zgrinder on Fin Warrior

Ed, all three kings were females, two natural and one plant. They had not fed recently until they met up with my spread.

Janet and I made plans over the weekend to fish Sunday evening hoping the mild SE wind forecast held. Set up Fin Warrior in the afternoon. Swapped out a pair of 25lb mono diver reels for the reserve 40lb mono reels to mitigate the water fleas that have showed up early this year. Pushed off just after 6:00pm and setup in 115 FOW north of the harbor heading N/NW. The program: Five lines, two standard 1.5 set mono dipsey divers, two riggers and 300’ steel down the shoot. Dipseys targeted 45-50’ down and the riggers 55-65’ down. All spoons of a mixed variety on dispeys and riggers and a dark J-plug on the 300’ steel. The clear skies darkened with the two incoming fronts. Not sure if we were going to fish a little or fish a lot. The BP began to drop and I knew it was going to drizzle a bit. This got me jazzed up as fishing can be really good just before a storm, providing there is no lightening to deal with. Started off marking plenty of fish down 50-80’ in 115-125 FOW. Pushed out to 130 FOW and the marks were gone, same as Friday night. Moved back in and more marks began to appear. Everything looked good but not a bite. The current was wacky. Trolling speed 2.1 then 2.8mph and the dipseys per Smart Troll were up then down in the water column. After about an hour into the troll, the first front intensified so I made the big turn to head south, put on my rain gear and trolled 120FOW back to the harbor in case we had to rip and run. Rain started to pop up on and off. I was thinking this was ideal. Pulled one of the dipseys and retooled it with a mag bloody nose glow charged spoon thinking this would be money (it didn't work). Like an alarm clock, at 8:00pm, SWR with the mag blue green spotted dolpin got bit. Same time, same setup and spoon as Friday night. Down a bit deeper at 66’ on a south troll, we boated a 13.5lb king. Perfect. Got that rig back down and at 8:22pm it went off again. Boated a 12.5lb king. Hard to tell them apart but I did weigh all the fish. Changed out a now dull hook (do this!) and got that rig back down. The opposite downrigger tipped with a mag Yellow Tail spoon (or Mixed Veggie, I never can tell) was silent this trip so I switched it out to something darker (DW Half Moon – it didn’t work). I also pulled the SB diver orange/gold spoon and replaced it with a trusted Purple Stinger was not in the water but for a few hot minutes and bang it went singing. Another 12.5lb king ventured into the cooler. That one worked!!! It was now 8:50pm. I promised Janet I would pull lines at 9:00pm and with lightning visible on the horizon at that time, and more rain was coming down, even though the bite was good, it was time to call it a night. The long line did nothing. Not sure if it was the presentation or the depth of the lure as this was likely the high in the water column compared to the rest of the spread. Janet can handle the net well so there were no one man clown shows this trip. Three bites and three solid fish. A very satisfying outing. The black flies were terrible but we managed through it. Lot of Fin Warrior cleaning tomorrow. The fish will likely make it to the grill at the Eldean 4th of July cookout this coming weekend. Happy to donate. Made simple steaks with Friday nights catch. Salt brine for 4 hours, dry well, crushed black pepper and Old Bay, then on the grill for 6-8 min a side. Delicious. Brought fish to my mother-in-law for lunch. She loved it. Chef was very happy!

Glad you hand is on the mend and can handle a rod. Two very nice fish. Appears the lake did not lay down at all from last night. I ran North for 2 1/2 hours from Saugy to Holland to be close to port at sunset. Didn't want to run full throttle at dusk in the chop. The water fleas seam to be early this year, no? I was unable to trip some of the Ninja slide divers with all the pods on the lines. Hope you have a backup Hulk Mag - that spoon is money!

Ed, attached is a pic of how I am currently stowing my Ninja divers. 3/4" hook and loop cable tie wraps from Amazon work great for securing the rods and anything else. With the blue noodle from Walmart, so far this is holding up well for storage. Hope this helps or inspires you to create a better storage solution!

Regarding your first point, I meticulously inspected the surface of where the line wraps around the release arm and was impressed that the molded part had a very smooth surface. DW must have received a lot of feedback on the performance of this part. However, mono or flouro being stressed on any surface is something I shy away from. That is why I was searching for a system that would allow braid to run at this point of the system to reduce the stress on the line. Too early in the trial to determine if braid will cut and compromise that smooth surface. Next time I am at the boat I will try to remember how I have the diver secured to the rod. Since my spooling set up has the micro swivel downstream from the diver, it never gets to the guides. However, I use micro swivels on all my long lines and have never had a problem to date with the ceramic guides getting compromised.

