Sea Eagle

Fished out of South Haven on Easter Sunday for three hours. Fished south to power plant and back in between 25 & 40 ft of water. 2.5 mph troll. Wound up 11 for 12. Three man limit on the Lakers, a 14 lb King and a small Coho. (2) flat lines with thin fins on outer boards, (2) SWR (2 colors lead core) on middle boards with small orange killer spoons, (2) ½ cores on boards closest to the boat with magnum orange killer spoons, (2) down riggers set at 25 & 35 feet with UV blue dolphins spoons with mixed veggie sliders and a thin fin on a high line 300 ft back down the chute. SWR took one fish, down riggers took three and the ½ cores took all the rest. Thin fins (red/tiger stripes & gold/pink) were cold as the water.

Great job - thanks for the report. Tring to get out on Sunday. Was wondering if St. Joe or SH was were we should go. Usually better down in St. Joe, but SH is an easier run out to the big lake + I keep hearing about low water levels in the river in St. Joe. I think you just convinced me to go to SH.

this looks like the hot set up - thanks

I just purchased two Big Jon Pro Tournament down riggers with auto stops. I have a depth raider speed/temp probe hooked up on my current manual down riggers that I want to put on my new electric down riggers. My question is - Will the auto stop trigger bead run through the depth raider spring antenna that goes on the down rigger cable OK or should I or attempt to enlarge the inside diameter of the spring antenna? Should I move the line guide with the auto stop switch further out than 1" as shown in my owners manual and install the depth raider spring antenna between the rod block and the line guide or should I shorten the depth raider spring antenna to 1"? Just looking for some advice from someone who has hooked up a depth raider on their Big Jons. Thanks

I am. I have only been salmon fishing for five - six years now and as you can guess I have a lot invested in both money and passion for the sport. This was the worst year for me since I started. My first year I just did not know what I was doing and the fish were few and far between. Two years ago we really hammered them, but then again I was told that you could troll car keys and catch fish. Going into last year I was feeling pretty cocky right up till it slowed down in July. We never got skunked, but had to work real hard for our fish from July on. I do not have enough data points to really know what to make of last year. I have to echo all of the observations, we had a really good spring and early summer, but hot water from July on (we could not find cold water 140ft down in July - 74.2 degrees). Then again we never marked so many bait fish. I guess time will tell. Everything tends to be cyclic and I guess salmon fishing is the same. Mother Nature has a way of making adjustments to whatever man does to her. I just hope that there is nothing to this global warming stuff and that the hot water is here to stay. I’m not set up for bass fishing and besides they taste like crap.

I see the time of your post today is 7:53AM - you on vacation today too?

I made something almost identical for my boat. I printed out a few copies and use them to plot my initial spread before I go out. I also laminated a copy and use a dry erase pen to mark what I have down. It come in handy when we start wondering what we want to chage out next

You don't need no stinking AP - you just need another set of hands in the boat to help drive - hint, hint. I remember a night with just you and me in the boat and we had three kings on all at the same time. We got them all in with no one driving the boat (ya I know how lucky we were). They say you loose a fishing buddy when he buys a boat. Seems like we just need to coordinate our outings better. Your boat or mine.

Thanks for all of the advice. I plan on getting a closer look at all of the various brands at the Detroit fishing show this month and will more than likely purchase at the GR show in March. I’m leaning towards either the Scotty's or Big Jon Brutes right now. My buddy has run his Big Jon captain packs for more than five years now without any issues. One of my main goals is to be able to get down deep and since you need big balls to go deep, I’m looking for something that will handle the bigger balls. Thanks Daybreak (John) I never considered looking at the power draw and good to know that you guys are successfully using your Scotty's down deep on a routine basis. I also like the lighted depth readout on the new Scotty’s. Not the biggest consideration, but it sure is a nice feature. “You need big balls to go deep†sounds like something good to put on a tee shirt.

I'm looking to up grade to electric down riggers this next year. I currently have a couple of big jon manual DRs that I picked up for $50.00 several years ago that I like a lot, but I want to be able to run bigger balls to get down deeper if the fish are out in deeper water like they were this year out of South Haven when the water temp in close hit 80 degrees. I was wondering who likes what brand and why?

Fished out of South Haven on Saturday morning. Went 11-12 with two knock offs (too slow-too bad). Took my brother-in-law out on his first salmon fishing trip. He had a blast and as far as he knows we do this good all of the time. Set lines around 6:30 AM NW of pier head in 70ft of water. Trolled N – NW and S – SE all day between 70ft to 90ft of water. First three fish came off of the downriggers set down to 40ft -50ft. (1 small king & 1 small coho) on SS Glow George spoons & a medium sized king off of a double pearl glow spin doctor with a blue bubble fly. We had two medium sized kings off of #3 dipseys set down at 40ft with a mnt dew pearl glow spin doctor with a seaweed fly on one & a mnt dew/chrome NBK spin doctor with a yogurt orange crush fly on the other. Our largest king of the day came off of a #3 dipsey set down at 60ft with the mnt dew pearl glow spin doctor & seaweed fly just as we were pulling lines. We had five fish (4 kings all medium to large & 1 medium coho) all of off 10 colors of ledcore running mnt dew/chrome NBK spin doctor with a yogurt NBK colored fly. The SS Glow George spoons off of downriggers have worked very well for us first thing in the AM lately, but spin doctor/fly combos have produced best as the day wears on. On Saturday, mid-morning, we could not keep our lone leadcore rig in the water – it was smoking. #1 dipseys with spoons have not produced any fish in the past few weeks and will likely get put up for a while. I’m sure that #1 dipseys would work fine running the spin doctor/fly combos, but we do not like to run spin doctors on both #1 & # 3 dipsey settings next to each other for fear of “making rope†out of our fishing lines. Rumor has it that my fishing partner Rich is going to purchase us another leadcore rig when he gets his bonus check in a couple of weeks.

North west was best, but that was also the direction we were going first thing in the AM. We took several fish going south as well.

Went 10 for 11 today out of South Haven. First three fish all came between 6:30 and 7:00 AM off of the down riggers set at 60 ft down, back 50 ft from the ball - all on glow wonderbread. Four fish came on white spin doctors with either green or blue flies off of #3 dipsey divers set out 142 ft. Two fish came off of a full core with caramel dolphin. One shaker later in the day off of #1 dipsey set back 142 ft. with NBK. Total seven kings, three steelhead (including the shaker). Four kings between 12 - 15 lbs and three "good eaters." Started out in 80ft of water and went out to 120 ft. Most fish came between 80 to 90ft. Stayed north west of pier all day. Wish I had more details - I'm going on memory - had a couple of new guys in the boat and I was too busy to make the log entries.