Jolly Time

Changed it up and went a bit north to Whitehall last night and this morning. 10 for 16 last night and 23 for 32 this morning with a few fish being returned to the deep. I stopped by Johnsons and asked for some Intel and they put me on fish. Plugs plugs plugs and flasher flies rulled both outings. Evening started in 150 and found the sweet spot at 135 +/- inside dipseys 120-140 back flasher/flies high divers back 150-180 with spoons and plugs. 225,250,300 coppers all took fish. Troll angle was key and once we found it, game on. Slow speed with an occasional speed up 2.1-2.4 worked. Thursday morning...insane! It started with my boat not being able to go and the guys I invited being nice enough to bring their boat and to invite me out. Pretty cool. Thank you Eric, Kreg and Doug. We caught fish. We caught a lot of fish. Inside 100 to start the morning before sunrise. All plugs. Then once light came up meat rigs and plugs. And after sunrise into late morning riggers started to go. Dipseys setting 3 200-240 back. Riggers 60-80down. 200-400coppers all went at some point. The fishing is good! We did get out close to 170fow. 140ish was good late in the morning. IMG_20260820_125024.heic IMG_20260820_125017.heic IMG_20260820_125010.heic IMG_20260820_124953.heic

100% All we could do was keep saying " watch out" "don't let anything get into the prop".

8 for 15. Had a buddy out tonight who doesn't l fish much which was fun. Fish were aggressive and wanting to play tonight. Waves were sporty tonight at first. 3 footers. Ran out to 150fow. Spun the boat around and fished south east. 130-135fow was magic depth. Rigger with 11"slick pickle went 3 times. Inside dipseys 120 out setting 1 and 140 out setting 1 with white slick/sweet pea fly went 3 times, Kevin's girlfriend/pickle went twice. High dipsey out 210 setting 3 early with MOP blue ladder back plug went once early later 160 back with stranglehold bloody knuckles went. 225 copper went with ace high with glow ladder back twice. 250 copper went twice with MOP blue ladder 300 copper went once with bloody knuckles. Starboard rigger went three times with stranglehold hulk smash and bloody knuckles free slide. 75 down and 80 down. We couldn't keep the wire dipsey flasher flies hooked up. Not enough drag I believe at the hit and my buddy horsing them a bit. The last fish at 9pm took out everything! Dipseys coppers riggers. Everything! What a mess. It never stopped dipped the board and wrapped everything up like a bow! Argh! Fun night though. 18lb, 14lb a couple 11lbers a couple nice cohos a steelhead and a smaller king. 2.2 at the ball early when running paddles and flies and plugs. 2.5-2.9 later when running spoons in the spread.

First I want to thank all of you for posting and sharing your successes and occasional fails. The network we share helps so much and I appreciate all of you a bunch. We went 6 for 11 tonight. We went out to 125 and trolled north slipping out to 140. We found most fish in 125-130 early. North troll was better interms of current. We fished back going south and personally I think we were stalling our presentation. What went. Riggers 3 times per side. Raspberry Carbon with a stranglehold Hulk Smash was a great combo tonight. Hulk on bottom and raspberry cabon free slide. Both took hits and caught fish. Low diver 124 deeper on setting 1 with white paddle/pickle sunshine worked. 350 copper early took a fish with a 11" slick/pickle sunshine with short lead on fly 34". High diver late setting 3 150 back had 3 rips all with different flashers w/ flies white paddles with green/UV and howey green crinkle fly. 300 copper w/stranglehold bloody knuckles went late and bloody knuckles on high dipsey 160 back late took fish. We had fly by hits and a couple crossed lines which messed up our catch number but we never got bored tonight. The boys let me fish tonight which I don't get to do much. It was weird no buddy was out fishing tonight? I counted 6 boats.

