Goby

Don't know either of them, but the one individual that was cleared in the end, seems like a decent guy that just didn't want to rat on someone over relatively nothing and possibly ruin the guys career as no information was seemingly actually exchanged. Plus, it was seemingly tournament day and he didn't initiate contact so he was probably focused on fishing and trying to win himself which is understandable. If you are someone that has had the passion to get to that level, I can see where you wouldn't want to take that away from a competitor, doesn't mean you approve of his actions, just means you don't want that on your conscience for being the one to turn him in. This is obviously very different than if you saw him truly cheating on tournament day, putting weights in a fish or whatever... Imagine if your career was to continue or not was essentially being gauged by a polygraph, I would be so paranoid/nervous about the device getting it wrong and falsely accusing me, I would likely trigger it to show everything as deceptive lol

Could be true, that may have to do with manufacturers tightening the reins, there are rules they are all supposed to adhere to, pricing minimums, etc... Which makes what many of the manufacturers do to all the dealers every year even worse... Most of the stuff a tackle shop would sell nowadays, are sold by one of about 6 mega entities that have bought up all the tackle companies and some of those entities even own large percentages of their competition LOL Same thing that is happening with boat companies, etc....

Well, I sincerely hope you don't find a better deal later on, since you took my advice LOL I truly do not believe you will, this is the best time of year to buy a boat or any major purchases typically. Best of luck!

This was my first year fishing Sieberts Jigs and couldn't be happier that I found them... "Thanks to this site."

I think the sales you saw in the past few days are about the best you will see all year. This is the slow time for boat sales, once the trade show season kicks in, sales pick up, deals typically go away, especially if you aren't buying a boat too... People begin thinking Spring sometime in January/February, very few are thinking Spring pre-Christmas... There isn't a lot of profit on electronics for the dealers, most the money is made in the labor to install... Nothing like say clothing that has large profit margins... Most dealers buy electronics through distributors too, so there is a middle man, you have to do a LOT of business with the manufacturers to even be able to buy direct from them and even then, you still get nowhere near the margins you get on other goods... Smaller entities may even sell some stuff at their cost during this time of year, just to be able to purchase enough to cover their annual minimums... I placed an order through Tackle Warehouse for some tackle a few days ago, it was packed and shipped same day, that tells me sales are way down this year from previous years, TW is never that fast with free shipping when they are backed up with large amounts of sales like they should have been on Black Friday, etc... At some point, the entire system is going to implode, you have manufacturers all selling direct these days, offering larger discounts than their dealers can afford to, if I owned a tackle shop and had thousands and thousands of dollars invested in my inventory and I saw say Berkley offering a buy one get one free deal on Black Friday, which is essentially selling to consumers for less than they sell to dealers, I would be awfully mad... They are all doing it now and eventually, we aren't going to have tackle shops any longer... Just manufacturers websites to order from and a few chain stores with horrible service/knowledge...

That is some epic rod storage for a Canoe, very cool stuff. Thank you for sharing!

If you want to fish topwaters on that MH, then yes, I would stick with mono or a copoly. Definitely would go with mono or copoly on the spinning reel if you aren't using braid. Saves you money too, mono/copoly is cheaper for sure...

The P-Line "topwater" copolymer is actually a really nice line for topwater fishing, works fine for spinnerbaits, etc... too if you want a rod to do both... Works great on spinning reels and baitcasters. I also like Sunline Super Natural, but I mostly use that in 10 pound for jerkbaits in cold water. Regarding fluoro, I like 14-16 pound FC Sniper, but don't fish much heavy cover, etc... 15 pound P-Line Tactical is great stuff too. Pay attention to diameter, pound test ratings mean little...

