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zgrinder on Fin Warrior

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Everything posted by zgrinder on Fin Warrior

  1. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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 :).
  2. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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.
  3. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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.
  4. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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
  5. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Good catching and really great pics !
  6. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Jon - that is the best line of the year on this site. Us solo guys are happy to get 5 bites !
  7. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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 !
  8. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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.
  9. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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.
  10. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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!
  11. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Good night of catching! Congrats.
  12. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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.
  13. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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
  14. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    I am with you, that king had to have been HUGE. Nice cooler of fish.
  15. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Nice catch and good choice of flies to put down.
  16. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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!
  17. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    You are killing it again!
  18. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Nice size kings. How bad were the water fleas?
  19. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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.
  20. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Many thanks for the report
  21. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    I would would be happy to catch those two fish! Hypnotist is a great fly. Good call on putting that down.
  22. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    FYI - I subscribe to this weekly feed out of Manistee on YouTube. In summary, king fishing is slow up and down the MI side of the lake. The Holland/Port Sheldon waters are not an outlier. The Facebook reports I receive from WI indicate much better king fishing. With luck the kings will soon move east to dine on MI baitfish! https://www.youtube.com/live/PjZYD3acprc?si=fs4MTpJQXgsEjax8
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  23. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    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.
  24. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Yep it was slow last night. We may have passed by each other a time or two We pulled lines just before 10:00pm and did not hang out long enough to get the action you found after dark. Very frustrating as the fish were showing up on the graph but just not biting.
  25. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Worked the evening from 6:00pm through sunset in 115-135 FOW with a 6-line spread, 4 downriggers and 2 wire dipseys. Downrigger depths varied from 65 to 85’ down tipped with 3 spoons (the 3 rotations: MS mag RV Blue Flounder Pounder, MS reg Hot Lips, Stinger Blue Killer; MS mag RV Green Flounder Pounder and Double Orange Crush; MS mag glow Blue Jeans and MS mag Raspberry Carbon up high at dusk; a white double pearl SD & Salmon Candy Doc fly on the deepest rigger up till sunset then replaced with a Wonder Bread J-plug). Wire line divers on a 1.5-set down 60-65’ tipped with a MS mag RV Atomic Water Melon spoon [until we lost it] and Dragon Slayer SD & Salmon Candy Ron Bro’s Ex Mistress fly (switched to MS mag RV watermelon late in the evening). All of that effort produced one 8.8lb SH on the wire dipsey with the Atomic Water Melon spoon, one of my favorite spoons to run on divers for SH and Kings. The strike came at 7:06pm in 120 FOW on a NE troll, speed 2.4mph at the ball. We were lucky to boat the fish as I missed that the wire had crept to the edge of the spool and when the strike occurred, the line got driven into the backing freezing up the reel. I like to center wire lines just for this reason but I must of lost track of it with the line creep on turns. I managed to free the line up enough to reel in the fish and the hook set was perfect that saved the day. So I have a little project to spool that reel down and back up today to put it back in service. We marked ample fish throughout the trip and bait late in the evening. Several reports of lure washing and single fish coolers. Absolutely beautiful night, not too hot and no black flies. However, the water fleas are becoming significant. We spent ample time periodically clearing lines. I have a couple of reels spooled with 40# test Ande that will need to be deployed on the next outing. Good luck!
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