Tyee II

Huh??

Haywire with heat shrink tubing over the twist.

Just my own personal observations along with others. I used to see big flocks coming out of the water, or flying by every trip out a couple years ago. Don't see them nearly as much, I think I've seen one flock come out of the water all year. You still see them around, but not like they were. Those things eat way more fish than even a Laker eats. I'd bet they're grabbing the big ones like the Lakers do too. Apex baitfish and fingerling predators! I believe they lowered the protection on them finally and allowed for limited take-lethal control permits? I think it's helping. https://www.outdoornews.com/2018/07/09/in-michigan-push-continues-to-revive-cormorant-control-order/

No I haven't forgotten about the "crash". There's many who believe we weren't as close as we were told. Just like everywhere, the right decisions can't always be made due to politics and usually when they can be, it takes too long to implement. Our situation is also dictated by a consent decree that forces us to have to accept an overabundance of the wrong mouths to feed. We can't choose whether or not we fish for Lakers...we're catching them on the surface running a Steelhead spoon going 3.5 mph. It's apples and oranges really, to compare the 2 lakes, but one glaringly obvious commonality between them is that most people prefer having silver fish make up the majority of their catch instead of Lakers. Some don't care, some love fishing for them, but nobody wants an overabundance of them. I believe the cuts helped produce bigger Kings for Lake Michigan, but the bait boom is more from the lake being higher and reduced Cormorant populations. They're saying zebras aren't a problem anymore now too. Seems like Mother Nature knows more than we do. Like Capt. Vince suggested earlier in this thread, most guys I know over here including myself are jealous of the size and numbers of Kings you guys have and most have the Big O on our bucket lists. If it were a bunch of Lakers....not worth towing the boat.

Lakes Michigan and Huron are connected and being considered as one body of water lately. In fact, even after the crash they still stock hundreds of thousands of Kings in Huron, and because those fish migrate and spend most of their lives in Lake Michigan, they are counted as LM stocked fish. If New York wanted to raise their Laker limits, no other state or otherwise should be able to tell them they can't. Just like Wisconsin did when the other members of the Lake Michigan Committee were opposed to it. They even refused the Federal Lake Trout that were supposed to be stocked on the mid-lake reef which nobody else has the stones to do. It's up to each state to decide what their limits are.

You're right Brian. Wisconsin did the right thing increasing the Laker limit to 5. We've been trying to get Illinois to do the same or at least go from 2 to 3 Laker limits.

The increase in bait and therefore size of Salmon in Lake Michigan has a direct correlation to the water levels rising and a decline in Cormorant numbers. Those birds eat more bait than the Kings do. If we could reduce the number of stocked Lakers immediately we will be able to support more Salmon. Hopefully that is coming soon for us on Lake Michigan as it seems even the Indians realize the Lakers are destroying more desirable fisheries, like Whitefish and Chubs.

There's something about the wandering nature of a free slider that I think entices fish into biting. I've had a much better landing ratio since switching to single hooks on my slider spoons, and I think the lighter, less drag single hook actually helps the wandering action of the free slider spoon. There are times that a fixed slider is a better presentation though, especially when you want to keep the slider close to the mainline bait, or to pin it at a steelhead depth while fishing deeper in the thermocline. I think both slider presentations should be in your arsenal on any given day, especially for fishing Steelies or Coho.

I fished the Pass the Passion tournament this past weekend that this fish was caught in. I talked to Joe, the guy that brought the fish in the boat and he said he was gonna try to find the former owner of the ring. It sure didn't take long... Grey Lion II, the boat that caught the fish, had engine problems on day 2 after taking that ring on board. Kinda like having a bunch of bananas on board, I think.

Use the cannon retrievers. Never an issue with them. How old is your cable? Maybe it's just time for new cable?

I'm sorry, I didn't mention mine are on HDS units, but Humminbird units should be able to do the same. I can tell you that as long as you keep the frequencies far enough apart you shouldn't have a problem. I run my cannon transducer, which is just a bit higher frequency than I run my 66 at, so three ducers working at the same time.

I am running a TM150 and a P66 at the same time with no issues. There is minor interference on my dash unit with the TM150, but barely noticable. I have the p66 connected to my unit in the back of the boat set on the low frequency so I can see my rigger weights, and the TM150 is connected to the dash unit running on medium chirp most of the time. If I want to use one of the ducers on all units, I just turn on network sonar on the unit that has that ducer connected to it, which I had to do last year when my 150 popped up at speed and started giving eratic readings.