1mainiac

wish we had tried that last night Keith LOL.

Hey buddy nice to see you posting over here. If you fished the Croton to Newaygo area in the 70's we probably fished next to each other back then. My friends and I made our living off the DNR when they were buying eggs. I pulled a lot of 30 to 40lb kings out of that stretch esp the Thronapple launch area and right below the dam. I still fish that area for Steelhead all winter when I can get up there.

Dave come on up to Muskegon later this month when the water sets up and lets go get into some fall Steelhead at it's best.

Unless you count having the boat break down and being towed in I have not been skunked in over 3 years and that is fishing from St Joe to Manistee but mostly Muskegon. I have not made any big changes in my program in over 5 years other than switching copper for leadcore. I do have a lot of programs that I run depending on water temp and light condidtions but it is all pretty much the same as it has been for years so some of it has to do with years on the water.

For me night fishing is the reverse of morning fishing with one advantage that is if you get out early you can scout for where you want to be at sundown. This will help you more next season but find the baitfish and mark them then find the spot where the temp break gets closet to them that is where the action will be at sunset every time. Even if it is a mile from the baitfish setup your sunset troll to go from the temp break to the baitfish and put your spread at the baitfish depth or a few ft below them. If you do it right every rod on your boat will fire at sunset it has happened to me so many times I cannot begin to count them. The point however is still the same you need a fish doctor to come on your boat with you and find your problem. You can watch all the videos and listen to all the tips but untill you get your gear to work for you it will be tough fishing.

Don't know what port your fishing out of but it is Sept there are fish in the rivers and the big fish in the lake are hanging on the temp breaks waiting to join them. So they are not feeding as much as they get ready to spawn and die. For me late August and beyond means 2 options fight the boats and slow bite in close for big fish or run west and find the scum line or a decent temp break and hammer Steelhead. The Steelhead are my favorite so they usually get my vote.

Fished for a few hours after work tonight was lumpy but fishable. worked 70 to 90ft north of the channel 4 for 6 everything was 60 down BW Poofster behind a Pro Troll 11 in white glow padle 1 for 2 60 down on rigger Moonshine Flounder Pounder 2 for 2 on a rigger 60 down Wire diver with BW Artic Blast and UV 11in paddle 0 for 1 150 back Wire diver with Ace Hi plug 1 for 2 160 back. 4 kings 1 around 7 lbs 2 around 10 and 1 about 16 all starting to bronze up. Just 2 of us tonight so only a 6 rod spread ran some copper setups but zero hits on the copper.

Where do you fish out of? The best thing I can suggest is have someone who knows how to catch fish come on your boat. The fact is every boat I have ever fished on fishes different Case in point 2 years ago Labor day weekend I decide to skip the combat fishing and head west for Steelhead. We found a very nice temp break in 220fow and setup on a south troll. My regular fishing partner is fishing in the combat mess with his 17ft boat so he calls me on the phone and we are slamming the fish. I gave him my exact position and spread lures speed depth everything. He could not rent a fish we turned around and took our last 2 fish right off his stern with them watching us. We were limited out and headed in he fished for 4 more hours and ended up with 5 fish I think.

Tyler was hitting over 110 on some of the longer runs I cannot imagine running one of these alcohol Karts in the Delta Plex. Tyler holds the track records at a couple of tracks in the classes he runs. He is also one of the youngest kids in his class most of the kids he races are 3 years older than him. There are a bunch of videos up there of different tracks and classes of Karts he races.

I helped a friend build a Kart back in High School used a Suzuki GT 350 for a engine. My mini bike back then had a 292 Sno Jet engine you get some weird looks when you pass cars on the high way with a mini bike LOL. I also put a 492 Hirth snowmobile engine in a Super Mouse 3 wheeler was pretty cool take off the 8hp Briggs and install a 70hp snowmobile engine. It nearly castrated my brothers best friend when he flipped it. You don't want to hear the details it makes you shrivel up LOL.

Kart he races all over the country on the national circuit. He races one of his old karts in Lansing a few times a year. here is one of his videos.

I might be able to borrow a my bosses sons Junior Animal Kart it will hold a adult but if you break it you gotta fix it. He is sponsored by Coyote and is about to move up to Heavy Animal karts. No way on earth to describe doing 150 with your butt 2 in off the ground.

