Milwaukee Brown Out

NumenOn the Water

Date: 10-29 through 31-2016

Body of Water: Milwaukee Harbor, Lake Michigan

Boat: Numenon

With: A

Target: Brown Trout

Time: Various, from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM

Conditions: Also various, but generally windy; and generally overcast to sprinkles.  Temperatures from low 40s to upper 60s; water temperatures were 52 to 55 degrees F.  Water varied from muddy to almost clear depending on location.

Six hours after leaving the drive-way, but perhaps six weeks after conceiving this trip, our six-rod trolling spread was set.  The water seemed a trouty 54 degrees F, and the gap between Milwaukee Harbor break walls resulted in wind-driven current and a pile of bait fish on the sonar screen.  I was embarking on my Giant Brown Quest, and things looked promising.

When trolling didn't produce, I eagerly switched to casting crank baits.  Again, I sought signs favorable to my quarry; jumping fish, bait, current and rocks.  Conditions still seemed promising; it was just a matter of finding some feeding fish!

We finished the afternoon with bait under floats in marina dead ends.  There were several fish present (jumps and swirls), and some even appeared to be very sizable brown trout.  (Many, if not most, were post-spawn salmon at their end of life.)  None were biting, though!  We left the ramp, fishless, after a long day of travel and fishing hard.

We returned to the ramp by nautical dawn and, if anything, fished harder and longer.  The ratio of trolling increased, and we spent more time trolling with just two hand-held lines in lieu of the complete spread.  This made us a bit more nimble and we covered lots of spots.  Still nothing!

Like a bad joke, in the seventh or eighth hour of the day's fishing, while trolling a green and white Flick'r Shad about 50 feet behind the boat along a rocky break wall, my rod loaded.  As I swung, I missed!  But as I gathered some slack from the set, the fish appeared again; and I missed again!  The fish hadn't seemed very large... but still; I thought I'd blown perhaps the only chance of the trip!   I was feeling rather defeated as we loaded the boat back onto the trailer a bit later.

We still had Halloween morning to fish; the wind had calmed and we launched for our last session.  The plan was to troll this same break wall; and if nothing happened to then relocate our efforts to new water.  Despite current and bait, we had no bites near our "hot" spot; so soon we were at the southern end of the harbor setting a trolling spread along the inside of the outer harbor wall.

I wanted to stay near the wall and its supporting structure, so we each held a rod with a crank bait, while I also set two boards and a downrigger to the outside.  It didn't take long for my fire-tiger Flick'r Shad to get hit, and I carefully played my fish.  It isn't large, but I was certainly going to land it!  As A got ready with the net, I called her off.  I casually swung the 14-inch smallmouth bass into the boat.  We weren't totally skunked; but we were still skunked on trout.

We finished our time by casting another rock wall.  A got smacked and then battled a decent smallie; both hit a purple and yellow DT Thug crank.  Finally, we trolled the harbor's northern gaps and familiar break wall.  Conditions still seemed favorable; but empirically, something was off.  

We were on the road by Noon, and home by 6 PM.

What do I have to say about this?

It really was a good trip, because A was able to relax, and I was able to fish hard for the fish of my dreams for three straight days.  We enjoyed each other's company, shared a few good meals together, and had no problems with gear or travels.  The only thing missing was the brown trout!

That was an important element for me!  But not for A, and I know she has the right attitude about these things.  So, while I am disappointed in the fishing and my inability to put a nice brown in the boat, that disappointment pales in comparison to the positive elements of the trip.  And heck, it's only six hours away, so I can always go back and try again!

Offshore Challenge 2016

NumenOn the Water

Date:  June 4, 5 and 6, 2016

Body of Water:  Lake Michigan, Grand Haven

Boat:  Dog Day

With: Dog Day Crew

Target:  Great Lakes Trout and Salmon

Time: About 6:30 AM to 2 PM each day

Conditions:  Various; but generally Spring transitioning into Summer.  From flat calm, building through each day to 5 footers; and perfectly clear through raining and fog.  Water conditions were generally high 50s on surface and gradually cooling to 43 degrees F.  No real thermocline, yet.

The Dog Day crew had not fished together since last September, and none of had yet targeted salmon on Lake Michigan this season.  These were not ideal factors for entering a tournament, but that did not dissuade us.  We had a favorable weather forecast and a day for practicing.  We thought the best opportunity for getting a number of bites would be in deeper water, offshore; especially with the dearth of Kings this season.

