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I fished last night going 3 for 5. Specific to last night, these are my thoughts. 1. North blow created a big current. When that happens, I forego SD/fly setups for primarily spoons, possibly a J or a brads cut plug, or meat on a bait head only later in the season. 2. I started with UV spoons with the sun up at 5:00pm and the fish did not want them. When I moved to standard painted spoons, I got bit. I fish dusk a lot. UV or RV lures seam to shut off between 7:00-8:00pm, later if it is closer to the summer solstice. I see you did have NBK and a blue dolphin down. For whatever reason, I catch mostly lakers on NBK. Blue Killer produces more kings. 3. The baits right about 50' down got bit. I only had one bite at 43'ish at dusk and the was a purple stinger set up purposely high in the water column for dusk. 4. I have measured the depth of 300' copper trolling at 2.5mph on a calm day. It only gets down to 45'. It does not run near 60'. 10-color lead runs at 40' or a bit higher. Just guessing that running into the current, your long line baits might have been running way above 50'. Thats ok but last night was odd regarding the bait depth interest was only near 50'. Had I not been there, I would have come home empty. 5. Riggers: I run 15lb balls nearly all year. Trolling at 2.5mph, the depth loss due to blow back is about 20% (I know current is a big factor). So as a rule of thumb (and I have Smart Troll probes to confirm this), I multiply the downrigger counter by 0.8 to determine the depth I want my lure. For example, I ran my riggers at 62 to 64 on the counter to get near 50' down. And I use what I think is called the rule of 100'. That is, DR bait down 50' should have a 50' lead which is how I ran last night. BTW - I think I miss reported the spoon that worked the most last night. If it is not a mixed veggie, its a yellow tail. It does not have the red nose to the paint profile. I have a bunch of these from way back so I may have confused the name over time. Hope this helps. I bet you get a cooler full next time out.

Don't fish both downriggers down same depth. Don't run both dipsey setups the same depth. Probably better to run a 250 copper and a 300 copper to vary the depth of the presentation. Probably better to run 10 color and 7 color again instead of same presentation. Spoons and lures seem ok. Speed may be an issue. Depending on current 2.2mph GPS could be 3.5 mph lure speed or 1.5 lure speed. Call on the radio and see if anyone will give you down speed in the direction you're going. Or just see how hard the dipseys seem to be pulling back and how much the riggers are blowing back. Final tip - there's not many fish around right now, but it's picking up. Fish when more fish are around!

Headed out of Holland around 7pm for the evening bite. Heard of a couple good reports from between Holland and Port Sheldon, so that’s where we went. Spent the night trolling north in 120FOW. 8 lines down 35-70 deep. Marked some bait and some fish, but no bites. It’s was rough pounding into the waves. At 9:30 we headed back to port defeated by the lake. The program: North trolling 2.2MPH on GPS 7clr lead with 3” green splatter back plug 7clr lead with UV Glow Bloody Nose 300cu with NBK spoon 300cu with NBK spoon Dipsy back 150 with Dragon Slayer Spid Dr and Olive Oil fly Dipsy back 150 with Kryptonite and Pickle Sunshine fly rigger down 70 with IV Glow Green Jeans rigger down 70 with Modified Blue Dolphin Any Advice?

Bigger kings moving in should make us all happy. Those 5 lb 2YOs need to grow up. 120 FOW worked for me in the evening as well.

Got a late start Saturday morning, but set lines in 100 FOW by 8 am. Trolled north-south while marking a few below 70 FOW. At 10 am picked up a nice 15 lb king on lead core (6 colors) on a double orange crush in 120 FOW. Trolled back in at noon and picked up a 5 lb lake trout at 70 FOW on a blue dolfin with blue/green flasher.

It had been 5 days and I was anxious to get out. The forecast indicated 10-15 N/NW and it delivered spot on. Set out at 5:00pm with a light wind dropping down at 115 FOW off the sliders trolling S/SW. Started with one Ninja 3-set slide diver and two riggers. Marked some fish down 50’ in 120 FOW. Pushed out to 130 FOW and the marks were gone. Rolled all the way to Saugy and turned around heading north. Worked 110FOW for a bit and headed back out. A report came in of a 15lb king taken in 120FOW (go figure) out of Port Shelden so I angled back to that depth. The chop was delightful on managing speed. At 8:00pm on the dot the green/blue spotted mag spoon on the SWR down 51’ got bit however I never got the fish to the boat. I pulled one of the slide divers and put another rigger down close to 50’ with a mixed veggies mag spoon. This got bit at 8:25pm producing to my surprise, a 13lb king. Kept it. Put it back down and it got bit again soon thereafter but released after a very short fight. That bait was not in the water for more than 5 min and it got bit again. A small king about 5lb was released. The lone slide diver was changed out somewhere before dusk and tipped with a purple stinger down 40’. That got a great hit just I released the small king as the sun was setting. Good fight producing a 10lb king that was a clown show at the back of the boat. I had one net and the DW rod on the floor, I also grabbed the other net that I never extended - great. Not sure I wanted to keep or release whatever I caught based on size, I managed to get the fish in the net after 2-3 swipes, the hook popped into the net as I got things on the swim platform so I thought this will be easy and rolled the net open and let the fish go. And it was happy to get out of my trap. As I was pulling lines, I marked bait balls in 116 FOW high in the water column. Happy to take home one eater for Saturday. Can't say I found fish, more likely they found me!

None of the divers will pull large or deep diving items. Anything that pulls harder than a shallow diving crankbait will cause the diver to turn over. I use the Lite Bite slide diver now after using the Dipsy diver and the deeper diver to fish for walleye in Lake Erie with medium and small spoons and with worm harnesses, and have used Bandit shallow diving crankbaits with good success. One way to get deeper with divers is using the slide diver and the 7-oz weight kit with the large ring, but I think the slide diver, and not the lite bite diver, is best for this. Another was to use wire on your reel, and I believe they use 19-strand wire for salmon fishing on Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan.

Couple of things you may want to consider: are you using the surgical tubing, (with the line passing through it), placed where the release closes pinching the line or, are you running braid through it (braid will slip, but not Flouro or Mono)? Instructions on the package are vague; no rigging diagram! Currently, I've no experience running them. Literally, just received two Lite Bite #1 Slide Divers in the mail a couple days ago. Both are now rigged and were tested for slippage. Hoping to put-in-play this weekend. Tight lines!

Ed, hope the meds get you back on the water soon. I also checked my Log and I have not been out since 6/7 for the most part due to the high seas.

Tough stuff Littleboat. Glad to hear you’re on the repair!

glad your healing up. sounds like you will be ready when the fishing improves.