MoJoRisin'

We were headed thru Manistee late April and got caught at the bridge waiting for a freighter to get through. Took a lot more than 30 seconds!

There was a guy with his dog that walked out on the bridge once it went down, before the safety gates went up and he got chewed out by the bridgemaster.

I've caught a grand total of 2 legal eyes. First one 17" in Muskegon Lake when we got blown off the big lake so we trolled using salmon gear along the weedlines. Next one - fishing Whitehall channel with the hundred other guys throwing countdowns. 31" - 10.25 lbs!! I was looking for eaters not a mounter. Needless to day it is on my wall by my king and steel mounts. I asked the guys out there if I should mount it - most said that they had been chasing eyes for over 10 yrs and nothing even close to 10 lbs so YES!!

looks like time to go pier fishing for steel!!!

OK - new used boat that I got late in the season and only made 5 trips between the week before Labor Day and the week after. 2 fish over 20, one 29 4 oz and another just over 20. About 15 fish over 3 trips less than 100 FOW and 2 skunks harbor patrol. Got some other higher teens and some nice hen cohos.

During combat only run what you are prepared to lose. If you keep it all and get some fish then BONUS!! Remember during combat you are in a parade and if one stops or gets out of formation then there will be big problems. You will lose fish and gear - expect it and don't be surprised when it happens. If you happen to pickup someone elses gear be considerate and return it if at all possible. There will be problems guaranteed - it is how everyone handles it that shows our true colors.

I have heard from others that there is a cable that runs between the lighthouses (outside ones) in Muskegon and that is probably what you got hung up on. I don't put my stuff that close to bottom because there is plenty of stuff to hang you up in there. I'm down 23 or so at most while working the breakwater and channel. N side of the channel by the inside green light across from the CG / NOAA building there is a shallow spot there that will eat your gear so watch for that too if you are combat fishing.

Mono dipsies are OK so long as you keep them fairly short. Once you get out past 175 to 200 it is a real pain to trip them (or you have to adjust them and they false trip) and they also dont dive as well as with braid. I use 30 LB fireline with 30 lb mono backing and have not looked back since. This year is one of the few recently where the temps are higher up (or all over the place) so mono dispies would work well where the line out is 150 or less.

It isn't much different than the 2 guys I saw that a) broke a rod that "caught 1000+ fish" on the hookset on the pier, and smoked a reel so bad that it literally blew apart.

At least you didn't snap a rigger cable and loose a ball and speed n temp probe like some other recent posters (not me thank god!)

I've got a Humminbird 787c - love it. Didn't have the coin to get the larger display - however I am not in any way dissapointed with what I have.

yeeehaaa!! Did that one get to the taxidermist? Had to be an awesome fight especially if you were using lighter tackle.

I've been getting some steel in the lower Muskegon - nothing over 10 lbs yet. I'll give it a few more tries before the ice comes and shuts her down for winter.

Maybe we'll get ice this year and then we can chase perch - I hope!!

I'm thinking the 5 inches of rain my rain gage has had in it over the last 10 days will start to bring her back up. I'm sure it will have a positive impact on the previously dreadfully low rivers. Should be a banner pier and surf steelie season - once indian summer is over.

I'll be heading out possibly up by Hesperia on the White River soon and will first hand see how low the river is up there.

Also in a month or so I'll be heading out on the piers to search for steel and will also see how low it really is. On the S pier in Muskegon about 3 years ago we could crawl under the pier and see the wooden piles that the pier sits on and still stay dry.

We need rain plain and simple - weatherman said last night we could see a streak where we have no rain of up to 3 WEEKS!! They were going all the way into the 2nd week of Oct before we may see the next rain. Crazy.......

must be by the L Manistee weir (closed). Been at the lower weir on the platte when there were hundreds stacked there too. Quite the scene seeing that many fish and no fisherman. I actually saw one that had a fly attached to its dorsal fin (big lake fly).

Sunday AM for me - Red Wings flag on the antenna (might have to turn it upside down if they are locked out!)

We'll be looking at the channel and breakwater first and determine where to go from there.

Rain Fri and much cooler this weekend. Sunday AM will probably be my last chance at getting out. Been a tough go for me to be able to get out (haven't wet a line since early August - OUCH!)

We had one last year in the breakwater that got wrapped up in my adjacent dipsy which I opened the bail on to keep it from cutting the line and it went off majorly screaming so I thumbed the open bail spool (see smoke roling off my thumb) and the fish commenced to run right into another boats rigger - the lady watching rods ran to the corner rigger grabs the rod and snap there goes my j plug and fish. Place thumb into cold water - ahhhh!

Moral of the story - you win some and lose some. In my case I lost a few layers of skin off my thumb too!

As much as you would like to think that 30 lb test can handle 20 lb kings or less without breaking - plan on tackle and fish loss in close quarters and when you land them you are happy. When they break off then you aren't quite so disappointed because you ALMOST expect it.

