Paulywood

Matt,

Hopefully I'll have the boat back by this weekend, but with gas going up I might take the weekend off.(Gasman told my GF that it was going to be $4 by the weekend) I will be fishing mostly out of Muskegon this year except for when I leave from work, then I fish farther south. (South Haven, Holland) But I'm always up for a road trip. We will definitely have to team up and slaughter the fishes sometime. I won't be able to go the first 2 weekends in June because of my friends bachelor party and wedding but will be out every chance I get after that.

Nick

Nice job, Matt. Sounds like you had a better time than I did.

Left early from work today with 2 of my co-workers and headed to Holland. Left the pier heads at 5:30 to find a beautiful flat, calm morning. Powered up to 30 mph and headed northwest. After about 1/2 a mile the motor revved high and the boat stopped going forward. End of our day. Luckily the only other boat out there was kind enough to tow us in. Hopefully I got his name right, Cabbott Sterk, gave up his morning of fishing and pulled us back to the dock. And he wouldn't even accept any money. Can't say how much I appreciate his help. Pulled the boat out and checked the gear lube in the lower unit to find it full of metal shavings. Dropped the boat off and received the diagnosis this afternoon. Lower seals and water pump need to be replaced plus gear kits for both the upper and lower. The parts are ordered and after a mere $1500 hopefully I'll be back on the water by next weekend. Final score: 0 fish

1 broken outdrive

3 very unhappy fisherman

Good luck to everyone who gets out this weekend. I'm going to go sell plasma to help pay for my boat repairs:D

Thanks again Cabbott if you read this!

I fished with Red Eagle (Mike) out of Grand Haven this morning, going 3/4.

Launched at 6 am and pulled the boat at noon, Mike had to be home for Mother's Day. Set up in 50' of water in front of pier heads and trolled around the plume for an hour with nothing going. Headed out NW and took our first hit at 80' on a slide diver 25' down with a Green/Yellow Pro King. Got off when it ran at the boat. Headed out deeper and hooked up with a nice king on a 7 color w/ Jr. Silver Streak Blueberry Muffin. 1 in the box. That fish came on the inside of a turn as we headed in toward shore. Trolled in to 55' and I started to pull my full core when a slide diver went off. Small steelhead on a blue/orange Pro King 20' down. Started pulling lines to head in and found a small straggler on the downrigger. Blue Bubble spoon 35 down, best estimate is that he was on there for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Nice day for a boat ride. Heard reports of guys hitting fish saturday in 190' but we didn't venture that far. Everyone we talked to struggled. Marked lots of fish but they were scattered. Plan on fishing all this weekend if the weather cooperates.

I use Thompson's and seam sealer on my tent. It was recommended by a guy who does a lot of camping in the winter. He can't afford any leaks. Best way to do it is use the seam sealer first. Then put Thompson's in a garden sprayer (the kind you pump up and use to spray plants). Spray it on and let it dry. Then hose it down to check for leaks and rinse off any extra. I usually do 1 coat, let it dry, then do another. Never had a problem with leaks.

I had this exact same problem on my boat a few years back. My brother took it up to Higgins for the week and it wouldn't run decent the first day. Took the carb apart and the float had a hole rusted in it. (Previous owner must not have fogged good enough or it was just old.) Put a new kit in and ran like a champ.

Got to St. Joe around 7:30 this morning and headed right out. Started setting lines south of the pier heads in 20' around 8:15. Pulled lines at 1:00 after going 12-13 with 6 thrown back. All coho. Here's the breakdown:

5 fish: Super Slim Blue Dolphin 10' down on the rigger and 15' back. $ on south troll in 15'-25'. 1 on north troll in 50'.

2 fish: Super Slim Easter Egg on 3 color. 1 on south troll in 20' other on north troll in 50'.

1 fish: black/red wiggle wart 75 back on highline over 20'. South Troll.

1 fish: firetiger stickbait 70' back on flatline over 20'. South Troll.

1 fish: red action flasher balck/purple fly 20' back 15' down over 20'. South Troll.

1 fish: Magnum Lemon Ice on 3 color over 50'. North Troll.

1 fish: silver/green Rattlin Rouge 100' back over 50' on highline. North Troll.

Great Day of fishing! Had 2 doubles and a triple. Talked to Caz and Baydawg and they did good also. I'll let them post their own reports.

I'll be on 68 Caz.

Caz, what time are you heading down? We are leaving work at 5 am so should be there around 7-7:30. That would work good if I had someone to follow out the river.

Yeah I know Mike. I was supposed to fish saturday but had to cancel. Story of my life. We plan on going to St. Joe or South Haven, just going to watch the reports and see what happens. I would prefer South Haven because of the shorter ride to the lake. Plus, I don't know the river in St. Joe so if I went I would like to have someone who has launched before go with me. I plan on going out friday and saturday, maybe even sunday. I'll post reports when I get back.

