12-7-2007 Today is Pearl Harbor Day

Engineers have determined that the USS Arizona Memorial's museum & visitor center must be replaced within as few as 2 years before it must be abandoned for safety reasons.

Please visit http://www.pearlharbormemorial.com to see what you can do.

12-6-2007 Copper Line

First things first, copper is not "wire" as in it is not fished with a dipsy or lb ball. It is lead core that sinks about 50% deeper than lead. You can read a lot more about it here: Copper Wire

Personally I think anything you hear about ions from static electricity from pulling copper to be a big fat joke. You don't get static electricity from that carpet on a humid day, right? What is more humid than being under water? Copper catches fish. You don't have to make up stories about it.

When the fish are deep, this is the rig. My favorite spoon on copper is the Raider Polecat.

"30 lb" or "45 lb"? When I hear all the "problems" about copper kinking, knots that won't go through guides that I have never had, I have to think that it is related to the bigger copper that I never run. Either that or I am especially talented, which even I find hard to believe.

A fish on this line is wearing himself out dragging the copper from left to right. In the time it takes you to get him in, he will be tired. I don't see the point of the goat rope 45# stuff.

Then again, other people disagree, and I am happy to sell you good quality 45# copper.

12-5-2007 Lead Core

These are used for a "flat line" presentation. The weight of the line its self brings the bait down to the fish.

Lead core comes in 100 yard or 200 yard spools. The lead is inside a Dacron tube that is colored a different color every 10 yards. You can run any length you want, but generally I run 1 or 2 colors, 5 colors (1/2 core) or 10 colors (full core).

I back lead core with 30# Power Pro. I tie the Power Pro to the lead core with an Albright knot. I use a short 6 foot lead of 20# ANDE to my bait. I tie the ANDE to the lead core with a "Willis Knot".

Push about 6" of lead out of the sheath and cut off. Tie a single overhand knot in the ANDE and leave it loose. Feed the ANDE into the sheath until it hits the lead. Work the knot up until it is in both the ANDE and the Dacron over it and pull tight. You might want a little super glue on the Dacron as it tends to fray and cause a big lump back to the knot.

The general rule of thumb is 5 feet per color in depth. This is a general rule and will vary a lot depending on your speed and your bait.

99.99% of the time I run spoons on lead core or copper. This is because pulling in 100 yards of lead core with a flasher is a royal pain in the neck.

I use a variety of reels for lead core. I am looking forward to trying out the new Daiwa ADP57LC.

For rods, I use a regular Daiwa Heartland 7' lead core rod. I have used and my buddy still uses the 10' dipsy rod because it gets the line out and away from the boat. These things are up to you.

When a fish hits, Put the rod in a rod holder so it is nearly straight up and reel in. This will really help your back.

Tomorrow I will talk about Copper.

A White buck hit by a car near Petoskey, MI

12-4-2007 My buddies at GM are working overtime in forwarding joke videos for the Joke page

Quote for the day: "Political correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical, minority that is then rapidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media which puts forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Now, on to wire. Stainless Steel wire is made by large wire plants to exacting manufacturing standards for industry. Small amounts of that wire are purchased by fishing line companies and packaged as fishing line wire. Although there are different grades of wire out there for industrial applications, any wire you buy from the fishing line companies will be of the best grade so it is my opinion that brand, as long as it is a reputable brand, does not matter. I have sold Mason and Opti-Tackle wire in the past with no issues, now I sell G-Fly because they have a better price. This is probably the one time that I will tell you to choose entirely on price.

Brown (Cameo) or Bright (silver)? To me it means nothing. The depth you are fishing wire, I cannot believe that the bright wire is reflecting any light. I have never seen any evidence that one color works better.

Wire requires a good drag. Nothing less than a Daiwa SG47LCA reel will do. My other wire reel is a Shimano Tekota.

I put 1000 feet of wire on the reel, I back it with about 10 yards of mono to keep it from slipping. The Tekota reel has that rivet so I don't have to do that. If I hook on to that 35# King I don't want to be worrying about spooling the reel.

I use a roller rod. There are people who will tell you that you do not need to. I have tried a regular rod with a twilli tip and the friction made reeling the fish very hard and interfered with the operation of the drag. It worked, but I went back to a roller rod immediately after the first fish.

I have gone to using two overhand knots to tie the swivel to the end of the wire. I find this works as well or better than crimps. Several times a year I cut off the last few feet of the wire and retie.

When fighting a fish, leave the drag loose and let him run. You want him dead tired when he gets to the boat. At the boat you do not want that wire in your lines, but you really, really, really do not want that line in your prop.

