IDO Slammin Salmon Get Together:

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To list a few:

Navigation lights
Fire extinguisher
Personal Flotation devices
Sound producing device (whistle or air horn)

Visual distress signaling device (flares, minimum of 3)
You may also use an orange flag during daytime and a Electric Light after dark

Ventilation system (for I/0 boats)
Backfire Flame Arrestors (for I/0 boats)

2-way Marine Band Radiou – although I couldn’t find it in the hand book, I’m pretty sure it’s required on Lake Michigan. Even if not, it’s a pretty darn good idea to have one since you cell phone won’t work once you get more than a few miles off shore. Pretty much all the cell phone towers are aimed inland resulting in little coverage out on the big lake.

One other item I would like to mention just so it doesn’t cost any of our crew a ticket. Make sure you put a boot on all battery terminals. This includes your negative terminal!
Regular law enforcement rarely enforces this rule but the Harbor Patrol is another story altogether. I’ve had more than one friend who’s been pinched for this violation.

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Add to that list of requirements – Wire Snippers

Your required to have them out & available if you are running down riggers. The reason for this is so that your boat doesn’t sink should one of your rigger balls snag the bottom or a commercial fishermens net. (this actually happened a few years back, hence the new rule)

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Get some sleep

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On a serious note, does know if there are any outlets we could plug into at southshore for a few hours? Would be nice to plug the batteries in for a few hours in case I don’t run home

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Hi Joel, I signed up as a rider, is it up to me to solicit a boater, or are you going to match riders with boaters? Thanks Mike Martine

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We haven’t decided how we’re going to do that yet.
Suggestions are always welcome though!

I can’t believe I got all of Friday off!!…
I am ‘IN’ unless the good Lord decides otherwise.

I can take 2 with me. It’s a push for a 3rd but if it has to be, then it is…I’d like to add that I am a NON-SMOKER. I don’t much care to have alcohol beverages on board.

I have a 21′ deep “V”. Will run 2 down riggers, can stack lines if needed. 2 dipsy’s and 2 boards. I have I’ve run up to 8 or 9 lines.But if the bite is hot, 6 -8 is plenty. Got dodgers, flies, spoons, plugs…. I have 3 vests on board.
Maybe a good idea is if you have your own favorite life vest/jacket, bring it.

As far as needing another experienced on board, if you’ve ever netted a big fish in the dark, that works for me.

I live in North Rochester. Would be good to go together. I have a super-crew cab truck. Not that we necessarily are all in my boat, but would help on fuel costs….

Joel….I hope this works….
I see emails best, but will keep checking here on IDO. [email protected] or [email protected]

Joel Ballweg wrote:

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<hr>Are we still planning on fishing the 25th,26th,and 27th, or just sat and sunday? Mike

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I don’t know that there will be to many people fishing on Friday. Probably some but I believe the agenda will look something like this:

Fish early Saturday a.m, then break for lunch & socializingClean fishEat some lunch, trade fish stories & offer advice on location and baits to anyone who wants help.Meet & socialize with other IDO’ers, put faces to names.

Fish Saturday afternoon into the eveningClean fishEat something, share a beer & trade fish storiesGet some sleep & prepare to do it again on Sunday morning.

Sunday a.m. – repeat of Saturday a.m.Clean fishSay good bye to new friends Go home and take a nap!

Many salmon guys start extremely early in the morning. My boat will be leaving the dock before sunrise so that we can be setup with lines in the water before the sun starts rising. This means we will be leaving the dock in the dark & setting up lines in the dark. So if you agree to take an open seat in my boat, your also agreeing to meet at the boat launch 1-1/2 to 2 hrs before sunrise.

</font><font class=”post”>I find it extremely rewarding to watch a boat mate battling a big king while the sun is just beginning to light up the sky over Lake Michigan. And a frequent bonus at this time of the morning is that its not uncommon to have doubles and triples going at the same time. If you’ve never had this experience, you are truly missing out on one life’s great adrenaline producing events. (for a fisherman anyway)</font>

Joel, you couldn’t be more right about the excitement a double produces! We were fishing out of Milwaukee over Fathers day(your referral by the way!) and had two doubles, what an absolute blast. My girls were spent after five hours of battling those Kings!

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Joel, you couldn’t be more right about the excitement a double produces! We were fishing out of Milwaukee over Fathers day(your referral by the way!) and had two doubles, what an absolute blast. My girls were spent after five hours of battling those Kings!

Looks like those two girls of yours are having an awesome time!
Glad to hear your trip & weather turned out well.

Just made it back to the site today and everything looks great! Just wanted to chime in here and let everybody know that we’re still on for this event. Looks like we should have a good turnout and we still plan on matching up as many boaters with non-boaters as we can. Randy Weiland is taking care of the paperwork for that. (Thanks Randy!)

I also just wanted to give a heads up that both Randy and Joel Ballweg will be indisposed for the next week or so, so if you have any questions, feel free to post them here or send me a message. I’ll do my best to fill in while those guys are out of town.

