Sea Eagle

Caught a 3 man limit ( 6 cohos, 9 kings) this morning out of SH. Lost at least 4 more including the big king of the day when yours truly hit it in the head with the net. Too busy to keep up with the log (had two triples), so I will try to summarize. Set lines northwest of the pier around 115' and trolled West out to 180 then back in to 160' on a Southwest troll. 160' to 170' was best. Everything caught fish. 10 color, 200' & 300' of copper, Mag DD's set on #2 down 72' & 64' and SWR on the DR at 75' & 85' with free sliders. The SWRs on the DRs and the free sliders were the most active. I will post a photo of what worked, but the new UV spoons from Michigan Stinger were by far the hotest thing going (FYI - I have no ties to Michigan Stinger). Ran the UV Blue Dolphins on the SWR with a medium UV mixed veggies on the free slider.

No. We went out of SH last Sunday. Went 3-3 fishing the mud line.

Went down to St Joe Saturday looking for some of those Kings that were reported to be in shallow last weekend. Our first surprise was all of the boats in town for the Brown Blast Tournament. It took us a little longer to figure out that the fish were out deeper. Started out in the 40-50 ft of water range. Picked up a couple of small Cohos in the mud line that we sent back, then headed out to 90 ft or so. Nothing going on in 90 ft of water so we started out deeper. Did not get a hit until we got to 125 ft of water around noon, then all hell broke loose. Went 6-9 running west out to 160 ft and back in. 3 nice kings, a small king and two Cohos went in the box. One King came on a new UV Green Tuxedo spoon on a SWR as the DR was being pulled up. I will bet that almost happens once per trip. An old fishing buddy of mine told me several years ago to leave the line attached until the ball is almost to the boat (thanks for the tip Bill) A missed fish and a Coho on a small hot lobster spoon running on the free slider. A Coho on a gold/pink thin fin on a high line back 300’ A missed fish and a Coho on the ½ cores with an orange NBK & a carmel dolphin spoon with black spots (don’t know the name) Three Kings on Mag Dipsey Divers set on #2 down 56’ & 64’ with a muffin man spoon and small BSO spoons. Wished we had pulled lines and ran out deep sooner.

Great job. Hope to get out myself next weekend.

Great job got my boat ready this weekend. Hope to get out next weekend

90' out of South Haven

I run both trees and rod holders. I just installed the trees in my boat this year and wish I had them in my boat all along. They are a great way to keep all of your planner boards seperated. They work very good on smaller boats like mine. I run them in tracks with a couple more rod holders for my dipsey divers. Here is a photo.

I went steelhead fishing on the Kzoo the day after Christmas for the first time this year. Caught two and a nice Pike. I plan on going back. Going to a Michigan Steelheaders Meeting for the first time in January to see what that is all about. The fishing show season starts with the one in Detroit in January. I hit the Maumee river for walleye as soon as March. Then back to the big lake in April. Here are a couple of photos from our trip this week. http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/glf_1_thumb.jpg http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/glf_2_thumb.jpg

You are my hero. I'm so jealous. I wish my boat was not put up. I have an old fishing buddy who moved to California, but still has a boat in his dads heated pole barn. He is coming home for the holidays and said he might be up for a fishing trip on the big lake. Thanks for the report.

I just put a couple of wraps of electrical tape around it to keep it together. I only need to remove it at the end of the season.

I took 4" of 1/2 dia copper tube and flared the ends, drilled a hole in one end, use a SS nut and bolt to hook the cut off antenna to it and zip tied it to my Big Jon Pro Tournament DR boom. Here are a couple of photos: http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/dept_raider_antenna.jpg I rerouted the wires underneath the gunnels using a rubber boot since this photo was taken http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/depth_raider.jpg PS: those scotty beads work great. I put one on each end my Big Jon bead stop

Fished for a good 6 hours out of South Haven on Sunday. Went out to 200 ft looking for clean water and then back in to 80 ft when that did not work. Wound up 1-1. Took a 14" perch on a blue dolphin spoon in 160 ft of water on 200 ft of copper. I think it was a sign that it's time to put the boat up for the season. It was a very good year. Sad that it had to go out with a wimper instead of a bang. http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/showimage.php

Thanks for the info. Going to try and get out this weekend. Not sure if the lake is going to cooperate. The offshore forecast keeps changing.

I agree with shannon - "Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught" Just ask my buddy Denny - the more he tells the story the bigger the one that got away on Saturday gets. Just kidding Denny. It was a nice fish, but he was more up set about it that anyone else on the boat. As we all know, it is just one of those things that happens. This is only Denny's second year of Salmon fishing and it was the biggest fish he ever had on the end of a line. He gave it a good 20 min fight, but it got up on the surface with a mag dipsey between Denny and the fish. The fish shook its head a few times, rolled over and spit the hook. Not too much he could do about it.