With a diver or a lb. ball you can catch a lot of fish with this rig, especially in late July when they are big and the sun is hot.

12-3-2007 Lets continue on fishing line with braid. I use Power Pro. I use the 30#, but many customers prefer the security of the 50#. Again, there are lots of other brands out there, but I have 100's of hours fishing with Power Pro.

PS - Lately I have been getting some great stuff on the "Jokes" page!

11-30-2007 Let's talk about Fishing Line. I get asked periodically "Have you tried this new brand x?" My answer is always no. I used to use a different major brand. At the time I, and many others, had numerous complaints involving lost gear and such. From what I can tell reading message boards, that brand has fixed their problems. Too late for me though.

A charter captain turned me on to ANDE, and I have never looked elsewhere. It is relatively inexpensive and I have never had any issues. What more could I ask for?

ANDE is the only brand I use, and the only brand monofilament I sell. Why fix what ain't broke?

11-29-2007 "My biggest worry is that when I'm dead, my wife will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it."

Reply: "This is where the three price rule comes into play. There are three prices you pay; The actual price you paid, the price you told your wife you paid, and the price you pay when she discovers the price you actually paid!"

11-28-2007 There is a bill in Michigan's legislature to change opening day to the second Saturday in November, instead of November 15. This will make opening day as much as a week earlier (such as in 2008) and as little as a day earlier (such as in 2009) each year. Personally I am in favor of it. We need more sportsmen, and the economic impact of a Saturday opener has been widely documented. I understand tradition, but the days when plants closed for opening day are gone. Too many people are denied their best chance to get a deer 5 out of 7 years because they MUST work.

Email me with your thoughts please. If they are polite, I will post them anonymously.

"We have tried this before. I am personally not in favor of it. We need some things chiseled in granite."

Right Idea, Wrong Date
From a biological perspective, our gun opener occurs too early. Look at the openers in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio, all of which have better hunting and better-balanced deer herds than we do in Michigan, largely because (don't take my word for this, look at what their resource professionals are on the record with) their gun openers occur after peak breeding dates. We should move our gun opener LATER, to at least the third Saturday of November, and perhaps even later than that. Conceptually, a Saturday opener is fine.

Dan Timmons
Secretary
QDMA - Michigan State Chapter

11-27-2007 Contractors! *&^%$ Contractors. Enough said.

My fishing partner just bought a brand new boat like the one above. Apparently he got a new hull design newer than that one. I should have pictures this week, especially since I don't have to be here for &^^%$ing contractors until next week.

He is outfitting it with Big Jon downriggers. We will be documenting the processing of outfitting his boat and getting my boat ready for 2008 right here.

11-26-2007 Check out my "brother's" (not really my brother) deals at Wilson Marine. He sold me my boat and treated me really well. If you are thinking about a new or used boat, check them out.

You guys crack me up. 1/2 think I was talking about Bush below, the other half think I was talking about Clinton. Ha ha, I was talking about BOTH.

11-25-2007 Look what I got! Just kidding, I wish. I just wanted to share a couple of really nice looking bucks (from Iowa?) someone sent me.

Everybody keeps talking about the Lions here. Get rid of this coach, that player. When you lose for what, 50 years, the problem is with the ownership. We should know what our founding fathers knew, that a person's family does not make them are a good leader. I am talking about the Fords, but you can apply it anywhere you want.

11-23-2007 You just can't beat that Brett Favre. Is he going to still be playing when he's 60?

11-22-2007 Happy Thanksgiving!

11-21-2007 You want to know how dysfunctional the whole Lions thing is? This is the headline in the Detroit Free Press: "NATIONAL WRITER: Why Lions will beat Packers on Thanksgiving" These are the last lines of the article:
"Green Bay is well-coached and talented enough to execute that game plan, which means the Lions will be looking at the business end of another Turkey Day loss. Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Packers 31, Lions 21"

It doesn't matter, no one reads the Free Press anyway.

11-19-2007 This was the scene at deer camp this weekend. 3 Bucks, one nice 8 point, and 2 does. I am still waiting for mine to come along.

That is one heck of a Buck Pole. The hooks ride on rollers on a steel I beam and a boat winch on the end winches them up to the hooks.

NEW RULE - The Lions can no longer utter the words, "we're a contender", "we are no longer a joke", "the wait is over", or ESPECIALLY "Super Bowl" until they have made the playoffs two years in a row.

While I'm at it, a bad season does not make Lloyd Carr a bad coach. It may be time for him to go, but with five Big Ten titles and one national championship, that should be an exit with respect. Unlike the Lions, he has earned it.

