2UNREEL

We have got some great responses to this poll. I love seeing pictures of when people started out there salmon fishing careers. The one thing in common is you can see the passion that we all share for the love of the sport. I started salmon fishing around the age of 5. To this day I remember holding a rod with a flat line and a blue and silver tad poly attached and caught my first coho salmon. 1 fish is all it takes to be hooked for life. Here is a picture of one of my earlier trips out on the big lake, I believe I was 6 years old in this picture.

I run the 12lb black coated sharks. I have not had an issue with them and the blowback is much less than a roundball. I like the fact that when they hit the water they instantly track strait. I the past with round balls I have had them spin and get my line wrapped around the rigger cable when I used pad releases.

If you can pop in a lakemaster chip in your chartplotter its well worth it. The depth contours can clue you into where the big boys swim.

It is very possible to run 2 rods with fixed sliders on each rod with one downrigger. Shorten up your sliders to around 6ft and that makes it more manageable at the net. When you put your rods in the rod holders spread them out from each other and this will help with releases on the bottom setup. If you are releasing them your self just pull the top rod first......Give it a try....I agree with Paulywood on the split rings, run them how they came in the package. I would look closer at the type of swivels your using on the non split ring lures and make sure its nice and rounded on the side the lure hooks to, that will keep that lure movin and groovin.

Don shows us the unique way us left handed people can get the job done.

Lets get an idea of the years of experience of the people that visit this site have. I know some have been around since the days of taking canoes in the lake was the norm and some may be fairly new.

First I would start the year off fishing at Cabelas for a new fish finder. That is the most usefull tool you have to target fish. With a decent unit you will see the fish that are biting your riggers. Otherwise you will be chasing the radio, if guys are talking, and you can't always trust what you hear. If you want to have sucess anytime of the year the fish finder will put you on fish any time of the year.

I have the cam rigger kit for my aqua-vu. I bought it about 5 years ago. Once I tried hooking it up to a downrigger with a 10lb ball in 3ft waves... I would suggest never trying that it was a mess. I have wanted to try it in calm water with my 12lb balls but never got around to it. There is a great deal of blowback involved so depending on how deep you want to go, you have to adjust the angle the camera is pointing. I have however used the camera perch fishing the big lake. That is amazing. In 30ft of water I have a sight distance of about 20ft or more. When you see a school of perch comming across the screen be ready for action. I also use it ice fishing if the lake is clear enough.

#18 NBK and #16 Green Monkey puke I think are the ones I would keep. I have done well on Monkey puke styles when others arent working that great. The NBK is on the line about every trip.

Nice shot

The only thing I don't like about the rods is the butt end. The blue diamonds have a large foam end that slides on the handle end of the rod. It gets stuck in the rod holder and pops off when your pulling the rod out of the holder. Went to start fighting a fish and couldn't figure out that little black thing was floating away from the boat. I took the other one off and keep it on the side until a fish hits. Once I get the rod out of the holder I put the end cap on to fight the fish.

JoeMan,

I have a blue diamond diver rod that I attached a twilly tip to last spring. I have a CV30D fully spooled with wire that I have had 0 probems with. As far as that little black end piece falling off.... Before season hit, I ground off the gimble edge of the rod so the foam piece would fit all the way then I spun the foam piece on my finger against my grinder to get the diameter the same as the rest of the rod. To finish it off I coated the inside of the foam piece with hot glue and a quick slide of hand and reattached it to the rod. Now it looks like it was made to be there and the little black piece will not come off and float away.

10 color lead core was one of my top producers. However this year my riggers with sliders were also on fire. Just goes to show you looking at everyones best producers that you need to run alittle bit of everything and give the fish what they want that day....

Nice job Jarod looks like you've had a great year.

I am not a salmon biologist or anything but I belive their sense of smell is not there best sense. I could be wrong....I think in a case of pond or ice fishing when you have a fish that has time to sniff and sample it may be better. In a trolling situation your target senario is sight, and sounds for that aggresive bite. But I think that if you do use a meat rig that it could have its day and as long as its a smell they like that it couldnt hurt the spread.

Nice way to put it Frank, I coudnt of said it better. I heard of alot of guys moving away from magnum size spoons this last summer. But everthing has there time and place. As far as Jim talking about a daytime and a nightime spoon size I have not seen a difference but I will generally run a mixed bag of sizes untill I know what they like.

WOW! Nice buck Tom, thats going to look good hanging on the wall! Happy Birthday

I know your frustration. I live on the southern tip of the Allegan State game area and I wait to venture in there around muzzleloader time. Unfortunately my private land did not work out as well, no good deer to be had. I am heading north this weekend to try some rifle action I hope things get better. I have heard of several guys getting lucky this year with one big 11pt down near South Haven......I can't help but think of catching summer kings while trying to keep my fingers and toes warm sitting and waiting for luck to change this year..

I signed up on geocaching website about 4 years ago and you can go on some pretty neat hunts. There are several caches not too far from your place Mike. There is probbably 1500 in the LP of Michigan alone. I have never had time to find a cache but I have found datum markers. I think it would be fun to go X-country sking for some sometime in mid winter and enjoy the beautiful woods in the snow without fear of being shot by a gunslinger.

That bucks a skyscraper.....Nice!!

Everything worked well this year including that Stinger Killer Dolphin Mike pictured. But I would have to say that every time I ran the Dreamweaver Modified Blue Dolphin it took something. Both are beat up pretty bad and I believe sometimes that does help....

I was out there fishing with Don and your right Terry they loved it fast. Those steelhead were flying out of the water, what an awsome day! We took so many ripps fishing for those steel I think we lost count.

I will be at the deer camp through Sunday. Otherwise I would be on.

Glad to hear you guys made it in ok. Thats just another reason to check everything out before you get on the big lake no matter how short of a trip. Good thing the weather was good cause it could of got nasty in a hurry. Great job on the kings....

My son just turned 2 and my daughter just turned 3. My daughter got her first king on my dads boat this summer but I had to hold the rod up for her. I have to get them trained good so I can fish all of Mike's GLFTT tournaments next summer cause my normal crew won't be able to make all those events!

Saturay I help my dad get his boat all tucked away for the winter. Then we launched my boat with the whole family and headed out the pier heads around 3:30 to look for some perch. We wound up in about 65 fow and drifted into around 40fow in about 3 hours. Thats about all the kids could take. After undooing the tangles and settling the kids down we headed in with 16 good size perch and a decet catfish:) Sunday it was just my wife and the little ones and this time we were armed with the portable DVD player. This was training day for my wife. She wanted to do all the rods and riggers and learn everthing about them. I think some of my addiction has rubbed off on her! We marked tons of fish in the 75-120 zone and could not get any takers except for a lonely laker. Atleast we were not skunked. I am just happy I was out on the water today cause it was a beautifull day to be on the water and get some much needed family time in.

Here is my kids reeling the riggers in for me