Dave you have my number and email let me know what you are thinking. Don and I have ran the MSCST for 3 years now last year we tried 7 events over the summer but that is a lot to run this year we went back to 5 events with scoring your best 4 for the port championship. In some ways I would like to run 6 next year with 2 in May 1 in June 1 in July and 2 in August and use your best 4 for the championship. However we have not even really started discussing any of next year. We will be running a charity event in late Sept but still have to iron out the details. What we are thinking is 30 bucks per boat for the charity with a 10 dollar per boat side bet for biggest Steelhead winner take all. The big issue with trying to run a multi port tourney is getting everyone to agree on the rules and deciding on what percentage stays in each port and what goes to the overall championship. Also to keep it workable I think 4 ports would cover most of our side of the lake such as a group out of Ludington ours out of Muskegon the WMFL out of Holland and The South Haven fishing league. Someone would have to start the Ludington group but it would not be too hard to merge the other 3 into one set of rules since we are all pretty close in rules right now. I know thw SHFL used our rules as a template for theirs and Ken has blended some of our rules into theirs. So get us together and agree on one set of rules for all of us and you have a basis for what you suggest.

Ok some numbers for the season we had 16 boats fish this year would love to see more guys next year. Best box was Fishsniffer 148.1 not bad for a 6 fish box. Big fish Sorry Doug but I won that 19.95 lbs my only win for the season LOL. Total fish weighed this year 2459.2 lbs that is a darn nice season guys Hard to believe my 140.95 box with big fish was only good for 6th place in the 3rd event or that the 141.95 with a 15lb Brown was only good for 5th that day.

I can't wait till next year but we will have info in a week on a Charity event we wil run most likely the last weekend of Sept.

Sorry for the delay here are the Event results I will get together some other stats for the season as well. Please note Hi Seas had a 45 pound box but had a 12 point deduction for being late.

Boat Name BIG FISH Salmon LAKER Steelhead Brown Total Weight Total Points

Drift 13.9 60 69 129

Inreeltrouble 19.8 60 60.8 120.8

7Mary3 8.8 40 15 36.55 91.55

High Seas 14.35 50 33 83

Fishsniffer 13.1 40 5 32.35 77.35

N II Deep 7.4 30 20.05 50.05

1 MAINIAC 0

King Fish 0

Here is the final score as I have it you will note we only scored the best 4 of 5 so even though boats fished all five to use my spreadsheet I removed the lowest score for each boat that fished all five.

boat Blood Run Silver Streak Big Papa Big Weenie Pro Troll Total

MSCST current standings

Fishsniffer 140 137.85 148.1 77.35 503.3

Drift 84.85 143.65 139.9 129 497.4

Fish Mael 99.85 144.7 127.05 115 486.6

Inreeltrouble 117.95 124.25 117.9 120.8 480.9

N II Deep 114.7 132.8 96.55 133 477.05

Hook Em Deep 102.6 141.95 136.35 380.9

1 Mainiac 106.55 52.15 140.95 69.55 369.2

7 Mary 3 87.2 108.95 64.75 91.55 352.45

Double J 91.6 66.5 113.85 79.05 351

King Fish 63.4 132.1 128.5 324

High Seas 94.75 142.8 83 320.55

Fine Line 80.8 127 207.8

Charles Angel 0 146.15 146.15

Ramble On 145.4 145.4

Just Cous 78.5 78.5

Five O 45.1 45.1

My wife counted 42 rod/reel setups on the wall in the garage...if I add another setup (2nd set of coppers) I'll be sleeping in the dog house. Should never had let her count them!

m

Only 42 you are slacking I am pushing close to 65 rod and reel combos my wife however does not even know where they are all at. I would never hang them all in one place so she could count them that was your first mistake LOL. Most of mine have been bought in the last 10 years and here is what I did to get past the wife, I started taking her dad fishing and since he had no extra money or fishing gear I was required to buy more stuff. The grimace on her face when her dad would point out that if we only had this or that was worth it since she knew it meant i was going back to the tackle store and she really could not complain.

