In researching how to run a solid meat program on Lake Michigan, I've been told by several guys that run meat a lot that you need to "dedicate your spread to it."
I took this to mean..."run meat and nothing else with it." They agreed. Downsizing the spread to two riggers and two divers total, all with meat on them.
Is this solid information? Assume you are running the meat off the riggers and divers...why not have some cores out on boards with "other" baits?
I'm of the opinion that most of the time, you should run as much stuff as you can effectively run...but why would putting meat rigs into the spread change all of this??
BFG
Official Ohio Delegate to Team Heavy Super-Sized Fishing Specialists bfg@educatedangler.com
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i agree with Kyle, those other baits will be back in undisturbed water and will have no effect on you meat presentation.
i have only dedicated my meat spread to just meat one time. i did run some lead with spoons. and i can say that it was the best i have ever done with meat. it could have just been that day like i said its the only time i've done it but it worked. the spoons on the lead took fish that day also, was a constant chinese fire--drill. same setup as you described 2 dipsy's and 2 riggers.
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Clark , one reason they may say to run meat only is for speed reasons , typicaly you run a bit slower with meat , less than 2 mph. I know we have run meat on our riggers and 2 divers , spoons on the other divers, then we put just plain meat heads with meat ( no attractors ) out on lead core and have caught fish , we also have run the meat with a mixture of spoons and or spinny/flys and still catch fish. As I said , it maybe that the speed is an issue , if you run meat speed its too slow for spoons and if you run spoon speed it maybe too fast for meat. Not real sure but I know some say that if you run 3 riggers with meat and 2 divers with meat that you will have all the action you can handle and its not ness. to have anything more out. Just my opinion , we have caught some nice fish on meat but by no means am I an expert on it.
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BFG, as Flat Rate noted, the speed is very important, I'm no expert, but have gotten some good advice on the subject. Less is more when meat fishing, thats the way it was put to me. We run 2-3 riggers and our dipseys, all meat, more scent in the water. I don't mix and match with spoons-J's etc, thats just our program. Went to a true meat program this year at times, we tracked the results, and our catch rate went up substantially. Was it location? Was it the ability to stumble across active fish? Maybe just dumb luck. I don't know foresure. But, I'm a believer. It has produced consistently larger fish as well.
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Good question and probably the one I hear the most. Even though I sell Herring I do not claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination. Less is more, is often said when talking about fishing with meat. The reason I would say that, is because those big 11" flashers cover a lot of water down there and can cause big tangles real quick in currents if baits are running to close together. I run meat with spoons and flashers all the time. Can meat kick butt on it's own? You bet. So can spoons, spin doctors etc..
I think Meat runs well with other stuff and can be speed tolerant by adjusting your leads off your riggers and downsizing your flasher size on dipseys if you want to run faster. Last spring fishing for Coho's down by us, found us clipping along at 3+ MPH. We always had one meat rig out down near the bottom off a rigger for the early arriving kings and it was a very successful set up.
If I was to run 3 riggers with Meat and two divers I would knock the speed down. Other wise go for it, mix it in and experiment. I do believe even when it is not catching fish it's pulling them into the spread. A typical summer morning set up for us: Center Rigger Down 40', 5-10' off the ball w/Meat Port Rigger: Spin-doctor Down 50' 15-20 off the ball Starboard rigger: Spoon Down 60' 20-40 back Starboard Diver: with meat Port Diver: with a Flasher Cores: I'm tired by then and have a seat What ever has been working the day before or reports received.
I like the Meat in the Middle to start out. For the scent and the big attractor making some noise to pull them in. I like to mix baits early get an idea of the mood of the fish, hard to do if your only running meat. I also like running meat over a spoon for those that come up take a peak and break off. A lot of time we can watch the fish following the meat then drop off and see another rigger go. I also like running meat off a diver on the same side there is a spoon running off a rigger.
Late morning could find that set up reversed with the meat running as our deepest set up.
So to sum it up IMHO. I do just run meat at times. There also have been days that I'm down to only one set up in the water. Most of the time a combination of baits.
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I'm certainly no expert on running meat - but I echo what ricks says, we run meat with everything else in our program. I look at it this way if you don't have something in the water you can't catch anything using it. Whether it the herring oil drawing in the fish, regardless, I've always said the big flashers with the 3 fly rigs are a great looking presentations.
We have the luxury of having a 14' wide boat so we get lots of seperation in our spread so we are pretty much running meat as part of a full spread. If you are running it slow that doesn't mean your spoons aren't going to work - as a matter of fact we were going as slow as we could in Grand Haven - bottom bouncing for Lake Trout coming in and out of gear - and we took some of the biggest kings of the tournament with long cores and spoons.
You can also adjust what spoons you are running - there are plenty of lightweight spoons out there that can be run slow and are deadly on kings. Ofcourse you can also load up your cores and get them way outside and behind your spread so they aren't affecting or being affected by your meat program.
We will be doing a lot more research this year so I have some solid data as the season goes on.
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Another thing to consider is running 2 fly meat rigs. If you have a 13" flasher on your rigger with a 3 fly rig, try running a 2 fly rig on the dipsy on the same side with a 10 inch flasher. The 2 fly rigs and smaller flashers will make it less likely for that big tangle unless I am driving of course.My partner constantly has 12 or more rods out and a mix of everything and we usually will take fish on spoons, flies and meat.Try running the orange label herring whole also. Seemed to work better for us.
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