1mainiac

Since we have votes for a new points system would those who voted that way like to make a suggestion as to what your idea is?

There is both good and bad in any points system for me the reason we changed was to match the WMFL so we could do heads up challenges that has not happened. We get some pretty nice browns up here so giving 20 points to a 15 lb brown hurts. We have not seen a lot of big lakers so cutting the points on them serves little purpose as well. If I had to make a new points system i would consider 10 for Salmon and Lake trout and 15 for Steelhead and Browns that however is just me and I have not discussed this with Don. Which is why I use I instead of we. Based on current thoughts I would say it is likely we will make a change and probably will go back to 10 per fish again nothing has been decided just something to talk about during winter.

Personally I would go the I Pilot route on a small boat and get dual purpose out of it. I don't know that anything is going to solve all the issues of a small light boat since every condition other than calm and flat is going to be tough to maintain control.

Might as well do one more poll so here it is. Neither Don or I are happy with the Port Championship so we are looking for suggestions. We have not had a chance to sit down and go over all of our options but to me I only see a few choices. There are of course several options in those few choices but we can discuss them as we go. You will note as in the poll about boundaries I am not voting I do have a opinion but don't want to color yours with mine just yet. Last year we made a change to make the port championship a stand alone entry for the prize money. With my boat being down for the season we had 4 boats enter and only 3 actually fish. So from my personal perspective it was just a contest to see who got the most of my entry fee LOL. That is not the issue believe me I was OK with the money but not OK with no one entering. So we need to find a way to have more people fishing in it. So these are not the only options but a rough outline.

Something else from my list of suggestions that has been mentioned so it is in a poll for you guys to consider. Is the issue of fishing boundaries some tournaments have them some don't the question is if we are a Muskegon fishing tourney or a fully open tourney. As such I am going to offer some suggestions for everyone to consider. This again is something suggested to me and as such I am using this in the first person singular because even though Don and I have discussed this we have not agreed to it there fore it is just a suggestion for your consideration.

We would like some input on our Points system. The options are simple

1. Change nothing

2. Return to old points 10 per fish plus weight

3. Try something different

Got my TT email and Jul 12th is Muskegon so that date won't work. Both Jun dates and Aug dates are ok if we want or do we want to try the 5th of July?

Personally I will be going back to big boards for my long copper setups. I will stick with small boards for my short core and copper and the boards will be setup with OR 16 on the back and a release on the front. I am still a fan of the Z boards and Yellow Bird style boards because I can tune them to run as I want them to. My setup is clearly not for everyone but it works well for me.

Funny on mine it gives the phone info and says from tapatalk

It works

First off this is only a suggestion topic Don has also mentioned going back to 10 points a fish period and I also agree with that since the reason we changed points to begin with was to have a way to do a multi-port championship with the WMFL This has not worked out so we will likely return to our old point system. This is not a announcement of changes but a discussion of ideas to improve the tourney. Any or all of the dates listed can be changed it was just a starting point for discussion based off our past dates. We have not set a date for our meeting for next years tourney yet but perhaps we will have it sorted out by the end of Jan. I don't make the rules I make suggestions or in some case such as the boundary idea I pass them on I am not in favor of having a boundary as far as i am concerned as long as you leave Muskegon in your boat and return in your boat on time I am fine with things. If you want to burn the gas go for it if you want to have a jet pick up you and your boat and fly you to wherever I really don't care. Well that might be extreme LOL. The point of this is it is winter and we need something to talk about and a way to hear what you guys think and want. I want to see 20 to 40 boats in every tourney with guys having fun.

Well Turkey day is behind us I already have Silver Horde returning as a sponsor. So it is time to get plans together for next season. I have a tentative schedule for everyone to consider and we have to plan a board meeting to go over everything. I personally don't think we need any rule changes but I am always open to suggestions. I would like to see more boats in the port championship race this year so we may need to modify that. I am also wondering if we need to set boundaries to keep it more of a local event and tighten the competition. I am thinking Holland as a south boundary and Pentwater as a north boundary. Here is what I penciled in for a schedule for next season.

May 3rd Blood Run Open

May 24th Silver Streak Open

June 14th Big Papa Open

June 28th Fish Hawk Open

July 12th Pro Troll Open

July26th Big Weenie Contest

Aug 9th Silver Horde Open

Aug 23rd Church Tackle Open

You may notice I stuck a extra date in there for June it was just a thought and would give everyone another weekend to fish LOL. It also gives us nore room for any make up dates if we have bad weather but I have been pretty lucky at picking good fishing days so far. Not always able to get the fish to show up but at least we have had good weather. Most of us fish every weekend anyhow so might as well have a contest so we can show off our fish or laugh at each other for our failures LOL. As always we are welcome to new ideas please feel free to make suggestions.

