zgrinder on Fin Warrior

Big kings in big seas makes for a very competitive evening. Nice score on landing a 22lb king - Pug looks proud of his work. Get out the smoker! Hope you get lucky and get your board back and that lucky J-plug as well. And glad you made it back safely.

My compliments to all the break of day salmon slayers heading out not sure what the morning will bring. Morning fishing therapeutic if it is flat. Chunky seas just ruin the morning vibe on a get up early morning float. I prefer to roll my dice on golfing at day break. The hard turf is more predictable even if my driver is not

My compliments on finding and boating a couple of big ones! I take it the boys like to run meat and your daughter is a clean spoon woman! Moonshine mags have been good out there. She and PUG made good choices. I expected the fish to move out a bit as warmer water had pushed inside but the current thing is weird as the blow was light and the lake didn't appear that bumpy per the PS buoy. I took a look at the PS buoy temp data at the Freeboard site which shows (red 49' & dark blue 75') cold water moving in after 1:00pm and then back out after 8:00pm with no change at the surface. That may explain the currents you were encountering last night. The plot also shows when I was out on Friday night, cold water at 49' moving back in after 8:30pm, shifting the thermocline up in the water column about 15ft from earlier in the evening. I did note the Smart Troll probes on the dipseys at the same depth were reporting colder water before sunset. Perhaps the night bite was not off but higher in the water column than where I moved up my presentations for the evening? Who knows. I am a bit of a data geek and have fun over thinking all this stuff :).

I think I under estimated the size of what I kept. One of these weighed in at just over 12lbs. The three kings look about the same and the SG is no slouch either. Need to get a scale for the house. All are naturals.

I was keeping an eye out last night for the Parker working the inside as the lake was beautiful last night and Pug knows how to find the bite. Mid July and the fishing is great.

Ran a solo run tonight, 2 mono dipseys and SWR on the DR. Set up north of the harbor in 90 FOW trolling north at about 6:00pm. There was a lot of boat traffic in 120-140FOW so I decided to stay inside of all that fish pressure. Ventured out to perhaps 110 FOW marking fish but no bites. Turned around to a south troll about an hour later. Had to deploy my trolling valves to get down to 2.5mph at the ball as the speed was quick. From that point on it was steady action. Dipseys with Atomic Melon mag spoon and a Dragon Slayer SD and green UV Salmon Candy fly saw a lot of action. My deep rigger SWR rod with a green dolphin foil mag spoon surprisingly boated a steelhead but that was it. Later in the run, I put meat down with only a blue/sliver bait head and got three hits. Ran all the way to Saugy on the south troll with steady action but no really big kings. Largest was 12lbs. After dusk glow program did not produce a vicious bite but I got one in the net that was released. For a 3 rod spread, it was a lot of fun tonight and hope to find some bigger kings next time out Ma

Good catching and really great pics !

Jon - that is the best line of the year on this site. Us solo guys are happy to get 5 bites !

Ed, I am reading the buoy wind wave reports and man are not in line with real-time lake action. I would bet had you known this you might have picked another day. But a BIG congrats on making your gear work to boat a couple of kings. My respect !

2MD and Lef T, nice catching. There was a solid sunset last night so I am surprised the bite fell off early in the skinny water. Appreciate all the shared data. Meat, spoons, flies and plugs are all seeing action. Posts on Facebook from north of PS/Holland report King action finally starting to pick up there. And last Sunday's Reel-to-Reel YouTube fishing report noted 5 king catches on the charters. I try to keep up on the reports across the east side of the lake if it might provide a heads up of the fish moving in any direction. In our area, the fishery has really taken off from a month ago. Got to get out there more myself.

Nice box of fish and thanks for sharing that you got plugs working. I will be back in town Wednesday and hope to get out Friday if the forecast holds. Storms and NW winds on Thursday may move the fish out of the shallow water. Love that collapsible fish cleaning station.

Heroic job Ed getting all the gear back into the boat without a loss. I recall outings where cutting lines and tying the ends to an empty downrigger rod holder, hoping it stays there while working the rest of the rats nest. But not in the seas you had to contend with. Fun times!

Good work getting the bite going once again. Talked to one boat coming in just after sunset in Charlevoix and they were skunked. Some good size gobies were being caught from the pier head in the channel.

Fished from lines down @ 6:45pm to 10:20pm, six rod spread, 4 downriggers, 2 SD/fly, 2 spoon and 2 mono dipseys with spoons 35-48' down. No long lines on this run. Covered 108-135 FOW closer to Port Sheldon prior to sunset without a bump. Came back south and slid into 80-100 FOW with a glow program, green and blue jeans, green and blue flounder, bloody nose and a glow fly. After the sun disappeared, got one rip on dipsey with a bloody nose. Green flounder pounder on the outdown DR produced a 10lb king. Put it back down and it popped again producing a 12lb or perhaps larger king. This was a natural and was loaded with 4 recently consumed alewives. Put it back down however the bite disappeared. All three bites were on the port side heading south. Fish might have been closer to the shoreline feeding. Two boats reported 8 and 11 fish coolers. Thought we were set up to boat a few more at dusk but it was not to be. IMG_2459.heic

I am with you, that king had to have been HUGE. Nice cooler of fish.

Nice catch and good choice of flies to put down.

Biggest King I have seen posted this far into the season. Heat pounding to boat a fish that big solo. And pulling off the tangle line catch was superb. I would have called it a night as well. Those spotted watermelon patterned spoons are money. Congrats!

You are killing it again!

Nice size kings. How bad were the water fleas?

Congratulations on the new Parker. I have been wondering where you stood with your quest to upgrade your fishing platform. Storm, drop in BP after sunset is a really good formula for the fish to turn on.

I would would be happy to catch those two fish! Hypnotist is a great fly. Good call on putting that down.

With the water this warm, I like to move out and run in 175 FOW. If solo, either two high baits and one deep rigger around 90' or vice versa. My favorite high line lure for SH and sometimes kings is MS mag RV Atomic Melon.