My Chieftan project

[Weep'n Willy]

Reports on the radio said fishing was slow so we ran out 6 miles and set lines. We managed to scrape out 2 nice lake trout and break in the boat properly with fish in the cooler.



My fishing buddy was also out there in his boat and snapped this shot of us trolling along.



A couple shot of the rig after returning from the splash.





Had some real nice comments on the boat and most couldn't believe the age of the boat. Needless to say we are well pleased with the results.

 

[dozerII]

Looks awesome WnW, and fish to boot. I would imagine you get lots of comments at the launch.

 

[GA_Boater]

Wow, a hit out of the park Starcraft. You gotta be proud, WnW. I sure would be! Awesome! :thumb:

 

[laurentide]

You didn't waste any time getting lines in! Looks really great. I love the trolling shot from your friend's boat.

 

[Watermann]

The Chief looks awesome Willy :thumb:

What a versatile boat SC made. It does my heart good to see these old boats coming back to life. I have seen an Islander or 2 around here but never a Chief out on the water besides mine if course. Sure feels good when people recognize how handsome the Chief's are. :happy:

 

[jasoutside]

Congrats on an awesome project Bill, well done man!!!:thumb:

 

[Gibbles]

Looks great!

Something just seems right about bigjohn riggers and starcrafts...

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Thanks for the compliments. It has been a fun project for sure and a lot of inspiration derived from this forum. She is gonna be a fine mean fish slaying machine. Will give her a good work out later this week as I will be making my annual trip over to Lk Michigan for some salmon action.

 

[dozerII]

Good luck, not that you will need it in your fish slaying machine

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Well fellow tin men time for an update. I made my annual pilgrimage to Frankfort, MI for some salmon slammi ng. We took 10 days to enjoy the waters and spent a considerable time fishing. My fish slaying machine did not disappoint, as she ran beautifully, handled the waters wonderfully, and she never let us have a skunk.......fish in the box each trip out. So I shall share a few pics as I know we all love pics.


Camp site set up for comfort. Had with us the wife, 2 of my grandkids, and one of my fishing buddies.


Our first stop was the West Bay of Traverse City as it was too rough at Frankfort to get out.


We trolled for a while up to Bowers Harbor area then across the bay to the west side and trolled the ledge there. We ended up with a couple nice trout for our efforts.

The next day was a rain out but made it out the next morning accompanied by one of my daughters that came up to fish for day. Morning started out with 3 - 4 ft rollers that subsided as the morning progressed and cold surface temps which scattered the fish. No problem, boat handled the rollers well and we still caught some fish.

And my daughter got to enjoy the cabin area for a little shut eye. She even caught her first Lk Michigan coho.


Trolling along. Very rare to see Lk Michigan this flat.


More continued in next post:

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Fishing steadily picked up during the week as the waters stabilized a bit and started to warm up. Unfortunately with the cool air we had a tendency to get some fog. Thank god for the chartplotter to keep me in position.

The fog bank rolling along shore.


What we could see of the harbor entrance coming back in from fishing.

Now for a little fish porn.







Continued next post:

 

[Weep'n Willy]

And more fish!








This pic below has a great story. In the dark of the morning we ran a lead core off each side of the boat on a side planer and then when light enough to see would pull the little boards and put out the big boards on the mast and run multiple lines off of it. Well this morning we had a double going and the line on the lead core broke off, inline board, lead core line, and fish. We then put out the big boards with a deep diver bait on one side and after a half mile turned around and followed my plot line back to where we had came down. Low and behold the diver bait on the big boards goes off and I soon realize that I had caught the line of the fish we lost. Wow, the fish was still on the other line. So reeled in the line to the board then my buddy handlined the lead core to the fish and we landed it. Talk about luck. Nice king salmon in the boat.



This shot is of the 100qt cooler full of fillets from the trip. An excellent trip!!

I will say that I had many many comments on the boat at the launches, gas stations, and even the coast guard. I should say I was quite pleased and proud when the Coast Guard asked to board the boat and do an inspection of her. She passed with flying colors and all equipment functioned properly and required safety gear aboard. They gave me a form and said if stopped again just show the slip of paper and we would be good to go. There was a father and son we had met at Frankfort that were really eyeing the boat as we cleaned fish. When we finished and went back to the boat we talked with them. Seems they are Iboat members and the son had bought a Chieftain just like it and was going to restore theirs and really checked the ole girl out. Hopefully we will get to see their project on here.

This trip proved that the Weep'n Willy is truly a fish slaying machine and a pleasure to be aboard. I am certainly satisfied with this project.

 

[MNhunter1]

Great pics, story, and a beautiful boat!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Watermann]

That's awesome Willy, thanks for the fishing trip out in the big Chief! Yeah man the dock attention these old gals get sure is welcomed after all the time spent making the old new once again. :thumb:

 

[64osby]

WW - How awesome is that, thanks for sharing.

The Flintstone lures sure must have worked.

Your ride is way better than a Flintstone Mobile

 

[laurentide]

That's a great trip. Pretty much everything you could hope and ask for.

I hope you don't mind a technical question, but what's your stacking preference? Deep leader longer or shorter than the stacked rod? I've been trying both ways...no tangles yet but I'm looking for experienced opinions. Thanks.

^^^ if you even do it...it kinda looks like it in one of the pics.

 

[classiccat]

Awesome Fishing...in an Awesome Starcraft...is totally Awesome!!!! Great stuff WnW!

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Thanks guys and glad to be able to take you along for the trip even if only via pics.

64: Yep, The Flintstones work pretty good for me. The decal was provided by Ray the owner of the company. He made that color just for my boat and I followed suit having the registration numbers made in same color and fashion.

Chem: I do not stack lines, just too much of a hassle. We are allowed to run slider lines on our main lines so I will set the mainline lure 20-50 back from the ball then set the depth. Clip a slider on to the main line and let it slide down to the bow in the line which is approx half depth of the ball. Sometimes I will pin the slider line 10 ft above the ball on the mainline if the fish are staying in certain depths. The other rod you see on the riggers are my wire divers. They are reels filled with 1000' 30lb wire line to which a magnum dipsy diver is attached and set on setting 2 which pulls the diver out and away from the side of the boat. So basically it is kinda like having 6 downriggers but the fight you get on a wire diver is unbelievable. No stretch, just solid pull and fight from the fish - you can almost feel them bat their eyes.

 

[laurentide]

Ya, gotcha Willy. Around here it's slide divers for Atlantics. But I like the depth precision of the riggers. Thanks for the info!

 

[Nismoron]

Man what a gorgeous Chief! When I was a kid, I had a toy bot that I always wanted one of when I grew up. A few years ago, I saw a Chieftain and recognized it as my "dream" boat. I've ben looking for one for several years, but recently realized that a cuddy boat does not really fit what I need. So I bought a Mariner 210. But I always have a soft spot for Chiefs.