6 AM run from the Grand Haven piers on our single practice day; beautiful conditions to search out some fish!

Conditions were flat calm and the sky was high.  Our initial spread consisted of four boards with lead and copper of various lengths, a couple of wire dipseys and two down riggers.  We were covering the top down to 140 feet or so.  We had set up in about 160 feet of water and the shallower rigger, set 63 feet down with a white flasher/fly  got hit within the first half hour in about 180 feet of water.  The smallish salmon jumped off, but provided a starting point and buoyed our spirits.  And for the next couple of hours we enjoyed four more bites, landing two coho, a steely and a tiny king.  These all bit Super Slim spoons in "Mixed Veggie" or "Hot Pepper" colors.  They'd all hit between 180 and 200 feet of water, at faster, but not really hot trolling speeds; about 2.6 - 2.8 mph.  Short Coppers seemed best; the riggers and dipseys had gone silent.  We'd not caught a fish deeper than 200 feet of water.  The biggest fish might not have weighed five pounds, but I'd suffered much worse in days in other Grand Haven tournaments.    We had something of a starting point for the next day.

Doc M bags our first (coho) salmon of the day.

This Super Slim spoon took several hits during practice and earned a near-permanent place in our spread.

Doc M had fished with some other "Pro" boats during practice for the recent South Haven tournament, and he'd picked up some experience, pointers and gear for targeting deep lakers.  We ended our practice day with an attempt at dragging bottom for them in about 120 feet of water.  We made just about every possible mistake, didn't get bit and mostly fought tangles.  (Doc M had developed a taste for 50-foot leaders on the wire divers; until I see it make a positive difference, I'm not a fan.) But we did learn from this effort (set one rod at a time and communicate in the back the boat!), and it turned out to be time decently spent, because we fished much more cohesively during the tournament.   

This practice day had also been the Kids and Ladies Tournament, and post-fishing talk indicated that about 130 feet to 170 feet of water had produced the most bites.  Since we'd gotten our bites on the shallow side of our range during practice, this became our target for the tourney's start.  And Day 1 of the tournament started well!  125- and 150- Coppers produced a steelie and a 6-pound king from about 150 feet of water, but then things fizzled out.  We only got two more hits, both from the bottom, while targeting lakers.  We pulled our first laker by bouncing right off the bottom (rigger; yellow-spotted tin can dodger; Spin-n-Glo) and then finally caught  a dipsey fish by bouncing bottom; a spinnie/reversed fly/Spin-n-Glo combo trailed 50 feet behind.  Both of these lakers came from about 125 feet of water.

Our four fish weighed a total of just over 16 pounds; not a great catch, but not bad, either, as another two or three fish of any legal size would have put us in the top 3 "Amateur" boats.  What was truly evident from the weigh-in is that lakers would win it; there were virtually no kings weighed; and our lakers had to be abundant for us to make a move.

This steelie on Day 1 was bigger than anything we caught in practice.

Our first targeted laker.  They are beautiful fish!

Doc M is a gregarious guy, and he's gone "all in" with this fishing.  During the evening he developed some "intel" within the marina, from folks he trusted; and the advice was to target lakers in 130 to 170 feet of water. (But beware! The boat that had won the Kids and Ladies Tournament had crapped out on Day 1!)  We knew we weren't on winning fish, so, as we left the dock on Day 2 under looming clouds and rain, we changed gears and moved on to more new water, farther south.

There was a bit of SE wind this morning, and we struggled at first to find a trolling angle that the boat and trailing lines liked.  We pulled our first laker right off the bottom pretty quickly while pulling some tangled lines (about 120 feet of water; wire diver; spinnie; reversed fly over a Spin-n-Glo.)  This quick catch of the targeted species offered some promise.  During a slow turn to get back on the spot, the 125 Copper got ripped (orange and blue spoon in the darker conditions) and now we had a beautiful, bigger, 8-pound laker, too.  Once again, we were off to a good start!

Soon thereafter the 10-color lead core (now rigged with a copy-cat orange and blue spoon) got hammered, and our fish of the weekend (10.8-pound steelhead) came aboard; it was still only about 9:30 AM!  

But seas were building; boat control was a chore; and we lost touch with these fish.  In fact, we didn't get another bite all day.

