Mbirdsley

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.

I just ordered the 6th sense black and blue square bill along with these. Also, an all black bandit 300. I do have a lot of white cranks. It would make sense to throw those on cloudy days and the black on sunny days. actualy now that I’m thinking about it and looking back the white ones do work better cloudy days

I saw this and I love it. I just wish it would dive 4-8 feet or deeper. I think I’ll get it any how

I fish the Tittabawassee And Saginaw rivers a lot. The Tittabawassee merges with the Shiawassee to form the Saginaw river In Saginaw mi. In past years both rivers have had a light dirty stain to them. With the recent dam failures and loosing the two lakes wixom and lake Sanford which, were about 30 and 40 miles up stream on the Tittabawassee. Both rivers are basically chocolate milk with sediment And on good day might be 1-2 ft. Probably will be for a long time untill they either repair ( 5 years at the earliest ) or Until the Former lake bottoms grow vegetation. titbawassee is a shallower but avg 6-7 feet and the holes can be 14 feet deep. Saginaw averages 8-9 feet deep ( with some 15-20 ft holes) untill you get to the shipping channel north of the city where it is 30 ft deep. I havnt ventured up there much. Now I still catch fish on blue/black jigs or swim jigs. I can’t catch bass on a crank on these rivers to save my life. I’d like to get cranks going before the end of the year. I’m assuming darker colored cranks with loud rattles. I’m open to suggestions for sunny and cloudy days. Most of my cranks are natural colored. both rivers were known for smallies. I caught 5 large mouths today. Talk on the street is the large mouths were washed down stream from the lakes and have taken up residence.

I used to crush it on the Shiawassee River mid summer with a gulp crawler in pumpkin ( closest thing I’ve to a reel worm). Rigged it weightless t-rigged abd twitch it back . Pulled some monster bass and at night catfish. I would wade during the day or just bank fish. One of the first Artificial lures that I could get consistent success on when I got BACK into fishing

I’ve never fished the Mississippi River. However, I have been fishing the Tittabawassee and Saginaw a lot the last 3 years These are fairly deep and wide ( the Saginaw gets freighter traffic 3 miles downriver from where I was at today) Throw up stream and use a heavier weight that what you think you should be throwing. Even In the slack areas there is some current. Black and blue has been the go-to color. Tubes are also a good choice

First couple of fish with the new boat. I’m on 3rd shift for the moment so went after work this morning. Fished the Saginaw river between Lee street and the confluence area. All caught on a 1/2 oz Arkie jig that I poured and painted. Trailer was a chigger craw. River is really dirty. But, i suppose it will stay that way untill vegetation starts to grow on the former lake beds of lake Sanford and wixom that were Located on the Tittabawassee Up stream

Algae like what happens on lake Erie would make sense

eBay would be my first choice. I had a size 20 president on my trout rod Only used it a hand full of time. I know I dunked it once, then put it up for a year before I got around to tearing it down. Anyhow, ordered a new clutch assembly because, the metal sleeve that that the anti-reverse bearings roll on was rusty. Ordered the anti-reverse assembly from ereplacementparts.com in April. They were back ordered placed the order any how. The anti reverse assembly arrived in July after I had totally forgot about ordering it

I can honestly say I have seen water change the color of line. Where/type of water are you fishing that turns your line brown. I’m just curious

Here is the new ride. Traded my grandpa my 14 foot mirror craft for this sea nymph. It’s a 1985 with 90 hp mercury. I added the front deck, garmin striker 4cv, Trolling motor, 3 deep cycle batteries, new shift box, new transmission and throttle cables, 12 amp 2 bank charger, new plastic 12 gallon tank, inline Fuel vent, and bow lights. Put new tires and re did the hubs in the trailer. Luckily, as long as it’s was up north. I can get the parts at cost and labor was free. It still needs some other stuff but, can fish as is. I will get a better fish finder in the spring. This winter I’ll probably put a new floor in it atleast as far as the helm and than I’ll add seat mounts. Now I’ll just use a hunting chair. Motor runs good and it gets up go’s. Also, beside bass I’ll be able to use it for walleye on Saginaw bay And salmon/ trout in the spring and fall

I like the owner wacky rig hooks with or with out weed guard. BeforeI was just using octopus circle hooks but, after training my self for 2 years to set the hook it’s hard to not set the hook. Hook up percentage went up with using a hook designed for wacky rig

The guys who make the Wyandotte are local. If you get into contact with them and tell them the small mouth like them. They may add more bass colors. You are the literally the first person I know that has used them outside of spring walleye jigging on the Detroit River. They may not know that there could be a demand for them in bass colors

Thank you I appreciate they info/help