6/30/21 My bench of
fishing contacts is getting pretty thin. Life
has taken it toll on former fishing buds. Some
have passed away. Others medical issues come
into play.
Fishing with friends and having a few laughs is a
cherished memory never forgotten. My sources
for fishing reports dating back 20 years has dried
up too for the same reasons.
4th of July weekend is when summer hits full tilt in
Manistee, MI. Hope to take a few days off
early next week before the summer rush. 3rd
week of July is the kick off for adult summer Kings.
Once that starts? ...time off won't happen till the
end of August.
6/29/21 Today's topic is
catching Kings is EZ. These are aggressive
fish that grow from 1/4" egg into a 25-30 pound
adult in 5 years. MI does not have any other
specie of fish that has this growth rate.
Kings are programmed to hit/feed as much as
possible.
Locating them is the hard part in today's fishery.
Used to be, find the bait and you'll find the
Salmon. This is a double edged sword, because
in these times, bait can be scarce. So, are
the Kings with historic low numbers from the Little
Manistee Weir data.
There are local hotspots with lots of bait.
The extreme NW corner of Lk. MI from Escanaba to
maybe Manistique has plenty of bait and respectable
numbers of Kings.
If I wasn't swamped with work? ...I'd done a trip to
the UP yesterday.
6/28/21 Productive
weekend. Spoon inventory is in good shape.
Strips continue to be a problem keeping in-stock.
That's why I worked the weekend to keep my head
above water. Figure time spent now will allow
me to go fishing that's only a distant dream for
now. Reason I'm pushing myself this hard?
I'm only a little over a 1/3 of the way to being in
the black with our Strip Teazers.
Tooling cost is the big bite with injection machine
and custom designed CAD molds being the lion's
share. Extended glow colorants come in around
5k. Made sure not to underfund the strip
project. Previous cheapie strips have never
gained wide scale fleet acceptance and failed.
Made sure to avoid this pitfall.
6/27/21 Spoon production
day. Inventory is low on several of our
spoons. 4.65s are outselling the standard 4.0
model. Should be caught up by the end of
today.
Mentioned yesterday about the trial and tribulations
of our Strip Teazers. This is what you get
when a raw base product transformed into fish
catching tackle. Strips start life in a 5
gallon bucket. So, this is a ground-up
operation from scratch.
6/26/21 Before even
making prototype strips last year, watched several
You Tube videos about making soft plastics.
Little did I know, what I watched was for hobbyists
that injected a mold for a few lures. So, I
thought? ...hey, this was easy! ...Wrong!
Making production runs of over 100 pieces is labor
intensive. Granted it's not hard labor, but
it's a process that uses a lot of time. 1.
premix the goop with scent. 2. add
color/flake. 3. heat to over 350° to change a
liquid into a solid. 4. Load machine, or
hand injector. 5. shoot the molds. 6.
remove parts from molds. 7. trim sprues.
8. hang to cure. 9. remove hangers to apply
more scent. 10. Finally, package ready
to sell.
This is on the short side is a 3 day process.
Usually more to get a better cure. After
pouring 25 gallons of soft plastics, learned the
hard way this is a tough job. If I even had an
inkling of the time involved, doubt I would have
ever went down this road.
6/25/21 Haven't spoke
much about our Salmon Buster™ spoon this year with
our strips grabbing most of the attention. Our
spoons rank 3rd in sales. Meat heads are
number 1. Strips in second place. 3rd place is
big deal being ahead of our flashers and meat rigs™.
Salmon Buster spoons are almost a forever purchase
proven by Top 40 Charter's featured pic of the day,
a 4.65 Pearl Passion spoon with a decent King.
Know this spoon is the best part of 5 years old and
still catching fish. Minus a few teeth-mark
scratches, this spoon will last a lifetime.
How many spoons do you have that are still in
service 5 years after date of purchase?
Click 6/22/21 Top 40's spoon
Tomorrow? ...what I've learned about
making strips.
6/24/21 After 3 tries
finally nailed the Black Mamba Glo Strip Teazers.
1st effort the black peeled and are being warranted.
2nd try looked like 3rd graders did it. 3rd
was a charm when I did the final mix yesterday.
Good this is the photo does not do it justice.
That's
OK, because after the purchase, ...seen in person,
it looks even better. This is opposite of
McDonald's golden arches where the burger photo
looks yummy.
Then, when you open it up? ...your Big Mac looks
like was made by a bunch of one-arm howler monkeys.
Click Blk Mamba Glo Strip Teazer
6/23/21 Side tracked
yesterday with a heavy workload in the am.
Today's focus is contrasting blends of color in our
2 tone glow Strip Teazer soft plastic fish chow.
Most glow lures of and kind ...spend the majority of
their water time in daylight conditions. Have
a bi-color like in our XG Frogs, Super Smurfs and
Green D.G. adds another plus on your side when
there's 2 colors rotating and flashing: BITE ME!
We already know solid glow colors work. Proved
that last August.
6/22/21 Today's topic is
scheduled to be about glow lures that spend the
majority of their usage in full light. This
will have to wait until all orders in the queue are
shipped.
6/21/21 Posted a photo
of a 31 pound King caught last Thursday out of
Fairport. Fairport is just west of Manistique,
MI. So, I'm semi familiar with this part of
MI's UP.
Word is the this northern part of LK. MI is choked
with bait/Alewives. Quality for now describes
this fishery with Kings way over 20 pounds.
Just not in big numbers yet.
Today's
photo shows it's hard to grasp the actual size of
this fish with nothing as a reference point for
scale. My thanks for Reid for sending it in.
Click
Reid's 31lb King
This jumbo King came on a Super Smurf Strip
Teazer.
6/18/21 Father's Day
Weekend and time to share some one on one time with
your dad. Life does have an expiration date.
So, make the most of this special day. My
father has long since passed and this opportunity no
longer exists for me.
Taking the weekend off. Been burning the
candle at both ends and in the middle. We all
need personal time to recharge. Be back
Monday with a 31lb King pic.