Our Day 2 catch totaled about 21 pounds, and we broke the 100-point barrier for the event.  It wasn't good enough to win anything; but we'd done decently well.  We never got a sniff of the bigger lakers that were apparently so prevalent further south; faster and more motivated boats were running almost down to Saugatuck to get in on a more consistent trout bite.

Doc M might have phrased it best; we didn't win, but we were still only about 3 fish from cashing a check.  He was right; it was another tough Offshore Challenge.

What do I have to say about this?

Lake Michigan without King Salmon simply offers a diminished experience.  While we caught a couple, they were largely absent from our weekend and generally AWOL from the tournament as a whole.  While I saw piles of big lakers, more and bigger than I'd ever seen at a tournament, I saw only a few teenager kings to 17 pounds, and only a few smaller ones as well.

The biggest fishing lesson from the weekend is, Don't fish for others' fish!  By which I mean, we spent each day or a portion of each day reacting to the information of others; and the value of that is doubtful unless the info is complete.   That includes more than depths and baits; speeds and especially location are critical.  Moreover, these reactions had us trying to laker fish together as a new crew from a new boat with new gear and techniques; and tournament time is not the time to be doing such things.  Tournament fish to your strengths!

But good attitudes and a realistic emphasis on fun fishing kept the mood light.  We still learned a bunch and had fun; and even though we struggled, we also know that we were only three fish of any size from cashing a check.  Meanwhile, a winning strategy for the tournament would have entailed a huge gas bill; to implement such strategy would have said more about our egos, as opposed to our sensibilities.

Brownie

NumenOn the Water

Date:  3-13-16

Body of Water:  Lake Michigan, Pt. Sheldon

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target: Brown Trout

Time:  8 AM - Noon

Conditions:  Overcast and rain showers; east wind about 15 mph; 45-48 degrees; water temperatures of 37 - 41 degrees F, but generally about 38 F

After a warm stretch and a couple of sunny days, it was time for Numenon's 2016 debut.  Of course a wet front was sliding through, so although I had the boat rigged with 8 rods and the mast and tethered boards ready to go, nobody chose to accompany me.    I launched, alone, into a steady drizzle that lasted all day.

I was mildly pleased to find 37-38 degree water along the north shoreline as this is at the lower end of the range where I can reasonably expect to encounter a brown, and as I set the second rod, I noticed my inside board slide back.  (I was now using in-line boards since I was alone.)  It didn't feel like much; but it was the first fish of the Open Water season, and it was the targeted species!  But at maybe 12 inches, it was possibly the smallest brown trout I've ever caught on Lake Michigan.  I let it go to grow, and given this fast start, expected some more action.

This fish had eaten an F9 Original Rapala in Brown Trout pattern.  The bait was trolled at about 2.2 mph and was in about 8 feet of water on the outside edge of the first or second sand bar when it was hit.

But four hours and 8 or 9 miles later, All spent in about 7 to 16 feet of water, I'd not had another bump.  There would be no trophies or gift fish by which to remember this trip.  I'll have to remember it as a quiet, problem-free start to a new season.  That's enough!

What do I have to say about this?

A quiet, problem-free start to the season is enough!  Good gear makes bad weather more tolerable, and I was only slightly damp around the edges when I went home for lunch.  I knew odds for memorable success were stacked against me with cold water and easterly winds.  Plus, the season is very young, and I may even have the chance to chase Browns again this season!  The last few have all been one-and-done for Browns, for me, and yet I love fishing for them so much.

Milwaukee Browns

NumenOn the Water

Date:  11-11-15

Body of Water:  Lake Michigan, 

Boat:  Captain EH's 20-foot Alumacraft

With:  Captain EH

Target:  Brown Trout

Time:  8 AM - 2 PM

Conditions:  This was an opportunistic day-trip to Milwaukee Harbor for Giant Browns (or at least to learn local approaches to fishing for them) with respected multi-species, light tackle guide Captain EH.  It was during the day of the Full Moon, and a nasty Midwestern storm was coming in later that day.  At 20+ mph and beyond, it was too windy to think about Great Lakes fishing in West Michigan; but this protected harbor seems to be pretty robust to conditions.  It was a pretty mild day (other than the wind), generally clear, and water temperatures were about 48 - 50 F depending upon location.