I just wanted to post a quick update on my niece. Thanks again everyone for your thinking of her. I will quote my sister-in-law for this update:

Her labs today looked good again: WBC 10,200, Hgb 10.5, platelets 79, and I didn't get an ANC. The best news of all that we got today is that final results are back on her bone marrow biopsy and she is 100% DONOR!!!!!!!!!!!

This is great news although I will warn everyone that this number can change over time so it will continue to be monitored.

Thanks again everyone for checking in. Here is the website if anyone wants to follow her recovery. Hopefully she will be able to leave the hospital soon.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/madelinethelen

Thanks Mike!

I was wondering if anyone had the address for the boat launch in South Haven. I was thinking of going there on friday as long as the weather cooperates.

Thanks,

Nick

It's a good idea to backflush the bilge every once in a while too, Caz. Helps clean out any junk that might get stuck or built up in there.

Sign me up Mike. We already have campsites reserved for that weekend. Can't wait to fish!

Here is what Mike Gnatkowski uses for his release and swears that it improves hook-ups. I will try to explain it the best I can. Here is what you need:

3 ft. of downrigger cable

2 clinchers or very large snap swivels

attach a clincher or swivel to each end of the cable

attach one end of the cable to your downrigger ball

use the other end to attach your rubber band

use #16 rubber bands wrapped around the line 4 times

He claims that when you load up your rigger rods it will pull that cable up and take all of the belly out of the line. The 3 ft. piece of cable goes up at an angle from the ball to where it attaches to your line. When a fish hits they will first pull the piece of cable down straight and then break the rubber band. This takes out any extra slack that you have. He said that a lot of times they grab the rod before the band breaks because they see the rod move down when the fish initially hits. If this is confusing I could probably explain it better in person at one of the outings. I haven't tried it but might give it a shot this year. Might run it on 1 rigger and run the other plain to see if there is a difference. My personal (read amatuer) opinion is that a flexible rod that you can load up is better than some of those big stiff rigger rods some guys use.

Dan Keating uses 6 1/2 footers. Says the longest rod he has is 7 1/2. Also use 12# mono so the fish are played out when they get to the boat. Claims they are easier for his clients to use. I am going to set one up this year and try it. Figure it can't hurt.

Hey Mike,

I just noticed that your nautical charts link at the top of the page doesn't work. Is the link no longer valid or is the web page gone?

Thanks,

Nick

Mike,

When we bought our boat we test drove it Labor Day weekend and bought it the next week. Got to use it once before we had to put it away. I feel your pain.

I was waiting until I had some news to report before writing this update. First, the benefit was a great success. We had a great turnout and a lot of items donated. Thank you to everyone who donated, came out, or offered their support. It really means a lot. We also had a large turnout for the bone marrow donor registration. Almost 200 people signed up to be donors in 6 hours. Finally, an update on Maddie. She was admitted to Mott Children’s Hospital on Thursday. She has started her radiation and chemo treatments and the transplant is scheduled in 7 days. So far she is in good spirits and everything is going well. Feel free to check on her process through her website. And thanks again for all of your help.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/madelinethelen

Nick Thelen

I just bought a Uniden, don't recall the model. It has DSC. I was told that the antennae is more important than the radio. Spend money on a good one with the solid core, not wire. I think that mine was around $100 and I could pick up guys in the Muskegon channel when I was fishing south of Holland. That seemed pretty good to me.

Anyone else here going to any seminars this winter? I am going to the Dan Keating seminar at the Birch Run fishing show on March 3rd. Mike Knatkowski is also going to be there doing a presentation on leadcore and how to get it deeper to those mid summer kings. I figure even if I don't learn anything at least I get a goody bag.

I went up to Higgins Lake this weekend to do a little smelt fishing. The smelt were there and were biting, but my reflexes were a little slow. I didn't have a whole lot to show for my efforts. I got down to smeltville late friday night because of a frozen water line in the cabin. Went out by myself for 1 1/2 hrs and went 5 for about 70:( My brother came up saturday and we waited around for my brother-in-law and nephew to head out. They got there late so it was past prime time when we went out again. Between the four of us we caught 25 more out of 100-150 hits. There were so many under the ice it was ridiculous. If you plan on fishing smeltville you will have to get there early, the parking lots were full. We fished at the end of the line of shanties in 70' and had about 12" of ice. Have fun and good luck.

Caz,

I know other guys that call that an out and down. They use small dipseys or the Big Jon mini-disks. I just had a discussion about this the other day. Some guys like to run it during the day because it gets the lure farther out from the boat. I was thinking that a slide diver might work, than you can run a long lead but don't have to worry about being able to net it.

I got my braided diver rods from Capt. Levi. They were already strung with Ripcord. They worked real well and I never had a breakoff. I am going to reverse the line this year and probably replace it next year. I was very happy with how it performed and it's cheaper than Spiderwire.