Treblemaker

Well it was a great turnout, we had a full house and there was lots of great gear to be had for sure. I got some great feedback from both buyers and sellers. A few vendors had a tough time selling against some others with great deals and gear. Lot's of guys didn't buy much as well.

We raised some money for the church and gave a real nice donation to the benevolent fund to help out some less fortunate folks in need. Our food fundraiser was a bust as we broke even with costs, and had way too much food, mostly due to running out of everything last year we beefed up our supplies. Funny how it changes year to year.

Thanks everyone for coming out, the helpers who set up. Thanks to my wife and kids for their help, and a big thanks to Larry who stuck around at the end to help get me out of there. I had a blast and it was great seeing everyone.

Just a bump and reminder for this Saturday! This should be our biggest year yet!

We have 36 tables reserved that will be full of salmon and other fishing gear!

Nearly 100 used rod and reel combos!

New ice fishing rods, jigs, incredible selections!

Blood Run Super Copper, Yogurt Flies, JP Slammers, Dreamweaver Spin Doctors, will be there etc...

I just made 20#'s of sloppy Joe's for lunch plates, we will have coffee and muffins available.

Vendors we will start set up at 7:30 am. Once everyone is set up I will come around to collect for table donations.

Free admittance after 10am. Donations gladly accepted.

Early birds can show up at 9am for a $ 5.00 donation, please pay at the door.

There will be nearly 100 rod and reel combos this year from what I'm hearing from the vendors. Don't really need any more, well maybe a couple diver reels.

Going to stop by the bank on Friday to drain the boat savings account I'm afraid. Hopefully my borrowed boat will stick around a while.

It looks like I will be at the church at 7:30 am now to turn the furnace on, get some coffee started, and start setting up.

Going to have a ton of great stuff for sale, come on out. Looks like the blizzard is coming early this week as well, glad it is not Friday or Saturday so it can be cleaned up before hand.

We will have coffee and muffins available in the am, and sloppy joe plates and chips for lunch with water or pop.

Actually it's ABT's. Atomic Buffalo Turds!

Look great too Ed!

Sold out!

There are no more tables available. Going to be a full house, come on out there will be a ton of great lakes equipment. Rods, reels, lures, line, ice fishing, hunting....

Donuts and muffins will be available, Sloppy joe plates with chips and a drink will be served starting at 11am.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Bump, only 3 weeks and just a couple tables left for sellers.

For those who have never been here please show up around 8:30 am to set up. Pull up in line to unload, I will have carts and helpers to keep things moving at the door. Once done unloading please pull forward and park so the next can unload. I'll be there at 8am. By 9am-9:30 the place will be bustling with buyers already. Free admittance after 10am, $5 for early birds and believe me they come early. The first couple hours are madness, make sure you are ready for them.

I plan to pick up a few at the swap as well. Thanks Jimmy!

Buy a sheet of foam so you can replace after each couple days or use. You'll need to wash these once in a while too and not just throw it in the corner or tackle box. Trust me.

My partner (I won't mention any names) pulled one of these out mid day when everything died and loaded it with tuna fish and I was LMAO. Gave him crap the whole time, he set it down near the bottom and within 10 seconds down the rigger released and it was fish on. I "accidentally" shook that fish off behind the boat as it was an undersized laker anyway.

He sent it back down and in under 30 seconds it hit a fish again. Landed a laker, sent it back down, and then nothing. Need to do more testing, but I must admit it worked. We ran it clean off the rigger 20' back on the deep rigger near bottom in 130 fow.

Great job Kenny, cold and snowy last night too bro. Thanks for the call too!

Here's a couple 20+ from 2010.

10+ walleye

And a real nice laker.

2010 was very good to me!

TTT

Only a month away and filling up fast! Have a dozen or so tables left to fill and we will have a full house.

If you have never been to one of these come check it out. A great way to beat the winter blahs.

We use the same twist, but tie to a SPRO ant swivel. When I twist I prefer to keep the main line copper straight and wrap the tag tightly around for a more compact knot. Another consideration is to limit your leader length to 30' or less. Any longer you will lose some depth.

Nice work Kenny!

This post is from March of last year. Soon it will be 21 years

The best way to stay married, is to stay away from temptation, and give up a lot of the things you enjoy.

Like beer, cigars, and fishing?

Well finally worked out the last of the details so it's official now.

