SeaFoam

Thanks for the report. Great detail
Enjoyed the story. What do you think the fish mood is? I'm hoping for some colder weather soon to break the current cycle.

The forecast seems to be off from the bouy lately, though at times like you reported the other day it was spot on. Other parts of the same day it's been better than 3ft waves for the same flat forecast. Lots of wide swinging currents and wind gusts.



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I fish solo a lot as well. Wearing a life jacket at all times and having shared your plan with someone on shore are musts. I wear an auto-inflating life vest every time. If I stay out longer than my plan I text my wife. When I return and enter the break water I text my wife so she knows I am off the big lake. Seriously considering a wireless kill switch as well.


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Essentially same program as Monday when we were 24for51
Much bigger fish today though which made it all the more exciting!
Photos and some funny videos ATTACHED here
Check out the video of us finally landing the 30lber after about 40min – humbling how I fumbled the net job and nearly lost him in the end! 
PUG and the crew were sure excited to get another Chinook Master Angler award

 

 

 
 

one more video...

Great photos!  Great family and fish!

After all the reports of them getting an early/on-time run in Grand Haven this year, decided it was high-time we see if Saugatuck would equally produce.  Ran down in the darkness and setup in 40fow directly off Saugatuck channel at around 6am.  First fish came at around 7.15am. We nailed a couple coho in that 40-43fow but weren’t breaking records or anything so we slid in a bit more.  For the next 4hrs it was just one bite after another all really right there in that 31-34fow just inside the kzoo river mud.  Pretty much all combinations produced.  3 colors, 5 colors, 7 colors, dipseys, riggers…  Plugs caught the most fish.  Spoons got maybe 3-4 fish.  Large white paddles must have gone a half a dozen times too.  We had three quadruples and lots of laughs in the midst of all the chaos.  Hats off to PUG, the kids, and a very determined crew!  Ended up going 16 for 31 this morning, which has to be one of our best if not our best trip on Parker and definitely an exciting start to the fall season. 

Congratulations on the 20 pounder!  

Nice report! Always great to share the fun with friends. Good work.


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Nice report and great sunset picture!


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1/1 18 lb King, 82 fow, SWR down 75 ft, mag rv green jeans

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Sea Foam, sorry about your downrigger ball loss.  Last year I had a large white paddle white fly, the last line out of the water that . . .  I for got to get out of the water.  I am on a plane coming in and thinking, man it sounds like a drag is screaming.  Well in fact it was, and when the sound stopped, I took the boat off a plane to check things out and found one rod in the back downrigger rod holder completely spooled.  Pulled the ball up but not the gear.  I felt like an idiot.  Yep it happens.
For what its worth, as much as I am temped, I never leave my 15lb balls on the rigger hooks.  I worry about bad things happening, like ripping the rigger off the back of the boat if the ball goes down so I just leave them in the aft compartment until I set down.  I am sure you are contemplating the same.  Glad you only lost the ball and wire and not the rigger.

I think I heard you on the radio tell them they owe you some money?  It was busy out there today.  Some guys don’t pay attention or care I guess. Sorry to hear about your lost tackle. 
 

I got a late start. Didn’t prepare last night and had a mess with poles tangled sitting on the boat. How many poles can one line get hooked around?  
 

Got my lines in around 6:30 and had one on by 6:34.  Quickly came unbuttoned. High diver back 100 ft in 80 fow, moonshine green jeans. 

Had another one on at 6:50 am.  Lost it quickly as well.  Downrigger down 60 ft, bloody nose spoon.

Had some obligations at home so pulled lines at 8:30 am.  Had a shaker on the rigger.  Successfully got it back in the water.

Hit the no wake and saw my starboard rigger cable hanging off the back of the boat.  I didn’t even use that rigger today.  Must of bounced the ball overboard in the sloppy waters and jerked it off on bottom coming in.  Rigger clutch was loose when I noticed. A new one for me.  

2/2

1. 5:45 am, 9 lb King, high diver out 190, 135 fow, moonshine green jeans

2. 6:15 am, 6 lb King, rigger down 70 ft, 130 fow, flounder pounder

Bonus: didn’t do anything stupid and lost no rigs. Lol

One radio report of 14/17. 5:00 am start, 90-110 fow. 12 kings, 2 steelhead, sounded like they caught fish all over the water column.

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There's fixed sliders
Free sliders
And super free sliders where you don't even bother to hook it to the rigger before throwing it over...

