FBD

Improvise, Adapt, catch fish...

Ten pounders are good, twelves are better.  Shape is up for endless debate.  I run 10# fish as they're easier to handle and store and don't roll around and track as well as 12# round balls.

For spoons I like Offshore Medium tension downrigger releases.  For attractors I run Blacks (actually Dubro brand's version) releases.

No.  It seems if they don't hit the beach, they scatter all over the place, or you need to head way out to where the thermocline didn't move.

Broke yet?  If not, try harder!

Run a higher temperature thermostat?

Fish shallower, higher in the water column, in warmer water than you'd expect.

I've never done well just after dark but have caught them as early as 1:30 am.

I'll be there.

April and November are my peak fishing months.

More fun.  I can't go to my cottage up north and take the kayak out of the garage and take it out on the lake via my private dock.

I can put my kayak in my truck and drive to the launch down the road from my place up north and launch using the public dock.

I can't drive to my cottage up north to do anything.  I have a barn on ten acres across the way from the cottage.  I can drive there as it's not a residence.  I can drive to the barn, then the cottage, then the barn, then home, as it's not between residences.  

I use the same launches to launch my kayak as my 14'.  Same tow vehicle that still has 5/8 of a tank since March and I have 20 gallons in the barn to back it up.

I take the same vehicle to the same launch and launch my canoe / kayak / boat.

Only when I reach back and start the outboard do I break the law.

Before the updated EO I'd been out either solo or with my family four times.

If you think I'm blowing this off, my wife is the sole caretaker of her 84 and 81 year old parents.  Of all her sisters, she is the only one going in their house.  So i don't do anything without clearing it with the wife.  And even she thinks this order is BS.

Well, enough of that.  I'm the janitor at my church and need to go mow the lawn.  Wait, can't do that either.

Buddy has one.  Two years of messing with it and it's in a bucket in his barn.

He makes circuit boards for fun and runs a test lab for components that "when they fail a couple hundred people die and it makes the news".

I launch on a dead end road that requires 4 lo and waders, but that may not apply.

DNR launch is open for now.

Launch in downtown Saugatuck is open but challenging as you need to back way in, the docks are underwater, and the cement algae covered and slippery.  Parking however is not a concern for a change.

There's Lakers from 50-90' from Glenn down past South Haven.  The usual spoons and flashers will work.  For me yesterday it was standard dream weavers 30-40' down.

I didn't mark anything which was odd.

Trolled the beach back north to Saugatuck and just got beaten up by the chop.  Solo in a 14' with no crew to ballast down the bow...

They've been trying this up north by planting all the browns in a few ports at the expense of all others.

It's been a spectacular failure.

Contact I have in Frankfort which got four browns last year.  I got three in one trip 91.7 miles from the nearest planting site to me which is not in Michigan.

Was not sure how long browns needed to be held or for that matter where the brood stock originates.  

Some browns would fill in the near shore void left by steel.  Up until they cut the plants down here, we'd get plenty of browns mixed in with the steel on every lake flip.

Fished for four hours today.  A half an hour to find the Lakers, a half an hour to limit on those, then two and a half hours trolling back to harbor on the beach not expecting anything and not catching anything.  Only reason I wasted my time trying was I was five miles south of port looking head long into solid two footers with no crew to weigh down the bow, so there was no point in trying to plane out and take a beating.

Lots of skipper steel around the beach last fall.  Maybe they can help fill the void.

Penn makes great stuff.  Some of those reels are used around the great lakes.  I run my half cores of lead on Penn 309's that are probably older than I am.

Tiger blank is very good quality.  I believe these were made by Wolverine Tackle (Silver Streak) many years ago and are no longer made.  Solid rods.  One of the charters I used to fish on ran them and they held up well.

Honestly I don't think too many people worry about it. 

I know when we eat fish we tend to eat the smaller ones, of the shorter lived species so there's less accumulation.  But I have a friend who processes and eats a lot of fish and he thinks nothing about putting some 10-20# lake trout in the smoker.  I've caught a couple tagged large lake trout that were 15-20 years old, so if any fish out there is going to be full of mercury, it's those.

If Buck is still there, just punch that tree scraping, stopping every 2 minutes to eat something, gassy glue factory drop out right in his horse face.

Why they gave the guy that hates horses the horse even they don't like...

(The rest of the family had a great experience.  I figured anything with me and horses was going to suck, and it did, so expectations were met)

Rainbow Ranch?

Is that quick fish a good sign or a curse?

Thanks for the report.

Sheephead tournaments?

Back in the American Tackle era I made enough off those one year I had to report it on my taxes.

Pike love gold red lb Thin Fish.  Got one in December in 40' at the bubbler - that was a head scratcher.

You're killing me.  I'm not even looking at the forecast and buoy any more.  Given up until the lake unflips and I can troll 10' for trout slams, which is usually early November.  In full out bird mode now - scouted for the youth hunt yesterday and saw 7 ducks, but 5 of them were chip shots...

Welcome.  Bass will be ruined for you the first time a king tries to pull you off the pier and into the lake.

Don't overlook plugs, they don't cast as well as spoons but some days a big thunderstick or J-13 rapala slowly ground back to you, or even if there's no traffic and rocks walked slowly down the channel is the ticket.