Jolly Time

First time out this season. Just wife and I. Went out of Kolen Park. Not one boat launched other than us. Hit big lake and sent south out of pier. Started in 50ft of water. Lots of marks between 20-30ft. A few good hooks at 45ft. Ran two planer boards 3 color and 6 color. Blue dolphin on 3c and gold Rasta Goose 6. Two high dipsy on 3. 90ft and 100ft. White slick spin doctor w/salmon candy novacain fly on 90. Krytonite flasher w/pickled sunshine fly 100. Two riders set at 25ft and 35ft. Blue knight and red dodger green/yellow fly. Trolled south west at 2.5 at Ball. No takers until 7:45am and krytonite/pickled sunshine went 10lb king. Nice way to get season off to a start. BlueKnight at 35ft went at 8:15 8lb king. Went dead and made turn with waves. 3 color went and lost steelhead after a couple of jumps. Krytonite/pickle sunshine went again. 13lb king in 65ft 110. Boat got turned to quick...oops and crossed up in current and downriggers got all messed up. Yanked lines at 10:15am and head in. Good first trip. Best part...wife had a nice time and landed 2nd fish.

Like many this time of year, you have to wait until the lake cooperates. This morning was beautiful but the water is still so warm. Started a little south of pierced in 110ft of water. Temp was down again between 75-80ft. Quite a few good marks early as we trolled north- northwest. Got pinched by another boat and ended out at 150ft. The deeper I went the less marks. We eventually got back to 130ft and started marking fish again. Quite a few in the 20-40ft range. I could not get a hit. Had most of the program in the 70-90ft range. Had two bites on riggers green jeans spoon 70ft. Kevins girlfriend pickle sunshine fly 65ft. Both were on and then off . High and low divers never had a hit. Ran white spindoctor/fly combos on lows and spoons on highs. 300' copper and 250' coppers washed lures as well. Pretty morning but tough fishing.

I have been going out these last few weeks when the weather allowed and waves weren't too crazy. It has been a struggle for me to find fish. We had a great morning today however. We went southwest out of Holland approximately half way to Saugatuck and started in 120' of water. Once we figured out current we started setting lines on south by southwest troll 2.2-2.3 mph. found good temperature at 72'. It took a little while and we had first fish on. High diver with white glow spindoctor/pickled sunshine fly. 214' back. 2 year old king 1/1. had two hits after that on downriggers set at 90' and 75' down. Blue Knight glow spoon and Green Knight glow spoons. soft bites and felt both fish for a minute and then gone 1/3. Got lines reset and inside wire diver on setting 1 on starboard side went off. We had it out 210' with Salmon Candy megatron flasher with pickled sunshine fly. It ripped and after a nice battle landed a nice 13lb king 2/4. Just landed that fish and the same side high diver went off at 265' back. Mongolian beef spoon. Landed another 2 year old king 3/5. Two more releases on the downriggers with no one home 3/7? Out of no where after washing all morning 400' copper went off with green splatter back plug. Dad fought that fish for a while. Fun to watch. Then gone... bummer. 3/8. Waves started to pick up and we were getting ready to call it a morning. I sent portside downrigger down 120' and bam nice lake trout 8 plus pounder on green knight spoon 4/9. We started pulling rods and I let portside down rigger float to surface as I brought in the other one. the rod began to bounce and we had our 2nd laker 6 pounder on green knight spoon again 5/10. Not the greatest percentage but we had a great time out on the lake. All of our fish came zig zagging between 120' and 1:40' on a south troll. 50 degree water was between 70-80' down. We targeted 70 to 100' with our program and it worked pretty well. I hope to get out a couple more times before a close to this year weather permitting.