salmonquest

Thanks for the great info. I'm planning on going monday night so I was hoping the boat traffic might be a little less.

Yeah that's the bridge in the background. Thanks for adding the pic. It's a great place to fish. The action may not always be hot and heavy but it's hard to beat the scenery.

South wind blowing all day. Got out at 6 didn't mark any fish in front of the Grand hotel on the island. Trolled in front of the coast guard dock. No action until 9:30 until we hit a double on a blue spin with an aqua glow fly and on a bloddy nose spoon. Both in the 8 lb. range.

I plan on making my first ever trip to Frankfort next week. I checked "the tackle box" site but I thought I"d fish for some more detail. Is there a preferred trolling direction? I've looked at the charts and it looks like there are some nice contours both straight out and north and south. Any preferences. It looks really interesting around north of point betsie is that a very long run? We'll be going out in the evening and I'm hoping to finally break a one person limit..

nice pics looks like a wonderful day congrats.

Yah Done For sure.

It's not too hard to reset them. The wheel for the counter is in between the counter and the spoool. It's slightly incovenient to take off the spring or spin them with the spring on. Not too bad though. I just thought it made sense to add a reset

So far I have only been around walker and Big Jon downriggers. As stated in other posts I love my captain's paks. I do have one question though about the counters on downriggers. Is there a reason they don't have a trip button? I know that it shouldn't need to be reset often but sometimes the spring slips and I end up off a few feet especially with the old walkers We had. It just doesn't make sense to me that they wouldn't have a reset and you have to spin that wheel to adjust it. Does anyone know of a downrigger that has a counter with a reset?

Thanks for the great advice I've yet to get out to test it but I'll let you know when I do. I was thinking about the thermocline showing up well sometimes and then fading out. It makes sense to me that if the thermocline is showing up well defined it is probably due to a mass of organic material probably drawing in more bait fish and hopefully salmon. Would it make sense then to concentrate on areas with a well defined thermocline? Would this tend to be a convergence of current and temperature that would draw bait fish and salmon?

I just bought a set of capn' packs this year and love them. I have found it easiest to set my lead and then loosen the drag just enough so it won't pop the release. I hit the down button and when it gets to depth I usually tighten the drag and wind it up two or three cranks and she's loaded and ready to rock. I tried thumb spooling but I guess I just don't have the touch it was a little jerky. The setting the drag has proven very smooth and easy. Just don't forget to loosen it at the start and tighten it at the end I have had very solid hook sets and few missed fish.

Yes I've seen that before on other fishfinders. Out of curiousity would a school of baitfish be a collections of small dots or small arcs?

Thanks this has been very helpful. I will definately make that adjustment next time out. Once again I'm sure all of your help should translate in more fish in the cooler

when you turn the fish symbol off does it just show the echo?? I was thinking about trying this.

I have a Garmin fishfinder 240. ON the last trip out I put the gain all the way up hoping to find the thermocline and/or bait fish. In water over 100' it started showing screenfulls of fish. at 150 fow and deeper we were getting readings of fish from 120 to 140. When I put the gain back to normal the fish symbols disapeared. Anybody know what might cause this phenomenon. I don't think the thermocline was that deep and I don't think there were that many fish but could it represent a temperature drop?

This may be something that "everybody knows" but in case there is anyone without much experience like me I thought I would post. I learned a pretty good way to skin my filets. I used to run the knife from the spine behind the dorsal to the pelvic fin and then run the backbone all the way to the tail before I fleshed out the front. A guy showed me to stop at the tail and don't seperate the filet. Once it is all fleshed out it is still attatched at the tail and I flip the filet over and can hold on to the body as I run the knife under the filet to skin it. It was pretty slick.

boy glf I think you're right either way I think it's close enough. Thank you very much

Got out Saturday night and sunday morning. Saturday knight went 2/2 with a small chinook off of arch rock 50' in 90fow. and a 9 lb Coho off the coast guard. Strong currents north of the island caused four tangles and two set's of lost gear:mad: (Apparently not a good time to find out you are going across current. ) blue dolphin off rigger 40' in 80 fow. Sunday went 1/3 boated an 8 lb Laker straight out from the City launch.

There is a particular spoon that I usually do pretty well with but I'm down to one and would like to get some more. The problem is I can't seem to find it in any of the catalogs. It looks like a bloody nose except it is orange and has a black dot. I thought it was a Dreamweaver but I searched their online catalog and couldn't find it. I know it is glow but I don't think it is super glow. It nabbed a king and a laker this weekend. Is anyone familar with this?

God's country for sure. It's something else to be there at dusk and be able to see Mackinac Island and the bridge as the sun goes down. Almost makes up for breaking two off......Almost

July 13th. Went in front of the St. Ignace Coast guard dock. Had one break the leader on a chrome/green spin with a green fly. Had about a 10-12 pounder almost to the net before he headed for the motor hit blue bubble spoon off the rigger about 45' down and a 30' lead.

I've always found them in bays in less than 15' of water. There is a great sports shop I think it's north country sports in Detour. The owner is usually great about providing info. He can tell you if they are still hitting and where. I think they start to wind down about now but I could be wrong. We usually hit them the end of June. A good tip is to drive around until you see a bunch of boats there will usually be 5 or more once they found a school.

Dan are those pictures of squid with worm wobblers. (i think I saw them advertised as that.) I was thinking of trying the clear on some flies behind flashers with them for salmon. I take it you had good luck?

yeah I get that. I can see how that might be an advantage to the dynamics of the spread. I think I'll try to run a few smaller divers up high. Thanks for the info.

I use magnum dipsies but have read that many people won't because they don't seem to be as afffective as #1's Anyone have any experience with this. I guess I might try a few to compare since I have such poor luck with flies. I wonder what the difference would be between a mag dipsy w/out a ring or a #1 with a ring. Perhaps that subtle difference pays off in the vibration signature??

I've been running 17# Cabelas premium flourocarbon for my leaders. I've had 3 early break off's near the knot anyone else use this or have problems?