jimbobber

just make sure you check the transom and motor mounts for rot tap on them with a piece if metal if its solid ur good if you hear hollow sound be careful. Other wise it should be good for a couple thousand hours if its been taken care of.

once the water gets around 40 deg the fishing will take off, as for how deep to fish that depends on were the fish are last spring we ran to 200 fow in march and slayed the cohos off holland , in tighter they get a few browns, down by st. joe they fish in tight for the cohos,

i use all the methods listed above , with spoons on dipseys to start with until the kings start to show up then go to spinnies and flie,small spoons, and body baits are a good start in the spring lots of guys like to run brads thin fin body baits on high lines and short lead cores on boards for cohos . Lakers can be taken in the spring now and those will take spoons with gold patterns ,or chartrueses they will also be in shallow looking for gobys keep this in mind when selecting paterns for them.Early on if the cohos arent around fish the first sandbars for brown trout and steelhead running high lines with body baits and small spoons. Hope this gives you some ideas . jimmy

Definitly be praying for him and his family!

yup can do........... i will get back to ya on that.

lol yeeeeeuuuuup hahhahaha !

Matt, deluew lumber has marine ply wood it was $75 per sheet for 3/4 " last winter.Lowes and menards did not have it in holland.

cant wait to see all the pictures of the kids with there big smiles!!!

i second running the regular dipseys for your high divers set them on 3 low divers on 1 , when setting the high divers over lowdivers ,flop the diver out to the side as far as possible,hold it for a minute til it tracks out then let it back,slooooowly i run 4 divers all the time,the high divers ussually rock right away in the morning then slow down then the deep divers start going. i ussually run high divers 125 to 175 back this range always seems to produce fish.. jimbobber

good job mikie!

The siver dodger was shown to me last year by a fuzzy headed laker taker LOL we been runnin it behind a tin can dodger to Dennis Ende taught me how to laker fish with this a couple years ago .

here is my double set up .

I get number 4 and number 6 spin-n-glows

here is another post i just helped a guy with . http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29664

Ialso use a double spin-n-glow set up one bigger one and one smaller one with no flie behind it in clown color.

may 18 is the michigan steelheaders challenge and it worth $2000 for first prize for a $70 entrie fee i think lots of the guys on the list will want to fish that on that day.

Great Job Mikie , my niece is a good fishergirl huh!!!

Just want thank Larry for supporting the web site and donating the spoons,and Mike for running the website thanks guys!!!

Any one here on glf know Captian Ray VanZytfeld of team early bird If so could you pm me i would like to get in touch with him. Thanks Jimmy AKA Jimbobber

Shawn ,here is the web site i orders from its http://www.yakimabait.com/

I order the number 4s and number 6s ,i like lime green, glow lime green, and clown colors the flie is a rapture glow dude i think ,just trim it down about half the length with 2 beads behind it And one in front.When you get the spin-n-glows trim the holes so they are smooth so they spin freely. jimmy

Shawn here is a pic of my favorite laker set up , this is and 8 " dodger with 30 lb floro carbon leader 23" long with a spin-n-glow and flie combo. run this 20 foot behind the ball, bounce the ball on the bottom. Hope this helps Jimmy

as for copper set ups get a reel of good size,and a rod with large eyes they make some very affordable copper rods out there ,for a reel an okuma cv 55 will work fine , put mono backer on it 30 lb, then copper ,i run 45 lb copper,on the end of that run 30 foot of floro carbon leader 20lb. always run all the copper out and put your planer board on the mono, try to always put the board in the same spot so you can watch for any wear in the clip area. copper lengths run different depths 300 copper runs 60 to 70 down 250 runs 50 to 60 150 runs around 35 to 45 down.

in my opinion a wire dipsey is a great set up , if you runa mag dipsey you can easily get it down 80 to 100 foot .you will need a roller rod for this tho.

hope this will help. jimmy if you want to call me with questions please by all meens do so ,i love to talk fishing. my number is 616-240-7017

Shawn , Welcome to GLF

I would buy inline planer boards then you can run your coppers off them to , either church walleye boards or offshore inlines should do the trick. I dont know how they fish lakers over there but in lake michigan a good way to fish them is with a dodger with a spin-n-glow behind it. If you want a picture of this setup i can post one for you. As for the divers you can run spoons or spindoctors and flies ,or dodgers and spin-n-glows for the lakers .When fishing the lakers in lake michigan I like to bump bottom with the down rigger weight ,and drag the dipsey in the bottom ,this stirs the bottom and attracts the lakers.

Jason i would go to 8 lb test for the steelhead they will see the 14 lb and in the cold water it will be stiff. How are you planing on fishing, drifting spawn,dead sticking,throwing plugs,drifting bobber and jigs? any of these techniqes would be better with lighter line. jimmy

nice job mikie

Steve , I made my own trees to ,i found that the lowest holder worked better with the angle less than the next one up , also the top holder should be to the front of the boat a little, and the lower holderr to the back of the boat a little and the middle holder in the the middle of the "twist" this will create rod tip spaceing otherwise the rod tips will hit and your boards will jump easier. This is just what i found out with mine they are looking real good tho ,i cut mine the same way they look good like that. feel free to pm me if you want any more info. jimmy

awsome season Kevin it was fun fishin with ya this year again!!!!!

Bob, I take my knives to Russ at grafschap hardware he does a real good job.