jdh

Trolled the beach for a few hours with nothing.  Made it back to the pier heads and notice some nice marks near the bottom in 30-40 fow.  Went 2-2 with a nice walleye (dr @ 30 ft) and a nice laker (3-color) - on small spoons - 1.7-2.0 mph.  Forgot the net, but managed to land them without incident.  Great day to start out the year!

-JDH

Thank you for organizing this Larry. Indeed a great event!

-JDH

Thanks for the pics!  Won't be long now.

There's a new twist to the project now.  I'm getting another Islander hull delivered on Saturday.  This one has a hardtop, but no motor.  I need to figure out if I want to swap the motor to the "new" hull, or swap the hardtop to the old hull.

How's the ice looking at Port Sheldon?  I see 50 degrees in the forecast!

I need to go fishing - on a boat.

-JDH

Terry, it looks like because the WFML page is a group vs. a subforum, the posts are not appearing as new posts on the homepage.

Maybe Chad has some input on how to fix this?  I see posts from the 3+1 showing up?

Well I've started the rebuild, or as I should call it right now - a disaster zone.  I don't have the most recent pictures, but I have the hull - floor/foam/stringers - almost fully cleaned out.  I'll post some more in a few weeks as I keep working on it.  The transom still needs to come out.  Overall, anything wood was a disaster, but the condition of the hull and anything metal is very good.  Motor was running nice before I winterized it.  I have 12 bags of trash I need to work on getting rid of.

Ed, I'll get around to restoring the trailer soon.  Once I pull the motor I'll drop the boat off in it's parking spot and bring the trailer back to the garage.  The trailer needs to be done before I start putting the boat back together.

Thanks for the replies everybody.  I would just have to run the numbers, but I'm leaning towards keeping just the 1 vehicle.

Not sure about slipping the boat, but storing the bigger boat in Holland somewhere might be my best option.  I'll have to finish rebuilding it first though.  It's just a shell & a motor right now.

I'm looking at a couple options for towing my boats around and trying to consider them from a financial point of view.

I have 22 ft Starcraft Islander & a 17 ft Lowe currently.

Right now I have a Nissan Frontier which gets the job done for now.  I'm putting on about 16k miles a year - with about 3.5k miles towing (mostly 80 mile round trips.

The option I was considering was selling the Frontier and buying a used truck for about $5 k and then buying a used sedan for commuting & trips for about $12 k.  I would estimate 5k miles a year would be driven on the truck, and the rest in the car.

Have you done something similar with having 2 vehicles and how has that worked out for you?

I hate putting all the highway miles on the Frontier when I don't need to be driving a truck.

Any other thoughts/suggestions?

1) Diver Setups - I like my Daiwa Accudepth Plus 47LCB reels.  I run both braid and wire off of these.  Reels with smoother drags are important for divers. For rods, I've been using Okuma dipsey rods (the ones that sell for about $35).

2) I like black or clear divers, but will run orange & yellow when fishing up higher up in the water column (diver settings on 3 or 3.5 or the smaller divers)

3) I don't use snubbers unless I'm using mag divers.  I use 20 lb test flouro leader.  Haven't snapped a fish off yet.  The snubbers you say stretch too much have several strands of heavy monofilament inside them - I would doubt you're gonna have anything snap the snubbers themselves.

4) For planer boards I run Okuma Pro GLT trolling rods - the specifically the ones made for copper trolling.  I run both longer leadcore & copper off of these rods.  For short leadcore segments and mono trolling i like the Okuma Pro GLT precision trolling rods in 7'10".

5) I use both copper & leadcore.  They both work.  I like leadcore for getting down to about 5 to 30 feet, whereas copper for 20 through 80 feet.

6) I run rigger rods like you do with 20 lb test mono.  I like the stretch of mono - and have not run braid off the riggers.  If I'm fishing spoons only, I've run down to 12 lb test on lighter rods.

7) I don't run leaders for the downrigger rods.

8) Lakers - 5 to 20 feet.  Steelhead & browns - generally 50+ for spoons.

9) Spoons... I run all sorts of spoons.  My highest used ones are Dreamweaver Super Slims, Silver Streak Mini's, Silver Streak Mags, Moonshine, Stingers.  It's easy to buy too many spoons - and then have trouble deciding what to run.

10) I just run orange & reds shallower,  greens/yellows below the orange, greens/blues below that.  Put out more of whats working if you see a pattern.

11) How would you be using flasher/fly setups?  It can be a little crazy figuring this out.  It really varies by time of year, the fish you're fishing for, what depths the fish are at...

12) Change speeds until something works.  Then replicate.  I fish from 1.8 to 4 mph.

Kevin,  if you send a message to website, they should be able to help you restore your old account.

Nice work Kevin. Unfortunately I came down with the flu this week and didn't make it out today. I'm thinking of starting my 2016 season early than most if this warm weather sticks around. How does a limit of lakers on January 1st sound!?

I'm always thinking about it!

I'm always thinking about it!

I was feeling bummed out after the Michigan game and decided I needed to catch some fish to cheer myself up. Saw the weather was going to be nice so I called up my buddy kid coulson and decided to try Port Sheldon. After taking our time getting to the launch and messing around with my new fishfinder, trying to jig for some whitefish we decided to start trolling around 10 am.

Took our limit fishing in 20-35 fow from the pierheads to a half mile north of the bubbler Mix of browns, steelhead, coho and shaker kings.

