Lund Explorer

Dang Koop, 134 points? Must be you've got Drew Brees on your roster.

Accountant. And after 33 years, Semi-Retired!

Not sure what 40 acres holds, but I've seen what Lake Michigan can do during the winter. Poor Koopa sits in Wisconsin some mornings when its 15 below zero, and when that same air hits here its at 15 above. All we have to deal with is all of the extra snow.

Lost a bow mount trolling motor once. Running on Lake Michigan and one rouge wave submarined me into the wave ahead. When the bow popped back up the trolling motor was in the down position, but just for a few seconds before it blew four ugly holes through the front deck. Thank God I had good insurance!!!

Hmmm, great idea for a new thread..... "Regional Names for Critters!" Up here, our favorite name for Seagulls in The Dump Chicken! Always a real good idea to keep a pair of leather gloves in the boat when you have to remove a hook from one of those darn things.

You know something Roger? It almost makes a guy want to sell his bass boat and buy something he could use to troll for fish like that..... Say a Lund Explorer! Seriously, the near shore waters from Manistee north to Frankfort are a great place to tie into one of these brutes. Most of them are caught during the spring of each year (April 1st - June 1st). I try to get over there at least a couple of times to troll for them, because you just never know. We long line Rapalas either right behind the boat or to the shore side using planer boards. I'd hate to say that so far that the biggest I've ever gotten weighed just under 13lbs. A decent fish, but only a great, great-granddaughter to anything that size.

Imagine the size of the hush puppies!

Maybe not painting a musky, but the last State record had to go into the DNR's lab to make sure it wasn't an Atlantic Salmon. These big lake run browns have a bright silver color until they make their fall spawning trip up the river. From the color of this one, I'd have to say its been in the river for a few weeks. Here's a picture of that previous record.....

This just seems like a really stupid question, but where were the two guys that got thrown out of that boat? While it makes a rather intense video for you tube, I have to wonder if anyone bothered to try to find them. I'm afraid I would have been more concerned about the victims.

Rockford angler Tom Healy just may have caught the world record brown trout at 41lbs - 7oz! Here's the whole story as report on MILive.com.... http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2009/09/rockford_angler_tom_healy_hook.html Wow!

Hey Palomar, Welcome to the wonderful world of phishing! The IRS never emails anyone, including us preparers. Here is the real link to the IRS website were you can report this scheme. http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html?portlet=1

Howdy Neighbor! You've just set down on one of the best honey holes on the net. So drop you're trolling motor and cast around a bit. It's amazing all of the things that you can add to your livewell of knowledge here. LE

Oh come on.... The Lions will go 13-3 in the regular season, march through the playoffs straight to the Super Bowl were they'll get edged out by a late FG. Oops! I have got to quit drinking before noon!

Hmmmm, boat traffic...... Like the announcer at the Rock-a-Rock Old Folks Dance Marathon said; "They're dropping like flies!" http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/ottawa_county/Jet_ski_and_boat_collide_at_Hanky_Panky http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=113379&catid=14 Another holiday weekend when common sense takes a few days off, and when the sane stay onshore!

x6 on Chippewa Lake this morning..... 4 LM that bumped, 3 that didn't, and good old Edwin Scissor-Nose slimed me six times.

Don't know why I didn't see this earlier...... You've got two choices here, but the one we use up here is to put lead-core line on your reels. Depending on the depth the fish are holding, you'll either need to put on a "full-core" (100 yds) or a "half-core" (50 yds). A full-core rig will get you down into the neighborhood of 100' down, and of course the half-core will get you down about half of that. I use 20lb Big Game as backing on my reels, and a six foot length of 20lb leader to the lure. If you use these with side-planers, you can usually get two of three rods off to each side of the boat by staggering the amount of backing you let off of each rod. When we run three rods off of each side, the far outboard line usually has about 75yds of backing out. Your other option would be to use snap-weights or some type of keel sinker tied onto the line. I know they work, but I've just never used them. You would have to experiment with what weights you would need to get to a certain depth.

Sounds like you got suckered into being the tournament director..... The only position worse than that is the guy that runs the bump board! We had the same situation happen in our club years ago. The TD weighed the fish, and according to the rules, the dead fish won the big bass pot for the day. And we had the same small group of jealous "sportsmen" that were upset because the rules weren't changed. Funny thing is, if the rules had been changed, just as many others would have been mad as well. Prior to the next tournament blast off, the TD gave a little speech to everyone. "Honest people put things in writing, and then live by it!" It doesn't get a whole lot simpler than that.