I wanted to get an idea as well of how many guys are planning to attend that are bringing their own boat, but haven’t really done much or any salmon fishing before? If the need/ interest is there, I could put together a few posts about rigging, tackle, strategies etc. if people want. Otherwise there plenty of info out there already if you want to do the digging on your own. I started doing this about 7 years ago and have kind of “learned the hard way”, so I may be able to speed up the learning curve and possibly avoid some headaches for you “newbies”

Anyways, still looking forward to this event. Should be a great time! To be honest, fishing has been kinda slow here for the past month but thats fairly typical for June. I think we’re rounding the corner here, and if we could get some stable, warm weather it could be pound town any time now!

Well its been awhile since we have had any conversation about the salmon get together. I think we need to get some more chatter going. I just spoke Via e-mail with Tim M AKA flatfish about getting a hotel room. so I think we are set with boat seat assignments and hotel.

The next thing I would like to ask some of the regular guys going down. what would be some good spoons , j-plug and fly’s to pick to supplement what tackle we/ I already have. any suggestion would help.

Lets get some talking going on out there.

I don’t run any j-plugs so I am no help there.

Every boat has their own favorites, and what works on one boat doesn’t necessarily work on another boat. That being said, here are my favorites.

Flashers – 8″ pro-troll e-chips in glow green, glow white, mountain doo, wonder bread, and plaid on clear. Spin doctors are also good. I use glow green and glow white 80% of the time.

Flies – I like little boy blue, double aqua, green crinkle, aqua frog, or anything with a green or aqua pattern.

Spoons – greens, blues, blacks for deeper sets, reds and oranges for high lines. Glow spoons for early and late. There are a billion spoon patterns and manufacturers so that one is hard to recommend and everyone has their own favorite. I like moonshine and pro-king spoons.

One bait that I am just starting to get experience with is Brad’s cut plugs. They are a plastic plug that is designed to mimic the action of a cut herring like they run out west. The bait has a cavity you can stuff with scent or bait like tuna or herring. They seem to produce fish when nothing else works. Mountain doo, seahawk, blue hawaiian, and wonder bread are good colors. You can run them with a flasher or naked.

I also like to run some small dodgers (size 00) with a coho fly on 2 or 3 color lead core setups for rainbows. A red or orange dodger with a purple coho fly has accounted for all of my rainbows this year.

Hopefully that is helpful to some.

Sorry about the lack of chatter here recently. Transitioning to the new site along with fourth of July vacations for Randy and Joel, house hunting on my side has slowed the conversation here. Anyways, we are just a few short weeks away from the get together here, so I agree, its time to get prepping.

First of all, I want to be completely honest with you guys. Fishing here for the past month or so has been really tough. This year started off great, as the near shore waters started to warm, we had some really nice catches. For the past month or so though, we’ve been stuck in a tough transition period as the lake is trying to setup a thermocline but this miserable slow summer has been hindering that. Usually by the fourth of July, we’re into consistent fishing, but we just cant seem to turn the corner yet this year. Things will pickup though.

That being said, its kinda tough to say what’s hot because in all honesty, nothing is right now. John did touch on some very good points about general lure and color choices, and I plan to add to that in more detail when I get time. Life has just been hectic lately as my fiance and I just put an offer in on our first home yesterday… For now though, I’d just like to throw a few things out there.

First of all, remember, if you plan to attend and have any extra room in your boat, please post it on the sign up thread that Joel started. From there, Randy will be keeping track of everything and trying to match up as many riders with boaters as he can. Also if you want to attend but don’t have a boat, reach out to any of the guys who have posted space on the sign up thread and see if you can work something out.

Somebody also posted about bringing brats to the event. Which brings up another topic. We plan to do a cookout at the park surrounding the launch in between morning and afternoon outings on Saturday. Anybody feel like volunteering to setup and manage a “pot- luck” thread where people could post what dishes they’d like to bring? That way we don’t end up with 400 brats and no buns if you get my drift.

We’re all just kind of planning this on the fly here, so feel free to chime in with any ideas or thoughts that you guys have. We want this to be as relaxed and easy going as possible, but theres always a little planning needed for any good get together, so any and all help is appreciated.

I also promise that as soon as my life settles down just a bit (hopefully by the end of this week), I’ll get some detailed posts up about rigging.

Well I’m still in,unless there is a hurricane
Just waiting until it gets a bit closer too…

I’ll help in anyway I can……

If anybody wants to sign up for the Slammin’ Salmon GTG here is the link to the sign up page – http://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/michiganww_1349157/

One more thing I just wanted to mention that’s a little different here than some other places you guys may have fished. Obviously, you will need to buy a Wisconsin fishing license, but you will also have to add what is called a “Great Lakes Trout Stamp”. You are not allowed to fish for salmon and trout on lake michigan with just the basic license, you need the stamp as well. You DO NOT however need an “inland trout stamp” that’s only for lakes and streams which are not connected to lake michigan or for fishing above the first major dam in any of the L. Michigan tribs.

One more thing I’d like to request if I may:

those of use with the boat should some how be able to communicate.

Could we share cell phone #’s? Mine is 507-269-6529
Also marine band radio, use our handles(aka FLATFISH) or names : Tim

Was there another plan that I may have missed???

