Jolly Time

Going to fish out of Whitehall this weekend. Anyone been out up there? Any suggestions?

I run the following spoons. Based on what has been in their stomachs dictates what size spoons I run. The past two days they wanted mag and standard size offerings. This week plus yesterday and today) Fuzzy bear orange (mag) High diver back 115 setting 3 - took hits Coho killer (standard) 100 copper took hits Five eyes (mag) rigger back 70+ feet down 15 on SWR two color rod took hits Yeck fireball w/singles (Standard) 4 & 5 color lead took hits RV moonshine wonderbread (Mag) high diver and 175 copper took hits. Orange slice 100, 125 coppers

All standard or mags. These are the lures that have taken hits and fish the last two weeks. Yeck fireball w/dingles Orange fuzzy bear mag Coho killer standard Five eyes mag Agent orange standard RV wonderbread mag Orange Slice mag Hailstorm (Mr chrome) standard I run them on outside dipseys 90-120 back 100,125,175 coppers 3,4,5 color lead Rigger line back 70-80ft down 15 on 2 color swr rod

Was out this morning as well. Tried 120-140 with plenty of marks but just tough to get anything to bite. Water temp at 103ft. Downwas 48.9 degrees. Thermocline is at 63ft. and 59 degree water. Nothing good happens with those conditions. At 9:30am slipped out to 170fow. Marked a lot of fish from 25-50 feet down. Ran a complete steelhead program on port side of boat. Took 4 hits and landed one steelhead. Rough!

Fished 6-9:30pm. Put 5 nice Kings in the box. Biggest one on meet rig inside deeper diver setting 1 240' back All the rest of the fish came on riggers. 60-100feet down with sliders. Dancing Anchovy and RV crabface were hot lures. Did not take a bite on any boards. We ran all the following 100-175-225-250-350-400 coppers. Not a hit. We marked fish the entire evening lots of smaller marks 40-80 feet down. Quite a few rogue hooks down 120-130 feet down. We stayed between 130 and 160fow all evening. Thermocline was roughly 80 feet down. 46 degree water was down 120+/-

Fished 6pm - 9:30pm. Went out and to the south. Found fish 145-170fow. 150-160 was the best. First fish - rigger down 90 meet rig. Hook set was not good. Lost it. Second fish 100 copper wonderbread UV mag. 10lb steelhead. Third fish - high diver #3 back 175 Dancing Anchovy mag. Great rip and fought it for a couple minutes and off. 4th fish - inside port mag dipsey #1 wire diver 11" paddle meet rig back 200 14lb king. 5th fish - inside starboard mag dipsey #1 wire meet rig 220 back 15lb king 6th fish - 225 copper moonshine bloody nose mag 10lb king 7th fish - 10 color Dancing Anchovy uv mag. Small guy. Ended up 5 for 7. Meat was working. Go deep! We marked fish pretty much all night between 145-165fow. Most action happened the last hour and a half. Stomachs of fish had large alewife in them.

Well, it's a bit of a tough fish out there right now. I believe the fish are there, it's just tough getting them to cooperate. We got into 4 year old fish for the first time this season. The first was on a Meat-rig on rigger down 70ish in 150fow. Dipseys weren't working high low up or down. We took fish on 7 color orange fuzzybear mag in 200fow. We took fish opposite rigger on blue flounder pounder with slider. Down anywhere between 65-80 180fow. We lost some and we released some. Beautiful out there this morning. Maybe too nice. A lot of boats in tight most of the morning. Quite a few out deep and a few in-between. We took fish on Northeast troll and south west troll angles. Nice to see surface temperature going up.

Nicely done! Oh my that lake was flat. Fish are funny. You were out where we were the day before at least in depth and we couldn't buy a bite on our long lines. It's blowing hard today. No fishing today. Maybe we should all take up surfing. Thank you for the excellent report. You always have nice details.