Here's a little site that got some for sale. Not sure what your "pain thresh-hold" is.... Couple of nice rigs though. http://www.walleyesinc.com/Jigginman/rangerboat.html

So, just in case your head isn't spinning too bad..... Maybe its time to suggest that you look into the line of walleye boats that Ranger, Champion, or Triton makes That Ranger 620VS is built for big water! http://www.rangerboats.com/flash/gallery.cfm?mid=5747&gid=35

Good Points Cart.... If I remember correctly, the DVS model was the second generation of the Comanche series that featured what had been their new three step hull. Ranger built those boats because many of the older molds were still in good shape when they came up with the third generation hull. Absolutely nothing wrong or cheaper about the workmanship in the DVS, they just came in stock colors and were normally built during times when factory orders were slow. And regardless of whether its a Ranger, Cat, a Champion or Triton, they're all very well built. I've owned two Rangers and one Cat, and I've been to both factories for their tours. It's well worth the couple of hours to take a tour if anybody makes it down into the fiberglass triangle.

Trying painfully here to get back to the subject matter at hand, I guess I'll try one last time to make my point as to what separates the difference between the various types of fisherman. I will refrain from making blanket statements as to the specific weight of either a hawg bass or a winning tournament sack. No fisherman from this far north is going to brag about a locally caught 14lb bass or a 40lb bag. It is my contention that a good angler, regardless of his or her location, will excel at their chosen specialty within their geographical limitations. Of course if this thought process is wrong, if anyone who can't catch DD bass on a consistent basis is somehow inferior, then I can only mention the success of KVD, a homegrown Michigan angler, in my defense. Having said all of that, I will venture that the tournament fisherman is a more well rounded fisherman. Whether as a touring professional or the weekend warrior, success is based on their knowledge of bass habits, habitat, and the wide options of tackle and presentations needed to be competitive. Much like the matter of size is a moot point, so is issue of success based on the level of competition faced by the tournament angler. To be truly successful at their chosen venture, the tournament angler will always try to move their game upwards. They know that the measure of success is marked by reputation, and that this requires the tournament angler to continually improve in that ability. No one is going to take a tournament angler seriously who only fishes his or her "home waters", or who competes only against anglers who they are assured of beating. He or she may through time, discover the keys to where a local lake's largest bass reside, and even what lures it takes to catch these fish. But with the exception of certain "big bass" tournaments, the goal of the tournament angler is the overall weight of their limit. Granted that this weight will be affected by the "kicker" fish, but for the most part, that is a secondary goal. From my experience with the trophy fisherman, and granted that this is limited by geography, I find that they are highly adept at finding and catching the biggest bass in a limited number of lakes. This is most likely due to the time required to not only learn of the best habitat, but also to make sure that they are on those hot spots when the time is right to meet their goals. I'm sure that the knowledge they have regarding what it takes to catch these trophies on their home waters, is also knowledge that will work if they were forced or chose to move onto a strange or new lake. It may take them a little longer to actually narrow down specific spots, but I'm sure that process would be quicker for them than for a tournament fisherman given that same scenario. So to boil all of this down, I will once again say that regardless of whether the angler in question is a touring pro, a weekend warrior, or the hawg hunter, each has specific goals that they are trying to reach. To attain those goals, they must learn all they can to be successful while off of the water, and then must be able to put that knowledge to good use. In my opinion then, there isn't any one type of fisherman that is any better than the other, so long as they have set their goals, and do what is required to meet them. The tournament fisherman does what he or she can to compete against the other anglers. The trophy fisherman does what needs to be done to catch the largest fish. So in answer to the basic question, there is no difference. I once was at a seminar when I heard Jimmy Houston state that "All fisherman are competitive". I couldn't agree more.

Kind of like a semi-invisible front runner. Up here, "Casting Bubbles" are used just like Branhap was talking about. I usually use them in connection with a rubber spider for bluegill fishing. And you will get a lot of bass come up after the bubble in the spring of the year. I've never tried it, but I'll bet a large streamer fly or a leech imitation might work with them.

You should be ashamed of yourself. > I pee into a small coffee can which so happens to be where I put my ciggy butts at. Then at the end of the day I dump the whole thing into the lake. In the Lake? I always empty mine in the winners livewell! :

Ahhhh, feels just like I've returned to Topix! Did I forget the "+ +"?

Gosh Catt, you need to try a season up here in Michigan. Last group I fished with had 8 tournaments on 8 different lakes, over a period of 15 weeks. Each lake was off limits for 6 days prior to the tournament date. Two day classic wasn't announced until the end of the last qualifier, and was normally not a repeat of the first eight. That lake was open to prefishing for one day (the Sunday after the announcement), and then was off limits for two weeks.