I think I would consider some of the slower river options, like the upper Muskegon, lower Au Sable, etc.... Especially say the reservoirs or the areas where river is blending to reservoir. This would also coincide with camping opportunities if that is something you are also looking for on many of the rivers in Michigan... My home waters where I grew up on the St. Joseph River along with the Kalamazoo River in SW Michigan are great options... Can be more industrial and agricultural type scenery though, you may not love that aspect of it... Manistee River comes to mind, obviously all the lakes around Traverse City here that you mentioned are good, but in the 8 years I have lived up here the angling pressure has increased substantially. I find myself fleeing the area for most of my fishing endeavors anymore, lol Lots of river options in NE Michigan too that you could float, smaller ones... but the fish aren't small... Menominee River would be a bit of a hike, but is an incredible fishery... Few things on this planet fight harder than a river Smallie, butterballs are cool and all, but a mean river fish is tough to beat, in a kayak, those places would all be great. There is the Huron in SE Michigan, despite the fact there are incredible fisheries there, I just simply have never spent much time in SE Michigan and virtually none spent fishing there. Can't be of much help...

This was essentially one wealthy guys efforts that lives on said lake that were fortunately curbed. The reality is this, lets just call them Karens, with money that live on these lakes and form "associations" are the next big enemy that anglers will face... Frankly, regarding weed treatments, we have been facing them for a very long time. Long Lake here in Grand Traverse County last year, they got a state grant to double the size of their parking lot and boat ramps, after using the state tax payer dollars to do such improvements, they "the township and lake association" immediately attempted to implement a $20+ dollar per day use fee on BOTH public ramps, with no option for annual pass or anything, basically making it to where the average angler, would be much less inclined to fish the lake. Effectively making it a private lake to some degree, despite the fact that public anglers had paid to create and manage the fisheries within it for decades and non-township/association dollars paid to revamp the ramps and parking area... It ticked off the state enough they had their lawyers look over the terms of the grants, which in the end, the state had no say over what the township did, but there was enough of an uproar, mostly from local anglers that the decision was overturned. This kind of stuff will only get worse with time, why it's imperative for anglers to stay united, regardless of how one fishes or what they fish for... We also need a DNR Fisheries Division that has the capability of doing regular surveys to curb special interest groups from gaining traction... Had the MDNR not gone out and conducted that Fall survey, they wouldn't have had enough hard evidence to dispute the efforts, there is essentially a war over the science taking place, everyday.

I own and love my Lund, I really don't think I would trade it for anything else, but Brunswick has been a good and bad thing for them... Brunswick has bought a lot of once great companies and done what these entities typically do, leaned them out to maximize profits which rarely is the best thing for the consumer, but have likely improved the boats at the same time, like I said, I really like mine. Ever since Lund ceased from actually enforcing their pricing guidelines and allowing rogue dealers to undercut others, their dealers have been dropping like flies. They lost their largest dealer network "by far" in Michigan over this, one tiny little Marina kept selling for less than the dealer agreements are supposed to allow and were selling so many boats, they couldn't rig them all, so folks began showing up at other dealers to get their Lunds rigged with accessories and when they told those dealers what they paid, Lund was given the chance to fix it and did not, game over... One could argue that this is a good thing for consumers, but not if it leads to lesser quality dealers and thus lesser quality service centers... One would think a seasoned marina would have some interest though, depending on price... Anything service related in today's World is not what it once was, extremely hard to find mechanics or anyone that will work for what they can pay, etc... Many are relying on storage to help pay the bills... Mom & Pop shops can't afford to compete with the giant multi-location entities, etc... as far as pricing goes, they pay quite a bit more for motors than those that are selling a lot more of them, etc... Some of these larger chains have real benefits packages, pay more than $10 an hour more than the Mom & Pops can afford, etc... The only manner the little guys can compete is with better service, but hard to get that when you pay quite a bit less unless you are doing it yourself. Lot of boat companies are beginning to sell direct too, manufacturers get considerably better pricing on motors than dealers do, even the largest dealers pay quite a bit more than a manufacturer, etc... So when manufacturers also become dealers, nobody can compete. Another knife in the back to the Mom & Pop shops... You can make $20 something an hour to work on fishing boats and pontoons, or over $40 an hour to go work on MasterCrafts, TriToons with 300HP motors and larger boats. It's the same certifications either way, you do the math where the skilled guys end up...