Well, this was a tough three days of fishing but in so many ways so special. The lake started to flip again and then flipped completely by Sunday morning. On top of that the waves were unreal. We saw nice conditions Friday with my Wife and two daughters doing the ladies tournament during the Big Red all catching fish. Pretty sweet and just special spending time with family. The Saturday and Sunday tournament was tough! Waves, wind and 58 degree water just wow. If you wanted to find silver you had a short window for an hour in tight and then you better know how to catch lake trout or be willing to go DEEP. That's all I can say and oh...I am very poor at catching lake trout. We did catch a few silvers in 140fow +/- 20feet. Green hulk rv was good on a 275copper. OG Raspberry Carbon on 200 and 225 took fish. Yeck green jeans mag on a dipsey contributed out a meer 100feet on setting 3. The highlight of the weekend was setting up outside the pierhead Sunday at 6:15am with a 3 color and DW carbon rv in 45fow south troll. We caught our biggest brown trout ever. 13lb 4oz! A whopper! I hope things change quick out there. We did find good water out 220+fow but the wind and waves just made

Well, this was a tough three days of fishing but in so many ways so special. The lake started to flip again and then flipped completely by Sunday morning. On top of that the waves were unreal. We saw nice conditions Friday with my Wife and two daughters doing the ladies tournament during the Big Red all catching fish. Pretty sweet and just soecial soending time with family. The Saturday and Sunday tournament was tough! Waves, wind and 58 degree water just wow. If you wanted to find silver you had a short window for an hour in tight and then you better know how to catch lake trout or be willing to go DEEP. That's all I can say and oh...I am very poor at catching lake trout. We did catch a few silvers in 140fow +/- 20feet. Green hulk rv was good on a 275copper. OG Raspberry Carbon on 200 and 225 took fish. Yeck green jeans mag on a dipsey contributed out a meer 100feet on setting 3. The highlight of the weekend was setting up outside the pierhead Sunday at 6:15am with a 3 color and DW carbon rv in 45fow south troll. We caught our biggest brown trout ever. 13lb 4oz! A whopper! I hope things change quick out there. We did find good water out 220+fow but the wind and waves just made it so difficult. IMG_20260802_203727.heic IMG_20260802_203722.heic IMG_20260801_185314 (4).heic IMG_20260801_185314 (1).heic IMG_20260801_185314.heic

Also, l8vescope had fish coming into the spread and then hanging out by the ball. When they took off, they went up and away. So, we ran lures tight to the ball 15' and ran 15' lead free sliders. It seemed to be the trick later in the evening.

Most fish came 50-60 down.

Any time I made a speed change we got hit. I would slow to 2.5 at the ball cruise for 5 minutes or so then increase speed to 3.1-3.2 and wham.

87feet. The last three came in 79 and 35-40 down.

I had the honor of taking out the winning bidder for a cancer fundraiser earlier this spring. Tonight was the night. Jon had not fished the big pond in more than 6 years. My first mate Keagan and I found some fish through the smoke and I am certain wore John's arms out in the process. We ended up 11 for 17. Some dandy fish in the mix. Pretty slow until 8:30pm and then it was game on. Here is what worked 2.7-3.1 at the ball south is troll though we did catch a couple when we did about face to come home. We fished straight out and trolled past Saugatuck. Half way to Saugatuck was when things switched on. High dipseys had flasher flies early and took four rips but did not stay on. Had a free slider rip we lost as well. Switched everything to spoons. Both high dipseys went multiple times after 8pm with Stanglehold "bloody knuckles" "Raspberry Carbon" OG and Dreamweaver "Bloody Nose RV". 120-130 out on setting 3. Never had a hit on inside/deep diver anywhere from 70-140out. Ran meat, white 11" paddle fly and eventually spoons Riggers 50 and 60 down with free sliders produced. Blue flounder pounder, Happy Meal, Dancing Anchovy and many other spoons went swimming tonight. 275 copper, 250 copper 225 copper rods all took fish. It was a great night. Once again, speed was the key. The fish were out of temp and we were taking fish between 30 and 60 feet down. 60' down was 49 degree water. 35-40' 54-55 degree water.

This happened before. Be careful out there. It can be bad and it can actually act worse than fog if there is moisture in the air.