Great morning out and to the north of Holland. Went out to 160fow of water caught one and fished out to 190fow. We did make it out to about 210fow a couple times. Most fish came on south east troll or south west troll angle. The south-east kept the entire spread on the best angle and pulling the best. Many of our bites came on turns or change of direction on outside of turn (speeding up). Our speed at surface was 2.0-2.6 and our speed at ball was anywhere from 1.9-3.2. Some wild currents. The water temps where in bands and any time we passed through a band of warm(er) water we got hit. We took hits on 325 copper, both riggers (60-120) down, high dipseys setting 3 (190-260) back, low dipsey (deeper diver) setting 1 (130-180) back. What worked for us were meat rigs early on high diver and lower diver. White slick/pickled sunshine a couple different places. Spoons worked throughout the morning all mag bites. We ran small spoons and they never took a hit. Dancing Anchovy, UV crabface, spoons were our best spoons. Really any spoon with UV tape and w/black or blue colors seemed to work the best. We did have some hits on spoons with green both with spots and ladders. 14 bites. 11 hook ups. 6 nice Kings to clean and a few sent back to grow up.

What was the length? It may have made master angler?

Glad you had success! I so wanted to go out this morning. I love fishing in overcast crummy weather. There are definitely fish out there to be caught. Once you figure out troll angle with the weird currents, you are definitely in business. Based on the fact you were catching fish on both sides of the boat, you mastered the troll angle. Well done! Thanks for the call out. I love helping with info. Without help it can be tough out there.

Well, that was something getting out on the lake this morning. Fog was thick. Finally dropped lines at 6:45am in 140fow. Ran 2 riggers, 1 low dipsey, 1 high dipsey. 6 color and 10 color early and 225copper and 300 copper early. 7:30 first fish. Rigger. Crapface UV at 80ft. Free slide standard blue dolphin rv. Blue dolphin 8lb steelhead. 7:45 changed spread. 2nd fish 325 copper dancing anchovy 9lb steelhead 3rd fish 325 copper dancing anchovy 4lb king. Gill tore so had to keep. I felt bad. 4th fish Diver deeper diver setting 2 wonderbread 7lb steelhead 5th fish rigger down 100 dancing anchovy bottom lure small king (release to grow bigger) 6th fish 350 copper mongolian beef rv 5lb steelhead 7th fish 350 copper mongolian beef 4lb laker (released after getting air out of bladder) Very nice day. 7 for 7. It was definitely a steelhead bite. No sizeable marks early. Still quite a bit of bait until about 8am. Fished between 140fow-165fow. Worked northwest and southeast trolls. Found current and troll angle to be the best going in and out on those directions. Most fish came on turns. Trolled 2.5-3.1 at ball. For whatever reason they bit mag dancing anchovy and mongolian beef rv glow spoons.

Networking! It's a wonderful thing. The information we all share helps so much when you are a person that can't get out every day. All of you have helped me be a better fisherman throughout the last few years and especially this past season. A big thank you to all. Ed... I get what you threw down there. "Sheepish Grin". Well played.

So glad you were able to use my intel to your advantage. It's fun when a program comes together!

Oh, one other note. I pretty much ran mag spoons and a couple flasher fly combinations. After cleaning the fish last night, their stomachs were full of small bait. Really small... If I had to do it over, I would have run standard and super slims throughout the spread. Maybe mag on bottom rigger presentation with standard/superslim sliders. Going out again tonight and will follow my own suggestion. I will let you all know how it goes if I get out. There are still a lot of fish out there and they flood the screen as the sun hits the horizon. Until we get crazy cold weather with rain, I think they will stick around. Good fishing everyone. What a great year!

Went out at 6:30pm with wife and daughter. Just a beautiful night to go have fun. Set up in 130fow straight out of Holland. South Troll zig zag between 130 and 150fow. Had just set 2nd rigger (2 rods in the water) and first rigger went. Dancing anchovy set 80' down 51 degree water. Nice 2 year old king. Got all rods set. 400 copper (never went all night) white slick/pickle fly. Outside board 250 copper took two 2-3lb kings. Super slim soda spoon. Other rigger went 70'down wonder bread stack with free slider. Free slider took hit. Nice coho. 350 copper with dancing anchovy (no hits) and 225 copper with new spoon orange/blue/green ladder (no hits). Ended up 4 for 4 two Keepers. Lots of bait and hooks from 135-145 sunset until we ran in at 8:45pm.

You are probably right! Thank you for the re-start to my fishing excitement. Let's go!

It's that time of year where you don't want to give up but the fish are going away to winter. What a year though. Definitely one of the best years I can remember. Good luck up in the north. Safe travels.

Nice job! Master Angler is so cool. Well done!