6/17/21 Today's featured
test photo shows exactly how to ruin our soft
plastic herring replacement strips. Top 2
strips were soaked/submerged in baitfish oil.
This shrunk and hardened ...turning into hard
plastic, worthless chunks of junk. This test
happened over a period of 10 months going back to
August of 2020. Plus, it removed any hint of
color.
Bottom 2 were strips made in clay molds. They
were processed with a light coating of the same fish
oil. Then, stored in our clear cello-bags that
we use now.
Outcome is obvious with the top 2 being reduced in
size. Found out from the manufacturer, too
much fish oil will remove the plasticizers in the
soft plastic.
More on test soon. This is an important
subject that needs more depth.
6/16/21 Strip Teazers
are a great insurance policy of never having bait to
fish with. These strips can live aboard.
This means no extra ice/cooler for bait. Brine
is another bothersome steps that eliminated with the
jar. This means no spills.
I
have to keep reminding myself I'm not Superman when
it comes to building tackle. The covid crisis
wipeout a lot of our reserve tackle inventory.
Only recently we were able to hire more help that's
still learning the job. Be prepared for a 2-3
day wait when it comes to items we have to make to
get out the door.
Tomorrow? ...long term strip test revealed on what
not to do!
6/15/21 World debut of
our new 2021 King Smurf Glo Strip Teazers.
Added a light trace of blue flake to help identify
this pattern. This is our brightest blue glow
teazer. You can expect a high intensity blue
glow for a good 30 minutes. Then, it dims over
time. At the 4 hour mark something weird
happens, because it changes to a dim white glow.
When
ever my next trip happens, know I'll pair this color
up with our popular XG-Smurf combo/meat
rig™/flasher.
Click new King Smurf Glo Strip Teazer
6/14/21 Yesterday's
featured photo confirms how versatile our Super Mag
heads are. Never tested Strip Teazers with the
Super Mags. Just didn't have the time.
Mags and Super Mags are the same size, with the
supers having a larger pocket for whole bait. My
thanks to Reid R for sharing his photos for us to
see.
Click Super Mag, strip & 24lb King
Close to 100 baby King Smurf Glos were born yesterday and
are undergoing the scent curing process that takes a
few days. The blue
glow is off the charts.
We just used raw
colorant with no whiteners. Most of the Kings
I've seen this year, blue is the common thread.
So, the new 2021 King Smurfs was a no brainer to bring
into production. Photo of this new glow weapons
grade tackle
tomorrow.
6/13/21 Reid R. sent in today's featured
photo of a 24 pound King he recently caught on a
Super Smurf Strip Teazer. This a great
un-staged photo live shot that show cases the strip,
as it should. These are the kind of photos I
find most rewarding for all the hard work that went
into developing herring replacement strips.
Click Reid's 24lb King
King Smurf Strip Teazers are in the labor process
and will be born this morning. We welcome this
new addition to our soft plastic herring replacement
strip family.
6/12/21 Salmon Buster™
are producing some Pacific Ocean Kings off the
central coast of California. These plastic
spoons are a great choice, because they're less
effected by the salt water compared to metal spoons.
Waiting for pics of these fish to share.
Last 3-4 dozen spoons we've sold has went to the
west coast.
6/11/21 Productive week
for yours truly. Have 3 new hires that seem to
be working out just fine. 3 of the 4
interviewed made the cut. So, we're in good
shape for prime time.
Handled many business admin tasks yesterday to keep
the wheels moving. Picked up a new tackle
store to handle of Strip Teazers in St. Joe, MI.
Next week, it's supposed to be a bit cooler and
strip production will be front row and center.
Following week, all our laminates, or 2 color strips
will be next.
My not
in the trenches view of this year's population of
Kings is anyone's guess. Do know, our spring
Kings didn't take a whoopin' in southern Lk. MI.
This could mean more in August, or this year's crop
is going to be a little bit on the thin side.
6/10/21 Back in May, on
my only fishing trip this season tested the plastic
push pins used for decoration to peg strips. These pins
worked fine. Proven when a Lakers chewed on a
Black Mamba Glo Strip Teazer. 90% of the time
been including these pins as a freebee on ReScent
fish oil attractant purchases.
Click pin use
and care video demo
When rigged just for soft plastic strips, our 2 and
3 Fly Meat Rigs™ are equipped with 8mm beads for
hook spacers. Thusly, eliminating toothpicks.
Today's topic came to mind, because "I thought"
these pins would work is a terrible statement until
it's proven. Thoughts mean squat. Proof
on the water does.
6/9/21 There are Coho
still being caught in the extreme S end of Lk. MI.
It's about a 6 mile run N of E Chicago, IN to reach
50-60' of water.
Click Strip Teazer Coho
Today's
featured photo is from Tom M who fishes this area.
His first Coho came on a X-Glow Green Strip Teazer.
Tom said this bait wasn't in the water for 10
minutes when a 4-5 pound Coho met his fate.
The growth rate of these Coho continues to amaze me.
What was a 16-17" Coho 2 months ago are now pushing
5 pounds.
6/8/21 Busy, busy, busy
with orders since 3am last night. Today's chat
is postponed.
It's better for me to work in the wee hours, because
there's no distractions.
Hired new personal that's still in the training
stage to take some of the heat of me.
6/7/21 This coming
weekend is the MDNR's free fishing weekend.
Going back to when I used to charter? ...an easy
weekend to book. Cost of a fishing license
didn't keep customers away, it was the extra hoops
they used to have jump thru. Online licensing
has changed that and made buying a fishing
relatively easy.
Also,
no recreational passport is required at state run
boat launches and state parks. This passport
is a $12 user fee on top of a user fee paid you camp
at state parks.
6/6/21 Day off after I
installed 5 new LED light bars in my pole barn where
Strip Teazers are now being made. LEDs that
replace fluorescent tube lights burn a lot less
juice, don't need replacing, and never have that
annoying hum/buzz.