Thanks

For anyone needing to contact me on the water, my cell is 608-225-2395. I typically have my radio on scan and go to channel 68 if somebody wants to converse. I go by EyeChaser on the radio.

We could also just agree on a channel saturday morning as 68 is a pretty popular channel in Milwaukee.

John Schultz wrote:

For anyone needing to contact me on the water, my cell is 608-225-2395. I typically have my radio on scan and go to channel 68 if somebody wants to converse. I go by EyeChaser on the radio.

We could also just agree on a channel saturday morning as 68 is a pretty popular channel in Milwaukee.

Channel 68 is monitored by pretty much everyone fishing out of Milwaukee. I think its fine to monitor & hail each other on 68, but I won’t be sharing to much fishing info or especially coordinates to my location. I’m not all that keen on seeing an entire fleet of boats pulling rods and moving right over my location.
Instead lets agree to switch to a predetermined channel for details that can help fellow IDO’ers. I’m all for helping out the people attending this event but the rest of the fleet can wait for my report on Monday:)

How does switching to channel 88 for detailed info sound?

My handle is “Boog”.

I got your cell boog !!

Dave Koonce wrote:

I got your cell boog !!

Just so you know, if we happen to be more than about 5 miles offshore, cell phones generally won’t work to well. Apparently, all the cell phone towers are aimed in toward land. Go figure!
The cell phone is still worth trying though. When closer to shore, I’ve had better reception on my cell phone than I have on the radio. Especially when one person is 10 miles to the north and the other is somewhere around south Milwaukee.

Joel Ballweg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dave Koonce wrote:</div>
I got your cell boog !!

Just so you know, if we happen to be more than about 5 miles offshore, cell phones generally won’t work to well. Apparently, all the cell phone towers are aimed in toward land. Go figure!
The cell phone is still worth trying though. When closer to shore, I’ve had better reception on my cell phone than I have on the radio. Especially when one person is 10 miles to the north and the other is somewhere around south Milwaukee.

Hey Shultzy…
can you work on this ?

Dave Koonce wrote:

Hey Shultzy…
can you work on this ?

We point the antennas toward where the people are for a reason. History has proven that fish tend not to pay their bills. I believe there are a couple pointed over the lake, but not many.

I’m good with 88 being the IDO channel. Hail on 68 and then change, but don’t mention you are switching to 88 as the lurkers will just switch right along with you.

I think 88 is for commercial vessel communication. Recreational channels regulated to a few. See picture.

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Art Green wrote:

I think 88 is for commercial vessel communication. Recreational channels regulated to a few. See picture.

Art – whats a good channel for us to use?
How about channel 78?

Boog, 78 works, I got interrupted by the phone and must of hit submit accidentally trying to pick up my call. I got yelled at once on 88 by the Coasties. I know many monitor and use 68 and 72 out of Milwaukee and Port Washington-FYI. I scan all channels continuous.
I can be reached on my cell as well (four-one-four) four-99-six-289. Darn spammers!

I’ll throw my cell number out there too, 608-212-6078. Looking forward to meeting you all you dark and early Saturday!

My cell is Four one Four – Eight Three Nine- Two Nine Three Eight, if anybody needs anything at all, feel free to give me a shout. I’ll also probly just be hanging around the house Friday night, so if anybody gets into town early friday but doesn’t want to go out fishing, I’ll have cold beer on standby…

Nate, at one time I thought I read something about maybe meeting down by the launch Friday evening. Does anyone know if that is still a plan? I hope to be in town by 7:30 or 8 at the latest. If nothing else I was maybe going to make a “dry run” down to the launch to make sure I knew where it was at before the 3AM run down.

Thanks,
Dave

My cell is six zero eight – two three five – zero nine six two

Gents –

Ben Brettingen and I are loading up and heading for Milwaukee in a few minutes. I’m a first time Lake Michigan salmon-nube. Anyone willing to point us in the right direction on where to start? We’ll be at the South Shore landing around 3:30 AM Friday morning and plan to fish all day. Anything we uncover will be shared with all Slammin Salmon participants if anyone is interested.

So, anyone have a good starting point to share?

Thanks in advance guys!

James Holst wrote:

So, anyone have a good starting point to share?

Watch out for the green can straight out of the south shore marina. It is out a mile or so SSE of the gap. Should have a light on it, but it has surprised me in the dark before.

Other than that tidbit, I got nothing for a southern spot as I haven’t fished south in a month.

I was out twice last weekend (mid-day) at both South Shore and Mckinley with pretty poor results only catching steelhead out in 140′ on a dipsey -Orange crush spoon. Kayakers and pier fishermen are getting some fish so it may pay to spend some time in close before venturing out to deeper water. Seems that reports are a lot of catchable fish have been high in the water column (top 35 feet). Flasher flys have not been producing as well as spoons but as you know tomorrow morning could be different. You should still run some FF combos to make your spread look tasty. When I launched at SS I had a guy tell me they did well on the morning bite, and the fleet was concentrated on the water SE of the green can.