Klingfisher

Sounds like the combat fishing season is in full swing! Great time to remember its all about the fun.

As others said, spent a few hours marking fish in a couple depths, but tough getting them to take anything. No so with the black flies, however......have never seen them so thick on Lake Michigan. Brutal! Biting me right through 98% deet. Just me, or others, too? Any secret for keeping them away?

Made a quick run out Sun AM to see if I could rustle up some Browns. Caught one little one up in 6 FOW off the power plant....beach patrol! Good to get out and start the open water season. May need to run south and get in on all those cohos you guys are posting.

I have Traxstech tracks and Bert's holders. No problem. Don't know about Cannon.

Way to go, Boomer! I gave it a run Sunday afternoon and was the only rig in the lot. 2-4 footers and only found one small laker. Just hate to give up on the season!

I'm in. And if you'd like to connect with the West Michigan Walleye Club in any way, or just have me post the event on their site for awareness, just let me know. I know we have several joint members already.

Hope you didn't catch everything that was left in Sag Bay, Adam. West Michigan Walleye Club is heading over this Saturday for a tournament! We plan to do some cookout damage on Friday after prefishing.....people are currently debating the relative potency of baked bean recipes....probably a good thing we'll be outside on Saturday!

What's better than a couple days on the water, good food and good friends!

Hope you have good salmon fishing over on this side for the rest of the season. Kings are fairly steady down in Holland, with a few sizeable ones showing up (one 30+ pounder in Port Sheldon a couple weeks ago, which is very unusual for here). So Ludington should be awesome.

Well, Dave, congrats on getting the new boat out anyway! I was out Friday night and found marks all over the screen, but only got two to go. The guys are right about them being 60-70 down.

As far as the partner knocking off the fish....that's why I fish solo so much....so I can knock them off myself!

You'll smoke them on your second trip!

My brother from Wisconsin and I fished Green Bay all last week for walleyes, but caught lots of other species in ther process....catfish, pike, perch, a million sheephead, and a muskie that spooled off 150 feet of line before he shook loose.

The biggest surprise was water temp - 74 degrees + all week. I initially assumed that meant fish would be deeper, but was wrong. 90% of the walleyes we caught during the week were in seven FOW. This was true whether we were down in University Bay or up on the shoulders of the channel, and whether it was bright and sunny or raining downpours.

Biggest fish for the week was 5 lbs, with several more 3.5-4. Maybe the bigger ones were in deeper water and I just couldn't fnd them. Wasn't really as concerned about finding tournament fish, anyway, as much as good action and lots of 'eaters.'

Tried crankbaits a few times during the week, but everything was caught on crawler harnesses. Final day (Friday) was very fun with drenching rain early and overcast the balance of the day. 6.5-7.5 FOW pulling crawlers 11 feet behind the boards on 1 oz inlines with a hammered gold willow blade was the hot setup. Ran it right next to other colors in the same depth, but they wanted that gold willow blade. Pulled a couple limits then headed back in for drying off and final fish fry of the week.

Caught the most walleyes ever in one of our brother fishing weeks...ate them all week and brought home many for the freezer. Fantastic time!!

One pic below (still can't figure out how to post multiple).

Since last year I fillet the cheeks off my walleyes....they fry up great (like 'walleye chips'). But have never done so with a salmon. And I usually catch the walleye cheeks attached to the fish, not one at a time!

Sorry for the tough luck. Looks like Marty's knee held up, at least. It'll go smoother next time.

Appreciate it very much guys; really useful info.

Hadn't heard much from over there and was debating whether to haul over the salmon gear in addition to the walleye stuff. What the heck....might as well 'pack like a girl' and bring everything I own.

Tight lines and screaming drags; looks like a great holiday weekend.

Heading over to Green Bay for a week on Saturday, primarily for walleye fishing, but wondered how the salmon season is going on the Bank. Anything you could share would be appreciated. Thanks!

Coolest thing I've seen in a long time! Must have cost a lot of hours and money to set up. Well done!!

As Mark (Gone Fishin') posted above, we did have a great trip Sunday, especially the last hour when all the fish bit. Totally enjoyed being back out on the big lake getting a fishing lesson from my pardner. Here's a pic of him holding a couple of the kings.

Planning do a lot more of it soon.

Nailer - Yup....WMWC. There was also an MWT tourrney on the river that day launching out of Elizabeth Park, which are the money guys. We just hold one club tournament a month on some body of water....no entry fee, no prizes, just lots of fun (and maybe a little bit of trash talking). We're heading to Houghton Lake in May, which should be fun because I've never been there (though lots of other club guys know it well). It'll also double this year as our Cabelas qualifier for their national tournament next spring on Winnebago.

Don't mean to push a different group on this site, though. Looking forward very soon to getting back on the big lake for some salmon action and maybe hooking up with the GLF crew. Sure enjoyed and appreciated the day of charter captains you guys held in Hudsonville.

Kicked off the club tournament season this weekend at the traditional starting location - Detroit River. Lots of wind and a little snow spitting in the morning. But also lots of fish, some with pretty good size. We only managed two for the weighin, but they weighed 11.4 pounds. I caught a 6.7 pounder jigging up by the US Steel mill. Finished 23rd out of the 39 boats, which isn't bad for two fish. Winning basket was over 33 pounds.

First attempt at posting a picture below.

Nice work! Looks like you'll have to add a 'Walleye' row in your fish counts for 2010.

Excellent work and great pics. Went out of Linwood yesterday and found those beautiful Sag Bay walleyes, too. Lovin' your bay, Adam!

Hit the water yesterday with some friends and pulled three limits in about five hours. Stared south a couple miles in clean water and picked up a couple, but found they were really grouped up straight out from the launch in the stained water.

Program was four boards off each side to get separation and distance from the boat. All cranks, mostly Husky Jerks. Got some on different colors, but probably 50-60% on gold. Ran some deep divers clean, and put a couple split shots on others. Covered the water column at multiple depths and distances, but mostly 40-70 feet behind the boards.

Fished with two other guys from the West Michigan Walleye Club (westmichiganwalleyeclub,org) and talked throughout the day to several other boats full of club members on the bay. Bunch of unselfish guys who only like to catch fish and help others do the same. Much like you all on this site.

Great day on the water!

2nd recommendation for Advantage in Zeeland. Call Dave; he'll do a good job for you.

Thanks, guys!

Treblemaker - That's an awesome sat image. Where did you capture that?

Thanks, Ken. Looks like a great site and I'm looking forward to participating.

Actually there's an 'L' in there....my last name is Kling. My fishing partner kept calling me that (Klingfisher), so I decided to adopt it as my screen name and radio handle.

I drive a walleye boat that moonlights for kings, browns, steelhead, whatever swims in Lake Michigan, since I live in Holland. That particular fish in my avatar came out of the Detroit River a couple springs ago. First fish last year was a walleye, too, but out of Lake Michigan while fishing for browns off the bubbler in Port Sheldon.

So I guess you never know what you're going to get!

Meant to post on Lake Michigan.

Hit the water last Saturday for shakedown trip. Found one brown trout to kick off the year (5 colors with a stinger spoon in 28 FOW).

Snowing today (3/20) , but I hear that some docks have been put in at both Port Sheldon and Holland DNR launches. Despite a little snow, looks like Spring is here!