BenLubbs

Well its been a while since I posted a report, mostly because fishing has been so hit or miss (a lot of miss for me) with a lot of 1-4 fish trips and even 2 skunks (hasn't happened in 3 years until now). However, fishing has really picked up and I had the entire week off work so did a lot of fishing and a lot of it was great.

8/12-13

Bad weather so didn't try. Hard north wind flipped the lake Tuesday night.

8/14

Went out with 3 guys from work with plans to spend most of the day on the water. Left the launch at 5:30 with intention to fish the piers if there were fish there with the cold water. Well motored around the piers for a bit and it didn't look very promising. Ran a little north to 50fow and slowed down to see if there were some fish and we started marking them so I started setting lines headed south west. Well didn't take any fish until 130FOW where we hooked up with one. Went a little farther with nothing so turned around and headed for the way point again. Hooked up on a double as soon as we hit the way point so made a couple more passes but couldn't get anything to go again. Talked to Coralee on the phone and he was doing really good in 200 FOW so we started heading out that way mid morning. Had a very long dry spell but the had a triple in 160 fow. The rest of the day we got fish on an hourly basis working our way between 130 and 160 and then into 85 toward the end of the day. Ended up 16 for 26 pulling lines at 7:00pm. Most of the fish were 8-12lbs with one bigger around 18 a couple steel head and coho but mostly kings in the box. Fish were anywhere top to bottom throughout the day. Tangles with the strong currents and some newbies on the boat didn't help our hook up to land ratio.

8/15am

Took the morning off because I was sore from Wednesday

8/15pm

Took my brother, sister, sister's boy friend, and boy friends brother out. Set up in about 100 FOW north of Holland and trolled on at 240 heading. Got all of the lines set and then started taking fish. Got out to about 150 and turned around and followed the same line back north east. Most of the hits were coming in the top 40 foot with a few deeper. Ended up 5 for 9 with 3 identical 17lb kings and two smaller ones.

8/16am

Fish with Dave Ash on his new boat. Ended up 4 for 6 with one king hitting 22lbs and two nice steelhead.

8/16pm

Fish with 3 college buddies. Started in the same spot as the night before and followed the same patter but had some East-West trolls mixed in. Ran mostly the same program as Thursday night and with similar results. Ended up 9 for 15 with one newbie losing 4 fish on his own 1 king was close to 20, 3 mid teens, and the rest were smaller.

8/17am

Very frustrating morning after the night before with a very full graph top to bottom. Fished in the same water with a very similar spread other than using some more glow right away in the morning. Caught one very small king within 5 minutes of setting lines and then had nothing for a very long time. Finally had another hit at 9:30 which ended up being a 19lb king. We had one more hit on a meat rig on a deep dipsey and then ended with a double as we were pulling lines at 11:00. It was however, a beautiful day on the lake.

8/17pm

Well, with the weather being so nice and a theory that I have a better evening program than a morning program, invited 3 of my high school friends out. We fished the same water as the last two days. Didn't get to many hits right away but from an hour before sun set to an hour after it was just on fire. We ended up 7 for 19 losing a lot of fish inexplicably and some because of tangles and straitened hooks. Even lost a whole meat rig on the 300 copper with out knowing it until we pulled it at the end of the night. Ended the night with a bang, breaking the old boat big fish record with a 24lb 1oz monster that hit a 5 color with a J-plug of all things.

Some stuff that worked:

Rigger with big white paddle, big blue bubble paddle, or big Mtn. Dew paddle 100-130 ft down. (lots of hits, 1 fish landed, think I need to tighten the release to make sure they are hooked better)

Rigger with Double Trouble 23ft down

Rigger with Moldy Muffin 45ft down

Rigger with Flounder Pounder 39ft down

Low diver (mag on 1.5 setting) with blue bubble SD and Blue Bubble fly 160-250 out (HOT)

Low diver with blue bubble SD and Blue Moo Moo meat rig 150 to 200 out (HOT) (lost two monsters at the back of the boat because the hooks straitened out trying to get their heads up)

