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zgrinder on Fin Warrior

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Everything posted by zgrinder on Fin Warrior

  1. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Nice catching! Hope I can find some of that action on my next trip.
  2. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Fished with my good friend Tom this evening from 5:00pm through dusk so happy to get 6 lines in the water. Worked 110 to 140 FOW north of the harbor initially without a bump. Spread: 5-Color LC on board: Orange red ladder Stinger spoon 200' Weighted Steel on board: Orange/gold Pro King spoon Downriggers: SD and green fly | SWR: Blue dolphin 1.5 set Dipseys: SD and purple fly | Purple Stinger At 8:00pm worked 90-80 FOW. Spread 5-Color LC on board: Orange red ladder Stinger spoon - caught a shaker 200' Weighted Steel on board: Orange/gold Pro King spoon Downriggers: SD and dark purple fly | SWR: Silver Alewife spoon from mid 90's 1.5 set Dipseys: Mixed Veggies | Purple Stinger - hit with a break off that did not spool any line In 85 FOW we witnessed one or more kings just off the port side of the boat, estimate 10lb or a bit more, jumping repeatedly on a horizontal and vertical plane, heading south. We crossed over this action but no bites. It was at this point we noticed the dipsey with the purple Stinger was compromised. Last, we donated a Port side red Church Board just south of Holland harbor. There is no owner information on the board. We marked bait balls mostly at the bottom in the shallow water. Fish - perhaps 3 marks all night. The water was empty of fish other than the jumpers at the end of the night. Flies were not what they were on Friday.
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  3. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Great pic on that herring! Agree, the fly bite was nasty.
  4. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Set down solo in 90 FOW at 5:00pm. Ran 200' weighted steel on a board off the port and 10 color LC on a board off the starboard and SWR off the lone downrigger. Ran out to 225 FOW without a bump rotating through an all spoon spread of mixed veggies, copper plated watermelon, UV green dolphin, UV spotted frog and orange crush. Marked one fish. Ripped lines and came back in to 110 FOW. Ran two dipseys and 10 color LC down the shoot. Marked one big bait ball in 101 FOW. At dusk, in 83 FOW, finally got bit. 8lb king hit a purple stinger down 27' on the outside dipsey trolling northwest. I let the king go in this cold water as I am keeping only coho and steelhead until I finish up the kings in the freezer (almost there). Picked up a shaker as I was ripping lines to go in. Lots of O'fers on the radio. A full assortment of bugs out in force tonight. The flies were even biting my fingers after I put on pants and long sleeves. I am just a magnet for the biters.
  5. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Don't worry, fishing will get better. It has too, can't cut the yard every day!
  6. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    The Reel Shot in Appleton, WI and Tangled Tackle in Manistee carries DW meat rigs but it appears the Red Pepper is out of stock. I have purchased product from both these stores. My other favorite places to buy gear (Fat Nancy's, Franks, Fish USA, Fish 307) don't carry the DW meat rigs. A-Tom-Mik product seams to be more widely carried. Good luck.
  7. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Below is the full catch log table
  8. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Hard to believe Fin Warrior has been in the water since April 21st and this was the first time I wet lines. Fished the top of the water column with two dipseys tipped with spoons and on downrigger rigged with a SD & green crinkle fly two passes out. Set up just north of Saugatuck in 130 FOW trolling south at about 11:00am. After about 30 min decided to move out to deeper water. As I moved into the second of two slicks in 187FOW, the downrigger went off. Netted a 5lb king and released it. Made a quick adjustment to start turning south to follow the slick. Before I could get the rod back down, the port dipsey sporting a DW Mixed Veggie UV spoon brought in a 4lb coho which I kept. Just as I got the downrigger down to depth and finished the turn to the south, the SB dipsey tipped with a silver red UV spoon went off bringing in another 5lb king that was released. Got both dipseys back down and followed the slick in and out but the magic was not there. Changed direction to a north troll, back tracking my southernly run but not a bump. Did notice that the water temp at my Smart Troll probes dropped two degrees so on a hunch, decided to move closer to shore to get back to 54.5 degrees at 45' down in the water column. Got to that temperature in 170FOW and got a second hit on the dipsey with the Mixed Veggie spoon. Lost it at the back of the boat. Likely a coho by the way it was thrashing around. Pulled lines a short time later weary of the front moving in that broke up over the lake. Mid-day the lake was very flat and the flies were thick but not biters. The coho made for a great dinner! # Time Fish Weight FOW Latitude Troll Wind Dir. Speed @ Ball Rod Bait Depth Bait Temp Bait 1 12:19 PM King 5 187 42o 41.955 W SW 2.8 DR 20# 45 53 Dragon Slayer SD / Howie Green Crinkle Fly 2 12:28 PM Coho 4 192 42o 41.780 SW SW 2.8 Dipsey - Mono 45 54.5 DW Mixed Vegie UV spoon 3 12:35 PM King 5 194 42o 41.650 S SW 2.8 Dipsey - Mono 35 54.5 Silver Red UV spoon 4 2:09 AM Miss 0 170 42o 43.040 E SE 2.8 Dipsey - Mono 45 54.5 DW Mixed Vegie UV spoon
  9. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Two very stout kings. Nice reward for the effort.
