SeaCatMich

Yes there are other weirs capable but the Little Manistee is the primary source for for Chinook with Medusa creek, the Boardman and Platte as secondary/backup. Coho are primary for the the Platte. Steelhead is primary for the Little Manistee with the Platte being backup. Brook & Lake Trout at Marquette, and Oden State Fish Hatchery is the main source for brown and rainbows. Rogers City also used to be a Chinook source but with the poor returns is no longer used. http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_52259_28277-66567--,00.html

If thiamine deficiency is causing issues for the size/water content in the fish, then why did we have lots of 30#+ Chinook from the 70's through early 2000's? They were feeding on the same alewife but there were a whole lot more and bigger alewife -- IE: lots more Burger King double whoppers for the fish to eat vs White Castle sliders... which means bigger overall fish. Don't get me wrong, I like catching lots of fish... but, in the past I caught lots of BIG fish. In the early '80s a 20# King was nothing special and it had to be a 30# fish to get noticed. In 1980 we caught 50+ fish over 30# with a 38.5# the biggest ever on my boat. In 2003 we caught 4 over 30#. I can count on one hand how many over 25# since then and only 2 over 20# last year and most were sub 15#. I would much rather catch the offensive and defensive linemen of samon rather than soccer players... heck, at this point I'd be happy with linebackers. We need to reduce the predation on the alewife population to produce more and bigger alewife to give the salmon the "whoppers" they need to get big. It is well documented that thiamine deficiency affects Lake Trout reproduction and that alewife feed heavily on walleye fry, but I have never heard of it being an issue for salmon reproduction. Maybe it does... that would explain why we have seen so many more naturally spawned salmon in recent years as with the lack of alewife to feed on, the salmon's thiamine levels are not as high as in the past and they are consequently reproducing more effectively The DNR bait fish sampling trawls are showing mainly small/young alewife (90%+). The cause is not definitively known but an overall lack of food seems to be a major cause and the most suspect cause of this is the biomass taken out of the lake by the zebra and quagga mussels -- if zooplankton is not available as food for the baitfish, there are less bait fish to feed high level predators. Additionally, small immature alewife do not reproduce as adults which means that without mature alewife we are not getting the level of reproduction we had in the past. There isn't an effective solution to get rid of the mussels at the bottom of the food chain. The other obvious choice is to reduce number of predators at the top to give the existing young alewife a fighting chance to grow to adult size and effectively reproduce. Since it is difficult to control natural reproduction, reducing planted salmon is something that can be done. The purpose of the salmon plants is to maintain a LAKE based fishery, not a river fishery. Salmon are highly mobile in the lake and fish planted in northern ports are caught in the south end and vice versa. Same for east to west as the fish travel between Michigan and Wisconsin waters. As I quoted in the notes I took at the meeting (original post), Jay Wesley stated that there are other species (aka: Steelhead) the DNR feels is better suited for a river fishery. Because they want to guarantee that there are enough returning salmon to provide egg taking at the weir to hatch to plant the next year's fish in the other rivers. If for some reason we have low water conditions or a ecological disaster on the Little Manistee it is not wise to rely on only the naturally returning salmon to take eggs from. The Little Manistee is the primary (only?) Chinook collection site in Michigan. Although I don't doubt that the Little Manistee gets good natural reproduction, I believe that it is not nearly as good as what you see in the Muskegon, Big Manistee, Pere Marquette, Platte, or Betsie.

Here is another option: http://www.plasteak.com/plasteak-recycled-plastic-products/bow-pulpits/synthetic-teak-bow-pulpits-for-boats It looks like teak but is made from some type of recycled plastic.

My inside divers are typically my wires and the high divers are braid. My wire divers are 9' Taloras and the braid are 10'. I would love to run shorter rods but my side downriggers have 5 booms and going shorter puts the low diver line too close for my comfort level.