Low diver with green glow SD and green glow fly 90-160 out

Hi diver (regular on 3 setting) with NBK/crome SD and Mas Taquila fly 140 to 170 out (Very HOT)

Hi diver with Mag Moldy Muffin 120 to 140 out

300 copper with white/UV SD and UV mirage meat rig (stolen)

300 copper with green glow SD and Green glow fly

200 copper with blue/black ladder back ACE Hi

200 copper with Carmel Dolphin

150 copper with Green Slushy

150 copper with Carmel Dolphin

3 color leadcore with Wonder bread Ace Hi

5 color with glow Lucky Charms Ace Hi

5 color with Chrome Lucky Charms Ace Hi (Big fish)

7 color with Green Slushy

7 color with Carmel Dolphin

10 color with Double trouble (HOT)

10 color with Green/Black Ladder back Ace Hi

I'll get some pictures posted once I figure out why I'm not able to upload them right now.

Ben din Rods is in

Nice work guys

Fished the Dreamweaver Charity tournament with my little brother, NomoBeggin, and our friend Tony yesterday. Needless to tell anyone who was out there it was pretty rough. We ended up 5 for 6 will all our hits comming before 8:00 in 60 to 70 FOW in front of the sliders. Fished all the way out to 100 FOW without marking much, didn't really mark anything after the initial flurry til right before we pulled lines in 80 FOW right in front of Suagutuck. What worked:

Diver on 2 100 back with white/blue bubble spin doctor and blue bubble fly

Diver on 2 90 back with Super Glow Halo Carmel spoon

5 color with Starburst super slim

Ended up taking 10th which suprized me since there were sever boxes that pushed 20lb average between 5 fish and our biggest was 15. Hopefully this breaks my slow streak of the last month an a half.

Nice work mark and I'm going to agree I definantly would have put a team together if I had known about it.

I've found 47" to be a good length when using 11" paddles

I use the same rods as Paulywood except in medium action. I like them because you can really load them up compared to the okuma classics I used to run.

Bob, I went back through my emails with Pertronix and mine is a mercury and looks identical to yours. These are the part numbers they told me to use:

"Ben,

You have a Mercruiser distributor; use Ignitor #MC-181 and coil #40111.

Carl Alcocer

Technical Support

PerTronix Inc.

909-273-6007 www.pertronix.com"

Ben'din Rods will be there.

I have always wondered the same thing on my graph.

Went out twice this weekend. Made a trip Friday night with Roger of No Mo Beggin' and my little brother Dan. Ended up with a skunk in the box for the first time aboard the Slickcraft. We started in 120fow, worked our way out to 160fow and then all the way back into 100fow. We had two hits all night both in about 130fow a little south of Holland. One was on Big Lake Lures Flatline on a fixed slider 50 down and one was on Double Trouble on the 250' Bloodrun copper right before sun down. Both fish were only hooked for a short time before coming off. We marked the most fish in 130fow north of the sliders, as soon as we hit the sliders we stopped marking anything.

Saturday morning we fished the WMFL event. After the night before I decided to run north of the piers in search of some active fish. Well we found fish but they weren't very active. We set down in 120fow 2/3 of the way to Port Sheldon and started on a SSW troll. We ended up getting all the way out to 178FOW with only 2 fish to show for it (should have been three but I tried to haul one over the back without the net and it can off ). We trolled back into 140fow without any more hits. We decided to pull lines at 10:00 and run into 85 FOW and fish trout. Well there were tons of fish inside too but they also were very negative. We trolled for another 2 hours without a bump until we were pulling lines when a fiesty 4 pound coho hit the 5 color as we were hauling it in. It was a slow morning for everyone as our 3 fish were good enough to place in 3rd in the tourny.

What worked Saturday:

Green Death meat rig behind a 8" frog SD on the wire 160 back

New Big Lakes Lures Spoon with Red and copper Tape (don't remember the name) on the 5 Color

Mag Silver Streak Moldy muffin on a rigger 66 down went twice

Craigs Christmas on the 5 color

Mixed veggie SD pulling a Blue Magoo BW fly 120 back on the diver

Big thanks to Larry of Big Lake Lures for sponsoring the tournament and giving everyone some spoons. Also congrats to Far Beyond Driven with a killer box of 6 browns. Hopefully this June slow down ends soon. I'll be out tomorrow night with some people from work so give me a shout if you are out there.