This week's
entries include free fishing weekend and a new
X-Glow color that will soon be added to the lineup
of our herring replacement strips. This was a
no brainer!
6/5/21 Current hot spell
means strong winds from the S that keeps the small
boat fleet dockside. 90s are considered not
normal for central and northern MI.
Last
report received from Manistee's shelf was pretty
lackluster. One thing I know about Manistee?
When the first dropoff, or shelf is tough? ...you
have to move deeper out to 300' and beyond and hopes
to find a few pockets of fish.
6/4/21 Training new help
today to machine meat heads. This is a simple
job, once the drill presses are setup.
Difficult part is getting the spacing right.
0.005" room for error and that's not much to
centerline the holes for proper placement.
My ad on
Craig's list has been so-so with not many seeking a
job that can be done at home, at your own pace.
Hiring help in Manistee County during summer is
probably the worst time, because that's when the
seasonal tourism jobs kick in.
6/3/21 We all need a
place to start when it comes to color choices on
what to offer Mr. Fish. A common thread that
goes back to the recent MI City, IN tournament is
blue.
Blue was
mentioned in yesterday's report from Steve T. being
a blue fly. I've done OK on spring Kings over
the past few seasons on our Icy Blue Salmon Buster™
and XG Bluetail spoons in the 4.0 size, both in
Ludington and Manistee. It's good to see that
at least a few Kings are showing up.
Click XG Bluetail big Ludington King
This is the
fish that drives our fishery. Reason? ...tell
me of any fisherman that don't who want to do battle
and catch a fish over 20 pounds.
6/2/21 Today's fishing
report is courtesy of Steve T. who fishes out of
Arcadia, MI.
He's been a member and friend of this website since
the early i2ks. I take his word as gospel.
On 5/30/21 Steve fished a short morning trip 7am to
11am.
Inside,
near shore was all cold water and they trolled out
to deeper and found 48° water over 400' of water.
Steve had 6 hits and ended up with 2 Kings to 17
pounds and a couple of Lakers. Their biggest
King, a heartbreaker over 20 came unpegged right at
the back of the boat.
Click 17 lb. Lk. MI King Salmon
Weapons
of choice with 10" BTI flashers and flies.
Something I don't mention, or push, but know my BTI
flashers are deadly with 2 fly meat rigs™, or flies.
6/1/21 Today's planned
discussion about the MDNR's free fishing weekend
this June 12th and 13th will be expanded on
tomorrow. 3 days off were not enough to catch
up on what needs to be done. In the process of
hiring more help that seems to be working out.
5/29/21 Welcome to
Memorial Day Weekend 2021. Weather is cool
with frost warning for Manistee, MI. Lk. MI
looks decent to fish. Sorry have no reports to
share.
Been hard at work revamping my pole barn into a
complete workstation to make our Strip Teazers.
Hope to finish this project and start production
again soon.
Have a safe weekend and enjoy the unofficial start
of summer. Taking a few days off and regular
updates with fish reports (I hope) will resume this
coming Tuesday.
5/28/21 Every cloud is
supposed to have it's silver lining. After
seeing the color peeling on the Black Mamba Glow
Strip Teazers discovered how good our scent process
is.
By accident left the dissected strip sit on a sheet
of paper 12 hours. When I went to toss the
cutup strips found an oil stain on the paper.
Click paper stain
We take great care during the curing process once
the strips have been injected. So, after being
trolled for 8 miles and sitting on a desk for days,
fish oil was time released enough to leave marks on
paper. Impressive is the word that comes to
mind.
5/27/21 Did some
detective work tracing the color fail/peeling on the
Black Mamba Glos. This model had red flake
that did not play nice with the black flake.
It pushed the black out on the top. While the
glow bottom migrated to the top.
Click for this pic
Cut open both the regular and glow versions of the
Black Mamba Strip Teazers. Turns out the
regular, non glow Black Mamba had no issues
what-so-ever.
Any strip that has a problem will be replaced for
free with no ship charge. This is a brand new
product and a few hip-cups fine tuning the mix were
bound to happen.
5/26/21 This website is
on autopilot today. There's plenty of
instructional articles and videos to be reviewed at:
Click for Tips & Trix
Click for our YouTube videos
Tomorrow's update will be about what's up with our
Strip Teazers.
5/25/21 Covid 19 is
headed towards the down-low. This has opened
up opportunities to hire more help. Put an ad
in Craig's List and have 3 good candidates I'll be
interviewing soon. For this 15 months, Wayne J, my
wife and I, just 3 people, did workload of many.
Wayne helped carry my tackle company doing heads,
machining heads, making meat rig strings, and all
products requiring the melting of lead.
Plus, Wayne was instrumental in the development and
manufacturing of Strip Teazers. That's too of
a heavy load for just one person. More on this
in the future.
5/24/21 Posted a chart
of the surface temp from Manistee to Ludington, MI
on 5/21/21.
More recent charts were skewed by cloud cover.
When Manistee lights up with good fishing for spring
Kings there will be 50° on the shore-side dropoff
(shelf). On the outside there will be a big
temp break with colder waters in the 40° range.
Click surface chart
This is
secondhand info from a trusted source about N of
Ludington producing decent opportunities for Kings.
Need to confirm this before we take it as gospel.
5/23/21 With the bad
comes the good. After the Black Mamba Glo color peeling issue
fail, learned that XG Frog Strip
Teazer still had a slight fish smell. This
happened a day later when I cleaning and organizing
the boat for the next outing.
What makes this even better? This froggy had
been in the water and trolled for about 8 miles.
So, our 2021 Re-Scent fish attractant is on point
and performed far better than expected. This
is the same juice we used in last Augusts' test
sessions.
Another thing learned? ...putting scent on will keep
the mess down if it's done inside a small plastic
container/baggie. Like something used for
sandwiches, or smaller.
5/22/21 Discovered a
color flaw in our Black Mamba Glo Strip Teazers.
