Far Beyond Driven

That one's starting to get it's bronze on already....

I worked in South Haven for 6 years. St. Joe may have the edge on the fishery, but SoHa as always been a sleeper port in my opinion. St. Joe also has more stores / restuarants, and SH is crazy in the summer and a ghost town in the winter. I would give SJ a nod for fishing, but as a package deal SH hands down. Benton Harbor can be a little scary too. I lived in Flint for 5 years so that's old hat to me, but if you're not used to urban blight.....

I run them up high early or late in the day or when I've got the outer riggers on the bottom "drilling for oil". Occasionally a fish will come up and grab them when hooked on a lower line, but not as often as you would think.

Here's a try with the picture: And the would be crew that went to work with momma instead of going on the boat. Note the adding machine paper clutched tightly in the hand of my youngest.

Sure any one can catch 5 fish, but then, if you only need to weigh 5 fish, would you be trying to catch any 5 fish or would you target big ones? I've always done really well in big fish tournies by not trying to catch a lot of fish and sort out a big one, but rather by fishing to catch big fish. We had a weigh 10 tournament with payouts for the top 10 fish one time, and we came in with 4 fish. But we had the fish #1, 2, 4, and 7 and our box weighed more than the winning box, which was mostly 4# kings, and we ended up with more loot than the winners. But at 10 points a fish we weren't even in the top half of the pack. I would be more prone to enter a weigh 5 for the opposite of the reasons posted - I would stand a better chance against the people that fish all the time and have great networks and can stay on top of the fish. This makes it easier for the people who either have a day to pre-fish or come in blind.

I'll have pictures tomorrow. How do I post them?

I knew it was big; but didn't expect it to peg my 25# calibrated scale. NIST traceable commercial legal for trade scale was 25.9#. I rounded up..... Funny thing was, it was only 35" long and just insanely thick, and it didn't fight. The 17# went on a nice 400' run, this one just bulldogged all the way in, took maybe 10 minutes to land.

Fished well inside the pack today south of Saugy all by myself and never had to turn the wheel. Had my plumber along - owed him a favor, and he took his son. I love trading trips for stuff I can't do and then getting people out on the lake who would not have the chance. I told him I admired his work the day after every plate of chicken wings, but I digress. Full core with a DW green dolphin was good, #4 green glow J on a 2 color SWR down 30', and laker fare down on the bottom. We had lines in from 6:30 to 10 and went 6/8, 5 lakers (two lost) and three kings. Lakers were "oh crap I hope that's 20", 5#, and 11#, and the kings were 9#, 17#, and 26#.

Pretty sure it's a Comfort Inn

I've caught over 100 fish in my 14' this year and have yet to put the riggers on it. Lots of coho in close this year..... The biggest change has been the water has cleared up. You can see a glow spoon down 40' before it's light......

Wind today pushed the cold water down to 65'. Big kings are still around though - nice to have to bend them to fit them in a 96 quart. There's problems that are good and problems that are bad. Fighting a double solo is a very good problem to have.....

Fished the B4K out of Holland this morning. Kind of lonely out there. Maybe that was because the 5-10 OUT OF THE WEST CALM TO 1 FOOT was more like 25-30 from the west with heavy 4's and a couple 7's. On the ride out we came over a wave that had no back to it, it broke under the boat and we just fell into the hole behind it. That was mildly amusing, but Four Winns builds a righteous boat and she just shrugged it off. Set up on a N troll in the trough in 80', pulled a 17.4# king on the green spinny back 160' on a wire diver while setting up. Lost a nice fish on the caramel dolphin on a full core, which was odd as the cold water was 65' down. Took an 11# on the SS lemon on the other full core, and pulling lines had a hitch hiker laker on the blue glow that fell off behind the boat. Good enough for 18th, but only half the boats had fish. Not sure how many were smarter and stayed dockside. Well run tournament as always, the boy scout's set up was great for lunch and the speedy raffle was welcomed. Thanks to all the people behind the scenes that make this day mean so much for the people we support.

Is there an AM division for those of us that only get out twice a month

Two deep crank baits on flat lines will keep you busy too. South Haven's a nice port to fish in a really small boat; I feel like a barge trolling in there with my 14'.