In 6 days of fishing, sun up to sun down, I moved one Musky and it was tiny so I didn't let it eat the fly, was less than 2' long. It was my first time there, I fly fished the entire time, caught a couple decent Smallies on Musky flies, that was it. There was a lot of learning, for example, it took me two days to realize that when they ran water at night which they seemed to do each night I was there, the bottom half of the reservoir was full of very large floating logs everywhere, so it was slow going until you could get beyond all of that. From day three on, I launched up higher in the reservoir, was much better as long as you beat the school lines LOL It seemed to me the fish had moved off all that great looking wood on the shorelines and were out on secondary lies, had I maybe got a cloudy day, could have gotten a fish to come up for a fly, but they were not having it while I was there. Every day but one, was bright blue skies with zero wind, not a ripple on the surface. Got a great tan! LOL I went a long ways up the river too, cool stuff, I like to explore new places as much as I like the actual fishing part. I marked several very big marks, suspended 30' down on deep structure over 40' deep, assuming at least some of those were big Stripers along with some Muskies. When I go back next year, going to go to the bait shop I found and get some Live Gizzard Shad, try and get a giant Striper.

I was just down on Melton chasing Muskies for a week, had never been in the Knoxville area all that much before, man, everywhere you look they are clear cutting entire mountains to build more subdivisions. Cool area, but hate to see it 10 years from now and do NOT get stuck in school traffic on the way to the boat ramp LOL

ALL of my longer rods built for Salmon/Steelhead fishing have a 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce of this putty glued inside the butt section of the blank, works like a champ and you will never want to fish a "factory" long rod again... 13' float rods get 1.5 ounces... That tiny bit of weight in the butt, will make these rods seem like they weigh less than half what they did pre counterbalancing, especially in wind... I have never done it on a rod shorter than 8', but if it's tip heavy, this will remedy that for sure...

Yes, as long as it isn't toxic to them for one reason or another... prior to 9/11 there were all kinds of warm water discharges you could fish in the Winter here in the Great Lakes, anywhere you still can, great fishing in the colder months... Not quite the same, but maybe more toxic in some ways lol

That is correct! Happy Thanksgiving!

First, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Second, while taking advantage of all those Black Friday deals, etc... keep in mind, replacing those gas powered small engines with electric options are essentially cutting the throat of sportsman, nationwide... The bulk of funding in this country for all things wildlife and fisheries management are funded by excise taxes which are estimates of the annual sales of gasoline intended for use in SMALL ENGINES. The Feds collect the taxes and disperse them to each state annually, based on a few factors, the more license dollars each state brings in, the more Federal funds from these excise taxes they are eligible for... Yes, you read that correctly, most wildlife and fisheries agencies including state ran agencies in this nation derive more than 75% of their annual budgets from the Federal excise taxes on gasoline sales, intended for use in "small engines"... The sale of fishing & hunting licenses, while also a revenue source for such agencies, only makes up a small percentage of their annual funding and is nothing in comparison to the funding that derives from gasoline sales... There are also excise taxes on fishing & hunting goods, etc... that contribute, but nowhere near the amounts that derive from gasoline sales... So not only are many of these electrical options, in reality all things considered, no more Friendly to the environment than many gas engines, the simple act of purchasing them is creating a scenario where funding is declining for such agencies and is expected to fall substantially in the coming years... I wonder how many so called "environmentalists" realize such things? Skip the electrical weed eaters and mowers, buy the real thing LOL Have a wonderful day!

https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/veterans-and-gold-star-families-free-access.htm

If you ask real nice, I have gotten 50% off military discounts from Loomis/Shimano... Simms gives a 15% discount I believe, and you can have it on top of other discounts... It used to be you had to be a disabled Veteran, but these days, all Veterans get free entrance into any national parks, etc... You just need to get a pass from the park service, it's good forever, hangs in your rear view mirror... It's especially nice when travelling to distant places to fish, free showers I once spent a year living out of my truck in the PNW chasing steelhead up and down the coast, those free showers made it a much more pleasant experience lol Just make sure the park isn't closed for filming before entering in the middle of the night, I once was woke up in the middle of the film set for the Sandra Bullock movie "Bird Box", asking me to move so they could film, nice people, let me check out their food tent for free, they have some really great food on movie sets lol GovX is just a service companies use to prove you are a Veteran, so they aren't giving out discounts to just anyone...