We started with small brown trout egg sacs under small fixed floats.  The long spinning rods were outfitted with 6- or 8-pound braid and long 6-pound fluorocarbon leaders.  Our egg hooks were tiny and the drags were light; this was going to be finesse fishing.  But on the first cast, the float went down with authority, and I think anybody could have hooked up.  This initial fish fought hard and deep, and in the pretty darn clear water I had plenty of time to see my brown materialize and fight.  After a couple of minutes it was in the bag; and a successful trip was virtually assured.

First Cast!  Perhaps 12 pounds of egg-sipping Brown Buck Goodness!

We stayed here in this spot a bit longer.  I caught another nice brown quickly, followed by a couple of tiny steelheads.  Then I hooked, turned and lost a broad-tailed fish of considerable size.  The commotion of that fish on the surface seemed to have scattered the school, and so then we changed tactics; it was time to cast crank baits!

Second Brownie of the day!

Captain's Choice for cranks for casting were simply common bass and walleye baits.  I was equipped with a nice Abu 6-foot, 9-inch (or so) medium light spinner with a beautiful Abu Revo reel and 8- or 10-pound braid.  I could cast my Strike King square-billed crank quite a ways and easily feel it vibrate through the water on a slow to medium (but definitely trending towards slow) retrieve.  Meanwhile, he baitcasted a Strike King flat-sided shad, and collectively we covered water.

It was pretty low-tech fishing, but I'm pretty sure you could make it as complex as one wanted. We were looking to take advantage of some pretty obvious clues (jumping fish, bait balls, diving birds, busting fish or current lines), but in their absence, it took me a while to transition from my structure-fishing tendencies and rely on faith that wind-aided long casts and covering water would out-produce covering specific spots thoroughly.

This fishing proved rather slow; in fact we had no action at all as we moved deeper into the labyrinth of Milwaukee Harbor.  By now the wind was blowing 25+ miles per hour and it was rough and wet in the more exposed areas of the harbor.  We worked our way into another dead-end and parked the boat along a secluded section of seawall.  A few minutes of scouting from shore located a couple of pods of sizable browns that were very worthy of our  fishing efforts.  It was back to eggs and floats for these fish.

No. 3.  The egg bite was much more reliable than casting cranks on this day.

Again, the first fish came rather quickly.  After that, they were not easy!  But by moving stealthily and giving them their time and space, by not attracting the attention of others, each pod, in time seemed to contain the occasional biter.  You never knew how big it might be either, because I saw more high-teen-and up browns in a few hours than I think I have in the previous 30 years of living with the Great Lakes' watershed.

The rest of the fishing day alternated between stalking these finesse fish and casting cranks for more active fish.  I got hit once on my crank but didn't connect, while Captain H caught a smallish brown and a late, red coho.

The fish of the day might have been our last brown on eggs.  It provided a cool visual strike that barely moved the float.  I can still see the gaping, white mouth appearing below the descending egg sac and then closing over it.  This might have been the biggest, too (but none of the fish were measured or weighed, so it's not certain that it was bigger than the first), and it certainly provided the most hotly contested fight of the day.    Captain H's enthusiasm was counter-balanced by my calm execution, but I sure was excited inside.  

My last fish of the day was a beauty.

I'd chosen casting for browns over trolling and perhaps more opportunities for multiple species.  I'd gotten what I asked for, but that didn't stop me from asking, talking and learning about other options. Trolling is always possible here, and spoons, sticks and shads are all in the mix.  Divers and up to 3 colors of lead can provide some depth coverage, but otherwise it all sounded very familiar to me.  And where-as our realistic Brown Season in West Michigan's portion of Lake Michigan is (at most) two months long (and usually much more hit-and-miss than that statement suggests),  one can target browns here (by adjusting one's tactics) just about all year!

The Captain's favorite technique might be casting and slowly swimming 4- and 5-inch plastic swimbaits/jerkbaits on 3/8 ounce darter heads.  The same factors go into selecting the locations; breakwall gaps, current, bait, birds and obvious fish.

"Strolling" with jerk baits can help locate fish.  Should one choose, hair jigs or tubes, crawled along the bottom or suspended under floats can produce fish.  Carolina rigging spawn or minnows, or perhaps suspending crawlers, red worms or jig-n-wigs under floats will get bites.

I'd absorbed a lot in a short time.  Of course I'd have liked more and bigger fish, or perhaps to have not lost any opportunities, but in 6 short hours I was exposed to enough to know that I can do this.  I'd love to share it with some friends or family.