Had a few hours before work this morning, so I threw some board rods into the 14' and cut a few laps around the piers. Everyone else that set up in there left, and soon we had it to ourselves. Finally cracked the nut (silver and blue and trolling hot) and ended up 4/6. 6# king on a mag double trouble 2 color 14# king on a #3 J, 125' off a yellow bird ~ 8# steelie, jumped and gone, 3 color DW blue dolphin Rip and gone, silver blue thin fish 80' off a yellow bird 10# king on the 3 color DW BD Last fish was a 14.3# steelie on the 2 color, my personal best and released to go on someone's wall. I've caught a lot of 11-13 and had a few bigger on the boat, but it was funny that I got to fight this one as it hit 10 seconds after we hooked up the 10# king. Off the water by 9 and at work in GR at 10. Wish I could have stayed longer.

Was wondering where that was going. Hopefully it doesn't mess with you too much. Buddy is an EMT and works 911 dispatch. You can't tell better stories than he does, but not all of them are good. Last time he had to cut someone down from the rafters in a garage it hit him pretty hard.

Kick the net handle out to 8 feet and use it to turn the wheel from the stern. We were trying that one today with a triple on and two of us in the boat. Didn't work, only landed one.....

DNR was keeping the retrieve docks open to retrieve only. Pulled up to an open dock, had the 4th parking spot in, was on the trailer and out of the way in a couple minutes. It took us longer to get across Ottawa Beach Road to get to the cleaning station, some kind lady finally just walked out in the road and made the cars stop for us.

Ran one today on a full core to amuse my guest. I know the stock split rings on thin fish are crap, so a big king would probably mess it up.

Getting really sick of seeing the same people catching huge boxes out of Holland while I can't fish or struggle. So if you can't beat them, figure out what they are running and follow them around! We set up just inside of WAH this morning at 90' and didn't have to touch the wheel as all the boats were outside of us. Turned the wheel three times all morning, one to keep a fish behind us, and twice to loop around. Ended up 9 for 13, losing our limit steelie that hit while we were pulling lines (and he was big - at least 13#). That was OK, by then I had made my point and would not have wanted to kill such a nice fish. Another laker, well that would have been maglite pliers cooler. Trash can dodger, green fly on the bottom (3/3) (lakers) Trash can dodger, green spin and glow mag wire diver 235' (1/2) (lakers) Fire dot dodger, fire dot spin and glow on the bottom (0/1) (laker) 10" white spinny, purple mirage fly 250' mag wire diver (2/3) (steel and laker) Michael Jackson mag SS, SWR 60' down (2/2) (kings) Mag double trouble moonshine, 225' 45# copper (1/1) (steel) Green flounder pounder, 300' 45# copper (0/1) (steel) Two of the steelies hit while burning in lines to check them. Should have sped up from 1.8 and burned to catch some more, but I like saving them for the river. Line at the launch on the way back was great. Some of those people are probably still waiting, I've had a nap, lunch, and cleaned the fish.

Charter captain telling it straight up to help us all. Love it. (think certain Ludington reports that all days are great, with some better than others, while the port reports show the rec. boats catching 0-2 fish)

Sounds like a missed opportunity to work on leadership and management, which is probably one of the best things to pick up at school. When I was at Hope we had class on Labor Day. Harbor was stink with kings; they shot Lake Macatawa about the time I got to the launch. That was 1992 and I'm still pissed.

Please note while the s_ee_head are in fact silver, they are not long, skinny, or jumping......

Went out of Saugy this morning. Must have had the right plan as we were about 1/2 mile behind Best Chance on the same troll when it was said and done. Non stop lightning over the lake, finally the boat started to crackle, so we bailed. In the mean time we pulled two lakers, 6# and 3#, both on trash cans pounding the bottom on the riggers, one trailing a green fly and the other a yellow spin and not glow. Ran into 40' where the boat was not crackling, and set up a lot of orange in the top 20' and bumped her up to 3.5 on the GPS. We went 3/3 in there with some nice s_ee_head, oddly all three hittting a mixed veggie mini streak off a slide diver. The day that s_ee_head get fussy about what they hit is not a good day. Then the boat started crackling in there so we pulled them and ran in. Got the whole works in the barn before the rain and hail started. Currents were really weird, one minute all would be good, then the crap would all be 45 degrees over on one side, then over on the other side and the down temp would wiggle 5 degrees, then back to where it was....

If it's piling up and popping your releases, you need to set them tighter. That said, sea fleas love braid, but don't stick that bad to heavier mono. Splice on a 100' leader of 25-30# test and you'll be fine.