My UC slide divers have the spring inserted through the release arm. I suspect that is where the break in the mono occurs but I have yet to prove that. With running Smart Troll probes on these lines, I get a bit worried of losing a probe when a break off occurs. I have dropped one probe to the bottom with a standard dipsey diver before I improved how I secure them to the line with two OR-16 clips. The only braid type line I have ever used is Power Pro. Started using it 30 some years ago and never found a reason to move to something different. Use 30lb test. I had straight up braided diver set ups at one point in time but found wire divers did the same job. Don't recall ever having a break off on any of these lines nor with OR-1 & OR-8 clips. However, I never could get PP to hold well in these clips. All my long lines use PP for the backing with a 8' section of mono between the two segments to attach the OR clip. I did experiment with PP in place of wire downrigger cable. Worked fabulously going up and down but after dropping a ball or two, I gave that up. Don't recall what test I used but it was beefy. Not to say I haven't dropped a ball with steel cable however, I can spot a frayed cable easier than I could find a weak spot on braid.

The lake finally laid down, actually flat and was thinking about a dusk run but with the storm coming in, settled on pushing off just after 3:00pm and fishing till the front moved in at 7:00pm. Set up in 130 FOW strait out of the harbor and headed south to SW. Two Ninja 3-set slide divers and one rigger. Just after getting lines in the water and before adjusting the depths, the SB diver down 41' with a mag Green Hulk RV spoon took a 6-7lb king in 136 FOW. I released it expecting better things to come but I could not stir up another bite. Chased some impressive marks with the SWR on a rigger trailing a mag DW Soda spoon but no takers. Moved the slide divers between 40-55' down with no luck. The Blue Hulk RV spoon on the Port slide diver did not get touched. Ample marks between 130-140 FOW so I stayed in that water for the evening trying to make it work. First time running the DW Ninja slide divers. My slide diver reels are set up with 30lb Power Pro tipped with 8' of 25lb fluoro by way of a small Spro swivel with the diver running on the Power Pro. What I like about the Ninja slide divers is it holds the braid without sliding down the line once deployed. The UC slide divers would not hold the braid line so the reels had to be configured with mono and the mono was prone to breaking - ALOT. The Ninja release is very easy to set and holds tighter than the UC product so it requires some fine adjusting to get it to pop open which simple to do with the screw setting in the back. Last, the weight dial adjustment clicks nicely into place and can be tightened with the screw so it will not move out of the chosen setting. I could see myself moving away from running conventional dipsey divers other than I have a bunch of them and they are quicker to get in the water.

Good coho fishing in St Joe. Hoping the coho migrate up the lake in the near future. Would enjoy adding a few to my dinner table!

Your new ride appears to have ample fish catching room on the aft end. Hope you catch a bunch! What is her name????

Your a crack of dawn troller! Happy you tried the evenng bite. Unfortunately, it is slow morning, noon or night on this side of the lake. Need to check in how Illlinois/Wisconsin are doing. Happy fishing!

Great work Ed!

no biters at first light. you really had to work to get what you caught. thanks for the report.

Set out to fish at noon with my first mate and eventually pushed off at 5:00pm. Sometimes things just don't go as planned. First time out for us as well. Set down in 130FOW neat Saugatuck and pushed out to 212 with only a couple of tip ups. Marked very little and what we did was pasted on the bottom in >180FOW. Tried running a SWR near the bottom with a UV Wonderbread spoon but no luck. Came back in and found bait on the bottom in 138FOW but no marks and no action. Pulled lines at 8:30pm so we got skunked. Spent more time figuring out why the PSS shaft seal started leaking then stopped, reloading the new Smart Troll app to get it to run then actually fishing and losing gear on a mono DR rod that I knew I should have respooled in the off season. But I believe everything is squared away and ready for the next run after I clean all the flys out of the boat. All reports on the water were slow.

First time out and your already slaying fish. Do they sell Pug Parkas on Amazon? Looks like your buddy can use one. Fin Warrior has been in the water since April 20th. But we have been slammed with travel; 8-d in NOLA for Jazz Fest, 4-d in Jackson Hole on a property matter and 6-d in Buffalo for a memorial service and a devastating Sabre loss to Montreal. Hope the weather and flies favorable around this weekend for a shakedown trip. Catch'em all!

A brown trout let alone that size is a rare find on this side of the lake. Must have been vacationing from WI.