One other point to add that might interest the solo fisherman amoung us - the bill would replace the 3 rod limit with an unlimited rod limit when fishing from a boat on the Great Lakes. 

Progress and revisions to Bill 5093 can be tracked at: https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/mi/2025-2026/bills/MIB00027860

I'll remove this post if it's not allowed in this section, all the other forums seemed to be dead. 
 

Port Sheldon and South Haven bouys have been pulled, others to follow.

They were a great help this past year offsetting poor and changing forecasts.

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tremendous current 

icey cold water

huge bait balls of shad

current was so bizarre that with the one we caught PUG was running 1.4mph and it was the far inside board on our turn so the jplug had to have been going .5mph and when it hit all we noticed was the board disappeared and the line slacked and then about 10 seconds later the Chinook which had been running with the fast current launched in thee air about 50ft directly off the bow

Pug's friends at the DNR stopped planting Holland 3 years ago so this may be the last of the plants for us...

beautiful night out there! COLD

We went 4 for 6. As last week, fish turned on the last half hour before sunset and for an hour after. Fished 120fow and worked our way in. Sweet spot was 105-98fow. A little different bite this week. We didn't  take a fish on our dipseys. All bites came on coppers and rigger. Water temp still pretty warm. 51-54 degree water was 70-75'ish feet down. 

350 copper Megatron flasher with white/blue fly/green beads took nice steelhead early

Bad Toad mag RV spoon on rigger free slide with bottom spoon down 74'.

300 copper Bad Toad mag RV took king

325 copper Dancing  Anchovy mag took a couple of bites and one king landed. 

We trolled from straight out hung a right and went north towards Port Sheldon. Just a nice night out there. There were only three other boats and they were much deeper.

2 mongo steelhead and the rest 2-3 year olds

very fun night and glassy calm

goofed by sliding out to 120-130 after setting lines because it turns out the bite was in 95fow on a south troll (at least for us)

copp300 moonshine mag green jeans

copp250 racket jaw

riggers with moonshine regular size down 50-70

all the action came at our following sunset... first 90min we has no activity 

good eaters! 

Ended up 7 for 8. 

Big Laker high diver 235 back green Icon flasher with krw money shot fly. 

Both riggers took fish.

65' down green flounder pounder

80' down free slider free slider took fish. UV crabface mag

325 copper dancing anchovy mag big king but went into prop and got completely  chewed up into pieces. Never had that happen

250 copper little king with spoon I believe a flounder pounder.

High diver 225 back took two kings white slick SD with Riverside fly

Tried south troll towards Port Sheldon started in 110 and trolled out to 140fow. Took the Laker in 119fow. Nothing else. Turned at Port Sheldo stacks and worked our way in. All the rest of the fish came between 105-90fow right at sunset and later after sunset. 

1.9-2.5 worked the best. 

I want to say thank you to all of you that contributed to this forum and shared their successes and fails. You helped make me a better fisherman and more successful each and every time I went out. I hope I helped you as well.

All the best to you all and I can't wait for next season. 

lots of plug bite and 3 or 4 came on white paddles and/chrome flasher

WIND was violent east but being in tight it was no problem at all for PUG and the gang!

In 75 mag blue dolphin on a full core takes a little king that my daughter put back.

At about 60’ the wind came up from the east by 50’ it was all of 20 mph and boat control was hellish.  Those marks were gone.  Checked in with 2md and he was like don’t pull them keep working in so we did and at about 42’ the graph lit up.  Pulled the 7 color, then the five color.  Was pulling the wire when a mag bloody nose down 24 hooks up.  Get a small mature king.  Pulling the rest of the lines pick the slide diver up and it gets ripped in my hands.  Last line down so we turn with them and my wife somehow corrals this thing behind the boat.

Really think we could have wailed on them but the conditions were not favorable.  We left the last king in the net until we could beach the boat in the cove behind the channel.

Started in 150. Nothing on screen. Worked our way in and like last week 100-105fow worked. The water actually was cooler in tighter than out deeper.

Thermocline seemed to be around 60'.  48-50degree water was down around 75'.

350' copper nice coho on white/green uv paddle krw money shot fly

325 copper nice steelhead on dancing anchovy mag Spoon

Rigger down 100' with free slider. Free slide took the hit. Nice coho. One of those new bent spoon things from moonshine. Had yellow and green dots on it. 

Had a couple other smacks but no hook ups. It's getting to be that time of year. I didn't see many sizeable hooks all night on the screens. 

SOHA was .  One circle in 110 -125fow. Couldn't keep six rods going this evening. Spoons and plugs at 2.2- 2.6 at the ball. Fish Hawk was crucial on the north troll with a good current at 75 feet down. Thermocline at 70fow. Lines wet at 6pm and cleaning these at 930-945.

Like I’ve seen for Holland, Muskegon, etc fall fishing for 2-3 yr olds is very good. Same for South Haven.

