Far Beyond Driven

I'm running WFO until the water feels right and then trolling out from there, until I run out of fish. Then I will pack up, run back in, and troll back out.

Started for Brown's out of saugy this morning in my 14' with a friend and daughter for crew. No joy headed to laker water. First hit green glow spinny down 35' in 37' 6# king. Then a nice brown on a slide diver. Backed that up with a 12# king on the other rigger on the bottom. Should have brought half cores. Wanted Brown's so we packed up and headed in tight to troll back to port with them. At this point the waves were not as much big but so tight that we were washing the bow lights. Caught and released two small kings then banged a nice 9# fall back steel. Last hit was a screamer right at the plume, but alas it was a sheepie. Ended up 7/7 not a bad morning considering we only had lines in from 7-11 and speed control trolling into them was amusing.

We had a 55 then a 70 on an 18' holiday. The 70 was adequate but not enough. She has a 90 etec on her now and it's not fun the ski behind her with the hole shot. Neighbor had twin 70's on a 22' islander. Wasn't enough. Same output as an iron duke but more weight hanging way back.

Temp is not the issue, you can catch Brown's in water much warmer than people think. What was the water color and cloud cover and waves? Clear, none, and calm make for skittish fish and the boat traffic lately in close has been stupid. I never saw a boat the last two years on the beach... And some days even with good conditions they just lock up.

Dial your speed to your diver rods. Rigger angle will change based on depth, current, weights, and all kinds of stuff. But if you set up like sea cat said and can repeat it, good to go. I don't have down speed on my row boat and it takes literally a ton of fish some years...

Nice job. Woke up at four, checked the weather, and with my girls as crew in a 14' I went back to bed and woke up at 10. Looks like my nine year stretch of being the only one to weigh Brown's in the w m f l came to an end this week...

Traverse city state park in late September. The crowds are gone but the city hasn't shut down, and there's lots of rivers within an hour with easy access for kings and coho. Lots of inland lakes just south of there.

I catch more kings in and around the harbor than most and have noticed no difference in strike rates trolling up the channel vs. Down the channel...

Three on a mongoose flutter spoon on 20' of lead core. Big one we lost on a small crystal minnow. J9 perch rapala. Gold red thin fish. Blue back prism thunderstick. All but one on outside boards fishing 3-4' of water with the inside board right on the beach.

Hour and a half fishing an all purpose spread from 10-40' working back and forth through the edge of the clean water yielded one small brown. Finally gave that a big old screw it and put out an all brown program. Hour and a half later limited out ended 6/7 with 5 more 2-3# Brown's. Hooked a nice one only to have it snap my " should have replaced those " chewed up leader, but it also hit a plug my seven year old bought at the swap meet and told me to run. And I'm not even sure what it was!

Nice size on the fish. Thanks for the detailed reports.

Always good to start with a well running boat and a limit of fish. Mine started on the second pull after not running since November.

Launched at 10 as my wife and youngest headed on to Michigan City after dropping us off and the mall didn't open until later. By 12:30 we were releasing fish so we could stay out. Ended up I think 14/18, with a king (9"), a steel, 4 Brown's, and the rest coho. The usual stuff didn't work for coho so we ended up taking most of the fish on hot and tots and also stingers off riggers, fishing right on the beach. That may have been a matter of just not finding the fish while we had our j-11's and thin fish running...

I've run big papa bags for ten years no issues. Even dropped the bomb on them once or twice with the 350 when I forgot to pull them before motoring up.

Blacks release with tape on the wire to release to seal that joint Can take the probe off, no loss of signal down to 140'.

The area in question is the size of a foot ball field. You may want to plan your trip for an off time or bad weather. I may go and just watch the show Saturday morning when ten boats try to troll boards in there.

One that came with my wife's truck didn't break loose after a full sized van hit it a 40 mph. $7200 and a new hitch later, I pull the receiver and throw it under the seat after every trip. Also saves on the shins, as the truck barely fits in the garage.

Small changes in bottom composition are huge. Same bit for spring browns, there's 50 miles of 5-10' I routinely patrol but it seems the waypoints are all piled on top of each other in certain spots. Some are gravel, and one's a bit of clay that riles up the water after a west wind is money.

I have a 14' and a 21.5' cuddy. The 21.5 is just too much boat for most inland lakes. And if I can't fish lake Michigan in the 215, most other boats won't be out there. It may be fine and great to think we all need 25-27', but too many that just isn't practical, and locks you to one port and slip fees. To be honest I take my girls out on the 14' all the time. I catch more fish in the 14' than the 215, and I've won more $ in tournaments in the 14'. Costs me less to tow the 14' to Milwaukee than to fish a long day out if the 215 at my home port. Please note I have nearly 4000 hours on the lake, growing up in an 18' that at 43 years young still gets out each year.