Captain George knows a thing or two about fishing meat. Fishing out of Onekama, MI the Netminder averaged 40-bites per day on meat during the 2011 fishing season. George is a member of the Erie Dearie pro-staff and helped Dreamweaver design their new meat rigs.

Top 4 Meat Rig Tips:
Speed control – Capt. George says speed control is absolutely critical when fishing meat rigs. He keeps his probe speed at 2.0 MPH to get the bait to do one roll per second.
Leader length – In cold water Capt. George uses a 32” leader, which gives the rig a snappier action. He switches to a 40” leader in warm water to produce a lazier action.
Big attractors – Capt. George relies exclusively on 10” Spin Doctors on his divers, leadcore, and copper, while an 11” Paddle will always be on the deep chute rigger.
Color – Once Capt. George feels he has found the fish’s color preference, he’ll color coordinate every rig in the water. For example, if blue is the color, he’ll rig a blue bait head, blue teasers, blue flasher, and even a blue diver.  Blue, green, and glow are consistently good color choices, and a glow bait head coordinates well with most rigs.

A typical summertime charter set for Capt. George consists of 11 rods featuring: spoons or plugs on the two boom riggers; an 11” Paddle with a meat rig off the deep chute rigger; two wire divers per side – each with a Spin Doctor and meat rig; one leadcore per side off an in-line board – each with a Spin Doctor and meat rig; and one copper line per side off an in-line board – also with a Spin Doctors and meat rigs. In tournaments with a 9-rod limit, he pulls the two boom rigger rods and uses 100% meat. Capt. George will put his Fish Hawk probe on one of those boom riggers without a fishing line on it. This allows him to easily monitor speed throughout the water column and keeps the probe in the water 100% of the time.

A little about the meat itself – most anglers have been using commonly available herring strips, but ballyhoo strips are becoming available now too. Capt. George has not seen a preference from the fish, but does believe that ballyhoo is a little tougher, holding up to 2 fish, and it has brighter silver scales and more flash.  Pre-packaged bait strips are available at most tackle shops in popular Great Lakes ports. Or soon you’ll be able to go to eriedearie.com and have bait shipped directly to your house packed in dry ice in a reusable cooler.

If you have questions about meat rig fishing, or are interested in booking a trip to learn the details firsthand, Capt. George encourages you to email him at netmindersportfishing@hotmail.com.

Mild spring weather has created early fishing opportunities throughout the Great Lakes. It seems like most articles I’ve read lately about catching early season salmon and trout focus on using crankbaits or small dodgers with peanut flies. While those two lure types are undeniably very productive, many seasoned captains still prefer a springtime spoon program.

Spoon size is an important consideration. Fishing out of St. Joe, MI in April and May aboard the Sea Screw III, Captain Jerry Lee “matches-the-hatch” and relies on small spoons like Mini-Streaks to imitate the smaller baitfish frequently found in cold spring water. As the water warms he’ll start using standard and mag Silver Streaks, but he’s not afraid to use larger spoons in cold water if larger baitfish are in the area.

Also fishing out of St. Joe in the spring, MI-HI Capt. Steve Martin believes small spoons have the best action when fished on short leads off the downriggers. When fishing smaller spoons, Martin sets his spoons 6-feet behind the cannonballs.

Russell Gahagan, Manager of the Angler’s Avenue tackle store in Sheboygan, WI says that any color spoon will work in the spring – as long as its orange! While some anglers use lighter line when fishing small spoons, Russell still runs 20lb test line. “I feel that individual spoons have the perfect action and produce better than others of the same brand and color. When I find one of those special spoons, I don’t want to lose it!”

Chartering in Lake Huron for over 35-years, Capt. Ed Retherford mixes mini-Streaks with orange Brad’s Thin Fins fished on three and five colors of leadcore off in-line planer boards to catch early season Atlantics and browns in the Alpena area.

I like the simplicity of running a spread of spoons. They catch fish at a wide range of speeds, and if you find yourself on a wide-open coho bite its easier to unhook fish and get lures back in the water fast!

I leave for the Duluth Boat Sports and Travel Show this week. Talking to customers at the show might help reduce the fever some. Then again, maybe seeing new tackle and talking about fishing isn’t such a good idea…

Speaking of sport shows, here is a piece that Dave Mull wrote recently about the importance of Speed and Temp Probes:

2012 Fishing Electronics: Speed ’n‘ Temp Probes

By Dave Mull

With the array of fine sonar and mapping units available to help anglers catch more fish, speed-and-temp probes don’t get much attention. Yet, many anglers who have these probes wouldn’t trade them for the finest fishfinder/GPS unit in existence. These anglers have learned that knowing the water temperatures below and how sub-surface currents are affecting their lures can really help catch more fish.

With the sport show season beginning, you might find your best deal of the year on one.

Speed ’n‘ temp probes are mainly tools for trollers, who install a probe on a downrigger cable above the ball. The probe has a thermometer and a speed-recording paddle wheel on it and sends the temp and speed info to a display unit in the boat.

This information comes topside either through the downrigger cable, which is then hard-wired to the display unit, or, in the case of the Fish Hawk, the probe beams the information to a transducer mounted on the transom. The upside to the Fish Hawk is that the others need special, coated cable on the downrigger whereas the Fish Hawk can use any downrigger cable; even the stealthy superlines and mono that some anglers prefer. Moor Electronics, Cannon and Kell Labs all have units that require the coated cable.

Why are speed-and-temp units so useful for trolling? For one, many species of fish, including salmon, brown trout, lake trout, steelhead and (to a lesser extent) walleyes have distinct preferences for a certain range of temperatures. By finding that temperature with the probe, anglers can concentrate their lures for their targeted species at that depth. For instance, captains have found that Great Lakes brown trout like water temperature between 49 and 54 degrees. In the summer, the surface temperature might be 70 degrees, while 54-degree water is 50 feet down. By setting lines along the kind of vertical structure that attracts browns, and 50 feet down, the anglers have greatly increased their chances for putting lures in front of browns. Another example: Great Lakes captains have compared notes and found that their biggest king salmon are caught in water temperature from 39 to 43 degrees. By focusing their spread at depths where this water temperature exists, they know they are upping the odds of hooking into bigger fish.

Trollers also like to know how subsurface currents are affecting their lures set well below the surface, and speed-and-temp probes do this effectively, too. Many newcomers to trolling the Great Lakes don’t realize that subsurface currents might be pushing against or behind their lures. When they come against a lure, currents might cause that lure to wobble too fast and even “burn out.” When a current is following a lure, it can cause it to just dangle and not wobble much at all.

With its paddle wheel down at the downrigger ball, a speed probe relays this important information to the angler. When trolling against a subsurface current, the angler must slow his boat way down to keep the lure working at optimal speed; when trolling with a current, the angler must speed up to get the lures down there to act properly. Knowing what the currents are doing at depth is nearly impossible without a speed probe.

Sports show season begins in January, with lots of retailers offering good deals on lots of different things. It’s a great time to shop for a speed-n-temp probe, perhaps the best new piece of electronics you can mount on your boat to help you catch more fish.