Far Beyond Driven

Gotta admit at 38 I'm just not as inspired as I used to be. Spending saturdays with the kids seems like a better use of time these days. Sometimes though I drag them out with me, which is win win all around.

Is it me or does that lol like a steelhead? Nice fish either way.

Last summer mid July the lake flipped and we boxed out two nights in a row. First night 12 kings 2 steel and a brown, next night even mix of king and steel with a nice laker. All year classes of kings, not just matures. Sometimes kings show up, sometimes not. But anything will hit a thin fish...

Lake flipped. I would take a try at the pier heads before going out deeper.

Oh, for every beat up trip, there's plenty of times the fish don't get the memo. I've had ice water, clouds of bait, and nothing to show.....

Not optimism, but a proven record of success. If you pull the Holland web cam and see a 14' sea nymph in there all alone after 7am, that's all you need to know. May 18 this year 15/22 with 136# of fish only boat in there. Last wmfl fished the plume all by myself and pulled the heaviest cooler in the tournie picking up brown trout everyone else ran over. First week in august two years ago limit of steel bouncing yellowbirds off the swim buoys at oval beach in 5' of water. I'll go no deeper than needed: in 2010 I took over 200 fish and the average depth was 18' of water.

Not ug. More like game on, if I could stop working 12's. Nothing like taking kings and steel in 6' of water on size 3 j's off yellow birds in July...

King getting tan already or is that the lighting? Nice fish either way, especially the lake trout.

A strain of steelhead. Pretty much impossible to tell definitively from any other steelie without fin clips. They tend to run early and hang in warmer water than other steel, which is why the dnr stocks them. Name comes from the skamania river they came from in washington.

1.5' at the Holland buoy. grrr. Still the right call.

I'm out. Work seems to think they're more important. I beg to differ but they ultimately pay the bills.

4-6's with occasional 9's overnight but no small craft warning. I'm inclined to not fish in that, and I've got one of the heavier boats in the mix. Tomorrow is 2-4 w/ some 6's. Fun...

Tentative for now. Crew would be giving up overtime and if the lake is rough I've got an inland lake that's overdue for a swim and fish. And I sucked last weekend....

Moby salmon - he can be hooked, but never landed...

We ended up with one fish stayed in 70' to avoid the nuttiness. Managed to break off my own full core in the middle of the core without any help. Found a board though, no name on it so it's mine. Loved the radio chatter one boat called my buddy on the radio and told him he was cutting in front of him. Buddy pulls boat out of gear and tangles up his whole spread for over an hour. Then the guy who cut him off comes on the radio crying that he lost two coppers. Guy next to us in a big tiara, both guys in the stern on autopilot plowing a path not watching... Next time I'm going way away from the pack.

I fished this last year and could not find much info about it this year. That and the rudeness of most of the people at the party afterwards last year made 2/3 of my crew decline to fish this year. Good event, great cause, don't expect to network at the weigh in...

Best site for west Michigan info. Welcome!

I'd call it 20#.... Nice.

9/12 this morning in 85', 7 coho, steelie, laker. Good thing we got 5 coho in the first hour as we pounded the bottom all morning for one laker. Orange dodger 45' down was best, thin fish on 2 and 5 colors. Lost a coho and steelie, other hit a rip on a full core that didn' t stick. Coho were 6-7 pounds!

Releasing the board also makes it easier to change lines or reel in small fish that can't pull the board back. On another boat I watched a newb reel a 2# coho on the outer board of 4 through the inner boards. Hard to catch fish with 4 boards and a quarter mile of mono wrapped in a ball at your stern. Never on my boat....

Water was 48 last night went 3/5 trolling the beach for steelhead. Lakers will still be on the bottom in 80-110.

Maplewood Auto on 26th. Ask for Steve Rocket and tell him Kevin Essenburg recommended him. If it tells you anything my daily driver is a 1995 Escort GT with 212k on it and I still race it; wife's Jeep has 193K and runs like a top.

Fished the Kids and Kings tournament with my girls this morning. Was cool as my dad was able to join us and help out with the kids.

Greeted by a calmer than forecast lake, we made use of the Four Winns' ample power and just blistered across the lake after we were told to take off. We hooked up just as we were wrapping up the spread in 80' and put a nice 7.5# laker in the box. Could not get the silver going and just kept plowing south in 105', picking up a fish here and there. Lost one big rip on a full core and found a king hitchhiking on a 200' copper, but the rest of our action was riggers literally hammering on the bottom.

Well, except a fat 12.6# laker that came on a white dodger / P-nut 325' back. I think it took Goof almost half a hour to winch that thing in, butt of the rod in the dog box cup holder and me pulling the rod back so she could reel in wire foot by painful foot.

That got us 6th place but unfortunately not big laker. Came up a little short for my youngest, but she won her first tournament a couple weeks back so she needs to learn how not to win as well.

Very fun tournament, very well ran.

Guys, what do you think? For a first time effort I think this was very well put together. Probably going to have to cap the entries next year as word gets out.

Thanks to all who did piles of work behind the scenes.

Any size on the Lakers? Looking for some grease tomorrow.