To combine two 12v batteries into one big 12v battery, you connect the terminals of each battery positive to positive and negative to negative. Then hook your equipment to one of them just like you would with a single battery. Same for charging -- connect the pos lead to the pos terminal and the neg lead to the neg terminal. This will give you a battery system with twice the power capacity of a single battery. So if each battery individually has 1000 units of power you get 2000 total when combined. If you use 80% of the combined battery, you will still have 400 units left. In the same situation with two separate batteries and you use 80% of each, each would only have 200 units each remaining. 200 might not be enough for the battery to be of any use as a spare battery. By connecting the pair of batteries with the 400 units remaining though, it is more likely to be useful. If you do go with a pair of batteries in parallel, they should be identical to each other -- same architecture, capacity... I'd even go as far as brand & model. If not you will have trouble in getting them fully charged and drawing power evenly from them. Also, charging will take twice as long for the two with one charger compared to being able to use a charger per battery with separate batteries -- although I have not had an issue with getting the pair I have connected in parallel charged overnight. I run my electronics off the pair of "house" batteries I have in parallel -- 3 LCD multi function displays, GPS, radar (not on all the time), VHF radio, X4 FishHawk, and the stereo. I run my downriggers and the autopilot off of the engine batteries. The autopilot hydraulic pump is running all the time when trolling and is a relatively high draw. The downriggers are of course intermittent use but again a reasonably high draw when used. Neither are affected by electrical interference that could be introduced by the outboards. To charge all 4 batteries (1 per 90 hp Honda, 2 house) I have a Guest onboard charger that I try to plug in each night to top off all of them. On occasion when I do an overnight trip and don't have "shore" power, the house batteries have generally lasted for two days with no problems. Last year I installed a gizzmo that is supposed to take the charging output from either of my Honda outboards and charge all of the batteries. It either isn't hooked up right or is broken... as it isn't working. I'm planning on redoing/checking its install this weekend. I also picked up a small 2000 watt gas generator to take along as a 110v power source for the onboard charger... just in case.

For Michigan here is the link to what is needed: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/MDOT_MoveOS_OW_T2_92127_7.pdf

I have had very good results with Simple Green. Does a great job with grease and oil. It is also fully biodegradable and does not harm plastic, metal, or fiberglass. I turn off the bilge pumps, mix three gallons of water with one gallon of Simple Green and pour it in the bilge. If the boat is on a trailer, drive it around for 15 minutes with some stop & go driving to get the cleaner sloshing around. If it is in a slip, go make a run in a 1' chop. Then let it sit in the bilge for at least 4 hours and pump it out. Target always seems to have a good price on the Simple Green.

Daffodils are just blooming this week. Tulips are coming up but no flower buds yet. Just a couple weeks later that what would be considered normal. Same for the fishing. Normally I have seen the first good action down toward St. Joe the week the daffodils bloom. Main difference this year is that the big run off event was caused by lots of rain instead of snow melting. High muddy water is not unusual in early spring. All of the rain actually probably has sped things back up a bit after the colder March & April... rain is a lot warmer than melted snow. Seems a lot later than "normal" because last year was so warm so early.

I would call this place: http://www.americanmarine.com/parts-gaskets.html From what they show I would guess you could call them with the boat brand & model and they would know what to use.

I used the Walker/Blacks/Dubro release with the Klincher terminator embedded for quite a few years too... until I switched to the Chamberlain releases. You can still get the Klincher many places (I'm pretty sure they were even in the Lansing Gander Mountain): http://www.fish307.com/bigjonreplacementparts-tt04300-klincherassembly.aspx http://www.northportnailer.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=395 http://www.bronteoutdoor.com/index.php/gears/downriggers/klincher-downrigger-cable-terminator.html Marine General even has them prerigged to be used with a Depth Raider, SubTroll, or Cannon coated cable down speed/temp: http://www.marinegeneral.com/productdetails.asp?productid=1482620&directoryid=11416&parentid=10981

It is SeaTalk capable so it should work with the original SportPilot/SportPilot+ models. There are quite a few different rudder reference transducers made by Raymarine but it looks like: For an outboard implementation the rudder reference is a Raymarine part # M81188. For I/O or inboards it is a Raymarine part # M81105. Confirm which one you need by contacting Raymarine or one of their dealers (like Frank at Calumet Marine!)

Find some Tru Track Klinchers. No tools other than a pair or wire cutters or needle nose pliers to cut the wire. Pretty easy to redo a connection out on the water. Much easier than crimping sleeves and thimbles... They are only about $3 each too.

The S1000 needs hydraulic steering. If you have that, then yes I think it should work. Without hydraulic, the lowest cost solution is the Raymarine Sport Pilot X5 -- pretty basic unit which fits on the steering wheel shaft and turns the wheel to steer for you. Similar to the old SportPilot+ but much improved from all reports. http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=733

For camping, Holland State park is 9 miles straight south as is the Holland ramp and fish cleaning station. Link to Google map of Port Sheldon & Holland State Park. Holland has almost all of the different hotel chains. Most are off US31 and it isn't too bad to get to either Port Sheldon or Holland ramps. Hopefully with all of the recent rain both will be fine for launching. With normal water levels Holland is much better suited to boats bigger than about 21'. Link to map of Holland area hotels.

