Porcupine

If your ever in the Muskegon area, rays mini mart has a box full of fishcatcher flashers

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I almost always run a spin doctor with a meat rig on my wire divers. Last few trips a big white paddle with a blu moo meat rig on the 300 copper has been great for us. Sometimes I'll drop one deep on a rigger. So yeah, pretty much anywhere besides the real high lines

Could you post a pic or two of your red leds on at night? How long of led strips do you have?

Ive been blinded more then once by other boats spreaders. Some are pointed way to much out behind the boat rather then at the transom. Being previously blinded made me aware so I set mine up aimed at the cooler and corner riggers, trying to be courteous to others and still functional for what I want for netting and such. I have a cheap $5 LED light from harbor freight I can zip tie to the arch to see the rigger rods in the dark. Sooner or later I'm going to order some led strips to mount under the gunwales to make the floor glow enough to swap tackle, tie knots, ect without blowing our night vision out.

1999 and newer GM owners can disable their automatic headlights by pressing the dome override button 3 or 4 times quickly. A chime will sound and the head lights can be turned on manually or just park lights. When the truck is shut off and restarted the automatic headlights will work normally again.

Good post! We have noticed that as well. Another thing that pops up every year around this time is smaller boats with removable stern lights on a pole. I sure see a lot of them that don't work, aren't tall enough, or are not installed in the dark... Keep an eye out guys, ya never know when you'll come across a canoe trolling one rod in 140fow with no lights

I want a bigger cooler but I'll first have to see if it is taller then my current model. The 120qt I have now is 2-3" lower then our stern light, the only time the light isn't visable is when the cooler is open:D . If the cooler is open in the dark the spreader lights are on anyway to remove hooks.

We went NW out of Muskegon this morning from 50 to 300 fow off Duck Lake/Whitehall, speed was mostly 2.8-3.0 on the GPS. Finished 6 for 8( a couple other rips here and there, gone before the rod was touched), one 21lb king, a couple 6-7lb griller kings, a 11lb Skam, decent laker, and released a small laker. Lost the one on a double and the other straightened the ring on a swivel.

wire Dipsy 160 back took 1 on SD/meat rig, 100 copper took 1 on a orange spoon, 300 copper took 2 big white paddle/meat, full core 1 dont remember but a spoon, rigger took 1chrome red head J

Hope it helps, most of our action was past 150 on out. Found a couple areas of warmer surface water, the fish were there. Lots of steelhead surfacing out deep.

Dipsys and long lines can always be added in the future as your experience and confidentence grows. Four riggers is all my dad fished with when I was a kid, it wasn't until I got infected with the salmon bug that more rigs were added to the boat. He thinks I'm crazy pulling up to a dozen lines now if I have the crew to do it.

Vary your depths and leads from the balls to see what the fish want. Fishing them in a V formation will help keep ya tangle free, center riggers at deeper depths and out downs shallower. Any type of lure can be ran off them, spoons, plugs, flasher/flies, meat rigs, ect.

Pay attention to your cable angles at trolling speed, somewhere between 2-3mph typically(again experiment with speed), trolling into a current will result in more ball blow back, and the opposite trolling with the current. Make a mental note of the rigger cable angles when your catching fish, try to replicate that next time out.

The guys on this site are real helpful so don't be afraid to ask questions. Where will you be fishing out of? Likely someone might take ya under their wing and show ya some tricks.

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A couple screen shots from my phone off that app. I hope these help some! I can get coordinates for any of the other depths on those screens if you'd like.

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Ok, well here's what the app tells me from the nautical charts.

Due west from St. Joe

78 feet 42 7.00514 N -86 35.25261 W

90 feet 42 6.9593 N -86 36.90056 W

120 FT 42 6.95548 N -86 38.60516 W

Have a smart phone? You could download the Backcountry Navigator app. One of the map options is a nautical chart back ground showing depths as a paper chart would. I used the app all the time for hunting and fishing, recording tracks to stands and my track and fish hits on days of trolling

3 for 3. Took a couple rookies from work out this morning. Not the fast and furious fishing that we were looking for, but we put the new guy on his first salmon. He's an avid bass guy, never been on or fished the big water before. A nice 16 pound king slammed the wire dipsy set on 1, 88 feet back, Hawg wild spin doctor with a holographic looking fly, 55 feet of water. The rod was in the holder less then a minute before it took off, first thing this morning.

Later a baby king 14"er took the same flasher fly 55 back in around 114fow.

Then just before pulling lines a 27" lake trout took the same rig, again about 55 back in around 80fow.

Washed everything in the boat, but seeing my inland fishing buddy freak on his first king was worth every penny of fuel burned!

Boatnerd.com is a site devoted to Great Lakes shipping. There is a historical write up for each ship sailing the lakes in the fleet photo galleries

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I haven't used these but only a few times, now that I have an arch on the boat they are obsolete. They mount on a 7/8-1 1/4" rail I believe(like a bow rail or a pontoon rail) and have the heavier duty four bolt clamps. Perfect condition. $50 to your door.

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Didn't see any of the nets north of Muskegon tonight either. Lets just hope they keep them away!

Took a quick trip after work tonight, with the 14 footer. It was a Blue Dolphin kind of night.

We went 3 for 4 fishing 50 to 100 feet of water.

Started out hitting a steelie on the Blue Dolphin 30 down on a rigger 67 fow, WNW troll. After a brief dancing show right behind the boat, it took off toward one of the boards and threw the hook on another jump when my buddy tried to stop it from tangling the full core.

