Satisfaxion_Gauranteed

Just to add to the concensus, I also fish a wide variety of spoons, with Dreamweaver, Stinger, and Moonshine being my most used spoons. I start with a speed of ~2.5mph(at the ball) and keep an eye on currents, blow back, and, very simply, if we're catching fish. I'll adjust from there. Dreamweaver and Stinger do seem to be very speed tolerant and I've caught fish at a wide variety of speeds using these lures. The Moonshines tend to like a faster speed, 2.5-3.5mph.

It seems as though there was a post about a year ago that some people, if they find the right conditions/water temp at the surface/etc, will really speed up thier trolling speeds. I've never managed to do that with any success, but some do with a lot of success.

I use 50# braided for my braided, larger sized dipseys. My little braided, early season dispeys, I have never had an issue with 30# test.

fyi,

This is a little late, but this will be my 7th season of L. Michigan fishing.

That does sound easy. I'm going to try that with some of my leftover fish the next time I make it.

Thanks for the tip.

Thanks for the report. I'm going to take a day off work this week to try to make it out of South Haven in nicer weather conditions. It seems as though the weekends have been throwing sketchy weather at us lately.

I use an LED light. White light works great because it covers more of the UV spectrum to charge the lures.

I almost always run mine off the divers, but I've also had good success with mine off the riggers and very rarely use leads longer than 8'. I pretty much stick to the leads(give or take a margin of error) that are recomended on the packaging and have pretty good success with that.

thant right there is why i refuse to fish in that mess in front of the river mouths ,

all you have to do is get away from the pack and run your normal spread and you will do as good with out as many id!!ts, just look at my report from last weekend out of muskegon , plumcrazy and my self did not get within 300 yds of any one,the entrire morning

I agree. I will not fish that mess. It's not worth my time to inhibit my enjoyment with that. I typically fish South Haven where it does not get deep very quickly. That has it's draw backs in fuel during the early season bite, but this time of year the madness that comes from ports like Muskegon doesn't happen.

Thanks for the report! I hope to get out this weekend after my trip down here in TX. I feel like I'm going through L. MI withdrawls being away in August!

I use the contoured Rapala files with light pressure and paying attention to hook contour. I'm still using trebles, but plan to a phased change over to singles. In the winter, I'll wet the file lightly with honing stone oil.

My litmus test is if snags one of my finger nails, much the same way as GLF described.

my 2cents,

--Jason

Ya, it doesn't look good. We tried last night based on the 1-3 building to 2-4 forecast, which turned out to be some huge 2-4's.

Good luck fishing Saturday!

--Jason

Great report Jason!

You didn't fish the 1 foot or less waves Saturday?

LOL, no, I didn't fish the 1' or less on Saturday. I did go out and see some boats going out and coming in through the 2-4's though. I didn't hang around the cleaning station to see how the catching was. Beer was calling the wife and I to Captain Lou's

Good work guys!

We ended up about 2/3 up to Saugatuck from South Haven when we were out on Sunday morning. I think the better fishing has been north of the South Haven piers lately. We've certainly had better luck closer to Saugatuck lately.

Good work; 2/11 must have kept ya plenty busy!

Thanks for the report.

--Jason

Good looking catch! I've been hearing that Muskegon is doing pretty well lately.......try to leave some of the fish in the lake for the West MI event Sunday!

Good catch

--Jason

That sounds like good time on the lake! Thanks for the report.

Good work guys and thanks for the report.

8/1/2008 afternoon:

We fished South Haven Friday evening before getting chased off by lightning We did manage to fish from about 4:30pm to about 7:30pm and went 3 for 6. Divers on 1.5 back 90 with white flasher/white fly, 200' copper with a white Lyman lure, and DW monkey puke down 45 off the rigger did the damage. Unfortunately, we had to pull lines prior to seeing the sun get close to the water. All fish came in 80 to 85fow on West trolls about 2 miles north of the piers. Typical spread was 9 lines; 2 riggers, 2 divers, 2 coppers, 2 half cores, and a 3 color up top to try for a stray steely. Water was 75ish on top, 60ish down 25, and 50 ish down 40. All 3 fish boxed were kings; 12-16lbs.

8/3/08 morning:

We had lines set at ~6:00am in 70fow north of the piers and pulled lines at 11:30am in 140fow. Water had warmed a little; 50 degree water was down ~50. Green was the ticket. The spread varied; 8 lines early and 11 later as action slowed. Divers set on 1.5 back 75 pulling a green glow frog spinny and green Siggs fly(forgot to grab the pic:( ), riggers down 55 pulling white crush spinny/white/green glow fly, DW green easter egg off 200' of copper, stinger NBK off the half core(only 1 hit, but biggest fish), DW green dolphin off the rigger down 75, and green spinny pulling a 3 fly teaser meat rig all produced fish/hits. We finished 8 for 11 on the morning; 5 fish in the am in 80-90fow on NW/NE trolls and the last 3 fish in 120-140fow on NW/NE trolls. Size was decent; 17 was largest and the rest went 8 to 15.

Also, we broke a lure! The split ring pull through the spoon. It happened right at the back of the boat and I managed to reach way out to net the fish before swimming away. I pulled fish from the net and there's the hook and slit ring in good shape! This is apparently my year for breaking stuff!

Way cool, thanks for the report.

Good work. I've been hearing that the water has warmed up.

Thanks for the report.

I mostly run the Fishcatchers (AKA Hootchie Mamas) but I also use the wildest hole. Looking back at that statement It looks like it could have come from an X rated site.

Now that's funny!

I wish I would have fished that much this weekend!

Thanks for the report

We fished Sunday am 7/27 and finished 3 for 4, unless you count the perch and sheephead we also caught, in which case it would be 5 for 6

First fish came just shy of 80fow, north of the piers, East troll off of 200' copper and a white lyman plug. Randy(Fish Whisperer) grabbed the rod and fought this fish; 17lb king.

The next came off a half core in 60fow running a chipmunk lure; ~5lb sheephead.

The next came off a blue super glow in ~60fow off of 200' of copper(got a little shallower than we wanted fighting that first king); ~6" perch

Trolling 200' of copper west running a green fishlander monkey puke took the next fish, a 13lb king. While that king was being fought, the dipsey fired running a stingray sized nbk, but broke off.

The last fish came on the dipsey in 125fow, trolling south, running a white flasher with a green 3-fly herring teaser, 8lb king.

The lake was kicked up a little from the previous afternoon(not 1-2 footers the marine forecast predicted) and we really didn't mark any big schools of fish, just the occaisonal arches here and there from ~70fow to about 125fow.

I hung around at the cleaning station for a while to see what others were doing. There were a lot of 0-4 fish catches trickling in throughout the afternoon. The size of the fish were all pretty good, but no major numbers coming in.

Tight lines and sreaming drags,

--Jason

Sounds like the cool water has things going again. Thanks for the report.

Good work and thanks for the S. Haven report. I'll deffinately be out Sunday am and possibly Saturday, too, pending crew.