zgrinder on Fin Warrior

Nice cooler of fish and thanks for sharing what worked. Fish still holding in the top part of the water column, primarily a spoon bite on long lines. A high bite in clear water puts riggers and dipseys at a disadvantage if the fish are not uber aggressive. Mature kings appear to be feeding elsewhere.

Great report and great catch. First report of deeper set lures getting action.

Thanks for the report. Agree the mid-day bite is not there.

My compliments on fishing in tight as most of the reports have been from beyond 150 FOW. And you found the bait which is meaningful. Good report.

After running in-law errands this afternoon, the lake was still holding flat. I was itching to get out for the first time and Janet my first mate said lets go so who was I to say NOOOOOO. Blessed with the opportunity to get out unexpectedly, I kept the trip short. Headed out of Holland harbor directly SW and setup in 160FOW. Ran two out down riggers, 70-52' on the counter with various mag spoons (and one bloody nose J-plug late in the run), two mono 1-set dipseys up high, 50-33' down per Smart Troll (pickled sunshine flies, one SD white UV and the other green jeans) and two long lines on boards with spoons (5-color LC w/ double orange crush and 200 weighted steel with UV green dolphin). Plan was to draw interest in with the dipsey paddle flies and hope the DRs and long lines would be bit. We had lines down about 6:15pm and began bringing everything up at 8:15pm. Finished 3 for 5. The long lines carried the day. All bites were within the water we covered, 195-150 FOW. 5-color LC got bit 3 times, we boated only one of the 3. 200 weighted steel got bit twice and we boated both, the last hit was a nice 8lb king. One tip up on SWR on the port out down and that was it. The lake was flat, keeping a 2.5mph speed was easy. Fish didn't have a preference in direction and were not concentrated in any one depth. Data below. # Time Fish Weight FOW Latitude Troll Wind Dir. Speed @ Ball Rod Bait Depth Bait Temp Bait 1 7:05pm King 5 185 42.5 SE SE 2.5 Weighted Steel 200 29 Green Dolphin - Reg 2 7:11pm King 5 185 42.5 SE SE 2.5 Lead 5 Color 18 Double Orange Crush - 3.5" 3 7:50pm Miss 158 42.39 E SE 2.5 Lead 5 Color 18 Double Orange Crush - 3.5" 4 8:04pm Miss 157 42.41 N SE 2.5 Lead 5 Color 18 Double Orange Crush - 3.5" 5 8:12pm King 8 156 42.42 N SE 2.5 Weighted Steel 200 29 Green Dolphin - Reg

Great report Ed. Having the DRs active makes fishing solo a bit easier versus long lines and removing boards. Nice work, you almost got your limit!

Finally got Fin Warrior out for a shake down run. Starboard PPS shaft seal was spitting water on a plane but sealed up tight over time. I don't enjoy moving that fitting around while in the water. Everything else checked out fine. Took a bunch of copper, weighted steel and lead core long line depth measurements in the evening rain but didn't do any fishing. Soon as I tied up at the dock, the sun came out. Met up with Darrell from Smart Troll early in the day to discuss a charging problem I had with one of my probes. What a great guy. Got a new charging station and the problem is resolved. Love the equipment for running my dipseys. Hope to add to the fishing reports soon. Seafoam - great boatsmanship working the kicker to get back on the lift. One of your neighbors, Jim and Karen if I remember their names correctly, have the slip next to me this year. They were concerned the low water levels would be a problem getting in & out of their place on Lake Mac.

Hope those boards find their way back to your boat. Great report.

Glad the equipment ran without a hitch Little Boat and Sea Foam. I wet the bottom of Fin Warrior over two weeks ago but have not gotten the shake down cruise in yet due to many things. With luck it can happen near the end of the coming week.

I have had several of those fish straight down at the back of the boat and have not come up with a good solution how to get them up. Speeding up will get them off the back but does not bring them up. In those situations, the fish eventually wins the battle as the hook releases or the dreaded breakoff occurs.

Janet and I made a late push to get out tonight, clearing the pier heads just after 5:00pm. Headed south and set up 4 riggers and 2 high dipseys just north of Saugatuck in 45 FOW with a south troll then moved it to SW. Didn't start marking fish until about 70FOW. Very large hooks at the bottom scattered between 70-80FOW but could not get anything to go. Moved back inside for a skinny water run and did not find any marks. Lines in the skinny water needed constant cleaning as we kept picking up weeds on the lines dipseys, the SDs and the rigger balls. Must have been a lot of floating debris. Moved out to deeper water but by then the sun was setting and we came up empty for the evening. Very nice night to be out.

Many thanks for sharing our set ups. I had something very close to the top spoon in the water today and it didnt get touched but it was likely in water that was too warm. Nice catch!!

I had a lot of current today that moved my balls around going south and crated a huge tangle bringing up a SWR below as SD/fly set up. The tangle on these two port riggers came up way over to the SB side. Yes I agree with your observations. For a very calm day this was unexpected. I ran very short leads after that.

Justin - I believe we saw you out there last night. We planed in just south of your troll around 6:00pm. Glad you got two nice keepers.

Looking at my fishing log, its been almost a month to the day since the last fishing trip. Blessed with a great fall this year, Janet and I pushed off at 2:30pm to see if we could boat a coho or steelhead in the deeper water. Set down in 155 FOW, pointed the bow north and put a 4 rigger, 2 dipsey spread in the water. Riggers were a mix of 2 SD/flies & 2 Stinger slim spoons down 80-95'. Dipseys were tipped with Stinger slim spoons down 63-66' via Smart Troll. Within 45 min we were 2 for 3 with 2 small kings on a UV Blue Dolphin Stinger slim spoon. I am fond of fishing 175 FOW when the waters are warm so we push out NW to get into that range. Got a nice jumping SH to bite a SD/hypnotist fly rig and the acrobatics paid off for Mr. SH setting him free for another day. 20 minutes of not action or marks so we turned around to head back south. Just as the turn was completed an 8lb SH bit the Blue Dolphin Stinger and this time, Fin Warrior won the battle and will be table fair tonight. We had agreed to pull lines at 5:30pm and at 5:25pm, the SB dipsey decided to be the first line up with a nice hit and run. However, the fight was not epic nor long as what was likely a king won the battle. Continued to pull lines and headed in. Water and weather was ideal and we didn't run into any black flies. Nice day on the water. The Winning Team Data # Time Fish Weight FOW Troll Wind Dir. Speed @ Ball Rod Bait Depth Bait 1 3:15pm King 4 158 N SW 2.1 DR 20# 85'@ball UV Blue Dolphin Stinger slim 2 3:40pm King 4 166 NW SW 2.4 DR 20# 90'@ball UV Blue Dolphin Stinger slim 3 3:50pm Miss 0 174 NW SW 2.4 DR 20# 71' Silver/blue/gold SD / No-See-Um Fly 4 4:30pm Steelhead 8 178 S SW 2.4 DR 20# 90'@ball UV Blue Dolphin Stinger slim 5 5:25pm Miss 0 171 SE SW 2.7 Dipsey - Mono 66' UV Green Frog Stinger slim Happy Fisherman

Great call to drop the rigger. Glad you got rewarded!

Ron White said it best "you can't fix stupid". Glad nothing bad happened on the way in and congrats on your catch.

So impressive. Nice catching up tight to the channel.

Nice looking box of fish!

Great work in the mud last night. Not sure when I will get out again. Maybe this weekend around football.

Glad you got them good. Great, great story and loved the Pics. Thanks for sharing.