Jolly Time

If you do, you are amazing. It all looked similar to me wondering around.

Went out of Holland and shot down to Saugatuck for the evening fish. Left Holland's pierhead at 6:30pm. A little later than planned. It was so flat and quite beautiful. There were a few people fishing the pier. 48 degree water just south of Holland. That stayed the same all the way to Saugatuck. Set up in 20fow. Had all plugs of different sizes and colors out to start. 52-55degree water near channel. Nothing on first two passes. Put glow balls on 3 color and bang first fish. 8lb male king. It through up a few alewife so we switched out the other 3 color to a standard glow spoon and bang another hen about 8-9lbs. Had another hit a rip on 2 color riding straight out back but didn't hook up. Full moon came up and it shut off in tight. Really, no one was out. A couple boats out in 50-70fow. A couple out in 150-200fow. It was truly a beautiful night and probably my last outing at least for kings. If I get one of those early October steelhead days...maybe? Thanks everyone for sharing intel all season. I appreciate all of your help.

So, I am a boat guy. I fish all the time on my boat. But, the weather has not cooperated lately and My mate said "Let me take you river fishing". So, I went today and holy cow! It was unbelievable and so fun. I caught my biggest king ever (41.5" 30lbs.) and we landed 11 and lost that many easily. Just an unbelievable experience! I would like to tell you exactly where we fished but I honestly don't have a clue. Way up the White River. 30minutes out of Montague. 20260919_172942.mp4

Pug always gets it done! He is probably one of the best fisherman I know! In the clay banging them with plugs! Pug with plugs! Let's go!

Nice catch!

Here is what worked for us over the weekend.

Had another great outing in Whitehall. Set lines at a little after 6am. All plugs today to start. 130fow. Temp break was at 104' fish were hitting stuff 60-75' down until the sun came over the horizon. Then pushed out to 165-175 and ran stuff 80-100'down. We got our two man limit by 9:45am. White black ladderback and any green glow plug all went. Broke off 4 big fish with two to bag quality snap swivels. You get what you pay for. Ended up 10 for 15. Northeast or south west troll angles worked well. 275, 300,325,350 coppers all went. High dipseys early 150-160' back early setting 3. 240-280' back later all went. Riggers 65-75 took fish early. Stalling the presentation to 1.8sog and then speeding up to 2.8sog triggered a bunch of bites. Fun catching big kings in September and a couple nice steelhead later in 170fow.

Two guys and 3-4' waves and we still had fun. Water was HOT! Temp break was at 93'. We fished 130-100fow. 375,350,325 coppers all took fish. High divers back 240-260 feet out on setting 3. Riggers down 85-95'. Meat on rigger took one. The rest of the boated fish came on plugs. White/boack ladder took 3. Seahawk took 2. A few others with green and flashy took fish. Had three break offs which hurt. All fish were matures and most were silver.

So pumped you guys g9t up there and we're able to put the smack on them. I/we caught 52 fish over four days. Pretty incredible up there. We'll worth the drive! IMG_20260821_100200.heic IMG_20260820_125024.heic IMG_20260820_125010.heic

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