Brett's Place on the bay is selling Tekota 800LC reels preloaded with 300' of the new 60# copper and 175 yards of 30# Blood Run backing plus a leader (Link to Brett's Listing). 45# copper should be 25% less in diameter and The BR website says their backing is listed at .016" diameter while 40# test Power Pro is .013 in diameter. So, I would think 300' of 45# copper and 300+ yards of 40# PP should fit fine on the 800. Edit: After reading Jim's response I realized that the OP was asking about 450' of 45#. The 800 is a big reel but 450' is a lot of copper. I would even consider going to 30# PP backing to save a little more space. Even 200 yards of backing should be enough to handle our current Lake Michigan fish. Worst case, slow the boat down -- a nice problem to have

Fish On still has the single track mounts on the web site. Here is a link to what i found: http://www.fishonsports.com/211.html The are adjustable so can be used for storage or fishing. They are on sale at $34.95 right now too so they are cheaper than the Bert's fixed vertical "net" holder rod holders at $44 each at Northwoods in Pinconning which would only be good for storage. ,

I do as Matt said and put it on the copper. I usually put it at the 100' out mark on my coppers (300' total). I actually have seen better results with Torpedo weights on the copper and have mainly been using the Dive Bombs on my leadcores.

You might even find some of the original brown Heartlands or even the black ones at Armstrong's. Careful how much money you bring with you though... and it's even worse now that they take credit cards. Not too far the OP's location in Newago.

Here is a link to the T-Bolt bracket that Traxstech offers to mount standard tracks to the sport track system: http://traxstech.com/T-Bolt_Bracket.html

This will be season 3 for me with the FishHawk X4. It replaced a Depth Raider and the reduced blow back along with using regular cable makes it worth it. Does a great job -- had it as deep as 230' last year. If I was buying a unit right now though, I would seriously consider the new Smart Troll. The main reason is that you can monitor the speed, temp, and depth on up to 6 different lines at the same time by just adding a probe. Due to the cost associated with losing a $150 probe, I'd only use it on my downriggers with 150# wire. The one thing I don't like about the FishHawk is you can really only have one on the boat. The Smart Troll solves this and would allow me to get a better handle on what each presentation was doing -- especially with the different current speeds and directions we get down there. Cost wise the Smart Troll buy in cost is a little more but I think the upside is really good. The hype is to be able to use your Android phone as the display. Personally after seeing it a few weeks ago at the GR show, I'd go with a $100 Android tablet dedicated to that and a couple of other Android apps that would be useful on the boat. A 7 or 10" tablet would be much better viewing than my 4" max cell phone screen would offer.

Starboard would also be good. Nearly indestructible and can be worked and cut just like wood. There is a local materials outlet here in Lansing that has it as surplus from their manufacturing business. Not expensive at all. I am going to make a board as well to do the same thing. I'm planning on using screw in hooks similar to what would be used on a coat hook. They have a good selection at most of the home improvement stores.

Wow. Looks very good. Got to ride in a SeaSwirl 2601 last spring down at Toledo Beach on Erie -- did a test for a friend that was considering one. It was impressive. Same engine as yours and we were going 30 mph through a 2 1/2' Erie chop without thinking about it. Look out fishies!

Sportcrafts can be good boats, but they have also had problems with stringers going bad. Get some history on the boat -- more important if it was ever slipped. I'd probably get it surveyed to make sure it is good shape. Typically Sportcrafts are not the fanciest boat but if your intention is for fishing they are well suited for that. The only complaint I have heard about the Sportcraft hardtop is that they can act as a sail at times catching the wind. Overall with our fickle Great Lakes weather you will end up appreciating having it in spring, fall, and rain. As for the trolling plate, get a pair of trolling bags instead. In addition to slowing the boat and keeping the engine RPMs up a little for charging, they help keep the boat stable in rougher conditions by holding the boat down. For that size hull I'd check to see if there are trim-tabs. They will help you plane out sooner (at lower RPMs) and make keeping the boat level in when angling across waves onn plane or trolling. They also will let you level the boat if you have an uneven load on board.

Thanks Nick. The recon is appreciated.