Top is black and that came off during last week's
trip. Cause was the black flake was allowed to
get too hot and rose to the outer part of the strip
with poor adherence.
Now, this only happened to 1 strip. Rest
could have been fine. This question will be
answered with more testing in the future.
Click
for color fail
It was good to learn of this early in the season.
Working on fix by around June 1st. Denial
does not make problems go away. Upgrading them
does.
Any strip that does not perform up to my high
standards will be replaced free of charge.
Just email me a photo of the issue, and I'll ship
out an improved product.
5/21/21 Got 4 hours of
lines in the water time 2 days ago out of my home
port of Manistee, MI. Surface temp was 47°.
Suspended fish marks on the sonar that could have
been spring Kings were a no-no. Made a big
loop from 2 miles N of the harbor in 50' out to 200'
zigzagging in and out to 120' S about 2 miles S of
the pier heads.
Easy Laker fishing from 2 weeks ago for "up off the
bottom" LTs has dried up. Did manage 1 small
Laker we tossed back. This was my 1st trip
with Strip Teazers on all 6 rods. Did learn a
bunch and tested several colors that will be covered
in future chats.
Another first is? ....an all attractor program in
May since my spoons came out 5 years ago. So,
this is going to take some dialing in to get this
program fine tuned.
Tomorrow, "de"
Nile is not a river in Egypt concerning a product
flaw.
5/20/21 Skipping today's
update. Trying to keep up with orders has me
burning the candle at both ends. Looks like I
need to hire more help. Must live in Manistee
County due to supply pickup and parts delivery.
All jobs are at least twice the going minimum wage.
If you're looking for at home piece work?
Email me for more info
5/19/21 Tangled Tackle
in Manistee, MI now carries our 2021 Strip Teazers.
So does Fat Nancy's Tackle Shop in Pulaski N.Y.
along with Grimsby Tackle in Grimsby, Ontario.
Hope to expand to more dealer outlets as the 2021
season progresses. New injection machine have
made mass production a lot easier.
Congratulations' to Spencer Turnbull and the
Detroit Tigers for his no hitter in Seattle, WA last
night. Since the Tigers became a major league
team in 1901 this is only the 8th no hitter ever
thrown by a Tiger pitcher. This is a big deal.
It's great to see some fans back in the ballparks as
we crawl our way back to normalcy from Covid 19.
5/18/21 2 days ago
crossed into a new realm of production. In
about an hour, Wayne J and I did close to a 100
strips. This includes time to heat the goop
and shoot 12 8-cavity molds. Plus, we took 2
ten minute breaks waiting the goop to heat and
during cool down.
Prior to purchasing our new injection machine this
would have taken hours doing it with hand injectors
and never reach the same quality.
Click new SUVs being born
Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose when it
comes to buying new tooling for any type of
production. This was a win-win 10 times over.
Now, in one day, we can get as much accomplished as
3 days by the old style manual hand injector method.
Working smarter, not harder is the theme of today's
chat. Increased production with less effort
now opens up the possibility to offering our strips
to tackle stores.
5/17/21 "Tried out the
strip teasers this morning.. we used them to sort
out small Lakers. Ended the day keeping our
three man limit and releasing 7!! Half came on
strip teasers! I now need a few other colors
to go with! Thank you for being innovative"
Guest update from Jared G. Detour, MI (Lk. Huron).
Click 5.15.21 Strip Teazer Laker
This is reason why we need to ramp up production is
from awesome customer acceptance. With a new
product you never know if the fishing public will
give it a thumbs up. In our case, it's been an
overwhelming success story. Keeping enough in
stock to handle our web sales has been a chore.
Let alone, make enough to stock tackle stores.
Which is our goal before the summer season
arrives. Tomorrow report on new machine.
5/16/21 Task at hand for
today? ...dial-in our new injection machine.
This was a pricey close to a 6k purchase that will
boost our production current ceiling of around a 100
strips.
Injecting the soft plastic by hand is a lot more
work than needed. Know this machine will
triple our output from stone-age tech i.e. hand
injection. Full report, photos & a You Tube
video will record our 1st steps with the new
machine.
Click for
machine
Title of new video? ..."Soft Plastic Injection for
Dummies." Be sure to tune in tomorrow as Wayne
J and I work thru the idiosyncrasies without looking
like idiots.
Tomorrow? ...the reel-reason we need to up
production levels!
5/15/21 The reel facts
about strontium aluminate, Boron oxide, Europium
oxide, are used in what's called extended glow
colorants. 90% of the glow is used during the
first 30 minutes. Then, it dims, but can still
glow for many hours.
Glow J-Plugs were a staple for harbor patrol when I
was a charter skipper. This glow was not
extended and lasted to the outside 15 minutes.
Lit up, or glowed up bright J-Plugs new got hit
until the glow subsided/dimmed. That's when
the touchy harbor adult Kings would whack it hard
during low light. So, it's a delicate balance
on the right amount of glow that flips the switch
for full grown King Salmon.
Know on evening trips, when the fishing is done,
lines are pulled, and we're headed for the dock, all
my tackle has the right glow as night falls.
Seeing my tackle glow and it hasn't seen a light
source for hours is rewarding for yours truly.
This means I've done my job!
5/14/21 New injection
molding company hit a home run with the 2021
production run of X-Glow heads. Glow
properties are excellent, but there's more to this
story. Having a white head that glows green
covers all light conditions. From total
darkness, to low light, up to full sun, these XG
heads are a reel-winner.
Click new
XG heads
Feels
like we hit the lottery with our new company.
Thrilled to see their quality and attention to
detail. The hoops that we jump thru to get
this hard to get, costly XG colorant makes it all
worthwhile, ...when I look at today's featured photo
5/13/21 Tons of stuff
going on all pointed at restocking tackle for this
year and beyond. Out of stock is the kiss of
death when you don't have items to sell.
Yesterday, 101 LED UV black lights restocked.
