msdzwjmi09

Lee and Vicky arrived in the early afternoon and after we stopped at the landing to check on a slip for the boat and finding out they were full, we took the boat and trailer to Crusty SSA Chuck and Jude's. That evening Lee, Vicky and I had dinner at The Cherry Hut.

Sunday morning I played radio and just about the time we had planned to head to brunch, we got the call from the marina at Frankfort that a slip was available, so, Lee and Vicky headed to Frankfort so secure the slip and Johnny and I met them at The Brookside for Sunday brunch. After brunch Lee and I took the boat to the landing in Frankfort and put the boat in the slip. Ah yes, we saw this storage box that reminded us of Johnny and his Internet ducky business

Sunday evening Lee prepared the cut bait we will be using for our Salmon fishing. The bait gets cut in half and then, after cutting the head off, is stored in a brine and Borax solution that makes the scales stick to the skin better and preserves the bait until we are ready to use it. The new rigs we are using are made for cut bait and it is much cheaper to make your own rather than to purchase "pre-made" cut bait. Duh!

Monday morning it was quite windy, so, we elected to pass on fishing. I took my morning walk and we had brunch here at the cottage. It started raining in the late afternoon and we ended up meeting Johnny at the Friendly Tavern for dinner.

Tuesday morning we took our "shake down" cruise to learn about the new rigs and to get a feel for where the Salmon are gathering, etc. When you look at the shots below you will see Lee setting up the down riggers and then working on landing the first fish of the season. This one only cost him $2,000 ($162.60/pound) so it was not as expensive as some past year's first fish. For those of you who don't remember, the first fish costs all of the boat equipment improvement expenses of the previous year so all the rest are free!

Even though the first fish was caught at 6 AM we waited until a bit later to take the snap shot so the sun was up and it made a
better picture. The longer we fished the windier it got so we ended up coming in earlier than anticipated, but we were not skunked!
Yee haw! We spent the afternoon in some R&R activities and then went to Traverse City to pick up a few items and met Dave and Betty at the Mongolian Grill for dinner! Pretty neat!

Wednesday morning we were up at 4:30 AM and on the water by about 5:15. Among the items added this year are new down riggers which control the depth we are fishing.

We hooked into our first fish at just about sunrise (6:50 AM) and since it was my turn to fight the fish I managed to land a 30 inch 12.7 pound King Salmon! My first of the season! Now things were a bit busy so we ended up not getting photos of each fish as it was caught. Here are the snap shots we did take of the day's catch.

#9 was 20.6 pounds. This brought us to within one of limiting out (new regulations now limits King Salmon to 5 per person per day where it had been 3 per day previously. Most of these were caught in water around 180 feet deep at the 100 foot level. We got back to the slip around 3:15 PM. (yes, ten hours on the water - we really wanted number ten)

So, as you look at the fish lined up at the cleaning station you can only imagine how happy and tired we were!

Now, as you look at the panel below, things are just a little out of sequence. The shot of all the fish in
the cooler was actually taken before the shot above but, we wanted a "big shot" of the fish at the cleaning station and it would not fit easily with the other shots. So, below you see a shot of a tug towing an ore barge out in Lake Michigan. The second shot is of the cooler full of fish before we unloaded them onto the cleaning station. The final shot is of the bags of cleaned Salmon ready to come home and got through out final cleaning session prior to getting frozen! Yee haw! What a day! It was after 6PM when we left the cleaning station!

Lee and I spent several hours making the last cleaning preparations and bagging the fresh fish for freezing! See below for a look at our process.

Friday morning it was raining and windy. I worked on my e-mail and then we went to Manistee (35 miles south) to pick up a replacement flasher and meat rig. We had lost one after one of the fish we caught Wednesday got tangled in a down rigger cable. Then we ran a few errands on our way back to the cottage. Friday evening we met Dave and Betty at the Cold Creek Inn in Beulah for their all-you-can-eat perch fish fry! Fantastic! We will be doing that again!

Saturday morning I awoke to more rain and wind. Lee and I went to the boat slip in Frankfort and worked on the auto pilot on the boat. We got the problem figured out and then picked up Vicky and we went to Money's Platte River Inn in Honor for lunch. Jimbo, eat your heart out, they had their home made ham and bean soup! Incredible! From there we went to the Platte River State Fish Hatchery for a self guided tour. There we saw millions of Coho Salmon being reared so they can be planted into the river system and trucked to other parts of the state and planted. From there we went back to Honor and walked through the exhibits at the National Coho Festival. Honor is the "birthplace" of the Coho Salmon up here! After a nice visit with SSA Crusty Chuck and Jude we enjoyed a movie and dessert.

Sunday morning it was a bit overcast but finally calm with the forecast for it to get sunny and remain calm in the afternoon. After playing radios we met the gang for brunch at Dilbert's Cafe.

Sunday afternoon Dave, W8TVC arrived and Lee, Dave and I headed to Frankfort to go fishing! We got off to a slow start but after about two hours of a boat ride we hooked one! Dave was first up and when we landed it, it weighed in at 15.9 pounds!