Roger that, I use Star Tron the same way. All outboard engines are designed for 87 octane fuel, while putting 91 octane in it doesn't hurt anything, if you can ever get say 87 octane recreational fuel for cheaper, don't spend more for 91 octane. It's hard to find 87 octane recreational fuel in Michigan, usually 89-91... Tennessee had 87 octane rec fuel when I was there a couple weeks ago fishing...

If many of the laws that other industries are forced to adhere to were actually enforced in the fishing industry, there would be major changes, many of the current goings on of the fishing industry are essentially monopolies, etc... rod building being a prime example with what Mud Hole has done, etc... Buying up many of the blank suppliers only to shut them down and promote their own brand. It's really not that complicated if you understood the disassembly clauses... Like I said, these things are very rare as for the most part, modern outboards easily outlive their warranty period with zero issues... I simply just wanted to raise awareness is why I said what I did, most folks do not have a clue, don't even keep receipts, etc... People have been 100% burned by this, seen it first hand, maybe they could have spent thousands on an attorney and won, but they didn't, who knows...

I used to design and sell boats for a living after I quit guiding, sold millions and millions of dollars of outboards "mostly jet drives", etc.... I have seen this used by manufacturers first hand, this isn't a guess... Key words, "Mercury Marine reserves the right to make warranty coverage contingent upon proof of proper maintenance." Does merely having a receipt that you purchased the oil prove you put it in and did so properly oh and by the way, are you trained "licensed" to know what to look for if there was an issue when maintenance was done that could have lead to preventing the larger issue later on, etc...? Don't forget the disassembly part I mentioned... I could care less what you do or what you believe and by all means, would love to see everyone get what they are owed, but these outboard companies are all owned by private equity firms these days, the fine print is bountiful... If a motor fails while still under warranty, it's likely from heat, from a blocked or damaged impeller, this obviously doesn't fall under warranty so "warranty" repairing much of anything related to the actual motor itself is very rare... They will say this is from impact "hitting bottom, sucking up debris/sediment" or physical damage every single time, which because of that, they do enable you to get them replaced under your insurance policy if you have the proper coverage, passing the buck to the insurance company and thus their customers... Electrical issues, etc... are typically not tied to any sort of maintenance so in the rare event they fail under warranty, you doing your own maintenance rarely comes into play, if ever...

You are partially correct, as I specifically stated, after you conduct the maintenance, you must take it to a certified tech to have them sign off on it and mark it as done with their computer connected to the motor. They obviously do this, for a fee. It's the only true way to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the service was actually performed and they "outboard manufacturers" have and will use this to deny warranty claims. It should also be noted, what the customer "non-licensed tech" is allowed to do is limited to absolutely zero disassembly of the motor, there are major grey areas as to what disassembly means, technically by moving say the ignition module out of the way to say remove spark plugs is, disassembly... A common necessity for a 60HP 4 stroke Mercury which the OP posted about initially on this thread when winterizing as even though you really don't "need" to fog the cylinders on a 4 stroke in most scenarios, it's still part of the normal winterizing process and recommended by the manufacturer. Don't take my word for it, call them yourself... Outboards in today's World, especially the smaller ones that are more prone to being maintained by the average Joe, hardly ever have issues when still under warranty so it's extremely rare for this to be an issue, but there is most certainly a very real risk to losing it if you don't follow the necessary steps to a tee.

Indeed, everything from the fuel lines to the carburetor will pay the price... even with ethanol fuel treatment...

One of my best days ever guiding for steelhead in terms of fish per hour, surface temps of the river were 31.8 degrees and the high forecasted air temps were in the single digits... I think it was so cold, it effected the fish in a manner that actually made them more aggressive, think we boated like 17 fish in 4 hours... Every hole we hit, bobbers just dropped over and over... Even the Coast Guard looked at me like I was crazy as I rolled past as they were doing some training on the same water... Must be why my hands don't work as well anymore, too many years of that crap LOL I don't even ice fish in single digit temps anymore LOL 20 degrees is probably my cut off I would say at this point, I long for Winters spent in the South....