Boat or shore; hard water or soft; your choice; let's go!

What do I have to say about this?

I've probably already said it in my other blog; see This and also this.  I am super pleased to have executed this trip .  Like so many other things, I probably waited too long before taking action, but now that I have, I can see myself taking it on.  Simply said; the number of large brown trout (and other quality fish) that seem to be available here, vulnerable to lighter tackle techniques, is astounding.

Time will tell "when, how or if" this fits in with my other fishing priorities (especially given the time and monetary investment required to pull a Wisconsin fishing session off), but I'll add it to my arsenal.   I'll be back, I'm sure.   

Milwaukee Harbor Lessons I know I learned:

• The fish will succumb to the pressure of a long rod, even if the line is thin and the drags are light!
• Years of striper fishing from the float in Maine have prepared me well for teasing trout from municipal marinas.
• Hooksets are free!
• I've got virtually all the stuff I need to employ similar tactics on my own.
• Take advantage of the obvious clues (jumping fish, bait balls, diving birds, busting fish or current lines), but don't live and die in one spot.
• Long casts were important to Captain EH, so they are important to this fishery.
• When near shore, Stealth Matters.
• Slower might be better than Faster; but 
• Don't get locked into specific patterns, colors, lures, etc.  You'll know if it's working.  If it's not, adjust!
• Expect good results and employ your fishing judgment.

2015 Grand Haven Salmon Derby

NumenOn the Water

Date:  9-20-15

Body of Water:  Lake Michigan, Grand Haven

Boat:  Dr. M's 37-Footer, Dog Day

With:  Dr. M, M and SB; Team Dog Day

Target: King Salmon; or one big salmonid

Time:  6:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Conditions:  Generally clear and bright conditions; 64 F surface water; air warming to 70 or so; SSW winds with calm seas building to about 2 feet.

Before we had separated the day before, I had predicted tough fishing on Sunday.  The previous day’s blow from the north was over, and it had changed the salmon’s world (conditions had been pretty steady for the week preceding the blow), but had not really set up conditions for them to totally commit to rushing the pier.   The water was changed, but the wind had not provided unfettered access through cold water to the Grand River.  Still, though, there were reports of salmon porpoising in the channel, and the sonar was filled with marks.   Our quest for the day centered on catching one big fish; and the fish with the spawning urge should be (for the most part), the biggest, oldest fish.  There were 44 boats in the tournament and many purely recreational fishermen were out; but there was a decent opening in front of the piers, so why not start right here?

We had prepared and quickly deployed a 4-rod Combat Fishing Spread in the darkness.  This simple spread consisted of riggers and divers equipped with J-Plugs and Spin Doctor/fly combinations in glow, black and green combinations.  As boats spread out a bit more we added short coppers and leads off boards to the side.  As we gained depth we added additional, longer, deeper lines off boards.  The water temperatures throughout  were unfavorable (too warm for the salmon's comfort), but I’ve caught plenty of staging and committed salmon in these conditions.  But I also know that these fish can be very temperamental, and we didn’t want to live or die with these fish.

Switching from our Combat Spread to a more open water program; I'm working the rods.

In 60 feet or so we were finally finding some cooler water (48 degrees F), and so I concentrated on keeping at least a few baits in this thin layer of cool water near the bottom.  As actual sunrise approached, our marks thinned out and so we turned to a more westerly troll.  As we crossed 70 feet, our spread was nearing completion with more long coppers.  Just at sunrise, in about 75 feet of water, the 225-copper pulled back.  Dr. M took the rod, noted the heavy resistance and carefully played in a dogged salmon.  She was starting to get a bit dark, and she fell to a Glow-Froggie spinnie/fly combo.  She was out of temp, for sure, but she was exactly what we were looking for; a fish to weigh in.  She was clearly a teenager, and it only took 15 pounds or so to place in 2014; so we felt pretty good at this early point in the day!

Just after I had prepared her final resting place (a submersing ice-water slurry), I started working the rods a bit more.  We had deeper water, more options, growing sunlight and a little data; I replaced my Tuxedo spinnie on the wire diver with  a blue-and-white spinnie with a sparse green fly and set it to run at the same approximate depth as the 225-copper (setting of 1, 100 feet  back).  I saw it pop a few minutes later in about 95 feet of water, and I grabbed the rod.  The fish felt substantial and was shaking its head like crazy!  You feel everything through the wire and you can’t really rush fish with it; but the longer the fish is fought, the more likely you are to lose it (I’ve seen this many times.)  About the only good thing I can say about this outcome is that I lost her pretty quickly and didn’t waste everybody’s time in doing so.  I was enjoying my time on Dog Day, but I was a bit snake-bit; I was now just 1-for-my-5-chances on this boat.  She deserves better than that!  I’m better than that!