This the best way I've found to charge glow in the
dark tackle and do it fast. Plus, being LED
it's easy on 3 AA batteries.
Click UV black lights
Today some of our 2021 Magnum Meat heads will be
in-house and ready for the machining process.
We were down to our last 20 SUV mag heads.
This is a major relief!
Working on boosting Strip Teazer production that's a
dreadfully slow process with hand injectors.
Before we can inject the molds? ...colors have to be
mixed. Then, heated to the proper temperature
prior to injecting. Hanging strips to cure is
a process that takes days before strips ever see
packaging. Let alone being shipped out.
Know today's chat is not as exciting as a double on
big summer Kings, but it's all part of the behind
the scenes effort that makes the double possible
with our tackle.
Can't be in 2 places at once is the biggest reason
I've yet to fish Lk. MI this year. Covering
the bases solo to keep moving forward is a bunch
more important.
5/12/21 Improving
weather will end the freeze warnings we've had in
Manistee, MI. This will brighten the outlook
to spend some time on Lk. MI. Hard for me to
get motivated when we're averaging 20° below normal.
Wind is going to be down for the next few days.
It was a chilly 27° this morning at my place.
Temps this cold can turn docks into frosty ice
skating areas dangerous to walk on, if your goal is
to start early.
Everything is pretty much set with our web based
tackle store for 2021. Added a lot of content
here about industry leading Strip Teazer herring
replacement strips.
This the time of the year when we run tackle
specials to spur sales that are limited time offers
that always sell out.
Click for 2021 tackle specials
5/11/21 At work
installing new Tackle Lockers at our webstore.
These are the popular Plano ProLatch 3731 utility
boxes are built to last. Same as our Leader
Lockers™ box, less the inserts. This is a
great way to organize several items in small space
(14" x 9-1/8" x 3-1/4"). Special sale price: 3
for 30 bucks, or 10.95 each
Click more info
5/10/21 Best fishing
reports I've heard on spring Kings is off Gary, IN
in 40' to 50' of water that's holding large schools
of Alewives. Catches are still about 80% Coho
with the Kings running from 12 to 17 pounds.
Not much to report on ports further north yet.
What I noticed is not many Kings over 20 pounds have
been caught. MI City, IN tournament about a
week ago only weighed in a King, or 2 over 20.
There were over 60 boats in this event that provides
a decent sample size to form a consensus.
Central Lk. MI ports like Ludington, Manistee and
Frankfort should have action on spring Kings in a
week, or two. Until then, the Lake Trout are
picking up the slack.
5/8/21 Weather for
Mother's Day weekend is going to be OK, compared to
this past week. April and early May temps have
been well below long term averages.
My
Thursday fishing trip that turned into a fizzle from
the drizzle was a step in the right direction.
Fishing trip prep depends on 3 action cams. 2
GoPros and a Sony that cover all bases like:
underwater capture, narration shots and head cam to
shoot the fish coming aboard. Plus, a Nikon
P500 for still photos of caught fish and what they
ate.
Have Great Mother's Day. Be
back Monday for regular update/chat sessions.
5/7/21 Planned fishing
trip fizzled out with a cold rain that lasted longer
then expected. Decision maker is when I went
outside around noon it was chilly 43° in a light
drizzle. Checked the radar at 1pm showed more
rain on the way. This squashed my ambition,
want, and need to make my 1st trip of the season.
Want to fish and enjoy the outing.
Used the time
to handle several issues to get our 1st supply of
Magnum bait heads for 2021. Been working with
a new company, after my old one went out of
business. SUVs and X-Glow heads were almost
out of stock. Patience won this battle.
I'm glad to inform you, we will have a supply of
heads in all colors for this year & beyond.
5/6/21 Day off for
fishing if the forecast stays favorable.
Working on Meat Rigs™ yesterday rigged for Strip
Teazers. 3 beads between the hook and tail of
the meat head seems perfect. Plus, it allows
for artistic expression coordinating bead colors.
Hope I can
find a spring Salmon or 2 this afternoon.
Reports on LTs have been good, but I don't want to
change my last name to Lake Trout. King sounds
a lot better!
5/5/21 Strip Teazer
fishing report for you today from Manistee, MI.
Dave V drew first blood with our 2021 Strip Teazer
soft plastic herring replacement strips by finishing
3rd in last weekend's
MCSFA small boat tournament.
Here's his exact words:
"Sunday May 2nd, 2021 Manistee, MI.
3 fish combo 43.4 lbs. 2 of 3 came on green double glow strip
teaser/herring oil." Dave V.
Click for Dave's catch
Intriguing part is Dave caught this jumbo trio of big Lakers
suspended in the water column over 50'-55' of water ...while a Spin
N Glo ran tight to the bottom did not produce.
5/4/21 Tomorrow we will
not be shipping orders, unless it's something real
simple requiring no assembly. Want to get my
boat out of the pole barn to fish in a few days.
Boat is ace double ready. Tackle is not.
Must make sure I'm ready to fish everything from
spoons to meat rig combos and that means a good
selection of Strip Teazers.
Word from
Manistee, MI is some Lakers are being caught.
Heard there were an oddball King being taken every
now and then, but don't count on it. So, this
means a wide array of tackle to cover all the bases
and that takes time. Don't get to fish very
often and must make sure everything is aboard.
If I try to work and do orders? There won't be
anything left in the tank to hit the pond this
Thursday, if the forecast holds true.
5/3/21 Still working on
restocking Magnum Meat heads for this year.
This dates back to last January when my former
injection molding company closed up shop.
Do have a new
company ready to roll except for one reason.
They have 16 injection molding machines and only
enough employees to run half of them.
I know their
longtime existing accounts have priority over my
order. Labor storage is a big problem for our
country, as we awaken from the Covid 19 crisis.
Factor in
unemployment compensation that has a lot to do with
this. I can't find fault with anyone making
more money staying at home compared to going to
work.
