jdh

Oops. I meant 5/10 am.

Couldn't really get anything going in shallow. Water had warmed up to just over 50 degrees. Did pick up a lake trout in 35 fow on a 3-color with a green/orange spoon.

Any tips on getting browns on a day like today?

Beautiful day on the water!

-JDH

Congrat's on the walleye! Thanks for the report.

Went out solo and decided to make several passes from 40-70 fow, south of the pier heads and didn't mark a single fish on the graph.

Is the water just too cold yet?

So I gave up on that and put a couple thinfish down trolling into the channel. That worked as I promptly picked up a 28" walleye. That's my biggest eye, beating my previous best by 6 inches. I figured that was enough luck for the night and headed in.

-JDH

First time fishing in the WMFL. Thanks to Blood Run Tackle for sponsoring the event. Also thanks to Jon Marvin for organizing.

Thanks to my friend Jim for driving across the state this morning to give me a hand, and thanks to Jeremy for responding to my rider request on Friday.

After a couple laps in the channel we ended up heading out around 7:00 am and saw most of the boats heading south so I turned and headed north. Fished 5-20 fow. Turned around after an hour and trolled south until getting 6 fish in the box and then pulled lines and headed in - it was a little to0 rough for us out there.

Ended up 6 for 9 or so all browns, including two of the biggest browns I've ever caught (big one coming in at 11.7 lbs). NW troll took most of the hits.

Now for what worked:

Brads thin fish, Storm Thin Fins, and a Lemonberry Mini-Streak.

And the fish:

Never thought we would take first this week in the WMFL, and probably never would have without all the reports and advice I've learned on this site.

-JDH

The King Posssible is looking for another crew member. Send me a PM if you are interested.

-JDH

Dave, can you list me as the "King Possible"? With a new owner comes a new name.

Thanks!

Thanks guys. We will see if I can still catch fish come Saturday in the WMFL!

Fished rough conditions Saturday am in South Haven. We picked up 3 browns and a perch. All fish picked up on Brad's Thin Fish on boards trolling north in 5-15 fow. 2.5-3.0 mph water speed.

Moved up to Holland on Sunday and it was blowing good - but from the east. Went 8-8 with 6 browns, 1 king, and 1 laker. Had a few fish on Brads, but caught the majority on Mini-Streak spoons in gold and copper colors. Trolling in 5-20 fow at 2.0-2.3 mph - no real importance to direction.

Got out with my dad yesterday afternoon for some coho action. Wound up going 7 for 11 on bringing in 6 nice coho and a bonus 15 lb king. Most hits were on thin fish (including the king) - anything red or orange or gold - running them 50 to 100 feet behind boards. Riggers did nothing all day so we added a 2 & 3 color with a ministreak and a regular moonshine. Both took a fish. Beautiful day out there. Found fish from 20-50 fow.

I'm in.

-JDH

Found the fish on Friday 4/11. Three man limit in 3 hours. 14 coho and 1 nice steelhead. Deep & shallow body baits took half. Spoons took most of the rest. Also got one on an 11" oki green uv paddle & 2 inch fly 22 inch leader after putting it down near the end of our trip. A west coast type of setup. 20 fow to 40 fow. 2.3-2.5 mph. Beautiful day!

I'm going back out on Friday afternoon. What speed are people typically trolling cranks this time of year?

I just need to get some logos on the side.

I finished up and took her fishing this weekend!

Fished near the pierheads for a few hours Sunday. I stuck to the river plume areas for the most part, but also ran a mile or so along the beach. No hits. I did see that some fish were caught further south. I wish I would have just started out on the beach.

The water was 36 degrees outside of the plume and 42 in the mud (40 fow).

In other news, the boat worked great and all my electronics worked well too!

I look forward to finding some of the fish next time out!

-jdh

I have 1 coat on the port side and 2 coats on the starboard.

It's looking pretty good here in the shop, and I will hopefully finish up this weekend so I can give it a full week to cure before taking it out anywhere.

Capt Terry,

I got the following info off another forum as I thought it best someone else explain it.

"Roll and tip is a technique for applying paint as smoothly as possible without spraying, one person uses a very short nap roller, applying paint with up and down motions, again as thin as possible but with 80% or better coverage, the next person comes right behind and "tips" the paint with a side to side motion, using a quality brush, if done right you can move right along large surfaces, like a boat hull, and have pretty good results, you can also add brushing additives to the paint to help it flow and lay down.....with a little practice you can get really remarkable results"

You can do some more research on this online and find a decent amount of material. Perhaps some specialty paint stores may also be able to help.

I decided to try the roll & tip method using Rustoleum Topside paint. I will see how it holds up this year. The biggest problem so far has been removing the old vinyl stickers the boat came with. Been experimently with several adhesive solvents but really haven't come up with a "great" solution. Perhaps something that could be powerwashed would work better.

I have primed all exposed metal with a self etching spray primer.

I painted the transom to check the thinner/paint ratio and decided to add some more mineral spirits to the mix. It looks pretty good though.

I'll see if I can figure out how to disconnect the drain line from the tank and plug it up. If I can do that, at least I won't have water pooled in the bottom. This also sounds easier than taking out the tank.

I have 2 livewells in my 17ft aluminum, one in the back bench and one up front. I was thinking about removing one of these and turning it into a storage compartment.

I don't want to just plug it up because when it rains, the compartment fills up with water - and then I would have no way to drain it. I was thinking about cutting out the plastic and then creating a floor below that.

Any suggestions or comments about this?

I have the 597ci without the down imaging. I've used it in Canada fishing for walleye, as well as on lake michigan salmon fishing, and ice fishing. I always hook it up to my ice fishing batteries (~7 Ah). I have 2 batteries so I can switch out when the charge gets low. I get about 6-7 hours of runtime per battery. I have also used the unit on my kayak.

Has anyone tried to run on of these boards as a "mast-type" board?

I will try it this spring, but I was thinking I could attach an 8-oz weight and spin doctor without a fly and let the TX-44 out.

I would then add some releases and pull some spoons.

Just curious if anyone has tried something like this, but I will post a response once I get the chance to try it out.

-jdh

Thanks for the responses! I'm all geared up with spoons, spin doctors, meat rigs, dodgers, body baits & plugs.

I am trying to come up with spread ideas for this season and I don't want to be running 9 lines with only 3 or 4 of them "effective". If I experiment with anything I'll be sure to let people know if it worked!

I was wondering about slow spoons becuase typically when i'm fishing off the piers - the slower spoon retrieves often work best.

Ryan, BLL are sold in only a few places (made in Holland I think) but I know a few people who really like them. I got a good number of fish on them last October before I put the boat away.