Far Beyond Driven

It counts. We caught a stringer with two bass on it last year in 40'. +2 on the total.....

So many ugly scarred up clipped up lakers around - that one's pretty much perfect. Sweet. I just raised my boat record from 14# to 16.2# on lakers; this one totally emasculates that.

Three times this year I've had boards out in front of the channel and pulled a really tight turn to stay on a school only to have the outer most planer board get smoked. That lure had to be going 5-6 mph at the hit. Was untangling a huge mess of yellowbirds and thin fins one spring with a rogue skipping right behind the swim platform when a coho came up and grabbed it. Fish ended up pulling all my untangle back into a ball, so I threw it all in the cooler and sorted it out on shore. Fishing with Wild at Heart one time and a reel starts screaming. We're all looking around it ends up being the rod he just clipped into the rigger release got smoked, and now the king is merrily running around on a free spool. By the time we sorted it out, there was the mother of all rat's nest on the reel and the fish was gone. Glad it didn't lock the reel up and have it take the rod out of the boat like a bottle rocket. That rig went into the cabin to be sorted out later too....

On the opposide side of the curve - if you are fishing in September in 30 foot of water in front of the channel and you are running long lines - you are a moron and you deserve to loose your gear. If you get pissed at others for running your long lines over while everyone is combat fishing you may want to turn your anger inward and kick your own butt. Please for the love of god don't troll long lines during comabt fishing time. And if you do, don't expect others to exactly get out of your way. Dipseys and downs is a good rule of thumb during bumper boat session. Last year on the night after Labor Day we went 5/6 in the channel. 5 of the 6 hits came on one colors off offshore boards set 15' out on the side. The channel was not crowded and we had no issues, but some guy in a blue boat on the other side of the channel makes it a point to cuss me out completely as I'm running planer boards in the channel. Not that I was any where near him, or caused him a concern, but he had to shoot his mouth off at me. The next pass we crossed each other going the other way mid channel he got to watch us net a 21 and 17# king double, both on planer boards. Run down to Saugy for the WMFL that Saturday, and the same boat makes me crash stop in the fog as he comes across my bow with three boards out per side. I'm running 1 per side tight to my boat and I'm a c--- sucking g-- d--- s'o'b m-f'r but a couple days later the same guy is cutting a 200' wide swath in 80' of visibility in front of a channel packed with boats? I spend more time combat fishing that most and I've lost one planer board to a fishing boat in 10 years, and that was a king we could not stop before it got ran over. Guy was even cool enough to throw my board back in front of me on the next pass. Really wanted the lure more than the board though. Hell I've lost more cannonballs in the channel than planer boards, but that's mostly due to forgetting about the #@$@# rocks on the south side at Holland.....

Well worn red side I believe yellowbirds? Dropped one the second weekend in September in front of Saugy in a pack of 100 boats, the other on a west wind in front of Tunnel Park on a beautiful Saturday in late October. Really amazed neither found it's way back to me, as both were marked.

5/5 solo limit. That's sweet.

No harm, when I posted "17" I figured someone would say something. The 16# laker was on one wire diver, it fired and I handed it off, then looked at the other wire diver only to see it tap once. Tripped it, felt something there, and then reeled in a laker that could not have been more than 15". Caught the smallest laker I've ever landed and the biggest laker at the same time. My daughters fish a lot of tournaments with me and we review the rules and our strategies together before each one. These are the same kids that yell if I get 1 mph over the speed limit. I let them sleep in for this one as we had along day; surprised my wife by having our minister meet us at the beach in Pentwater at sunset to renew our wedding vows.

That one went 4 times on a full core for us. Lemon Ice once on the other core and that was at the end burning it in. Could have won $$ betting that would be the outcome.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to heckle you this year. Wife was impressed with your boat; not so much that she'll let me trade in TZ for one....

Don: that fire ring was sweet. Is this something you do on the side? My wife keeps telling me how ghetto our ring of cinder blocks is..... Kevin

Yes, it did. If you read my post, you will see: "Threw back a sub-legal laker and a small steelie that hit while burning in the last core" I could not keep a 16" laker, that would not be legal. I had 15 fish in the cooler and we were reeling in the last core when a steelie hit it. I released that fish. I hooked 19 fish in 2 hours; had I wanted to cheat I could have kept fishing, probably boxed 10-15 more and sorted through those, but that's not how we roll. Odd who thanks you for your post.

I got up late and made my crew wait for me at the launch, sorry, we ended up hammering into the waves out to 140' and finally dropped the first line at 5:20 on a south troll off Tunnel Park. Pulled the last line at 7:27 and were back in the channel just before 8. Threw back a sub-legal laker and a small steelie that hit while burning in the last core. Final count was 17/19 with me losing the only fish; we had the core with a small fish tangle with a wire diver with a good fish so we free spooled the core until we netted the wire fish, losing the core fish in the process - no one's fault on that. Hottest rigs were the small glow spoon 80' down on a two color, the mag glow spoon on a wire diver out 350', and the mag blue spoon down 116' on the out down. Never ran the super slims and the mag mixed veggies as we only ran 7 rods. We ended up third out of sixty with 71.2#, anchoring the box with a 16.4# laker that took forever to winch in on the wire diver. I've fished every one of these but the first one and will have my check waiting for Jim before he even makes the waiver available next year.