In time this
problem will rectify itself as things get back to
normal and unemployment benefits run out.
There's a lot of illegal aliens at our southern
border who would scoop up these jobs in a heartbeat,
if labor shortages are here to stay.
4/30/21 Going to leave
this page as is, and take the weekend off. We
all need time to decompress by getting away from the
job. Internet free weekend for yours truly.
4/29/21 Video update not
posted before, because this was a long ways from
looking professional. This fish made Wayne J.
and I look like Dumb and Dumber. This was a
case of being too careful to showcase what soft
plastic strips are capable of. It was a heart
breaker after a long fight to have 25 pound King
get wrapped up in the kicker/trolling motor.
Stay tuned for the ending to see how Frit and Frat
(Wayne & I) handled this.
Click for Mid Morning Strip Teazer King Video
4/28/21 Finished the
2021 tackle specials at the webstore. Creating
new pages with balanced symmetry explaining the
point is rewarding for me. Having a enough
basic webmaster skills to do this has been a
godsend. I know, it's exactly how I want it to
look, less explaining it to a second party who's
livelihood does not depend on the format.
New combo specials is what I rely on, when I
absolutely must catch. That's why the FireDot
and XG Frog were part of the birthing process of
Strip Teazers. Last August testing sessions
relied on only these 2 selections.
Click for
combo info
4/27/21 Today's featured
photo is a scan from 35mm film. 1999 digital
cameras were in their infancy. This photo is
from the Bob L. charter. I estimated at around
400 pounds of Kings. Most of these fish hit a
"00" Firedot in the harbor pulling a green glow
squid. Kicker is? ...we still had a few Kings
in the coolers that never made the photo.
Fast forward my Strip Teazer test sessions last
August out of Frankfort, MI we used this same
FireDot pattern with a green glow ST. It's
easy to see the parallel of years prior. When
it's August and I absolutely need fish? The
FireDot always earns it keep.
FireDots will never win a beauty contest. They
will win the battle of putting fish in the boat and
have proven this reel fact over last 50 some years.
Timeless, iconic colors don't come with an
expiration date.
Click Firedot test specials
4/26/21 In my 50 some
years of chasing Salmon on all 5 of our Great Lakes,
only a few colors/patterns have reached iconic
status. Some on this list are Green Glow
J-Plugs, Silver Streak Yellowtails and silver/chrome
attractors. Click 400lb catch
Firedot Kings
Number 1 is Firedot. First met this yellow
school bus with fluorescent red dots as a Manistee
Wobbler spoon in 1969. By the mid 1970s
Firedot pattern came on dodgers.
Talk about weird? ...1st dodger I saw, then
purchased had more in common with a license plate
than anything imaginable for for Salmon.
Turned into reel-believer in dodgers the first time
I sent them swimming. Caught some on dodgers,
but was never really dialed in until I choked up the
leads to 48" to 42" behind the cannonball.
Then,
it was a quick limit cities for both Kings and Coho
off the Lk. MI Port of Frankfort, MI in the 1970s,
1980s into the 1990s. To be
continued...
4/25/21 Fast moving
fronts with big temperature swings usually comes
with a lot of wind. Been looking for a decent
day with light winds to no avail. Don't get to
fish much and want a comfortable, enjoyable day on
the water. So, I'm biding my time.
One of the big reasons this website is skinny on
early season fish reports from trusted sources is
Covid 19. Some of my best who I counted on for
years are recovering from the virus. One who
got sick last January is still in long term recovery
mode.
This is a nasty illness that can last for a
longtime. Get vaccinated!
4/24/21 Planning ahead
is what any business is about. Our focus
lately is increasing Strip Teazer output. It's
slow process. 1st is the color mix. 2nd
is the heat the soft plastic. 3rd is to load
the injectors. 4th is to inject the mold.
5th cool down period to remove the strips from said
mold. 6th trim and hang strips with more scent
induction.
None of
this is hard, but it takes time. My best day
on output pushed 80 strips. Staying around
50-60 is a lot more reasonable with safety
precautions in place.
My
biggest concern is once the fleet starts catching ST
fish, like Wayne J and I did last August out of
Frankfort, MI ...we won't be able to meet demand.
So far, just
keeping all Strip Teazer colors in stock has been
pushing our limit.
4/23/21 We're a couple
of weeks from ports like South Haven, MI showing
good opportunities for spring Kings. Manistee,
MI can happen anytime, but the last part of May is
more traditional. Been saving my time up for
spring Kings when the fish arrive.
Can't wait to use color keyed long producing combs
like the Black Mamba 10" with matching meat rig™.
Same for the Black Mamba Glo combos with cloned
Strip Teazers. This is styling in my book when
everything matches. Is it necessary?
Probably not, but having options like this are
confidence building weapons to have in your arsenal.
4/22/21 In the process
of replenishing strontium aluminate, Boron oxide,
Europium oxide, Yttria, ect. In simpler terms,
glow colorants used in our tackle. Those big
fancy sounding names comes with a high cost.
China has the world market cornered on anything to
do with rare earths that make this 21st century
extended glow material.
Our Strip Teazer herring replacement strips use
massive amounts, because we're casting a solid piece
with glow throughout. Painted metal spoons
only need a small amount, a few thousandths thick to
cover the surface. Our usage exceeds 0.250, or
a 1/4". To me? ...it's worth it to have a
spectrum of glow colors. STs feature red,
blue, green, and yellow (chartreuse) X-Glows that
raises our strips to a whole new level.
4/21/21 It's going to
take a while to decompress from the Covid 19 crisis.
We've been under the cloud of avoiding crowds/people
and staying home was the best option.
This is why my early season usual contacts that send
in reports are MIA. Fishing reports that I've
relied on for years are nonexistent. This
makes my job to share fishing info with you next to
impossible. I don't like pulling fluff out of
the air for a chat.
