Mbirdsley

Pretty much my thought process also. Cover use a jig. t-rig if I’m just dragging random bottom. However, I do get get gut feelings and do the opposite. I am usually rewarded. Usually i know within 10 minutes if the lure I have tied on is going to work or not.

Try wet cat food or canned shrimp in a women’s nylon Nylon than put a knot in it. Dam craw fish you are feeding eat better than most people haha or I guess put the bacon in nylon

Had big plans today of fishing the Saginaw bay out of bay city. All that got shot to crap after fishing for an hour due to family drama with my sister. So I spent more time driving than fishing. The island at the mouth of the Saginaw river is right next to the shipping channel. The islands is maybe 2 miles from the mouth. Drops off to 10-14 feet almost 360 degrees around the island. It drops off fast in maybe 5 feet. It is a man made island. it is where they put the dredge spoils after dredging the channel for the freighters so that they can get in and out of the river . No bass in my limited time. I’m preatty sure a big pike bit me off and lost a war eagle spinner right off the bat. Luckily I had a duplicate. Lost a big cat after he rolled him self up in my line. I could literally feel him un wrapping himself once he was under the boat. Than boated this decent channel cat. Spinner bait was a war eagle 1/2 oz golden blades and shaft with chartreuse and white tipped skirt. Than I got the phone call and had a 20 minute boat ride to launch than hour drive home. havn’t caught crap on spinner baits all year. Last year I threw them on my black maxx with mono. So this time I broke the black maxx combo after an all summer hiatus. It still has 10 lbs big game spooled-up on it and had 3 hits on the spinner bait in an hour.

New pattern for my self after learning about black and chartreuse jigs in the tackle forum. Decided to make my own to try first one is a 3/8 oz Arkie jig and a 3/4 poison tail jig. Both Black and chartreuse. Both look good but, the poison tail looks wicked.

I’ve been using the 20 lbs flouro kote all summer on one of my rods and as leader material. For main line I’ve been using it on my swim jig/ extra jig pole and I have no complaints I think it may be better than the p-line flouroclear that I have rigged up on three rods. I’ve also been using it on my carbonlight combo as a leader with 30lbs pp braid for main line. I have caught a lot of fish on that combo so far. Bass on swim jig and that big old mr. whiskers came while using it as leader material fishing a chigger craw t-rigged

66% darker color 33% lighter color For example black and blue jig between 1/4-3/8 I use one full tab black one full tab and half a black tab. 1/2-1oz jig I use 1 full tab black, 1 full tab blue, and 1 full tab black. This is the same for any colors

They have definably maritime shell fish aroma. Sucks getting it on your hands but, it works

Craw fish do need to eat or they will die. They won’t be able to eat while in the trap and could start canabalizing the smaller ones ( the ones you want to use) im going by what Michigan rules state and I have no idea what Ohio’s are but, in Michigan you have legal tend or check the trap every 24 hrs. also the longer you leave the trap in. Somebody is more likely to find it. They could take it, take your crawfish, or destroy it.

Went and played around with fish finders to day at cabelas. The higher end striker 7 units were nice i think those were $500ish bucks. But, they had another garmin echo map plot unit for like $750 bucks that had chart plotter, down scan, side scan, and a live view ( need to buy a $1500 transducer for that though). So obviously I couldn’t really use it with my universal sonar in the trolling motor. Would I gain any thing by hooking my striker 4 to the trolling motor up front. Than having another fishfinder with side scan/down scan transducer at the back of the boat for the other better fish finder? basically running 2 fish finders.

Just ordered and picked these up to day from Cabela's in Saginaw . Plan on hitting Saginaw bay Sunday. In Michigan if your boats over 16 feet and going more than a mile off shore on the Great Lakes you need radio, flares, fire extinguisher, and life vests With whistles on them. you do t need all of that for the inland lakes but, it is nice to have I need to pick up a new fire extinguisher today as I think the one that cane with the boat has 1984 stamped on it

I just traded my 14 ft tin boat for a 17 ft Lund type boat. I needed a bigger boat to fish bigger bodies of water and to be more versatile. However, I’m going to miss my 14 footer with 9.8 2-stroke merc on it. You have to pick your days but, I could get into a lot places that bigger boat couldn’t. Eventually I will buy another tin boat to go along with the bigger boat. I had a kayak I think they are great for small rustic lakes and small to medium sized rivers. They scare me on anything but, that. Bad weather moves in at least you have a chance of making it in a 12 footer with 5 hp motor on it. Kayak not so much. You can get a tin boat, motor, trailer for less than what fully out fitted fishing kayak is gonna cost

Half a hot dog hung by a treble hook works too. Usually just hung it via wire so they can’t get to it from the outside or eat it in the trap. I always just bought the cheap coated wire minnow traps and opened up the holes on both sides so they can fit. 48 hrs is to long to set it. If you are able to I would check it every 6-12 hrs. I know in Michigan if you leave a trap un attended you need your name and address on it. I dunno if Ohio requires that or not

Are they using the gulp formula for these or is maxx scent a differnt formula? wonder if you had a open pack for a while and hit them with the gulp spray, How that would work out

