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PUG set lines at around 7pm out off Geneva in 90fow most boats were fishing deeper pretty much caught fish all night in that 75-102fow range with 88fow being the very best direction of troll didn't seem to matter much tonight but PUG had us running mainly north and south added a handful more after dark with the last one we netted being at 10.34pm PUG desired a 4 man limit and nearly got it but time was up! Bummer PUG lost so many. Kid you not... one of our high diver meat rig rods literally had 8 fish come off (need to revisit the type of hook on that one) Parker ran pretty much what she always does - spoons and boards didn't work good at all until about sunset. The first 10 salmon mainly came on either meat rigs on dipseys or spindocter fly. We also got a decent one on jplug on rigger. As night set in though then the boards like copp150, copp300, and copp350 started barking nonstop with spoons (pretty much all moonshine mag variations). Tonight there was fish down super deep eating and then also a batch up top pigging out. One time out of tunnel coming into sunset we passed a bait ball of alewife on the surface and right there next to the boat a 10-12 pound king skied out in the air gorging on them. Anyways, the point is that the middle like range like 45-65 down did not produce for PUG for whatever reason. on the 20260707_201842.mp4 20260707_222505.mp4

I one I caught today had a very nice dark red color to the meat. So I know it will have a nice taste to it. But I understand what you are saying with the two different colors and textures.

The SH I caught the last outing was one of those prehistoric type plants where the meat had very little redness to the filet. I miss the SH with the dark red meat.

Those biters are terrible. Nice steelie though! Sent from my iPhone using Great Lakes Fisherman

I think I dodged the flies. I was off the water by 7:30. Sent from my iPhone using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Fished 6:30am-9:30, 80-120fow, finally got out. Alot of boats out. Lost an hour recalibrating my autopilot. Not alot of big fish marks, mostly little guys. Flat calm though. But the flys were ugly, biting badly. Went 1 for 3, one fly by, one lost when it jumped the hook by my outdrive. The only fish I was able to get on board (Steelhead) came at 8:36am, on a watermelon std moonshine spoon, off a rigger slider. trolling N @3.0 mph, 53 dwn in 109fow. Small steelie 6#-1oz Not much of a day. I HATE those files!

I still can't he believe he stayed out there - haha Alumi-Nati and Parker were racing in 40mph+

Thanks for the report. You always put together great information that helps a bunch.

great report and good golly them were some less than ideal conditions to troll in! very impressive you stuck it out and wish the sunset bite would've shown up to reward you for your resilience (PUG made us bail and head in at around 730pm)

After making a supply run to Maple Hill Golf (can't fish all the time !), called up my dock mate Tom and he agreed to go fishing. We set lines about 6:30pm in 120FOW straight out of the harbor and headed south. Surface push was enough that I had to deploy trolling valves. Ran two riggers (SWR+spoon and White SD/Proctologist fly), two 1.5set dipseys (super slims looking to SH, by line counter out about 185', I set the depths with my Smart Troll probes so it is hard to say how much line is out) and 300 Cu down the shoot with KGF+Brads cut plug. We waited to add the 6th line but never did cos things were busy through the first hour of the run. The Brads cut plug got BIT OFF while deploying the line. First line in the water and a SH it it. Leader or knot failed. Got all the lines in the water and before adjusting the dipseys, one got bit and we released a small king. At 7:10pm we landed an 'eater king' in 117 FOW on a dipsey tipped with a DW Super Slim Blue Frog or Blue Leopard spoon. SWR with the mag DW Mag Blue Green Spotted Dolphin I have been running got bit down 66' but nobody was home. The previous dipsey got smacked again at 7:55pm producing a 10lb SH which we of course kept. Five fish in 90 min was a great start then the N/NW 20knot blow kicked in plus we had to make the decision to turn north from Saugy in case it got bad and I would have to run the shoreline on a plane all the way back to Holland. Everything shut down from that point on. We stayed in the 120-114 FOW for the most part, keeping speed as best we could around 2.4 and Fin Warrior managed that as well as she could but it was not the same as the south troll and before things kicked up. The wind backed down a bit and we managed to land a 10lb king on a dipsey up at 47' down with a Purple Stinger reg spoon (no suprise my running that presentation). We pulled lines soon thereafter. Notes: Soon as we turned north the damn biting flies came in. Marked one huge bait ball in 116FOW again but no where else. The water fleas were minimal. Great to connect with Parker and Pug o 68. # Time Fish Weight FOW Troll Wind Dir. Speed @ Ball Rod Bait Depth Bait Temp Bait 6:30pm Miss 122 S N 2.2 Copper 300 Brads Cut Plug - Watermelon Pattern 6:40pm King <5lb 122 S N 2.2 Dipsey - Mono 47 64 DW Super Slim Spotted Magic Man 7:10pm King 7lb 117 S N 2.4 Dipsey - Mono 61 53 DW Super Slim Blue Frog or Blue Leopard 7:20pm Miss 115 S N 2.4 SWR 66 48 DW Mag Blue Green Spotted Dolphin 7:55pm Steelhead 10lb 118 S NE 2.2 Dipsey - Mono 63 51 DW Super Slim Blue Frog or Blue Leopard 9:05pm King 10lb 111 N NE 2.3 Dipsey - Mono 47 47 Purple Stinger (Kevorkian) Sorry for the boring fish on the deck. It was the best I could do.

Those are fish I would be proud to have boated. Nice work!

Nice fish! Good work.

That was a great outing ! Nice job figuring them out. We trailered north for the weekend to see if we could improve our luck. Fished between Pentwater and Stony Lake. We had to dodge wind, waves rain, lightning and hail but managed to get out for a couple outings while hiding behind little sauble point.Ended up with a dozen. 4 of the kings were pretty nice. ( 18lb 17lb and 2 at at 16lbs We had a couple dandy steelhead in the bunch too. All dreamweaver ss spoons for us on divers and riggers. Only had 1 board bite. nothing on flasher fly or meat. I hope you all enjoyed the 4th.

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if the weather cooperates may try again tomorrow night - Happy 4th everyone!

About time it broke open. Figured you’d be the one to do it…