Keeps the boat balanced other wise they fish in circles LOL.

I talked with a CO there 2 years ago and he told me that because of the break in the wall for the Coast Guard boats they considered the entire stub pier section part of Lake Michigan. The other side however would require you to be past the beach. And that may only be one C O's viewpoint.

That is Revmike from MS website and they are fishing in Muskegon in front of the old Coast Guard station.

True but then you must have the fuses the intelligent fuse panel uses standard fuses and you only have to buy it once. It was meant as a second option nothing wrong with the fancy fuses they just cost a lot if you blow many of them. Summit racing has the fuses as do others they run about 2.55 ea so 10 of them is 25.50 the 10 circuit panel is 31 bucks and uses standard fuses so after you blow a couple fuses the cost is the same but past that the fancy fuses are more money than changing the fuse panel.

or you could go with a intelligent fuse panel and use regular fuses like this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fuse-Box-Intelligent-LED-identification-of-Fuse-Failure-10-WAY-12V-DC-Rally-/161123674299?pt=Apparel_Merchandise&hash=item2583b828bb&vxp=mtr

Several companies make them in a number of different sizes.

We went 4 for 6 in Muskegon today kept 2 steelhead and a small king we found dead when pulling lines explains why the rod stopped firing LOL. Best water was 120 ft straight out. Beach combed for 3 hours to start the day zero fish. Headed west got a hit in 110 Steelhead lost at back of boat. Went west til we hit the nets then southwest to get around them to about 160 no takers and fish thinned out so turned around and trolled back in to call it a day changing baits found a shaker and released it no skunk LOL. 5 color with a black spoon fired in 125 netted a 4 lb Steelhead. 125 copper fired in 110 no idea it pulled like a truck then split. made a loop back thru and rigger 30 down fired with a glow tail netted a 6lb Steelhead agreed to make one more pass and gave up pulled lines to find a small dead king on the port rigger 3 in the box and headed home. Still better than working LOL.

I went from 4 down to 2 several years ago I don't miss them at all. However it really depends on how you fish. I will not combat fish so the extra riggers were nearly always in the way. If my boat was setup different I would run 3 but I have no place for a center rigger so I leave it open. If I want another deep rod I put a torpedo diver on my braid rod and send it down the shoot can get it down 90ft pretty easy. It is also easy to move to net a fish. By mid August i am chasing steel out deep so long lines are my bread and butter.

one of my fav things to do is drift the scum line with my fly rod not always productive but is a blast.

4 yr old fish are rare. I have only caught a few in my lifetime most of them back in the 70's when by the way we were getting 3 year old fish over 30 lbs. Biggest difference bait fish There was a time when most of the beaches had loaders and bulldozers with rakes to clear the dead alewives off them. I can remember many days when swimming in Lake Michigan meant wading thru dieing alewives. The salmon were brought here to clean up the Alewives since they had been tried in the late 1800's with no success the invasive onslaught however brought something they would eat. What has never happened well was reproduction on our rivers until the last decade when there had been enough of them to adapt somewhat to the warmer water and shorter lifespan. This coupled with less and less forage base made them a smaller fish that spawned sooner.

Scum line is called that because it is where all the scum collects on a temp break. You will see floating trash this causes lots of bugs and stuff to collect. Steel head will eat bugs all day long so they tend to hang around scum lines. Sometimes on the cold side sometimes on the warm side. Temp breaks are just that changes in water temp at the surface. Terry Dirty Dog can probably remember better then me but fishing with Don and him on the Tangled Mess a couple years ago we hit the biggest temp break any of have seen in memory. We only pulled a couple fish off it because we were about done for the day it was around a 15 deg temp break and looked like a step in the water. If I find a good temp break I will follow it til I limit out usually not taking very long to do so. Most days this time of year if I am not already dialed in I will spend as much time looking for my spot or sometimes more than it takes to limit out when I find it. Last year we took a 4 man limit of Steelhead plus 3 bonus kings in just over a hour of fishing. I just drive west til I see my water and stop to check and temp breaks I see when running out.

most years this is my favorite time to fish all the traffic is in the harbors or gone hunting. I prefer Steelhead so getting after them is a passion. Work the temp breaks and scum lines and when you dial it in the results are great. Most years I fish thru Oct with lots of limit catches.

What drive do you have? If you have a older Mercruiser without power steering I have a hyd steering system for it. Then you could get the Garmin or any hyd AP you want and have a great setup.

Terry I also have a pump if you want to come to GR and borrow it