11-17-2007 I have a fishing report, but its from a classified location in the Gulf: "Finally got a chance to wet a line for a few minutes this AM. Nothing much exciting hanging around the piers; just these needlefish and some pan fish looking things. They are hungry as hell, however, and will bite on anything, including breakfast sausage links. Gotta go out by the break wall to get bigger stuff. Some guys here supposedly caught some barracudas and grouper last week.-Josh "

11-14-2007 Apparently this gentleman failed to remove the laser bore sighter from the barrel of his gun before firing. I will spare you the "stretcher shot". Let's all be careful out there this hunting season.

11-13-2007 My new paint booth arrived today. That is what it will look like after it is assembled. I should be in full scale production of the 2008 Raider Spoons sometime in December.

11-12-2007 The First Annual Raider Spoons Pheasant Hunt was a fun, if lightly attended event.

We had a lot of fun, Jenny more than anyone. We each got 2 birds, except Jenny who nailed one all by her self. She was probably frustrated with our shooting ;)

As always the hospitality at the ranch is second to none. Neither Jerry or Grant had done this before and both said it was such a great experience that they will be back.

11-9-2007 The above is another treat from my find, the first King I ever caught on my own boat all by myself. It is also the largest fish I ever caught, just a few ounces short of a 28 lb Master Angler. September of 2000, Ludington Harbor, 20 ft down on a rigger a #4 J Plug Green Black ladder.

11-7-2007 I got myself a great Birthday Present today. I was looking for something else when I found a CD of old photos. On this CD was a bunch of pictures and scans of pictures, including this one I thought was gone forever. The original was a little snapshot from the late 1960's that I scanned intending to fix the problems you see. I don't know what happened to the original.

That man is Everett Nelson, my Grandfather, in probably 1968 or around there. He was a farmer in Northboro, Massachusetts. He raised vegetables and sold them in a stand on Davis Street. That is a 1965 Chevrolet Pickup. His cars were Fords, his tractor was a Ford Grey, but his truck was a Chevy because they "are better".

I think I got my love for the outdoors from him. This man was outside working if the sun was up. Even though his name was Nelson he had such a deep tan that once he was refused service down south. Normally the nicest guy you would ever meet, he had choice words for that person after he removed his cap.

He was an avid hunter, it was probably his big vacation after the end of the season in the fall. My earliest memories include a big Buck mount in his den.

Back then, believe it or not, Massachusetts had a decent Pheasant population. When I was little I remember my brother David caring for a white hen pheasant named "Jesse".

This guy here got him on TV! This pheasant was basically psychotic. He decided that the farm was HIS farm, especially that truck. He would come home bleeding from where this idiot bird pecked him trying to keep him out of the truck. He would drive out into the field and call this bird and it would come to him. One day the big TV station in Boston came out ad did a story on the bird. It was a big event for an 8 year old.

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Tonight is the Flint Steelheaders Monthly Meeting, with special guests the people who make slide divers to answer all your questions about their product, including their new "Lite Bite". As always everyone is welcome.

11-5-2007 Some cool pictures and story about some Elk

You have to admire his determination.

Man tows vessel with inflatable boat

September 19, 2007

From Boston.com

11-4-2007 I went with my fishing buddy to look at a boat in Ludington Friday. The lake was a "bit rough" with waves crashing over the south pier head.

11-1-2007 Feral pigs continue to be a growing problem in Michigan. You can read about a 500 lb pig shot near Traverse City here. One thing that disturbs me is reading online forums where people are advocating not shooting the little ones because they "want the hunting opportunity".

This is short sighted and, pardon my bluntness, just stupid. The number of other species that will be destroyed or reduced by a feral pig population is just stunning.

The DNR has to get on the stick on this and get some rules out there for hunting them.

Rank	Date	Angler	Port	Weight	Prize	Bonus
1	7/25/2007	William Woehrmann	B	24.96	$5,000 Cash	Mexico Vacation
2	7/25/2007	John Reinke	S	23.42	$2,000 Cash
3	7/22/2007	Tammy Luedtke	K	22.47	$1,500 Cash
4	7/22/2007	Steve Bartz	K	22.06	$1,400 Cash
5	7/29/2007	Sam Sieminski	W	21.57	$1,300 Cash
6	7/23/2007	Christopher DeWitt	K	21.52	$1,200 Cash
7	7/22/2007	Steven Laubenstein	B	21.37	$1,100 Cash
8	7/25/2007	Lester Kroll	K	21.33	$1,000 Cash	$500 Howie Bonus
9	7/21/2007	Scott Wertanen	A	21.26	$900 Cash
10	7/29/2007	Jason Barrick	B	21.00	$800 Cash