  10. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Nice cooler of eyes you have there Ed. Great fishing!
  11. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    That is walleye heaven!
  12. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    I wonder if the dredging of the channel is a big disrupter pushing the fish out to deeper water. Reports from SoHa indicate they are in tighter. Smart move to bump it out and a nice catch.
  13. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Fin Warrior gets the bottom wet next week. Anxious to get out with great reports such as yours.
  14. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Ironic that I checked for the first time this spring only yesterday to find out if they were active yet and found that they were not. Thanks for the update and happy they are going in today.
  15. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Storm Trooper fishing! Appreciate the Snowman runs in the spirit of the day. Yes you need a pilot house - I see one in your future . Thanks for the report.
  16. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Thanks for sharing the pics. Browns are good eaters - enjoy!
  17. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    That meme is giving me the creeps
  18. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Nice brown you have there! I have a number of Penn 320's and 330's in my arsenal. They are not hard to service yourself if you wish to give it a go. There is a small spring that you need to keep an eye on as it can easily get lost. Parts at a fair price are available at Mystic Reel Parts. The video below by Dennis of Second Chance Tackle provides good instruction on how to service the drags. There are two schools of thought on drag washers, whether to put a small amount of grease on them or not. I am in the camp of using a bit of grease to prevent the binding of the washers (there are 5). Before I started to service reels myself, I sent all my gear to Tuna Tom. They do excellent work and give you back the parts they replace. https://www.google.com/search?q=penn+320+drag+replacement&client=opera&hs=KFo&sca_esv=598597704&ei=rlOlZe3dBcWH0PEPr4KR2Ak&ved=0ahUKEwjt7OyA39-DAxXFAzQIHS9BBJsQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=penn+320+drag+replacement&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiGXBlbm4gMzIwIGRyYWcgcmVwbGFjZW1lbnQyCBAhGKABGMMEMggQIRigARjDBDIIECEYoAEYwwQyCBAhGKABGMMESMgXUKkIWM0QcAF4AZABAJgBhAGgAcUDqgEDMC40uAEDyAEA-AEBwgIKEAAYRxjWBBiwA8ICCBAAGB4YDRgPwgIIEAAYCBgeGA3CAgsQABiABBiKBRiGA8ICChAhGAoYoAEYwwTiAwQYACBBiAYBkAYI&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:76ebdacf,vid:Kx5K23SlEl8,st:0
  19. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    I note a Moonshine Bloody Nose on the business end of that rod. Excellent choice! By the looks of those pics, you got up close and personal with the Great Republic. No doubt the fish bugged out. Glad you are still getting out. Inland fishing for those eyes sounds like a better option than the big lake. Be careful, stay safe and catch them all.
  20. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Janet and I pushed off for the last run of the season last night. God bless her patience when the trolling is slow - I am blessed. She packs reading material which unfortunately came in handy. We ran north of the Holland harbor entrance and found bait fish between 115-135FOW but could not get any takers. Downriggers were below the temp break and the dipseys just above. I decided to run inside of 100FOW at dusk which was a mistake. No inside bait, no action on any line. We did get a shaker on the long line which when I release it, made for magical gull swarm, perhaps 40+ from all directions, until the lucky guy/girl got its wind and decided not to be gull food. Funny thing was that as I was bringing in the long line, I noticed the badge was 200' weighted steel and not the 300' line we had intended to put out but oh well. Dock neighbor boated a nice king on 10 color lead at dusk in the 120FOW that we abandon. This marks our last time out this year. The fall weather has been so great this year (for a change) that it is a pity to haul the boat out. Made plans for Oct to do other things so we will drop lines again next year. Great season and best of luck to everyone still fishing. Look forward to our banter in 2024. Go Bills! The fish got squished today
  21. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Glad you had a flatter lake to fish on today versus Sunday and were able to put at least one in the box in the middle of the day. Thanks for keeping us updated on the bait location - seems to be holding at the same depth for a couple of days now. Brad's cut plugs, I am a big fan. They are a money rig in my arsenal. I see that they are now offered in UV . . . . . I feel a lure purchase coming on :).
  22. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Thanks for sharing. I am on board with PUG's thinking on this.
  23. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    PUG is the fish whisper, not me. I trust that wet nose will sort out the next salmon bite.
  24. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    It appears the fish are not interested in biting anything sharp and shinny. I am thinking this will continue with (1) warm water piled up, (2) steady blue skies and (3) strong current from the steady east wind. Looking at the weather forecast for the week, a front is coming in Tue/Wed. This could change the bite around in a positive way if the lake is fishable. I am pulling early this year (Oct 6th) for travel next month so not much time left.
  25. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Thanks for bringing this up. Berried in catch reports that I post, I include (N) if the fish has an adipose fin. I might go through my data to proved specific numbers but off the top of my head, 9 of 10 kings I caught this year in the second to last year of life, the bigger ones, were naturals - similar to your data. Perhaps this might be skewed due to the decrease in stocking in Lake Mac but it doesn't explain why the big fish are typically naturals. What does the Fish Whisper PUG have to say about this?
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