wild at heart

about a guy that was almost limited out this morning out of holland and only needed a couple more and just couldn't get them. Finally quit and pulled lines only to find out that all 7 lines in the water had coho on them. Releases might be a little tight there buddy. LMAO

way to go

24 for 28. 10 nice kings, 2 lakers, and to many coho. No one out there but FBD, JB, and us. Nice day too, mostly under 1 foot with just few sprinkles. Today was more spinny and flies but mag moonshines killed a lot of coho. 135 to 200 with 145 and 185 best, SW troll. Coho at 43 to 65, kings 100 to 180 down. Get'em while you can.

didnt fish Sat because it was going to be too rough. Instead we went out today because it was going to be calm. Somebody got the days mixed up.

Good day though, we had 20 by 10 am. Started in 100 on a SW troll. Best around 145 with 12 rigger hits and 7 wire diver hits. Fish were higher today. Riggers at 42 and 62, moonshine agent orange went 9 times at 62. White 10 SD w/Purple mirage went 5 times on wire out 200. Ended with 3 coho and 1 laker(who put that in the box anyway) and 16 kings between 5 and 15#. Non-stop action with only 2 doubles for 26 bites. Blew all the way south of Saugy about 2 miles.

Big thankyou to Randy of Fish and Fin who spoke at the steelheaders meeting thur night. Everything you said worked for us today.

good job Mark

ran out to 140 to start. caught 7 in the first 45 min by 4:45 trolling west to 190/ Turned east and nothing back to 160 turned west again but the bite was over and only took 4 coho. had 4 kings and a laker over 10#. paddles and flies fot thr kings on wire 200 back and riggers down 11 and 150.

12 for 12, 180 to 220, 50 to 210 down. 4 kings 2 lakers 6 coho. flies for the K and LT spoons for the ho's. Interestingly the coho were stuffed full of 1" millers moths. When you cut open their stomachs it looked like blown in insulation was coming out. This leads me to believe they are coming to the surface at night cause those moths don't sink. I think it made the ho fishing slow in the am and on fire for the pm. Also, last fish of the day was a small king, 210 down on a rigger in 220 fow on a #5 J-plug that was down for 10 minutes at 11am.

great job Eric. I find your report very interesting. We were out of Port Sheldon fishing a lot of the same things you were in the same way and never took a coho. In fact we had 5 set ups in the top 20 feet that never went all day. Our highest fish was a 12# king on a half core on a spoon. This just makes me belive that the cohos stop somewhere between Holland and PS. Our surface temp between 130 and 210 was 39. What was yours? West troll was best for us too but we stopped marking fish after 190 and did p/u 3 lakers coming back east right on the bottom. Were you running anything deep, 100+. We were purposely targeting big kings deep trying to see if what Dan Keating and Fuzzy Bear had talked about in their seminars would work here, and we were pretty amazed to pull 3 kings over 12# in March. We were able to find bait on the bottom just like DK had said and the lakers were stuffed full in fact coughing them out while in the net. The kings too had alwives in them and they were all big 5 and 6 inchers but I never saw a bug in any of them. Fisherman from NB to SH are searching for coho and not finding them, and who would of though you would go out and pound them in Holland. Thats the best spring coho catch I ever heard of from Holland, and your fish looked bigger than the typical down south ho's. I guess we need to go to the fish in March and April out deep instead of waiting for them to come to us.

nice fish Dave, we never heard you on the radio, did you hear us.

6 for 8. 3 kings between 12# and 15# and 3 lakers 1 over 10#, fished 140 to 190 with 175fow being best. All fish except 1 king came deep, 100 ft plus. Fish were full of bait, huge alwives, must of had 20 on the cleaning table. Basiclly fished a summer program. 5 fish on flashers and flies. 40 degree surface temp out there.

1 for 2. 4# brown on red thin fin with 3/8 weight. fished in a t-shirt on flat calm in Mach and boat ran perfect for 1st trip out. Officially ready for the season.

there best setup was a rigger 20 ft back. We were mostly running boards with 40 and 60 foot leads. theres just something about cohos and prop wash that works,

when the sun comes up, if it slows down, which it usually does, we always put out a 12# rigger. Then we fight over who gets it because its just plain fun compared to copper/lead/braid. We get to yank in all the fish we want. Some days its the best mid morning rod. We use it in tournaments a lot too just because it works. Yes you will lose some fish, but better to have a chance than to stare at rods from 10 to 1. Dont even go there with out premium line and a great reel.

got an early christmas present, an invite to fish the big lake with my grandson on Far Beyound Driven's boat. This is the latest in the year I have ever been out. We went 3 for 3 with Tyler getting a beautiful 9.5# steelhead which we released and 2 lakers around 8#. A little cold, a little bumpy, but better that sitting home. Thanks Kevin, Merry Christmas to all.

No coded wire in the head just a left ventricle clip on the 2010 plant of Sturegon river speceis. Should be 5 to 10# fish next spring.

nice job Eric. Did you notice if the brown had a vent fin clip. Still looking for evidence of the 2010 plant of 25k browns planted in Holland. Have not seen a single one show up yet.

hey Kevin, did you notice that our fish per trip and our hook to land ratios are almost identical. I'd to see some others put there numbers up if they have them for comparision.

to answer my own question, 170k coho were released in the Grand river this year.

Winterized the boat yesterday, so I guess that means 2011 is in the bag.

2011 total catch was 305 for 403 for 42 trips. 7.25 fish per trip.

130 kings

78 coho

77 lakers

17 steelhead

3 browns

our % of kings in the total bag continues to fall.

this is the most coho for a season.

laker and steel #'s are about the same.

overall size of the fish was up, esp lakers and steel. We failed to take any real big kings although we lost one that looked 25#. We did break the boat record for steel (14.7#) and coho (9.9#). Our lakers averaged apx 5#.

Best stat was fish/per/trip increased by 1 per trip over last 3 years avg.

Bait on the screen and in the bellies was up big time.

Overall a good year. Hopefully the coho plants (250k) in the Grand river in 2010 have continued. We need more kings planted in my opinion. Disappointed that I never got a finned clipped brown (vent fin)

of the 25k planted in Holland (2011) of the new Sturegon River strain or talked to anyone else that did. What was up with that???

Brown Blast is only 4+ months away.

went out Port Sheldon to get closer to the clean water. Still had to go to 170. 5 for 8 with 3 nice kings. Should of stayed closer to the color line but went out to 240. rigger 64 down went 4 times and rigger a 150 went once. Lots of bait and hooks deep.

good job. ran down the channel beside you this morning. did you do much after the sun came out around 8:45? It died big time for us.

thanks Nailer, surprised to see the picture appear.

picture on face book under my name, Kevin Lacey

we went 20 for 23 between 7 and 9am this morning, 4 man limit. 1 mature 14# male, 6 silver kings over 10#, 4 coho, 3 lakers. 2 triples, lots of doubles. beautiful morning, we fished 100 to 130 east and west straight out. Mostly mag spoons, blue dolphin and moonshines, but several on flasher flies. Fished 11 rods and they all went at least once. Riggers 64, 85, and 100. The fish were full of bait.

here is whats working for us. set the drags tighter in the holders for a better hook set, but quickly asap loosen the drag before removing from the rod holder then let the fish run against a looser drag and dare I say it, thumb it softly till it tires, add some drag and crankem in.