11" pro troll with white crush tape on one side and sliver fish scale on the other. On my 300's I almost always am pulling mag blue dolphins or mag moonshines.

I can give you a tow if you want Kevin

Bob., I was running both bags on idle speed and we were doing about 2.8 on the gps. I think we took one fish when we turned around at the end of the night to go north and we were going 1.8 to 2.1 in the waves.

Another quick report for anyone going out in the morning. Went out tonight with two guys from work including one who is up here for a week from Mexico and has never been fishing before. Setup at 6:15 in 80Fow south of the piers. Trolled straight south with the chop all night until we were past Saugy. Ended up 8 for 10 but only 4 keepers in the boat: 3 sub-legal lake trout, 1 nice coho, 3 eater kings, and one throw back king.

What worked:

Old Trusty (11"white paddle and poofster fly) on a rigger 80 down and on a diver 85 back on #1 (HOT)

Mongolian Beef on Diver 100 back on #1

Mini SS UofM Frog on fixed slider 44 down on rigger

Big Lake Lures Flat Line on 7 color lead

Mag Carmel Dolphin on 200' #45 Blood Run Copper

Ben'din Rods is in.

I'll keep this one short since I have to work in the morning. Set lines in 70 FOW a little South of the piers around 6:30. Headed south west and marked a bunch of bait in front of the sliders in 115 FOW. Marked it on the GPS and continued on our way. Got a nice fish a little while later then nothing. Turned around to head back toward the bait and hit 4. Kept working that spot till 10:00. Pulled lines going 6 for 8 with the captain loosing both of the fish 2 of the fish were around 17lbs, the rest were 5-8lbs.

What worked:

North East (2.1mph on GPS) and South West (2.8mph on GPS)

Mag Scooby Snacks by Big Lake Lures on 300' 45# Blood Run Copper (both big fish)

Mag Carmel Dolphin by Stinger on 250' 45# Blood Run Copper

Double Trouble Moonshine on Wire Diver out 110 on #1

Mag Blue Dolphin on rigger 64 down (lost the hooks in one fish )

Big White Paddle and Poofster fly 110 down on rigger

So say someone who owns a boat but had different crewsoften, does each different crew member need to be registered or could there be a boat registration for any crew member on that boat??

Thanks again for the invite Bob!

Nice work Chandler.

Fished the WMFL event yesterday. After a windy week and not fishing at all figured the fish had probably moved from where I had them pinned the week before. Following some reports of fish down toward Saugy, started in 90 FOW on the south side of the sliders. for us the morning seemed very slow and inconsistent, even though we ended up taking 14 hits. This was probably due to the fact that the fish we found seemed to be on the smaller side (compared to the weekend before at least). It also didn't help that we only landed 7 of the fish that we hooked. Seemed like the pod of fish we were on was very concentrated between 140 and 150 FOW straight out from the ball. Marked a lot of fish in the top 40 feet but other than our first fish which came on a diver on 3 out 110 and a couple on the 200 copper, everything came deep for us and on riggers and divers for the most part. Ended up with 5 kings, the biggest at 15.9lbs, 1 coho, and 1 laker that was undersized. We were in the middle of the pack with some real nice boxes being brought in by Dave Ash and the Undertow team.

What worked:

Big white paddle and poofter flies on the diver out 110 on 3 and on a rigger 110 down

8" green and chrome tape paddle with green crinkle fly 80 down

Green and Chrome 8" spinnies with mirage flies 200 out on a diver on 3 and 150 out on a diver on 1

Green and Chrome UV Ace Hi plug on 200 copper

Mongolian Beef on 300 copper

Thanks for the info Jimmy

Nice work guys, I'm sure the kids had a great time.

Good Job Justin

Nice work Jon. Great talking to you again.