I ask to see licenses of people I take out if I don't know them. Had a guy tell me one time that he wasn't willing to spend $7, so I had to yank three rods and fish with 6 that night. His wife got her three kings, I got mine (long time ago) and then we quit.....

Tried that 80-100 like every one else from 6-8 and got nothing going, only one hit. Got sick of turning the wheel every 3 minutes to avoid people that don't have a clue, so we ran up into 30' of water and trolled 2 hours without touching the wheel. Found a good mix of kings and steel herding bait in there; ended up 4/7. Don't know why I could not get fish out deep but I'll trade finding my own fish and being by myself than following the pack.

Was at Holland State Park a lot this week, got to watch the DNR in action. They would set up well away from fishing boats and watch them for a while with high power binoculars, and then pick a boat and take off after it. Should you feel the need to break the rules, be warned, they are watching. Glad to see them at work. I get checked about twice a year, never had an issue on the lakes.

"that looked like keepers, but got pretty small when cleaning them" That's funny, because it's true.....

Fished in front of Holland Wednesday night, only boat in there. Didn't tell anyone this time around as the last time I told a couple people they told a couple people and then they told people and the next night there were 13 boats in there, half of which I knew, never got a thanks. Anyway, it didn't matter what we ran, we boxed out 15/15 with 12 kings, 2 steelies and a brown. First line in at 6:30 and done before 9. Fun watching all the bigger boats motor out past us as we are fighting triples and quads. Ran to Saugy Friday night as there were too many pleasure boats in Holland, ended up 3 for 9 (ouch) in close and then ran out to 80 for the night bite, picked up a couple more out there, F/F on wires out 120 and 150. Nicer fish this time, the 5 kings and the laker were 83#. Oddly thin fish pulled at 3mph were catching kings more than steelies at the piers, also odd as the water was 62 10' down.

15/15 Wednesday night at the pier heads in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Only boat in there....

Saturday night was fun. One of the crew was from Milwaukee, and I asked her if she wanted to call her parents and meet them for dinner in 2 1/2 hours. I don't think she realized I wasn't kidding. It's 88.2 miles from Holland to the 794 bridge and I had a full tank of gas.

Drummond is the ONLY place that touches my boats. They even opened on a Saturday morning to bolt the 15 horse on the back of my boat in the winter so I could take Paulywood out on a trip that afternoon.

Finally, finally got TZ out for the first time in pursuit of fish this year on Friday night. Life has been, well, complicated as of late. Set up in 115' headed south of Holland. About 20 minutes in missed a nice rip on a 225 copper mag moonshine, then took a nice 7# steelie on a full core, mag moonshine. Turned back to port, had a trash can on the bottom looking for oil but we didn't mind when an 11# king took it for a ride. Just as the lightning started, we had a double and took a 5# laker off the trash can and a 6# steelie off a goldi-locks stinger 50' down. Got a wee bit of soaked getting the lines in and then running to port. Rain hurts at 35 mph, but my skin looks great now! Lines up at 8:30 and in the barn at 9:20, not bad for a short night. Ended up going back out Saturday night but we didn't fish, just enjoyed the boat and the company putting 67.4 miles on per the GPS having dinner in Grand Haven and dessert in Saugy. 21 more miles and I could have been in the main gap in Milwaukee. It's fun to take out people that have never been on the lake seeing as we take it all for granted, especially when the lake is perfect. Boat still goes to the shop this week just to double check everything, but she purred like a kitty on both trips and we saw 48.5 for a while running down a Donzi.

Definitely the right call. I took my $20 out, put it in a hat, weighed my king, declared myself the winner and put my $20 back in my wallet.

Nice fish. Think what that would be with 4 more months of chomping bait....

Well, we were going to run to Saugy and work the piers there due to the dredge in Holland. Get the reports from the lighthouses and the buoy at 4am, call the crew and tell him we'll be working the piers in Holland dredge or not, as I'm not going any where in 15 mph south winds. Call Dave, then Ken, after seeing lightning while prepping the boat, and decide not to fish. Meet my crew at the inner channel, and he's not too keen on heading out, so he goes home. Buddy calls for a wave report, and since I'm there, I figure I'll go look. Steep 2's with an occasional 3' ugly, but fishable. Tuck back in the channel to set up and then head out for a lap. Swore I smelled someone cooking sausage. Got out front and the worst thing happened, caught a small king. So now I plan on staying. Came back into the channel to swap things out and smelled pancakes, finally noticed a guy on the dredge was manning a grill. He would not trade for salmon. Head back out, do another big lap and notice there are more buoys on the top. Hmm. Oh, yes, the dredge tube has come to the top and I'm 50' from it. Can't get gear up in time, can't stop for risk of a wave coming over the stern, so I gun the little 15 and pull a crazy Ivan, then lap around the tube and pull them on a downwind troll. Home by 8, slept until 3.

Trash can dodger, 28-30" lead to a green tinsel fly, 6-8' off a cannonball, ball occasionally ticking the bottom. 10" white glow tape spinny, 40" lead to a mirage fly, purple beads, wire diver, walk it back until it ticks the bottom and then reel it in 10'. Kings like this rig too. Troll N-S to save you the trouble of moving stuff up and down to keep it close to the bottom. 60-120', depending on the cold water. I don't slow down for lakers and run stuff up high for other fish. Last year we filled the box with lakers in 72' but a full core and rigger down 30' put 3 nice kings in the box with the lakers. Oh, J-11 rapalas in 10' in November and December seem to catch all kinds of lakers when you're looking for steelies.....