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I'm looking at the Michigan angler site for meat rigs they have the combos there any help on good colors to use could use help new to meat rigs I go out of fair haven ever year and heard alot of guys use meat rigs. Thanks for any help

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  • 4 weeks later...

I started "dragging meat" about 5 years ago and bought all of my start-up materials from a company in Grand Rapids, MI.  He has a great selection of both whole and cut bait rigs.  I use only whole bait rigs with Ales because 1st off I'm cheap 2nd I catch and brine my own, but that's a totally different subject.  I've always believed in match the hatch and our land locked salmonoids have never seen a herring, but that's just me.  Check out Gary's web site;

Big Weenie Brand.com.

 

Martin

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They have never seen a squid either. But hoochies catch a lot of kings. A fisheries biologist once told me that they have an inherited memory of what their ancestors found good to eat. So herring and squid work on Lake O

Edited by chinook35
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chinook35, "They have never seen a squid either. But hoochies catch a lot of kings."

You are absolutely correct on that one. Two years ago my largest King came on a 5" hoochie behind a Mountain Dew Spin Doctor. And in my neck of the woods Steelies, or what some people call "Bow's", are hardwired and can't resist the color orange. And look at the strange color array of spoons we wash in the hunt for the "BIG ONE". Sorry if I made my statement sound absolute.

Martin

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  • 1 month later...

I know I always run mine deep, so I try to incorporate some kind of glow to them.  I like the glow green,and glow blue meat heads, with glow twinkie flies of the same color, usually behind a big old white glow paddle with green dots. :yes:

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When I got into meat dragging several years ago it didn’t take too long to realize that trolling w/ herring was going to be a bit on the expensive side since I fish off my meager retirement and my Social Security Insurance. I started with some old frozen Ales that I had salt/soaked in the freezer for cut-bait. I “re-brined†them using the method I’d seen in a the below video.

Living in S/W Michigan I’m lucky to live within 20 miles of 2 river systems so during the June/July Skam/Bow run I’d go to the pier to soak a few shrimp with some old friends. I’d take a couple of 2-gallon zip bags with 3 cups of borax and 3 cups of canning salt in each bag and a sabiki rig or cast net and while I had bobber rigs in the water I would jig-up or net Ales until I had about 2 dozen in a 5 gallon bucket. Then I’d drain the water and put the Ales (still flopping) in the bag and mix them around and then put the bag in the cooler and then repeat the same process. When I’d get home I’d sort them for size for whole bait or smaller one for cut bait rigs and finish the process. I dry brine them at the pier to set the scales and slime.

During this step I’ll add color by using a healthy amount of food coloring.

But if I’m going to filet some for sushi-flies or cut-bait heads I’ll basically use this idea;

http://www.michigansportsman.com/Tips_n_Trix/Cut_Bait.htm

I use the LARGE Miracle Whip jars for the brining for whole bait and those plastic tubs you get deli sliced meat in for the A/B sides for cut bait so they lay flat.

Caution!! Some wives don’t take too kindly to a bunch of brining jars in the frig for the summer.

I did that maybe 2 or 3 times over the summer Skam/Bow season and had more than enough bait, over 300 pieces, for the trolling season plus a lot of extras to get started this year in the freezer.

When I get too many jars in the frig I’ll take and drain them and place the “Ales†on sheet pans and flash freeze them. I’ll place 4 fish in those small snack bags and when I’m all done I’ll put those snack bags in labeled by color in freezer bags. Do not mix colors because they will bleed and recolor the bait.

Quick, simple and CHEAP. Now there is nothing wrong w/ commercial brines and they work faster but I have a lot of time on my hands.

If ya go to a pier to do this, DO NOT use a wire basket to hold your fish as it tends to rub the scales off the fish, you want that sparkle from the scales. And it is better to salt bag them at the pier because by the time you get home with a bucket full of dead ales they will start to “slime†and you’ll lose that natural scent. But that’s just my take on it and it works for me.

Martin

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