zgrinder on Fin Warrior

I will say it if your fishing partner didn't - you are a good host!

A catfish on a plug??? Did you keep it for dinner?

All I can sat it that you are a bad man - in a good way of course. Nicely done JDH. Hope to post a great report like yours my next time out.

The Fin Warrior did not get it done tonight. We managed two shakers and nothing more. Because of the warmer water, the plan was to head a bit south, drop down in 120 FOW in front of the sliders. Work SW to perhaps 175 FOW, check out if anything was happening in deeper water then head into skinny water for the dusk bite. The program was 4 riggers and 2 slide divers with a mix of spoons and SD/flies. Getting 6 lines in the water for unexplained reasons was a slow process so we only got out to 150 FOW by 7:00pm. The slide divers down 60+ feet were in 60 degree water – not very effective. Down riggers were in mid-50 degree water, not ideal. Between 135-150 FOW, there were impressive hooks from about 110’ to the bottom. So we pulled two riggers, dropped the other two down to 100’ (140’ of cable out at the ball) and stayed there for the night working the bottom. It was a bit like Wicked Tuna fishing, watching hooks go by on the plotter, getting a tip up but no one home. That happened a couple of times. We switched to a Blue Jeans glow spoon and Alarm Clock rig at dusk but only got another tip up. The fish were there but very negative. Only minimal bait was tracked. Finally, at the risk of sounding like a tool, I want to give a shout out to Reel Ginger who I gave 40 degrees to SB as the give way vessel to allow his pass only for RG to complete the pass and abruptly steer 180 back across my bow to chase shallower water after a radio report. We were the only 2 fishing boats in the immediate area. It happens, life is short, always best to move on.

Many thanks for the post. You did well this morning as the fish are still very scattered. I lost a lot of gear back in the day when I was learning how to troll for salmon. You are not alone. Regarding knots for dipseys, I recommended the Double Line Uni Knot. It is a Fluorocarbon knot but works just as well for mono. The advantage is that it does not create line burn when sinched down and does not compress the knot as well. I have found two versions of this knot on video. The one below is my personal choice. It is much easier to tie - faster and can be done in low light. One other suggestion. Every time I go out I retie the knot on the snap swivels of my dipsey rod. I try to take any sun damage, nicks, stress, and so on out of the equation. Tight lines and catch em all !

Set out late afternoon to take my father-in-law fishing for salmon. The trip required an uber flat lake for him to manage a rod and thankfully Mother Nature delivered. Advice from fellow fishermen on the site encouraged working the Saugatuck mud in tight. We dropped down in 35 FOW just north of the harbor setting up 4 riggers and 2 mono dipseys. Long lines were out of consideration. Before we could get the 2 dipseys in the water, one of the 4 riggers with and SD/fly presentation got bit producing a nice 7lb king that we let go. Passed through the mud and flipped around to go back through it trolling north. South of the harbor mouth we had a good hook-up on SWR tipped with a mag Black Fin Tuna spoon running about 8’ above the bottom. My father-in-law got the rod. A good fight ensued with the fish running to the SB side as I kept turning Fin Warrior to port to center the fish. We had about done a 180 when the fluoro leader knot was finally out of the water. Then the worst happened, tip up and fish off. Man, I felt bad. Likely a good size laker but it never broke the surface so who knows. We did another run south with two tip ups on a Wonder Bread SD/White fly but no connections. Next north run we had two hook ups. SWR Black Fin Tuna delivered another 7lb king. And finally, a dipsey hit with a bargin bin white/yellow/hot pink spoon down 23’ (I just had to run this thing - it was the right time for a gaudy spoon). After 6:00pm the bite we had shut down. To my surprise, Wonder bread and hot pink J-Plugs did not get touched. I had a SD/green fly ready but it never got wet. One big bait ball was found in 33FOW north of Saugatuck harbor which produced a tip up but not tasty fish. We did not stay out to catch the late night bite. Lot of boats out tonight at numerous depths Steve Fishing 08-21-24 (2).mp4 . Hope the Parker got the bite going at sun set. # Time Fish Weight FOW Latitude Troll Wind Dir. Speed @ Ball Rod Bait Depth Bait Temp Bait 1 4:30pm King 7 35 41.1 S N 2.5 DR 20# 20'@ball 48 Silver/blue/gold SD / No-See-Um Fly 2 5:05pm Miss 36 40.1 N N 2 SWR 25'@ball Mag Silver Streak Black Fin Tuna 3 5:45pm King 7 36 N N 2.1 SWR 25'@ball Wonderbread SD / White Fly 4 6:00pm King 5 33 N N 2.1 Dipsey - Mono 20'@ball 49 Mag Spoon, bargin bin white/yellow/pink 08-21-24 Fishing Video 5.mp4

Keep it going Ed! You are killing it solo this morning.

Hey Little Boat. I could feel the adrenaline pumping as I read your story. Gutsy move to pass a rod under water. Might change your handle to Maverick! In my opinion, the temp of the top layer of water is cooler this year that it is not exhausting the fish which leads to back-of-the-boat mayhem. I am dodging more lines and cables than in past years. The last modest size king I caught rolled in the last 100 feet until we got to the back of the boat and then it came to life trying to get into any other line that was in the water. Crazy stuffy. Boating two big kings is a championship day. Congrats!

you guys have a bumpy ride tonight. good luck