Thread: Interest for a late fall outing

I am putting up this thread in the hopes to get a better idea of who might be interested in participating in a late fall/early winter outing in Saginaw.

Based on all the questions and comments that I get, it appears that there is a ton of interest from people that would like to learn a different method of fishing or to better hone their skills.

Here is the details I am working on thus far (subject to change). I understand that not everyone has the skills and equipment necessary to go out on their own so I have worked out a few things to ensure that everyone that wants to participate can do so.

Where: Saginaw Bay
Date: To be determined (think late November, Early December) Weather permitting
Time: To be determined
Location: I am working on a couple of different launches we can use

Understand that timing and dates could shift based on the weather. I keep a keen eye on things all the time but I cannot predict what will happen 5 or 6 days in advance. The best I will be able to do is pick a day and as it gets closer I will have a better idea of whether it will work or if we need to shift.

In order to ensure that everyone can participate, this will be a “Polish Tournament” (yes Aaron, in your honor).

Polish Tournament (pretty sure I just coined this phrase): Boat captains will sign up to provide the boat and all necessary gear. These are the guys that usually do this all the time or have the equipment to do this (Rich, Kevin, Jimmy, John, Dale). Once I know the number of people that want to participate I can have a better idea of the number of boats we will need.

The morning of the tournament, we will hold a blind drawing to pair boat captains with their crews! In the event someone comes together (father and son/daughter, husband and wife), we will ensure they can fish together with a boat captain. We will try to put no more than three people in the boats including the Captain.

While waiting for good safe light, we will hold a planer board demonstration put on by Off Shore Tackle Pro Staff members. We will go over the rules of the tournament, the times, check in procedures, and boundaries.

This is setup to be a FUN event. I will give out as much information as needed and even allow others to follow me to spots. I’m sure Kevin will do the same. We will fish no more than 9 rods. Fish have to be over 13 inches, and we will weight a one person limit of 8 fish.

I should be able to get a few prizes together and, to make things interesting, we will have a small fee per person so we can have a pot to distribute for places!!!
Please remember that if you are NOT a boat captain, it would be a good idea to offer the captain some gas money. This way he is not footing the entire bill for the trip!

This should be a good fun way to introduce people to a different form of fishing for a different species. Many of the things we do can transfer over to the crappie fishing world.

After the weigh in is over, we will put ALL of our fish together and ensure that ALL participants get an equal share. Cleaning demonstrations will also be put on by Kevin, Rich, Dale, and Brian. We will show you the techniques we use to quickly fillet our catch and remove all of the bones. Kevin will be demonstrating the electric knife, I will demonstrate using a traditional fillet process and skinning process. Dale will demonstrate removing the ribs, and Brian will show how to zipper clean the fish.

Will this be walleye fishing?