Over 30% of MI has been vaccinated. The
shocker is we (MI) leads the nation, our USA in new
infections. There's no shortage of ignorant
people not willing to heed what the medical experts
have been preaching. Seen this myself last
April when a crowd lined up shoulder without masks
waiting in line to buy ice cream. During a
statewide lock-down.
There's 22k residents of Manistee County, MI.
We're at almost a 1000 confirmed cases of the Wuhan
virus. Multiply that 7 to 10 times for the
actual number. My guess is about 50% of
Manistee County have been infected. Symptoms,
or not.
4/20/21 It's my great
pleasure to post the 1st verifiable 2021 King caught
on my tackle. Know this high teener King came
on a XG-Frog Meat head by Team JZ that fishes out of
Burns Ditch, IN a lot. They're known for
putting fish in the boat.
Fishing in the part of S Lk. MI has the same vibe of
when I used to charter down on Lk. Erie in the late
1990s out of the Raison River (Monroe, MI) by the
coal fired Detroit Edison power plant. Indiana
waters is urban fishing with a lot of smoke stacks
that's radically different the further N you travel
on Lk. MI.
Click 1st 2021 King
4/19/21 Work continues
on 2021 tackle specials that will be done sometime
today. Having massive web server issues, so
like Arnold, "I'll be back" when everything is
fixed.
4/18/21 Have a great
Sunday! Working on some tackle specials to
kick off the 2021 season. 3 Leader Lockers™
with quick stow wrap around line protectors for
79.95 is a great way to store 72 meat rigs™ and
flies in a compact 14" by 12" by 10" space..
Deal 2
will be two 4 packs of assorted Strip Teazers for a
total of 8 strips. 4 will be extended glow and
4 will be sure-fire regular colors with a bottle of
Re-Scent. Haven't done the pricing, but have 8
strips aboard means you'll never run out of bait
...priceless!
4/17/21 According to Sea
Grant's Dan O'Keefe the average charter operator
lost over 10 grand in 2020 due COVID. That
translates in to about 20 trips in round numbers.
Charter skippers might get some relief for the Cares
Act, but that's a wait and see deal.
Being a charter skipper is a tough go. Loss of
20 trips in 2020 means less trips on the books in
2021. I used to run about a 70% repeat charter
groups. Some that I'm still in touch with to
this day.
Click 2020 charter revenue loss article
Missing 20 charters last year, right off the bat,
means you'll have 15 open days to fill this year in
a business that darn near impossible to turn a buck
in nowadays.
4/16/21 T.G.I.F.
Trying to stay positive in a negative world can be
done. Don't have the total solution, but I'm
working on it. Been looking at the small
victories and staying away from news as much as
possible. Disappointed in myself for not
making time to escape into the land of reel-fishing.
This will change and soon too, I hope.
60 hp Suzuki, purchased January of 2020 has 3 of the
10 hours on the break-in oil before the 1st oil
change. My 16' Grumman saw little use in the
era of the pandemic. Next warm decent day? ...
Project 2022 testing is on the schedule with my 16
footer.
Tax day April
15th has been extended to May 17th to file personal
taxes.
4/15/21 Here's some info
that needs expanding. M55 bridge over the Big
Manistee River by Meijer's is closed until November.
There is a detour (Stronach Rd.) where you go into
Stronach and around S end of Manistee Lake, turn W
by PCA boxboard plant and come out at the BP gas
station on US31, on the far S end of Manistee, MI.
This is
fine for now, but this will be a major choke point
when summer traffic hits. I'll be avoiding the
US31 BP way and going thru Filer City, if the MDOT
don't install a traffic light on US31. Look
for a map later this year to steer clear of this
traffic snarl.
Posted for this summer's visitors to
Manistee.
4/14/21 Today's pic
shows how a fishing trip turns into a catches trip
when there's lots of bait around. Area this
photo was taken was probably someplace between Gary
and Burn Ditch, IN by John Z. Team Z caught a
helluva box of fish with 3 anglers punching their 5
fish per ticket/license.
Click
sonar data and bait balls
I can only dream of what it's like to be on the
water again. Busy doing orders as the Lone
ranger without Tonto. Better days are coming
for yours truly.
4/13/21 My tackle
business has been about solving issues lately that I
have little control over. USPS Priority Mail,
once rock solid, is a joke when we ship anything to
New York.
Shipping delays of 2 weeks when it should have been
a 3 day delivery. Spoke to an post office
insider and his exact words were, "I've never seen
it so bad." Delayed shipments eat up a lot of
my time that could be better spent going forward,
not backtracking/retracing and contacting post
office branches.
Big deal on our list is increasing production on our
2021 Strip Teazers that are a huge hit at my
webstore. Hand injection is dreadfully slow
with a lot of risk to get seriously burned.
Soft plastics we work with range in temps from 360°
to 320°. Not to mention the wasted material
from the runners/sprue during the injection process.
4/12/21 Not many boats
have been fishing Lk. MI in my circle. Most
have been beating up on the resident Perch in
Manistee Lk waiting for the Lk. MI Perch to come in
the harbor.
Best thing about Perch is how good they are as table
fish. It's a time consuming chore to clean a
good mess of them.
Click recent Manistee Lk. Perch
S
end of Lk. MI has good reports with large schools of
bait and limit Coho catches out to 50' of water off
Gary, IN. A few Kings & Lakers have been
caught too.
4/11/21 Today we have a
guest update from Wayne J sharing the history of the
lumber boom that built Manistee, MI in the later
1800s. There we a number of major saw mills in
Manistee Lake processing lumber and cedar shake
shingles. Billions of feet of lumber were
floated down the Manistee Rivers to the many saw
mills operating on Manistee Lake.
If you fish Manistee Lake you'll hear a lot about
the old "slab docks."
"This piece of wood is probably close to 150 years
old. It was part of a “slab” dock that had been used
for processing wood. Slabs were wood that were
produced while processing good wood.