Fish two, 23" king. 30 down, same Blue Dolphin spoon. IIRC we were in 85FOW, south troll.

Fish three, 22" king. Again 30 down, same spoon. 50FOW on our east troll back in.

Lastly we pulled a little 11.5" guy around on a reg size moonshine behind a dipsy at the end of the night.

Fish cleaned and packaged and in the fridge. Boat and gear all put away, and in front of dinner all before 9 lol. Would of liked to of stayed out to dark, but we both have to work in the morning.

Quick question for y'all now that I'm getting the boat together for the season. I want to add a couple more rod holder's to the sides of the arch for multiple planers a side.

Would you order more adjustable holders or more stationary holders. I'm kind of torn between the two, but I do like that the stationary arnt as long and won't be as high for the short crew. Sure I can mount them wherever, but to go multiple on the adjustables the top one still ends up pretty high.

Adjustable open and closed, and stationary. Thanks for your opinion.

Thought I'd update with some new pictures. We added a Fish on Sports Arch this spring to the Sundance. Absolutely LOVE it! I'll be adding four to six more rod holders this winter to be able to run more planer boards. The best part is we can use the cabin again now that the unused rods have a place to go lol. Now what to add next spring...hmmm....Auto Pilot sounds nice, new fancy chart plotter would be good... Depth Raider is the realistic next move I think.

I use a whole slew of weather apps/links. I'm kind of a weather nerd of sorts, or maybe more weather conscious as I fish a 14' boat most of the season.

I have on my phone(sorted in folders)...

Weather bug elite

Instant Radar

NOAA Weather

Link to local weather.com(don't like weather channels app)

Marine weather by Bluefin(marine forecasts at a click, also shoreside and bouy weather data)

Link to Muskegon GLERL page(home port, web cams and weather)

Link to Coastwatch Muskegon/Grand Haven water surface temps page

Link to NOAA Coastwatch MODIS Imagery(just because sat. photos are cool lol)

Link to NOAA Muskegon County Airport, current to past three days observations

Link to Holland Bouy

Link to Surface Currents page

Might be a couple more...

Thanks for the welcomes. Hope to see some of you guys out on the lake next season, or maybe still this season hunting steelhead.

Thanks for the ideas guys, like I had figured the best uses would be the short cores and riggers. I think i'll be giving them more time in the rigger holders next season, old school like my dad ran them, and run my short cores off my current LC rigger reels.

I run scottys pinch pad releases and my hook up ratio has shot up from the previous year. I was using blacks before , and could not see the small shakers . I run a 30" lead on the release and i could see an ant fart its so sensitive. we has very few swing and misses. 2 weeks ago i was watching the poles and had one must have got the end of the fly. very suttle but you are able to see it. no release on the miss though.

This is what i do with off shore releases. My ball to release cables are around 24", when you see the rod dip down, get ready. I'll have to check out these chamberlands.

I'm looking for some input to help my undecided self out. I have five penn 209's that I want to spool up for next season. I'm tired of looking at them on the bench. At one point I had three of them set up with a half core, 3 color and 2 color, but that line is OLD now. So whats your suggestion, respool all short cores, spool something different? I've thought about running them on my rigger rods again, but it seems everyone loves to watch the line counters as they bring the fish in. Thoughts?

New to this site, but recognise many names from GLA and michigan sportsman.

I'll have to get some better pics as I had poor photography conditions when I took these.

Early and late season, or calm days, and my 90% solo fishing rig, the Porcupine.

1997 Starcraft 14' LW

15 horse Mariner

Garmin 160 blue, find the fish

Lowrance GPS

Garmin handheld GPS

Uniden Marine Radio

Raymarine tiller autopilot(sadly needs repair)

Gets it name from my rod storage up front, I can store up to nine rods on the front seat(7 bow side, 2 aft). Two penn long arms and four tite lok adjustables do most of the work, and planer rods are run off the front rod holders. Can run six lines easily, and have ran 8 (2 rigger, 2 dipsy, 4 cores) before with no issue on calm days and two riders.

Our Big Rig, Sundance. Dads pride and joy, and slowly getting adapted more towards fishing and less cruising. Awesome classic fishing boat with a deep cockpit, classy too with lots of teak. Radar arch and rocket launcher set up planned for spring of 2013.

1979 25 foot Cruisers Gran Bateau

228 Mercruiser 305 IO

Pretty much all the same electronics as the little boat.

Typical current setup is the four tite lok rod holders and penn long arms serving double duty between the boats. Mounted on tite lok tracks. Two big jon corner riggers point off the back.

New canvas in 07 with the addition of a drop curtain setup, worth every penny!

We fish out of Muskegon, if you see us give a shout! I'll get some better pics next trip out.

Like the title states, its nice to have another resource for great lakes fishing.

Grew up in Muskegon with a dad that loved boating, and liked fishing. With the "low" water levels in the 90's(as dad called them), we barely took our big boat out. The city launches I understand had short docks at the time. But one late August salmon fishing excursion in the late 90's was all it took to form an addiction for me. Boating my first king at 19 pounds set the stage for many many hours on the water and much money spent during High School and beyond building my fishing arsenal.

Our rigs consist of a 1997 14 foot Starcraft (porcupine) and our 1979 25 foot Cruisers Gran Bateau(Sundance). Dads owned both since new. See the boat pics for a couple pics of each.

If your out between muskegon and whitehall and see us(or me) feel free to say hi!