zgrinder on Fin Warrior

Below is the full catch log table

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

Two very stout kings. Nice reward for the effort.

Nice cooler of eyes you have there Ed. Great fishing!

That is walleye heaven!

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.

Thanks for sharing the pics. Browns are good eaters - enjoy!

That meme is giving me the creeps

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

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.

Thanks for sharing. I am on board with PUG's thinking on this.

PUG is the fish whisper, not me. I trust that wet nose will sort out the next salmon bite.

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.

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?

Fished from 5:30 to about 30min post sunset before ripping lines. Went south of the harbor out from the sliders and set up in 130FOW. 2 deep riggers down above and below 80' (big white paddle and fly and a spoon on SWR), 2 side divers spaced between 60-70' (green spinny & fly and a spoon) and 300 weighted steel down the chute with a large paddle and Brads Cut Plug. Lot of current and the chop made for a difficult N/S troll so we stuck to E/SE and W/NW. Due to the current, decided not to push out to 200' and stuck to 170' as the turn around point. Plus I wanted to fish a little shallower at dusk. Through 7:00pm and few lure changes, we marked very few fish and got only one tip on a mag white spoon on SWR down 82'. Changing over for the night bite I ran by Janet my lure change options. She dead panned "it doesn't matter what put down cause we are not marking fish or catching fish". Hard to have hurt feelings when that was the truth. So I made the changes and swung into 130-120 FOW based on the bait I saw last night hoping the fish would move inside. Well, I was right on one of two things. The bait inside was incredible and mostly pinned near the bottom. One bait ball completely filled up my fish finder - never had that happen before. And at least one more came close to that. Unfortunately, nothing bit what we passed through the bait and we finished the evening with an empty box. Reflecting on passing through the bait, pulling the high dipseys cause frankly they were too high to the Good Eats below, and running 4 riggers down below 100' with clean spoons and meat, exactly the opposite of my typical strategy might have been a better program. But that is all hind sight and I never anticipated the bait pinned so low in the water column at dusk. Only two boats that I could see were out post sunset and there was no chatter on 68. Perhaps we will give it a go during the week. A lot of east wind in the forecast might keep things interesting. Best of luck to all on your fall fishing.

Glad you had better luck getting a bite than I did. I hope to get out tonight for an evening run and work closer in where I found bait while pulling lines yesterday.

Did not make it out today. Father-in-law who taught me much about GL fishing back when I ran out of of Waukegan, is now 88 with a hip replacement. It was not that rough out today but bouncy enough that I did not feel he could get up and grab a reel on the back of the boat. Plus he and his lady friend have a narrow window when they can go about their business so timing it right was tough. I have had him on my old boat with a Becks in his hand fishing so it was not a full missed opportunity, just not one we could squeeze in today. So sad to have someone go missing on the water. I think of that all the time when I am out alone . . . what could go wrong that I am in the water unexpectedly. Can't say I have always lived by that rule but this reminds me I need to be safe ALL THE TIME.