When: Superbowl Saturday! February 5, 2011 from 10 am to 1 pm. No Early Birds Please!

Where: Homefront Church, just off 196 near the Rivertown Crossings Mall at 6265 8th Ave SW Grandville, MI 49418

The Saturday before Superbowl XLV is the date for this years swap meet so mark your calendars.

We are having a swap meet for anyone that would like to sell, swap, and buy excess fishing gear on Saturday, February 5, 2011 from 10 am to 1 pm. We are thinking that the theme be related to items for fishing but also are considering that it be open to sporting goods in general. No flea market crap, just good used gear that one no longer needs or use.

Sellers contact me prior to the event to reserve a table. Donation will be $10 per table. Sellers are welcome to share or split tables. If there are left over tables we will offer them up for donation only basis for those who would like to sell, and cannot reserve, afford, or do not need a full table.

Set up will happen between 9 and 10 am. If I could get a few volunteers to show up early to move some tables and chairs. We will need to move some chairs first, set up the tables, then set up our items. Volunteers please contact me, and will get to pick the best locations. We will need a crew available at the end to put the tables away and put the chairs back as we found them. Many hands will make this an easy job.

Buyers can stop by from 10-1pm. This will be a free event for buyers, donations gladly accepted. Bring cash and change if possible to make it easier on the sellers who will have limited abilities to make change throughout the day.

Early birds can get in before 10am only with a $ 5 donation, after 10am admittance is free.

The Youth Ministry will be on hand to sell coffee and snacks too. Rumor has it pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, and chips will be available for lunch. Please support them with their fund raiser.

Location has been set at Homefront Church, just off 196 near the Rivertown Crossings Mall. The address is 6265 8th Ave SW Grandville, MI 49418. We will have full run of the place with plenty of tables, chairs, and room to spread out in this facility. Here is a google map to the location, please DO NOT call the facility directly since this is a private event, contact myself with any questions or issues.

They have added 25 additional parking spaces this fall so there should be no parking issues this year.

http://www.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=&daddr=6265+8th+Ave+SW+Grandville,+ MI+49418&oi=manybox&ct=10&cd=1&resnum=1

There is shopping and plenty of great restaurants nearby, so bring the family out for a day of fun, fishing, and good friends.

Lastly, please let me know who can make it so we can have enough tables available, and have an idea on how many buyers to expect. My e-mail address is

Hope to see you there!

Tim

You can get Flintstone spoons here including monica.

http://whitepinetackle.com/?page_id=14

Great year guys!

Tried for perch with my buddy Mark 55-30 fow a bit from 2-3pm nothing doing. Burned out to 215 fow and fished for steelhead. Went 5 for 10 fishing until 6:30 trolling into 160 fow. There was a huge slick the whole way in. 5 color and 75 copper were best with copper back spoons. Green easter egg mini streak and moonshine bleeding alewife walleye spoon were best for us. 3.5 and higher on GPS speed got them going for us.

Lucky you!

Only thing you can do is speed up in that situation to keep them from heading into other gear like that. As long as you communicate and react quickly this will work. Same thing when you get a hot one heading for a rigger cable.

When you get the ones going ballistic on the surface, lower the rod tip to keep the line in the water and loosen the drag until they settle down a bit keeping the line tight. Once you get them turned around and coming in they mostly swim right at you the whole time until they hit the net. A lot of the fish behaved like that for me this year, even bigger ones. I had to reel as fast as I could on most of the deeper coppers especially from the time I turned the fish to the time it hit the net. Good reels filled with line to the top help a ton too.

As promised. Thanks Stinger, Pro Troll, Witchcraft Tape, and Church Tackle!

First off the trollers book is wrong. They let the line out while the boat is moving really fast during the test, and then slow the boat down to speed and record the value once it "settles in". Letting the copper out at trolling speeds will allow the copper to sink quicker and then settle in at a deeper depth.

Splice a small segment of 30# mono as a shock leader and to clip the board to and you will not have any false releases if the clip is in good shape. Power pro is hard on the church releases and tears them up. Mark and replace the bad ones, lots of the ones I see with tears in the rubber material need to be replaced. I've seen PP break too many times in those releases too.

Use the adjustable keel to place the boards where you want them in your spread. 200-300+ coppers +2 keel setting. 150-200 copper +1 setting, and so on.