Sunday we were only 2-5 from 140-200’; Monday was good in 80-120; today it was 68-87’..

Thermocline at our buoy in 68’ was 49’ down; thus we ran riggers 45, 55,  65, dipseys 80’ and 90’ lengths of line out, 150, 200, 250 and 300 had hits.

Fished a little south right by the buoy.

All fish caught in 68-87fow except a small steelie in 120 on a 200.

Ended up 8 for like 12. 4 yr old  15+lb female king full of eggs, 3 small kings, small steelhead, a small coho and two fat sheephead.

Wonderbread mag spoon, mag Moonshine RV wonderbread and mag NBK glow took fish. No hits on green #5 with bk ladder back glow J Plug nor dragon slayer Pro King flasher W/pickle sunshine fly.

We fished mainly very near the buoy and a little north.

1’ or so waves. 

I got a late start today, but even if I was early, I don't know if it would have made a difference. Getting fish today was tough.

Fished 6:44am to 11:35, 90-146 fow, 1 for 3, small steelie, waves 1-1/2 to 2ft. East wind. Made my 1st WS rig last night, and it was the only thing that caught a fish. Lost 2 off downriggers with one biting just as I was clearing a line. Pole shook and bounced, but he spit it out when I got him near the boat.

1- Steelhead, 5.13#, ( 8:25am), RV Flounder pdr mag  300 WS, W trl, 2.9 sog, 106fow

The waves settled down about 11:30. The fish seemed to have  decided to go golfing today on the other side of the lake. I hope they did well anyway.

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Picked up a 5 lb coho at 8:30 am on DR with white/green ladderback and green paddle.  Marks declined as the sun rose in the sky.  As we trolled back to the pier there were more bait-balls from 50-70 FOW and some marks, but no takers.

Not a lot went right. We set lines at 6 in about 100 ft. Right away we had back to back hits on our downriggers but neither stayed on. Within about an hour we were already retreating to 80 ft due to waves building. After an hour or so of nothing in 80 ft we went into 60 ft and saw some enticing marks. We spent a little over an hour throwing everything we had at them but no takers so we decided to try the pier heads. We did a few laps in and out of the harbor and skirted the mud line but only managed a sheephead and a bass so we bagged it. I'm hoping to hit them in the harbor this fall but I'm starting to wonder how much of a run we're gonna get

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I heard that fishing was good from 120 to 140 FOW, but I never made it that far out. That sonar looked like it had a lot to say while we were motoring out, so I slowed down to check. There were a lot of fish on the sonar. I suspected the temperature was all wrong, but this time of year that is less important, so I decided to set lines in 80 FOW on a SW troll, right out in front of the pierheads at 6:30 am.

By 100 FOW, we had stopped marking fish and didn't have any bites. So it was decision time: keep heading SW and get out to 120 FOW, or swing back inside and give it one more try.

We swung back inside and got our first bite in 93 FOW. We kept it on a south troll and stayed in 90 to 95 FOW the whole time. The temp 75 ft down was 62. It did get down to 58 further south. This is warmer water than I would normally fish, but there were a lot of fish on the sonar and they were biting, so we stayed in it.

Our shallowest line was 50 down. We ran some lines 85 down, but had more luck with them when we raised them up to 75 down.

Here's what we fished (9 rod spread):

2 for 2: Rigger down 75 green lightening glow plug

0 for 0: captain's choice natural glow plug, then a white slick paddle and pickled sunshine fly

Wire divers were set between 50 down and 85 down. They took fish when I dialed them Into 74 to 77 feet down. I have a SmartTroll system, so I focus on that more than the feet of line out. I think they were out about 180 feet. We ran a pink pearl plug for a bit, but no bites. When I pulled it, it had hit bottom. I switched it out for a magnum green knight spoon and it got bit within 10 minutes. On the other side we ran a green glow spin doctor and meat rig and that was 2 for 3.

On my long lines, I switched out from copper to weight steel (WS) this year. On the port side of my boat, I added 2 colors of lead (Pb) to each of the long lines. It gave me more sway in the current than running copper alone, and gave me more depth flexibility when I was running small spreads. I kept that same setup when I switched to WS. Given the flexibility of WS, that might not have been necessary.

2 for 3: 200 WS + Pb 5 eyes magnum

2 for 3: 250 WS + Pb wonderbread magnum

2 for 2: 300 WS + Pb green jeans magnum

2 for 2: 250 WS Bad Toad magnum

1 for 1: 300 WS Wart Frog magnum

Speed at the ball was 2.1 to 2.3. 16 bites on the S troll, one on the north, but we only trolled north from 11:00 to 11:30 when we pulled lines.

The biggest fish was 19.5#. We threw back a sheepshead which hit on the 300 WS + Pb as I was setting it out. We threw back 2 smaller kings too. So we kept 11.

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