Crank and hook order from tackle ware house came 2 days ago. Need to try other crank mfgs. what I have hasn’t been working. I have a couple good cranks and that’s about it. I ordered m 2 spros, The Cliff banger I don’t remember ordering but, apparently did and a bandit 200 ( I’ve caught a lot of fish on bandits). Now I need to start getting rid of some cranks

I always have At least 4 rods on boat. my crank rod, t-rigging/jig rod, spinner bait/square bill/other crank rod, and my mh (acts like a like medium) spinning set up for either tubes, Wacky rig, or light t-rig finesse set up. These four I take no matter what especially for fishing big rivers. Sometimes I may swap out the square bill rod for Another m/l Spinning reel. I have 4 other rods that get thrown in the mix. Like this time of year if I’m fishing lakes I’d bring my heavy punching rig. So that would give me 5. I really try not to bring more than 6. After 6 it just becomes a cluster #%^* and I spend more time swapping rods than fishing I try to have plan before going out but, it usually evolves throwing everything at them Untill something sticks. If I am short on time I like going to places I know. If I can fish all day I’ll go to unknown to me new places and that’s when I tend to bring more poles. as I’m usually unsure of what I’ll run into.

Maybe I will make some up

Hit the Tittabawassee up today. Made it as far up stream as state street in Saginaw before, I chickened out over the depth. Kind of a slow day only caught 3 and this one was the best. Caught on a LC 1.5 I forgot the name but it’s in picture. Lost the fish of the day at the boat on a chigger craw.

I just picked up this lucky craft golden shiner (top) . It actually looks pretty close. I think I bought it from TW

Your going to pay the same money to have a 4 stroke fixed. there is plenty of money in it. We charge 65 dollars an hour. Every marina up here works on them. The main problem is finding the guys with the skills to work on even a 4 stroke and those who want to learn . Tohatsu just came out with a brand new 2 stroke just isn’t EPA compliant yet

Latest ones. Black and blue has been a really good jig color lately. I didn’t have a lot of that jig in that color to begin with. So made some more. 2 poison tails jigs/swim jigs, 3 black and blue arkies and 1 junebug flak arkie. Fall is almost here unfortunately

No, it is bad trying to find a boat mechanic to hire. Grandpa goes through this all the time for his place in northern Michigan. He has one really good mechanic who can fix anything but, he’s in his early to mid 50’s. He tries to have 2 at all times but, he’s had a couple end up going to jail for past or current issues. Or they just disappear. He will hire one and than finds out they don’t know what the hell they are doing or like I said thier court Date is next week haha This has nothing to do with it. Well maybe in California but, they out law everything. Will older 2-stroke motors go away sure however, it’s going to be 50 years before these 2 strokes built in 80’s and 90’s are too old to work. There are probably a couple million 2-stroke motors in Michigan alone. There is plenty of reason for marinas to train mechanics in how to fix them. Biggest issue is you can not find outboard mechanics. When you do find a good one they want big money. In Michigan you face getting laid off for 3-5 months every winter The issue is with out getting political. We have beaten it into every bodies heads that they need to Go to college. If you want to tinker and work on out-boards “you will never amount to any thing”. Luckily the trend is starting to reverse its self with more high school and C.C programs

If I’m messing around with the electrical or battery I may hit the key for a second just to hear the starter crank. I don’t fire the motor up though. With an out board there is no need to crank it after use even in freezing weather. The water will drain out on its own. beginning of the year After setting from 3-6 months I start it on the trailer. My current boat will need muffs to do that. My little 9.8 I had I could Not use muffs As the intake was above the prop facing down. so I just filled a up big garbage can with water and let it run in there. if you constantly worried if your motor will start or not each time at the ramp. There is a problem!!!! You need to either fix the problem your self or take it somebody. What good is having a boat if it’s a 50/50 shot of it firing up. What happens if it does not re fire on the lake or on a river? in Michigan waiting for a 2 stroke or older 4 stroke to warm up in cold weather after launching is just part of the game. Nobody says anything unless your screwing around

Well my grandpa owns a marina. One of his mechanics put the shift box in. That shift box was 320 bucks off of amazon. Which, was 50 bucks more than an at cost quicksilver shift box would have been. msp in the quicksilver box $750 dealer cost was only like $289. At the time though we couldn’t find a 8 pin quicksilver shift box from his suppliers. This shift box I bought is an off brand but, works very well. Wasn’t the cheapest I could find that is for sure. There is not much mark up on electronics so I really only saved a couple bucks on the dual bank charger and a couple of other electrical odds in ends. I put the deck on up front with the help of one of the guys at the dock/stove company another place grandpa owns. Who is a heck of fabricator. He didn’t do the vinal I did that monstrosity. Luckily the vinal was a free scrap piece. I also helped him put the aluminum plate where the port side wind shield was. That way I can drill into aluminum plate for mounting electronics instead of the console.

Darn you the monkey is upset. I just put the order in like 2 hrs ago. I’ll see how these work and maybe order that later

Melt a lot of lead with that sucker. I’d like somthing like that for melting tire weights and other lead stuff into ingots.