This day's effective spinnie/fly combos

At this point it was maybe 8 AM; we’d gotten a couple of quick hits and it looked like we were putting a program together.  We maintained our heading and worked the spread (now with a couple of 400-coppers out there, too, to complete an 11-rod presentation), but nothing happened.  We circled in shallow (to about 75 feet) once during Second Breakfast/Big Fish Time (until about 8:45 AM), but when “nothingness” persisted, we again set a more westerly troll.  Boats were really spreading out at this point, and it just seemed like we had to find some biting fish.  Those off-shore nomads are more willing to bite during the day (in my experience), and they’re likely to be less affected by crazy weather events.  I like finding fish out west!

We also decided to commit to a Meat Program at about this time, so our five deepest presentations were converted to our flasher/meat combos.  We used the Depth Raider down probe to monitor and track favorable temperatures and adjusted things accordingly.   We had several fish investigate our riggers.  We knew we were in good shape with our single fish, and we still had nowhere to go but up!  But an hour-and-a-half later we were in 180 feet of water or so, still having not gotten hit again.

We calculated a 2-hour troll back to the piers, and that’s about how much fishing time we had left, so we headed east and kept the faith.  We encountered most of the marks in about 125 feet of water now, but they still wouldn’t go.  The mood on the boat vacillated between doubting, desperate and discouraged to downright silly with creeping thoughts of victory; on-board measurements had indicated an encouraging 14.9 pounds for our fish.  I worked the rods and willed them to go, but they refused.  We started pulling lines at about 12:15 PM and were on plane for the short remaining ride in at 12:31 PM.

With Dog Day parked in her slip, we hauled our cooler to the stadium.  A few spectators viewed our fish and offered encouraging news along the way; this seemed to be a contending fish.  As we approached the weigh station, we could see that only about half of the field had bothered to weigh in a fish; it had been a tough day!  At an official 15.05 pounds, Dog Day’s fish took second place, good for a $550 check.  Not bad for a first effort!

Team Dog Day in their Initial Glory

What do I have to say about this?

It’s just difficult to find numbers of biting fish after a big weather event, and the sonar and Depth Raider seemed to indicate blocks of water with varying amounts of life and attractiveness.  We never had cause to continue working a patch of water (except, perhaps that initial 70-100 feet segment where we had some action) since we weren’t getting bit.  We were also hedging our bets a bit by being variously heavy with meat, flasher/fly and J-Plug presentations.  And, fortunately, nobody seemed to want to just stay in the channel or mud and cross our fingers for a shot at a big one; I certainly don’t ever want to do that if conditions provide the opportunity to get out.

Currents and speed control were issues throughout the day, but they seemed manageable.  These are, after all, important aspects to Great Lakes fishing and difficulties with these are part of the deal.  We didn’t have any tangles or lost time to small hitch-hikers.  I worked the rods hard* and I feel pretty good about our effort.  In fact, I doubt that there were too many amateur teams out there that worked as hard or remained as focused as us.

Simple Luck always plays a part in a single-fish contest, and so I have to acknowledge that we were lucky on this day.  But it wasn’t a mistake or surprise that we placed.  Just ask the Saturday morning waitress at the nearby Pine Street Café; she knows we had plans to win.  We’ll just have to wait a year or so before we can cash in on that specific plan. 

General Eisenhower is purported to have said, “Plans are worthless, but Planning is indispensable.”   OK, a successfully executed D-Day invasion is more important than Dog Day’s fishing exploits; but I certainly agree with his philosophy, at least with respect to salmon fishing. 

*I worked the riggers and divers hard, the boards less so.  Without positive feedback of some sort from some presentation or depth, it’s difficult for me to change out boards.  I think it’s exponentially more difficult with each board we add to a side.  I hate lost time to tangles, and each time I retrieve or deploy a board over another that’s a possibility.  It’s easy for me to handle two boards a side on Numenon; in time I will get used to 3 or 4 boards per side on Dog Day.  After all, we’ve not had issues yet.