Went 9-10 with 2 missed releases. 8 small kings with one small laker we tossed back. The big fish of the day, I’m guessing somewhere in the 15-18 lb range (although my buddy who lost it thinks it was bigger) was the one that got away. Best water was in the 110-135 ft range. We fished straight out, down to the south, then up to the north. Moonshine glow spoons took a couple early, a small Kevorkian spoon down 85 ft on the DR took another with the balance coming on various colors of the new Luhr Jensen UV shoehorn spoons I picked up at Cabelas on Wed. One on the red color spoon on a ½ core, one on the green color on the DR down 75 ft with the balance coming on the yellow version on the DD’s. I was running mag DD’s set on #2 back 145’ for my low divers and #1 DD’s set on #3 back 180’ for my high divers.

Went out of South Haven Friday night with fishing buddies Jeff Moreau & Denny Laskowsky. Wound up 7 for 8 with 2-3 missed releases on the DR & DD. Set lines around 6:00 in 70' of water straight out of the pierhead and trolled out to 135'. Took the first hit around 100' of water, with 110' to 120' feet being the most productive. Trolled down to the south and then back to the north of the pier. Ran a mix of SWR on the DR, DD, 1/2 core, full core and 200' of copper targeting depths from 25' down to 75' down. The full core took one fish with a glow george spoon at sunset, other wise all of the other fish came on the DR & DD running between 56’ to 75’. Spin Doctors (kevorkian/blue bubble) & greenish flys took two fish before sunset and a small alewife spoon took another. The balance of the fish came on glow spoons at/after sunset.

Fishing a glow program before first light or at last light can be some of the most productive times to fish. That alone might put 2-3 more fish in your box per trip. We also catch a few more fish close to noon. It's amazing how many times we put another fish or two in the box as we are pulling lines around noon.

Fishing a glow program before first light or at last light can be some of the most productive times to fish. That alone might put 2-3 more fish in your box per trip. We also catch a few more fish close to noon. It's amazing how many times we put another fish or two in the box as we are pulling lines around noon.

I sure love my Big Jon Pro Tournaments. They seemed to be a good choice between the captins packs and the brutes. They came with the ball holders, two rod holders per DR and auto stops. I paid around $900 for a pair. Whatever brand you choose, buy them at one of the winter/spring fishing shows. There will never be a better price that at the show.

Heading out myself this morning. Just needed to check the reports first. Thanks for the info.

Not sure, but I'm going to ask more specific questions about cleaning and priming when I take it in this year for winterization this year.

I'm looking for some help on a problem with the paint on my 2003 150 Optimax. The dealer put some unprotected banding tape around the skeg of my motor two years ago when they shrink wrapped my boat and the wind and vibration over the winter wore the paint off of my skeg. The dealer has painted my skeg several times, but the paint keeps washing off. They have assured me that they are using the correct paint, but I wonder if there is a special aluminum primer that they need to be using? Thanks

I'm looking for suggestions for a good canvas guy (or gal) in the Kalamazoo area to make a custom mooring cover for my 21 ft Trophy WA hardtop. Thanks

I had a similar problem with my 2003 150 Optimax this spring that the dealer could not find. The boat would not get up on plane and I had lost about 10 mph from my top end. Nothing showed up on any error codes. They said I needed new plugs and a fuel filter and wanted an arm and a leg to do that, so I purchased the parts on line and replaced them myself. However that did not solve the problem, so back to the dealer I went. This time they found a bad coil on my #5 cyl. This did fix the problem for a couple of trips, then it returned. Only this time, the boat cut out on me as I was running in and I received an alarm. I turned the boat off and checked the error message and it said that I had a bad coil. I restarted the boat and it ran fine. This time the dealer had an error code to work with and they said that Mercury told them to replace all of the coils. I checked it out when it was done and noticed that the new coils are a different part number. I bet they had a design issue with the original coils. This did fix my problem for good and the motor has run fine for the last three months. Not sure if this helps - good luck.

Went fishing Saturday morning with friend Jeff Moreau out of South Haven. Wound up going 9-11. 8 Kings and one nice Steelhead. Set lines around 6:45 in 70 feet of water straight out from the pier head running a glow program of mostly Moonshine spoons. Took our first fish around 100’ and had fairly steady action out to 135’ (4-6) off of our down riggers and dispeys. Most productive depths were between 55’ and 75' down. Glow bloody nose, TNT and mongolian beef all took fish. Switched over to a mix of spin doctors/flys and J-plugs in all of the usual colors as the sky brightened up and it went dead for us as we ran back in to 110’ of water and out to 135’ again a couple of times. Thanks in part to several posts I have read on the web page about guys catching fish all day long on Moonshine spoons, I decided to switch back over to all moonshine spoons mid morning and took two more fish, then our last three around noon as we trolled back towards the pier to 110’ -100’ of water with a dispey down to 55’ and SWR on the down riggers down to 75’ & 85'. Glow bloody nose and mongolian beef again. I have never ran glow spoons at any other time other than dark or low light conditions before, but you can bet that this will not be the last time. One question – my lead core (1/2 & full) and copper (200’ & 300’) seem to have gone cold on me the lately. This is the first time I have ever experienced this. I also seem to catch more fish the past two years off of spoons than my flashers and flys. Is it just me or has any one noticed the same thing? This salmon fishing is a lot like women – just when you think you have it all figured out……….. http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/09-03-11_glf.jpg