7 1/2 footers when we were in college and didn't have the cash for new rods and it wasn't much of an advantage. Fish were pretty difficult to control in tight...but it was pretty freaking hilarious!!!! Advantage; great story at the dock and more laughs!

I used the Mean Green up in Alaska fishing sockeyes and that stuff is strong! We were putting the heat to those fish in fast water and never broke off even one. I've not seen it at the local (Frankfort/TC) stores though. How is the price on that stuff?

I run 8# Maxima Ultragreen for the early browns and 20# Ultrageen for kings in the summer. I fish by myself a lot and have had fish take me around the rigger wire and still, somehow, end up in the cooler with the Maxima.

Are these the white rods with no guides? Also, what action do they have? I have a pair of the 8 footers med/heavy that are awesome! I live just outside of Frankfort. Thanks

When I was going to school in Kalamazoo, my buds and I would run over to St.Joe in the spring to fish. We would get cohos, kings,steels, and LT's off the boards. How far north do the coho get early in the year? My friends went all the way to Indy or Illinois last year to fish 'em and they crushed them. I would like to shorten that trip if I could. I know the run of coho on the Platte River last fall was pathetic...6600 adults before they closed up the weir. I have a weekend planned for the beginning of April; any suggestions for ports? Thanks.

I plan on fishing for whitefish in the Grand Traverse Bays this fall/winter in my little boat with a 15 hp/ 4 stroke Yamaha. I will probably get out 5 times or so until freeze up, usually in February. In past years I just took the motor (old 6hp Evinrude) off the boat and brought it into a heated garage and had no problems. The Yamaha is new and I don't want to damage it. Does anyone forsee any problems doing this or should I winterize it and just use the 6 hp? The days I would be fishing would be warmer than 32 degrees.

I have used the black/silver X rap the last two springs and it has been very good to me. We boated some nice browns and kings working the pierheads and harbors in Manistee and Frankfort and some trophy walleye and steelhead on an inland lake. I have not had much luck with the other color X raps.

The return numbers for coho were overrated this year. The weir workers were expecting to pass anywhere from 40 to 50 thousand adult cohos. As of Monday, that number was 6600, down from 19 thousand last year. The expected size was also down from 10 pounds; In the last month, I have caught no fish over 7 pounds with the average being 4-6#. Skein either rolled or on a bobber was the best for me on both the upper and lower. On a better note, a good number of steelhead were passed.

I was at the Platte River weir this weekend and noticed a lot of really small silver fish cruising around...around 1-2 pounds. I fished an upper stretch of the river by my house and caught a couple of them. They were coho, both were males, and they appeared to be sexually mature. What happened here? They were 15" long. The other mature cohos I caught trolling in the bay were 7-9pounds, also males.

The guy running the boards was outside the harbor trolling the mouth and the other guy literally drove over his board which was reasonably close. I went last night and there was much less traffic and a lot more courtesy toward fellow anglers. I was releasing all my kings ( a great way to teach my fiance' how to net) and boy was I glad. When we came in, the fish cleaning station was CLOSED...8:46pm. Lots of fish jumping in the river.

Fishing has been great at Frankfort this summer. With the spawn nearing, the action in and around the piers has increased and also has been very productive. Consequently, the traffic in the river and piers is heavy at times between trollers, anchored jiggers, and people trying to get in and out of the harbor. I watched someone this weekend run out of the harbor right over another guys board and then call him on the radio to get the hell out of the way. I just wondered who has the right-of-way in this whole mess? Personally, I just try to steer clear of all of it and keep my boat off plane until I clear the pack in front.