Been there and I will try to make this a quick story.  Back when I lived in IL, fished a tournament in Racine (and back when entry prices were modest).  Pre fished Friday morning.  Crew was Janet (wife, best friend and great fisher person) and one of my best friends Ben - we were a three boat crew.  That morning, the alarm clock rig hit a couple of big fish on a 1-set dipsey before sun up.  We set that set-up a side for Tournament Saturday morning.  Saturday comes, we come off a plane and begin to set up in the dark, Janet and Ben are setting lines on the port side, I and working starboard.  The alarm clock rig goes out on the port side - then I hear where is it.  Evidently, it was thrown over the side, dipsey, paddle and fly without it hooked up to the rod.  The go to presentation was gone.  So I rigged up another set up from my back up gear as quickly as possible, handed it to both of them and with a straight face let out, "just throw this over board too" (I go by capt. Dick and this was a stellar moment).  There was silence on the boat . . . . for a long time I might add.  OK, that was me being a d&%K at my worst.  But today, we laugh are butts off at that now because of the whole moment, me being me, and how fun it is to look back at miss adventures.

Morning started out nicely with a 13 lb king at 6:40 am, high diver back 205 ft, Shelly snack moonshine spoon, 98 fow.

That was my last hit until 9:30 am when I pulled lines.

I did manage to throw a meat rig in without attaching it to my rigger line. Alas, I pulled in my diver a half an hour later to change presentations and there was my meat rig hooked up on the diver. What are the chances?

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Out of curiosity, what does the autopilot run? Mine is a 2003 with I/O. Not sure if that makes a diff. But it's cable steering and not hydraulic.

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I have two boats. The one in the picture is my littleboat that I use on both the big lake, small or rivers. It's set up for all of the above. It's easy to maneuver when I park at my house in an attached garage. My second boat is a 2102 Trophy when I want to fish in a little rougher water on the big lake. I've equipped both with Auto pilots, gps fish finders, fishawks etc. The smaller boat has manual DRs. I enjoy them both. The smaller boat is great when I'm jigging the Detroit River in the spring or other smaller body's for walleyes or steelhead such as Grand River and Muskegon lake.


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Glad you made it thru safely. You see all kinds on the lake!


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Grandson gave me a hand with the fish.


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2/4 gorgeous morning. Just a ripple on the lake.

1. 6:40 am 8.5 lb King, high diver back 200 ft, 113 fow, moonshine green jeans

2. 7:05 am, lost it after a minute or two, 112 fow, high diver back 205 ft, Happy meal spoon

3. 7:45 am, lost it at the net after 15 minute fight, 115 fow, rigger down 86 ft, Kevin’s GF SD, pickled sunshine fly

4. 8:30 am, 13 lb king, 110 fow, diver out 205 ft, happy meal spoon

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Agree with the leader recommendation - all my dipsey leaders are 25lb test.  Secondly, set the drags as light as possible where they spool out a bit of line when you make a turn.  If the water is choppy, try adding an Off Shore #8 (small red clip without the pin in the center) to the base of your rod.  I am not at the boat to send a pic so I will do my best to describe it here.  Put the large split ring that comes in the package through the back of the last hole of the OR8 clip.  Tie the split ring to the base of the rod with fishing line (I use 40lb test).  Wrap tape over the line (electrical tape will do) leaving the split ring free to wobble so the clip does not slide up and down the rod.  Once the dipsey line is deployed and the drag is set, clip the line into the OR8 clip.  It will not hold that much (works better on a wire dipsey versus a superline dipsey) but will help keeping the line for creeping out of the reel.  This has limits.  If your running 3.0mph or in 2' waves, this suggestion will probably not hold the line.  An OR1 clip might hold better but it is bigger and personally I don't like it flopping around the rod (they are great for downrigger ball releases).  OR8 clips can be ordered on line.  I recommend going to the Off Shore website and getting familiar with the clips and and how they are named before ordering so you purchase the right item.  I recommend not buying the knock offs - yes they are much cheaper but some of these just do not hold onto the line very well.
Also, when using no-stretch lines and the fish are big, I now run a snubber after the dipsey and 25# fluoro leaders for spoons and 30# mono for dodger/fly presentations.  A clear Dreamweaver Ripcord 12" snubber is my personal preference.  Fished for ~30 years w/o running a snubber but after losing a bunch of gear fishing bigger fish with wire divers and the heavy weight dipseys the last couple of years (the mag dipseys are getting pricey!), I added snubbers to my program.

Maybe bump up to 25 lb leader.   I run 40lb braid and 30 lb leader.

Slow for us too (2 in the boat).  Went 2-3.  What lb test are you running at the divers?

1/2 , Quick solo trip this morning. Lake flat.

1. 7:05 am , 6.5 lb King, rigger down 85 ft, 125 fow, wonderbread SD and spoon

2. 8:30 am, Miss, 113 fow, big fish slammed a clean wonderbread spoon. High diver back 200 ft. Proceeded to break off my line at the diver.

Beautiful morning.

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