Click
piece of 18th century slab dock
They
threw away the small pieces into a crib type
structure and that formed a dock. The
schooners would pull up to the side of the dock and
load lumber for city’s that were in need for
building. Lots of history here." WJ
4/10/21 Have a great
weekend. A future topic will be about my Past
Results page where I've archived 21 years of daily
updates and how I use them.
Click Past Results
4/9/21 Summertime record
and near record high temperatures are going to turn
more normal in the next few days with rain
predicted. We need the rain, the forest is
parched.
Working
on a new deal for 3 Leader Lockers™ with EZ stow
protectors (cut-up pool noodles) for 79.95.
There will be 2 sizes of EZ protectors that's a big
step up from wrapping flies and meat rigs™ around
any style attractor. When mono dries is
shrinks a little. Leaving kinks in the leader
line that's not helping longevity.
Click EZ
stows
Of
course you can make these yourself. Electric
knife is the best way to slice up the noodles.
I cut 2 half moons, think just a single cut will
work better.
For the
approx. price of 3 meat rigs™ you can protect and
stow 72 rigs, or flies that fit in a tight compact
space. Get the most out of your tackle dollar
by organizing and protecting your tackle. Been
using these since 2005 and have rigs 15 years old.
4/8/21 Administrative is
a fancy word to describe dealing with the everyday
issues that comes with running any business.
Unfortunately, this has kept me on the dock until
things smooth out. This the same scenario just
like last year I was hoping to avoid.
What little I
have heard about LK. MI fishing off Manistee, MI is
not all that thrilling with the wind handicapping
the small boat fleet.
Those
targeting Perch in Manistee Lk are catching some.
Wigglers and wax worms are out producing minnows by
a long ways as Perch bait.
4/7/21 Hallelujah,
removed the snow plow off my Ford F250. This
my out of town rig when I put the camper on with the
extended hitch to accommodate the boat.
Considering South Haven in May for a 2 night
getaway. Chartered there in the late
1990s-early i2ks.
So,
like Saugatuck I'm very familiar with this port.
Plus, I do have a contact person, Dan A. to advise
on when the 1st signs of Kings are showing up.
Big deal is to avoid the tournament time when port
becomes crowded.
The bait
Wayne J and I marked last mid-August of Frankfort,
MI was an encouraging sign. N rim of the
Herring Hole was wall to wall bait.
4/6/21 Fishing report
from the S end of Lk. MI courtesy of Tom M:
"Fishing is very sporadic on this end with very few
boats getting limits but there has been a few nice
kings caught. I'll be letting you know when I
get out and put the New teaser strip Froggie down.
Maybe next week if my back is feeling better hope
everything is good with you and your family." Tom M
from E Chicago, IN
4/5/21 Probably the
nicest Easter Weekend in recent memory, Temps
around 70° are welcomed, as we crawl our way out of
long winter.
Perch
spawn in the spring and are a target for the small
boat fishermen. Perch are the best eating fish
we have in MI. Best Perch fishing I witnessed
was off Harbor Beach, MI wall in the mid to late
1980s with 5 gallon buckets full of tasty fish.
The
"not so secret" place many fish for Perch in
Manistee, MI is off Penny Park located on the NE
corner of Manistee Lk.
Click
good sized MI Perch
It's
not unusual to see over 20 boats fishing.
Action there was sparse there last week that will
pick up with warming waters soon.
Finally seen no below
freezing temps for the nighttime low for the next 10
days
4/3 - 4/21 Easter
weekend update shows part of the process to infuse
more scent into our 2021 ground breaking Strip
Teazers that are a viable replacement over frozen
herring.
There was no roadmap, no instructions and we had no
previous experience with soft plastics that dominate
the Bass tackle scene.
Click
scent being infused
It's taken several months of hard dedicated work to
make sure we are the reel-leaders in this
technology. A long journey that's been
fascinating for yours truly. Learning is a
life long process that has it's own rewards for a
job well done.
4/2/21 Mother Nature
pulled her own fast one for April Fools with an inch
of snow and temps last night in the mid teens.
Not exactly spring-like conditions. Much
improved forecast for next week with warming
temperatures this weekend.
Purchased my 2021 Senior Fishing License off the
MDNR's website for 11 bucks. This is the best
$11 I'll spend this year to experience the agonies
of success and failure. Online purchase comes
with a file you can print copies of.
Online Fish Licenses
I'm
ready to fish. Fish is a risk word with many
definitions. Hope to change fish into catching
soon. Have a great Easter Weekend. Be
back Monday
4/1/21 Not into foolish
April fool's pranks. Seems I always fall to
somebody acting like a smart #%s with nothing better
to do, then think they're funny. Those are the
real fools!
Seen the 1st
Robin Redbreast in the yard a few days ago.
This is a sure sign of spring is actually being
here. Opening day for the Detroit Tigers is
another strong hint.
Something
that I looked forward to since last November when I
can shut my wood stove fireplace down Saturday.
Wood heat is a lot of work, but it's the most
comfortable the way, as convection circulates the
heat thru every room. Costs less than propane
too.
Continued below back to the year 2000:
2021 Results
January, February
& March
April, May & June
2020 Results
January, February
& March
April, May & June
July, August &
September
October, November &
December
2019 Results
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April, May & June
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September
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December
2018 Results
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September
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2017 Results
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June
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August, & September
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2016 Results
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September
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December
2015 Results
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& March
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September
2014 Results
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November, & December
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& March
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August, & September
2013 Results
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February, & March
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September
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December
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February, & March
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September
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December
2011 Results
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February, & March
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September
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November, & December
|
2010 Results
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February, & March
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August & September
October, November & December2009 Results
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February & March
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September
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2008 Results
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November & December
July, August, &
September
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2007 Results
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2006 Results
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July, August &
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June
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2005
Results
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2004 Results
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December
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2003
Results
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& May
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2002
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2001 Results
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July Salmon
Aug. Tuna Time
2000 Results
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Sept.
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May
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For complete results of all fishing trips, fishing reports & general info
and a peek into my archived log for the past seasons,
click the below link:
Past Results