bowbender

Nice catch!! Hoping to play hooky from work tomorrow and get out with a couple of friends from work.

Great report, thanks for the details!

Delton, MI...for salmon I mostly fish out of the ports in Holland and Muskegan when I'm in town, but work takes me all. The good thing is your never very far from water, wether it's a pond, a lake, or creek, you can always wet a line.

I'm using 30lb Power Pro braid so there is little to no stretch. I probably just got hurried and forgot to check it to make sure it would release at the side of the boat before I let it out. You really have to torque them down though to get them to hold for flashers sometimes. Looking back I'm pretty sure the only times I've had this problem was on the ones I was running flashers on. Thanks for the input and thanks for the link to the torpedo site GM I'll check them out. Good trolling...and maybe I'll see you out there sometime.

I"ve caught allot of fish off of divers so I guess it"s worth the frustration of fighting them now or then... what are torpedoes though?

30lb Power Pro.

I normaly set my Diver release tension by trial and error at the side of the boat (get it to pop with a quick set of the hook). Last week I was having some false releases so I set it a little tighter...you know what happened I couldn't get it to pop so I had to bring it all the way in (200') with it still in dive mode:mad: no fun. I've had this happen a few times before and was wondering if anyone had a more fool proof way of setting the tension? I use mostly 124 & 107 mm Walkers, but i've had it happen with my Dipsies also.

Ryan, Thanks for the reply and all the great info, this site is a wealth of information, and everyone is so helpful. Lots of grate info just have to tie it all together. I'm going to start keeping a log (I down loaded off this site) to help me keep track of my successes and failures. One other thing I realized I'm doing by reading your reply is I'm probably setting my holders to vertical on my diver rods.

Northwoods in Pinconning had the fish hawk x4 for around $450.00 this spring when i was in there buying some other gear. You realy can't beat their prices on most anything. I talked with the Fish Hawk rep. In GR at the fishing show and he told me they are way below thier suggested retaiil, they deal in volume. They have a on line store, google northwoods pinconning and you should find them.

Ryan, I don't have a fish haqk yet, I like the rigger rod drag set up, but I have question do you set your drag right at the boat using SOG speed then let it back the distance you want for your desired depth, and just tweek the speed to where the drag is just holding?

Don't have a fish hawk yet so your drag on the rigger rod sounds good. Do you set the drag shallow right at the boat, at the SOG you want then put it back the distance you want for your depth and just play with your speed to where it is almost pulling line? Just getting back into big lake fishing so lots of other stuff on my wish list for my set up in front of the fish hawk.

Great job, your reports are the best....a photo speaks a 1000 words, thanks!

I think if I put all these posts together, with my limited Great Lakes fishing experience, and inland lake and river, fishing experience it looks like... 1st) temperature (thermocline or preferred temp for the fish/bait fish your targeting) would be most important because it attracts the bait fish and what they eat along with the big boys looking for a meal. 2nd) would be current, just like in a river they mostly face and move into the current, If you watch fish in a river the only time they go with the current is to quickly re-position them selves back into the current someplace else. It probably helps them detect there prey better. 3rd) In my book would be color, there seem to be so many variables to this that there is no way to go into it here except that for me the biggest thing is Glow during the dark hours, and flash during the light. 4th) Would be speed, mostly for action, because a salmon could run down just about anything if they really wanted it. (actually 2 & 4 are so closely related due to currents affect on bait action they could almost be put together). 5th) Would to be depth of water.

I use the rubber bands the same as SUPERTRAMP except I add in a third size I think it's like a 22. I get good rod bend and they very seldom mis-fire or hang release, if I start getting mis-fires I just go up one size. You can't beat the price either 3 or 4 buck for a hundred at Office Depot. I just loop it around the line and hook it in behind the pads on my release.

Stripper Fly, by Wiggle Fin Tackle, with an Action Disc II in front of it. The Action Disk in front of any Fly gives it amazing action especially when paired with their Swarm Flasher.

2, over 20 this year, biggest was 23lb 7oz 8 hrs after it was caught so probably around 25 live weight. Only fished out of Holland, both bigger fish were caught on green/white glow spoons, one off full color lead, one off DR at 50'.

5 for 6, four Kings one Coho, big fish was a 21lb king. Fished Lake Mac to the pier head to wavey to go out in the lake to fish. Poked out to take a sniff and marked a lot of fish but it was un-fishable. Morning trip was quiet and easy fishing, only 3 other boats in the channel. 3 Kings and the Coho were caught on J-Plugs green/glow, and clown, other King was on clown colored spoon, combination of riggers 15' down and boards running 3 colors. Had to pull in the boards in the evening started becoming a bit like combat fishing. Can't wait for the WX to clean up to get out on the big lake and spread out the boats a little bit. Good news is this is the first trip out fishing since I rebuilt my motor that blew a couple weeks ago, she ran great . My wife asked me when I'm going to get the garage cleaned up I had to tell her not today.

1 for 1, 730 AM, 9lb 8oz Coho 87' of water on 10 colors, 3.0 SOG, Glow spoon with brown and green, just south west of pier. Went to motor out to 130 FOW and had motor start acting up. So I decided to limp in. Got soaked, shorts and a tee shirt and I forgot my rain gear Definitely better than a day at work though.

Sorry about your boat troubles...Great joob Slim!

Great report, thanks...pictures really do speak a thousand words!!!

Has anyone tried running the Yum Umbrella Rigs for Salmon? I used one on a dipsey a few weeks ago but didn't have any luck. It looked so good running through the water at 2.8 SOG I wanted to bite it myself though. I was running mostly spoons with a couple J Plugs. I'm just getting back into this after being gone since I was stationed up at Wurtsmith AFB in Oscoda back in the 80's and 90's.

Sounds like fun, Love watching kids on fish!!

Good Job, I should follow you around!!!

Sounds like fun, tThanks for the photos and report.