Muskegon 9 May - Gale Warning!

[GLF]

I cancelled the first GLFTT event this morning because of lighting. There was also a gale warning, but this was not a factor until later in the day.

After cancelling the tournament at 5:30am, a few of us got together at Papa Bears restaraunt on Apple Ave and head breakfast.

We got back to the boat after breakfast and decided we were still going fishing. We cast off at 7:30am, and headed out. Around 8:00am, I pulled the throttles back at 80FOW, put us on a SW troll, and started setting lines.

We trolled all the way out to 95FOW without a bump. The down temp at 40' was 44 degrees, so I turned the boat back towards shore. The down temp started climbing. When we hit 75FOW, the down temp at 40' was 47 degrees. Right away, and rigger set at 30' with a fixed slider 5' above the ball went. This was one of the smaller chinooks and it came on a Stinger stingray size Craig's x-mas.

After resetting this line, a full core went. This ended up being our biggest chinook and came on a Stinger magnum size Killer Dolphin.

Our next fish was another chinook, and came on a downrigger set at 40' with a Stinger magnum size Killer Blue Dolphin. This spoon never went into production, so good luck finding one. :(

Our last fish was a lake trout and came on a 1/2 core with a Stinger stingray size craig's x-mas.

Around 9:30am, someone turned the fan switch on "HI", and it started blowing hard out of the NE. OK.....maybe they were correct about the gale warning. :p We pulled lines and headed in. Our final tally was 4 for 4.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/1/chinook_47278.jpg


While we were fishing, this bird landed on Mark(Just Hook'n).

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/1/bird2.jpg

Glen put his finger in front of it, and it stepped on to Glens finger.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/1/bird3.jpg

Notice the lack of waves in these photos. They were 1' or less when we headed out. They did not start building until 9:30am, and they were out of the NE.

[Alessandro]

Cool pics, what´s the make of the downrigger on the bird-pic? Electric I think from the looks of it, how deep can you fish with it and how fast does it take to wind it up?

[GLF]

Cool pics, what´s the make of the downrigger on the bird-pic? Electric I think from the looks of it, how deep can you fish with it and how fast does it take to wind it up?


Those are Big Jon Protournament Electrics. They come with 200' of cable, and they can retrieve a 12lb ball at 110' per minute.

I just got some new downriggers for my boat and have not put them on yet.

I got the Big Jon Brutes. These come with 300' of cable and can retrieve a ball at 200' per minute.

www.bigjon.com

[Alessandro]

Nice, Big Jon isn´t a big brand here, Scotty is the most common downrigger.
An Scotty electric downrigger for two rods costs about 1200US$ here, so I been thinking of fitting one Big Jon downrigger (like the design BTW) with an ATV winch,
it would end up on half the cost. A large problem here is lost nets (AKA ghostnets) if you run into one of these you definitly need to either cut the wire or give out wire fast and try get the ball loose, much easier to operate
with an electric downrigger. Also if you happen to hook a big atlantic salmon
it can be very strong, Swedish record is around 60 lbs, you don´t want your
downrigger in the water.

BTW have you tried out the Shark Cannonball, the "bling-bling" ball, is it only
for vain fishermen or does it actually help?
http://www.lakemichiganangler.com/store/Shark_Cannonball_Downrigger_Weights.htm

Also interested in the Berts custom tackle planerboard masts, planning to fit them also with ATV winches (also half price compared with an electric Scotty planerboard masts), since sailingboats is a constant hassle here in
the Baltic sea and we´ll be only two onboard an electric mast would definitly be useful.

[GLF]

The Big Jons I have(Pro Tournaments) are electric, and they have an auto shut off. If need be, someone can push the up button and they will shut off where you have the stop be set at.

I always have between 9 and 14 lines in the water each time I am fishing. Yesterday we had 3 on at once! I have had 4 on at once before.

I have not tried the shark weights.