zgrinder on Fin Warrior

I sensed last night the bite was slowing down too. Could be the heat or the fish are in fear of the 2MD wrecking crew

Headed out after the Great Republic cleared the channel and did its business just short of 5:00pm. Planed out southwest into the blow not sure if a direct troll into the waves would be suitable for my guests or if I would need to go north for a while. We set down in 130FOW, trolled south and all was OK. Thanks to the many reports on this site, I knew the fish would be deep, I wanted to hunt bigger kings for my guests so I kept the spread simple. Two DRs down 90’ on the counter. Green Flounder Pounder (GFP) Mag RV on the SB side and a meat rig, bait head only on the SWR to the Port. Two wire dipseys were deployed, one with a Hulk Mag RV spoon and a SD/Salmon Candy green fly on the other (this did not get sniffed the entire run). After a period of not much happening we got a flurry of activity, boating a nice size king on the GFP and a SH on a wire dipsey among a few drive buys in the mix. As we got to Saugatuck on a south troll, with only two boats within a mile of each other, a larger boat would not let up their relentless pressure pushing our troll south to SW, pushing me into deeper water. I would give way and they kept cranking me over to deeper water. There are ways good captains handle this situation and I did just that. I backed my troll to a 1.6mph crawl. Let the other boat cross me diagonally with all their long lines, careful not to run across them and start that whole bitch fest that happens in these situations. Zero radio contact, which is also on me but by the time they were over my bow, there was nothing left to say but goodbye and good riddance. Anyway, we flipped Fin Warrior around to a north troll and proceeded on. As I was adding a 300’ weighted steel line to the spread with Craigs Flounder Pounder mag RV, the meat rig finally got bit. After our long battle, we were disappointed it was not a king but a LT and boy did it make a mess of the boat. That might be evident in one of the pics. It was returned to the lake. I would swear we were roughly in that same Lat area from the south troll when things got spicey again. The 300’ WS got bit, landing a SH. The mono dipsey got smoked and we lost the gear but the Smart Troll probe stayed attached so I call that a win. Not sure how a double line uni knot would fail especially with all that line out. The GFP got bit once more boating a 14lb king. There were a couple of other drive buys/tip ups over that period then it got quite. My guests had a long drive so we pulled lines at 9:00pm. Over all, everyone got to touch a rod and bring in a fish. And fish was sent home with my guests. So I am happy we had a great time on the water. # Time Fish Weight FOW Troll Wind Dir. Speed @ Ball Rod Bait Depth Bait 1 5:45pm King 13 128 S S 2.3 DR 20# 90C Green Flounder Pounder Mag RV 2 5:57pm Steelhead 6 128 S S 2.3 Dipsey - Wire 57ST Hulk Mag RV 3 7:30pm Laker 10 118 NE S 2.2 SWR 115C Meat Rig, Silver Blue Head no Paddle 4 7:40pm Steelhead 7 116 NE S 2.3 Weighted Steel 300 Criags Flounder Pounder Mag RV 5 7:57pm Miss 115 N S 2.3 Dipsey - Mono 67 Hulk Mag RV 6 8:10pm King 14 115 N S 2.3 DR 20# 105C Green Flounder Pounder Mag RV

We got a steelie tonight - same profile.

2MD - you are a monster out there on the water. Another catch for the ages!

Which one of you landed the biggest fish???

That is a monster king - congrats! Thanks for the report.

Well you finally got that bloody nose to work for you. Landing all 3 fish on a triple while solo qualifies you as a professional! Going out tonight with an old friend from work. Many thanks for the report and hope we can find similar fun on the water. Congrats on a limit catch.

Congratulations on limiting out and posting the spoons that were winners. Capt. Chuck's will be happy to see this! Good luck at Big Red next weekend.

You got a hand fishing solo. Nice work. Going out tomorrow night with friends from my former job. Thanks for the report on running lines deep.

Wow. Now that is a story. Taking on water??? I guess that capt. made the right call getting in safely and letting the gear go to a loss. I would do the same without hesitation.

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!