After about an hour without catching any more we headed towards shore. Below you see a shot of sunset on the lake and the fish in our cooler. So we have added 47.3 pounds of Salmon to our total and another four Kings! Yee haw! By the time we got the fish cleaned and got back to the cottage it was midnight! Dave headed home and Lee and I celebrated a bit.

Since we had a late night, I elected not to walk this morning. Instead we went down to the Trading Post and visited with the "Coffee Club".

For Monday lunch Lee, Vicky and I went to Papa J's. Lee and I spent some time in the afternoon fishing for pan fish on Little Platte Lake. While we were out fishing, Dave and Jerry were here to work on the siding replacement here on the cottage. (see left below)

Monday evening Lee, Vicky and I intended to go fishing out of Frankfort but it turned out to be too windy for us with 6 foot waves! We tried trolling for a bit and then came in. Lee took a neat photo of the sunset as we came into the harbor before we got to the slip. (see above right)

Tuesday morning it was even windier than it was Monday evening, so, we did not go fishing. Instead we met the Coffee Club and then followed Crusty back to their cottage and borrowed a 55 gallon drum to haul some fuel oil that came from the house on the property that Ted and Dottie bought in Frankfort. Ted and Dottie had the house demolished and the oil was our's for the taking. The catch was hauling it. I picked up a bucket to transfer the oil from the tank into the drum. It was a slow flow and it took 5 minutes to fill the bucket, so, you can imagine how long it took us to fill the drum up to the 50 gallon level. Once the drum was full we put a top on the drum and hauled it back to the cottage where we off loaded it into the fuel oil tank here at the cottage via a small drill motor pump and an old piece of hose. The small pump wore out just as we were finishing emptying the drum. We ended up pouring the last few gallons out of the drum into the bucket and pouring it into the filler tube. Tuesday evening we had the broasted pork chops at the Crystal Cafe! It rained off and on through the afternoon and evening.

The wind continued to blow Wednesday morning. I took my morning walk and met the gang at the Coffee Club. Lee and I worked on preparing the fish we caught Sunday. After lunch at the Crystal Cafe, we went to Frankfort so Lee could take care of some chores on the boat at the slip and I went to the hardware store and picked up a couple of 5 gallon jugs to haul more fuel oil (which is very close to Kerosene - hence the Kerosene jugs). (see last photo above)

Lee and I spent some more time pan fishing Wednesday afternoon and then we all went to Ted and Dottie's for a delightful visit and dinner! We missed the IOOK net, but were able to check into the BARF net from Old Blue. We all observed an absolutely beautiful sunset while we were participating the net!

Thursday morning Lee and I went fishing and were on the water by 5:15 but try as we might, we didn't catch a single fish until 9:30 AM! Below you see a look at the beautiful sunrise looking towards Frankfort from Lake Michigan.

You can see Lee's fish below. We were making a turn towards the harbor and going to troll in when we finally hooked this King.

As you look at the snap shots below you can see the meat rigs we have been using that is new to us this season. All of this material absorbs light and glows in the dark so it can be seen by the fish deep in the water where sunlight does not penetrate well. So, we "take pictures" of the baits to "flash" them prior to sending them down. The shots below show a front and back view of the cut bait rig.

Once we got back to the cottage we prepared the fish for freezing and then went to Money's Platte River Inn for lunch. While Lee fished for more pan fish, I made two more trips to Frankfort for fuel oil ten gallons at a time. Thursday evening we had a dandy dinner of Bluegills and Sunfish (Pumpkin Seeds)! Fantastic! After dinner we stopped by Crusty Chuck and Jude's for a short visit as they were headed back towards Cincinnati Friday morning and then we stopped by Gretchen's place for a short visit.

Friday morning we were back on the water at 5:15 and we got skunked. :-( This is the first trip we can remember during our Salmon fishing that we didn't get blown off the water and didn't get a fish! Actually, it was a blessing in disguise because we didn't have to clean fish and prepare fish for freezing before Lee and Vicky made their preparations for their Saturday morning departure. After lunch at Papa J's we picked up the boat trailer and went to Frankfort to pick up the boat and get another 10 gallons of fuel oil. They spent the afternoon packing things up and then we went to Traverse City and had dinner at the Mongolian Grill. We all really like the place except that it is kind of noisy. The food is great!

Saturday morning Lee and I went down to the Trading Post for Coffee Club and left a bit early so we could pick up Vicky and then attend the BARF Breakfast!

After breakfast we came back to the cottage and they packed up their last minute stuff and then headed out to pick up the boat at Crusty and Jude's place and then head towards home near Germantown, Ohio southwest of Dayton.

To summarize our two weeks of Salmon fishing, we feel we had a lot of success! Especially considering the fact that we had a lot of days that we could not fish, we still ended up with a lot of fish in the freezer! We landed a total of 15 Kings weighing in at 202.4 pounds! Incredible! All of the photos are actual and other than brightness or contrast have not been altered in any way. Contrary to what Hoss says, there are no cardboard fish shown in these photos!

The bottom line is, we are already making plans for next year's Salmon season!

A special thanks goes out to Marian, WD8CJD for being so understanding! I love you dear!

MSD & ZWJ MI 09