Every line caught a fish, but the best were long lined Smithwick Rogues. Had some fun with my pier spinning rods. Second best were 1 color lc with Rogues or mini streaks.

Nice trip to end the year with, but hopefully I'm not done yet.

Hopefully my season isn't over yet - but we will see how the weather/wind cooperates. Had a decent year this year - better average number than last year. The species sure did change a bit though.

Last year I ended up with 194 fish in 35 trips - or 5.5 fish / trip

This year I'm at 118 fish in 21 trips - or 5.6 fish / trip

Species ____ 2014 Total (%) ___ 2015 Total (%)

Chinook ______ 91 (47%) ______ 48 (41%)

Steelhead _____40 (21%) ______ 15 (13%)

Lake Trout ____18 ( 9% )_______ 36 (30%)

Coho ________ 30 (15%) _______14 (12%)

Brown Trout___ 15 ( 8% )________ 5 ( 4% )

Lake trout made a big increase in my catch this year, but all the other species dropped several percentage points.

Next year I'm going to try and fish for whats available more - which probably means my lake trout numbers are going to take a large jump again. I'll update this post when I call it quits for the year. Hopefully the steelhead/brown trout numbers will have increased by then.

I picked up an Islander I/O this weekend. I have plans to convert it to an outboard setup next winter. I'm planning on getting this thing restored and using it for a long time.

Late start. Bumpy ride. Decent fishing. 6-9. Set lines in 100 fow and worked out to 260, and then back to 230 before heading back in. Fished 8:30 - 2 pm.

What worked: West/East troll. 2.5 mph heading west (mixed variety of spoons). 3.5 mph heading east (with all superslim spoons).

Fish in order:

0-1 Steelhead - 170 fow - 3 color orange stinger

1-1 Steelhead - 175 fow - 300 copper mag blue dolphin silver streak

1-1 Steelhead - 175 fow - 200 copper mini miami dolphin silver streak

1-1 Coho - 180 fow - rigger @ 60 uv blue dolphin stinger

1-1 Laker - 200 fow - 300 copper mag blue dolphin silver streak

0-1 Laker? - 230 fow - 300 copper mage blue dolphin silver streak

Took the following 2 fish as a double on the same line:

1-1 Coho - 240 fow - rigger @ 90 - blue dolphin superslim

1-1 Coho - 240 fow - free slider off rigger - custom superslim

0-1 Steelhead - 230 fow - 100 copper orange tranny superslim

I've been fishing out of a 17' Lowe Side Console boat for the past couple years and because I'm running and outboard I've been able to fish in very cold weather. I'm looking to upgrade fishing boats in the next year or so - to something a little more Lake Michigan worthy, and wanted to make sure I don't have problems with the colder weather.

Anybody have some tips or good/bad experience with keeping a boat ready to go fishing until Mid-December and bringing it back out in early March?

One of the styles of boats that I've been looking at are 20-23 foot fiberglass walkaround style with single or twin outboards. Are there concerns with fiberglass in freezing weather? Am I better off looking for an aluminum boat in that size range?

I've been toying with the option of picking up and old Starcraft Islander or similar and removing the I/O and rebuilding the transom to support an outboard.

Again, any suggestions?

Launched at 545 am and were done setting lines by 630. We worked at the morning bite in 55-70 fow in front of the sliders and ended up 1-3 by 730. We fished until the storm chased us - ended up running to Port Sheldon. Waited a 30 minutes or so to see what the storm was up to before heading back out. Set up this time pointed towards south in growing waves. From 1030 until 1 pm we went 2-6 fishing in 150 to 170 fow. Ran back in to the pierheads and got soaked with my open bow boat... I do not look forward to taking a pounding like the lake gave us today again. Travelled 5 miles into 2+ footers. Then got to the pier and my engine dies. Thank goodness for my kicker. I think it's a fuel pump issue.

What worked: South Troll 2 to 2.7 mph.

0-1 150 copper Ace Hi wonderbread with black dots - copper snapped at backing

0-1 200 copper double trouble mag moonshine

1-1 Full core Silver Horde 4 -looked like a yellowtail pattern? King

1-1 Slide diver on 3 out 240 Kevin's girlfriend 10" sd with glow/green/white fly. King

1-4 Rigger at 125 white paddle 11" & poofster fly. Laker

0-1 400 copper silver blue thinfish - hook bent

Overall a good outing bite wise, but I wish we could have put a few more in the boat. Now I have to get my big motor running again.

-JDH

If you look at this video, you can see this paddle actually reverses direction occasionally. you can also see the fly wandering around behind it.

I would still prefer a 6 am start.

Check the battery terminal connection. If it's slightly loose it will click.

King Possible is in.

Finally made it out for a morning trip again for the first time in about a month. Ended up 5-7 with 3 nice kings and 2 steelies.

For us it was a SSW troll with a 2.2 mph downspeed (@60 to 70 feet) that did the trick. Fished from 80 to 100 foe.

11" White/slick tape paddle with a bw poofster fly went 3-4 on kings on a trigger down 60 to 70 feet. Also took a hit on the 400 copper with a Kevorkian sd and poofster fly. Steelie #1 hit a 4" green mylar plug on a 150 copper travelling 0.5 mph while messing with some tangles. Steelie 2 hit a 200 copper with a lemon ice superslim going 4 to 4.5 mph while we were travelling back to the Holland pierheads.