Treblemaker

Was Big Weenie even around in 2007 when this poll was started?

Fished with Ben and his friend Tues night and we went 7 for 9 or so. Fished 110-130 fow, lots of marks south of Holland. Tested the Mt dew spinnies with mirage and pickled and picked up 1 fish on those setups and ran 4 different ones on divers and coppers. White paddle green fly dominated 10-20' off bottom. 80 down was good too. One other rip on a flounder pounder 55 down at dark. Kinda slower than it's been but bot bad for a couple hours fish. Thanks for joining me Ben, had a blast!

Don't you hate it when you drive all the way to the tackle shop and they don't have what you need in stock?

I know its the height of the season and demand is high, but from a tackle shop owner wouldn't that mean its also the best time to cash in?

I guess that's why I do most of my shopping online...

What do you need? I'll be in Holland tonight around 6pm and might be able to find it on the way for ya.

Fished last night in Holland 90-100 fow with the family and put the beat down on some real nice fish. Went 6 for 10 in about 2 hours with a 6 rod spread. Anything white paddle green fly in the bottom 20 fow got bit hard. South troll 2.8 GPS. My son reeled in 2 hogs all by himself, great night on the water.

Great tournament, they did a bang up job! Even liked the weigh 5 format, had some serious doubts but it all worked out in the end. Congrats to all the winners.

Great job guys!

Worm gear in the level wind might be jammed. Had this happen on an old Daiwa, had to replace the pawl and fixed it right up. The reel even had a spare pawl on board.

Get a good medium range glass wrapped model that will take some abuse. The bottom end models will crack very easily from my experience and are not worth it.

I would question the age of the wire. After a few years the stainless can become brittle. I would respool as a new spool if wire is cheaper than losing one or more setups. Blood Run has a sale on their 30# seven strand wire plus free shipping.

As far as knots go I have always used a Homer Rhodes knot and it has never failed. I also use a bead in front of the swivel to protect the knot and guide when you reel it all the way up. Make sure you use a snubber and loosen the drag a bit when a fish first hits and getting the rod out of the holder. Let the fish tire a minute or two before working it in. Otherwise you will have many pulled hooks and lost fish.

We'll fish it but it will require a different strategy and some luck to win it this year for sure. I think they are trying to get more participation with these rules, we'll see if it works. They get a pretty good am turnout each year already (45-50 boats) and we fared pretty well under the old rules. If they can get 60-70 am boats it might be worth it, it is a fun tournament either way.

They only get 6-10 pro teams likely because they run it on the Coast Guard Festival weekend so no GH boats come down. I usually head to GH for the fireworks that Sat night.

WTG Terry!

Fished last night 7pm-10pm and went 3 for 4 in 70-100 fow. Green chrome frog 10" spinnie w/green fly mag diver set to 3 140 back took our biggest fish around 8pm. Mag flounder on 250' 45# copper took another nice fish. Mag Blue Jackal on 100' 32# copper took an 8 lb king, and rigger parked at 24 hooked a high flying king that jumped clear out of the water many times before throwing the hook.

Current was strong out of the north, waves were 1-3 instead of under a foot as predicted. South troll did nothing, all fish caught on a north troll 2.2-2.4 GPS speed. Fun night with my 3 kids getting a shot at fish, thanks Mike and Coralee for coming along.

Sweet ride!

Caught a walleye the other night with an 8" trout in it's belly when the fish was cleaned! I'll post pix once I get a chance.

Outdoorsman in Jenison has them.

Best bet is to run all flasher flies and then work on trolling angle and speed. When one starts going they will all start going.

Thanks for the replies guys. One thing I don't understand that I've heard quite often regarding these types of questions is that wire dives deeper and cuts the water better than braid. It seems like the 7strand wire has a diameter of .015" and that 30PP has a diameter of .011".

So how does it dive deeper and cut the water better when it has a larger diameter of 30lb Power Pro? Is it because of it's material make up being wire and made of metal that it is heavier???

I'm starting to think I might change one to wire and leave another to Power Pro and see what happens.

Pick up a spool of wire line and a spool of power pro. The wire line is much heavier and the weight to diameter characteristics change with this effect. I wouldn't trade my wire rods for any other rod on the boat day in and day out.

Port Sheldon is wide open and docks are in!

BTW thanks for getting the juices flowing and nice catch!

The deepest part of the whole area is about 12-15'

Riggers= 7-8' down 20-25' back

Dipsey's= 10-15' on counter

Yellow Birds= 25-35' + 5/8oz keel

Once you troll past the discharge it gets plenty deeper from the shipping channel and back to the lighthouse. The general troll for this water is counterclockwise and you do not want to troll against the grain. Used to catch nice browns, steelhead and kings in the deeper water from the channel to the light once the water warms a bit more.

I like to run longer leaders on my short cores and coppers to get them farther away from the boat. Plus when they are on the farthest board out that gets them away too. Don't give up on the 75 coppers yet.

Mud, Mud, and more mud at St Joe right now. Once it clears a bit the bite will be on!

Nothing says fun like fishing in a 33 degree pouring rain.

You definitely need to slow down and run the heaviest weight you can use. We run the Brute's with 20# Jim Bob weights and the Blacks releases torqued pretty tight. Also we spool our Tekota 700LC reels with 50# power pro to reduce line drag in the water. Then a 50' flouro 30# leader set 25-50' back. The power pro also helps translate bites better to the rod tip fishing deep.

You have to experiment a lot to find something they like and a depth they will go. Also you must watch that rigger rod constantly since a shaker or laker is just as common to catch out there as a big king. Most times fishing at those depths you might see a pulse on the rod tip when they grab the bait and that's it. Different type of fishing for sure.

I think Chamura uses the torpedo on his opposing deep rigger. If you set out a line, clip on a torpedo, let out 100' more line, and then send it down on the other rigger you will not have to set it as deep. Then with the blowback it adds more separation between the flashers and also the balls to reduce tangles for both allowing to run 2 deep riggers.

We've run riggers down 250+' loc, mag wire divers 300-500 back on 1 out deep. Lost a ball once when the cable got down towards the bottom and slipped off the spool around 400'

Large paddles with flies middle of the day they take fish, most times suspended and not on bottom. We have 2 good setups for this water, flies have UV beads or glow beads in them.