A very strange day for me we sat down right on fish in the dark and were 1 for 4 by 6:30 2 for 5 by 7 other than a nice Steelhead in 285ft several miles north of where we started that was my entire day. What worked well the honest answer is nearly nothing worked LOL we had hits and lost fish at the boat on a Ace Hi Double glow 2 fish on and 1 in the box before 7 am 135 dn on a rigger west troll in the 9's around 170 ft. Same troll a BW UV paddle with a Poofster fly hit and missed a BW UV paddle with the 2013 fly hit and missed BW UV paddle with the Poofster took a small king I do mean small. Continued trolling west to 250 turned around and went back in. Trolled north and south in 170 180 for a hour headed back NW picked up a Steelhead in the high 15's or 16's on a 150 copper in about 285. Then had the only boat withen a mile of me in 305 ft run my port side boards over with his riggers. Lost a board and 150 copper setup time to invest in a paintball gun.

I will sort out my score sheets and post all results tomorrow Drift won the last event Inreeltrouble took second and had big fish which I am glad to say was .15 smaller than mine so I won big fish for the year. Sadly for Jon I took 7th place in the port championship from him. Fishsniffer managed to hang on to first place in what turned out to be a tight race for the top 3 spots with just over 10 points between 1st and 3rd. Drift moved up from 5th to 2nd to nudge out Fishmael.

Did I mention I took big fish for the year LOL.

Now on to important things guys please make sure you support our sponsors and thank them for helping Don and me make this into a fun event for everyone. Lets not forget to thank Patty for helping with every weigh in and baking for most of them as well. We had pretty good weather for the whole season other than using one blow date. Fishsniffer had the best box of the year at the last event scoring 148.1 which is darn good for a 6 fish box. My est box which included the big fish was 140.95 and only good for 6th place so we really had some tight events this year.

Yes it will work however a load bank is always determined by the worst battery in the bank. For this reason I always recomend putting in 2 new identical batteries in parallel. the reason is once they have cycled they will equalize to each other since the new battery can't fix the older battery it simply matches it's output and cycle. The numbers you need to look for is AH rating (Amp Hour) and cycle rating. The higher the AH rating the longer run time between charges batteries in parallel will have the AH rating add together if they are equal batteries. Cycle rating is the number of times the battery can be run down and recharged. 10.6vdc is considered a dead battery at resting voltage. So if you run your battery for 5 hours and resting voltage is down to 10.6 it is dead and needs to be recharged that is 1 cycle if the battery is rated for 100 cycles and you avg 10 trips a year the battery should last 10 years with proper maintaince.

I never buy snap swivels any more I buy Sampo ball bearing swivels with the welded rings and add DSuo Lock snaps to them zero issues in the last 7 year with one. 30lb is plenty many people buy way too heavy I only run 20lb leaders so no need to run heavy swivels also the smaller ones spin free and much nicer than the big ones. The only exception to my rule is Spro power swivels.

I think for me it was the best single investment I ever made in my boat however I have not ran mine in 2 years. I suppose I should set it back up but my program is pretty much set I either find fish or I don't. I have not been skunked in going on 3 years I have had some slow days but to be honest the probe would not have changed my day much. For me it really helped me dial in on my programs but after dropping a couple of them on the bottom all I see now is 300 bucks leaving my wallet LOL.

Thanks I just hope I find the fish this time.

Here is what I do some days it even works remember slow is smooth and smooth is fast. A diver out past 200 runs at nearly the same depth as a section of your 300 copper. So when resetting I like to pull the copper for a min before attaching the board this brings it back up to running depth some times it gets hit when I do it esp in 70 to 80ft as it will hit the bottom then jerk up once it is running then put the board on and let it back 80 to 100ft this once again will drop the copper and the lure. It should clear everything and if you need to reel it in a bit after it passes your diver.

Nice job Ken we did not get into the fish till we hit around 300 by then it was too late and had to call it a day very nice job.

The only way I would buy a Aluminum boat is if I give up big lake fishing. Or at least cut back so much it don't matter. The exception would be a Hewes Craft Ocean Pro 260 it is alum and a great big water boat. Alum is cheaper to run and easier to tow but cuts your days on the water down and beats you up if you have to run fast. Being able to run on plane in 2 to 4ft waves and not being to beat up to fish is a great plus.

Thanks Jake you have been a lot of fun to fish with and we will miss you at the last event. Will look forward to seeing you next year.