Harbour Towne does not allow launch users to use the cleaning station (marina slip owners only). That is unless you can manage to follow someone who has a key inside. I'm not sure if you got a transient if they would allow use.

$10 per launch - can handle boats of most any size (saw a triple axle with a huge cigar boat there a few yrs back).

I exclusively use this launch because of a few things:

1) Very close to the channel

2) Have to drive by beach and big lake to get to so you see wind and wave conditions first hand.

3) deeper launch - Cottage Grove has been very shallow over the last several yrs and I do not like launch at end of McCracken (eventhough that was the closest launch to my house - on the other end of McCracken). The city launches can be very busy and hard to find parking.

4) Usually very little traffic at the launch except for some pleasure boaters when pulling out.

As said (just from others info) they have not hit the channel much YET. I do expect with the big blow from the NW coming that there will be a mad dash of fish over the next several days.

The fishing by the Clipper and old paper mill is very much a here one day gone the next type of location. I've hit it good only a few times and have tried to do the channel and open water combat if possible first. Of course with bad weather choices are limited pretty much to the channel and Muskegon Lake.

With big winds coming the channel and possibly the sand docks will probably be the spots tomorrow and maybe sunday will be better for all choices.

I might make a try Sun AM and possibly one night trip next week. Once the big push of fish are through I'm usually done with the boat and take a break until the steelies start late Oct.

Oh yea - forgot to mention if you are fishing the sand docks or papermill constant navigation is a requirement due to abrupt depth changes and limited fishing area. If you only have 2 on board it can be a challenge if you get a double. If the fish are there you are guaranteed to be in serious combat mode with high possibilities of having fish run into other boats gear. Keep 'em close to you and the drags pretty tight. No need for radios you can just holler at each other.

Here is a brown we got at 8:30 AM Sunday - 60 FOW Muskegon

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/2/1/7/0/7-22-12_steve_s_8_lb_brown_sm.jpg' alt='7-22-12_steve_s_8_lb_brown_sm.jpg'>

We setup similar location to you and stayed in that area and went 10 for 10 with 8 kings (from 8 lbs up to 18.5 lbs), 1 steel (8 lbs) and 1 brown (8 lbs). After 8:30 or so it really slowed for us and we only got 2 more after it slowed up. We moved out to 100 but did not find anything and when we were headed back towards the piers in 65 we took our last smaller king as we were pulling lines.

After the 2 prior trips where we were 10 for 17 and 10 for ? only having 10 hits seemed slow. With the lack of steel and no coho in this catch that is why we had less action and higher % landed. Maybe the 'hos have moved on further north so the number of misses has gone down?

We did take a few kings up really high in warm water and the down temp was varying quite a bit with the SW winds. 30 down was good for us and as said when the sun got up the fish scattered along with all of the boats.

We appeared to be the shallowest boat in the area until we moved out after they scattered. I mentioned to the guys that this was more like "normal" fishing where it was tough after the early bite.

Winds are changing every day now so it should keep the temps mixed up and hopefully not 70 from top to bottom out to 100 FOW.

over the last 2 trips (7/14 AM and 6/30 AM) we had a majority of our dipsy hits come unbuttoned almost immediately - even with Big Weenie tornament tied flies.

Anybody notice the steel meat is pale? I saw 3 of the 4 which we cleaned from Sat am and the meat was really white and pale. Kings and coho looked great, one steel showed signs of being spawned out (worn fins but nice and chrome) - the others were full chrome, all steel were jumping out of the water more than in.

Normally we do not get the qty of steel like we are getting this year - are we seeing a big increase of skamania here (they all seem to be long and slender)?

FBD - I used to live on the beach in Muskegon across the street from Pere Marquette Park - not a fun place to live when the gales come up. Yes the sand is a pain big time when you are trying to clear snow from the driveway. Snowblowers do not like sand, along with windshields and paintjobs.

Gotta pay sometine for the nice summer days on the beach.

Swede - Lorenz Propeller can do a repair for you if you are in the Muskegon area. Pretty reasonalble too - I've had my 2 done a few times over the years. Southern Ave and Seaway Drive on NE side of intersection - just drop it off and they will have it ready in a few days. I had one so bad it looked like Elephant man and they only charged about $30 same as for much less damage. Welded, ground, balanced and painted.

Hope you got a spare so you can get out over the weekend.

I only thought there was one boat that fishes Keewenaw Bay!

Just kidding - Mich Tech alum - don't call me a troll.

May want to change up to mono dipsies with those short let backs to absorb some of the shock.

Also I added a 2nd and 3rd net (river had net) to the mix to avoid having no net when the mayhem happens. J plug harnesses suck when they are embedded in the net. Sometimes pays just to cut off the plug and retie with new harness to get the rod back down asap and set the tangled net aside until you get a lull.

Is the circus in town yet? There always seems to be good entertainment up there!:lol::lol: