Mark

We got out Friday and Sunday mornings this weekend and had a ball on Platte Bay. Trolling the shallows with long line J plugs, I was 9 for 13 all kings and lost a coho at the boat. I went through 4 harnesses on one plug. Sunday was much slower with 5 biters, all kings again. The fish are somewhat silver and still very strong, but caught a couple darkies too. I think a lot ran the river on Saturday and those are pretty skittish as usual. Numbers are much better this year for the coho return.

A bunch of fish have moved into the river and I was fortunate enough to catch a few of those little bullets the past couple of mornings. I've been fishing downstream of the weir with real small spawn bags under a small float as the fish are skittish as usual. If you go, remember it's a 3/8 inch hook gap maximum and single hook only for hardware in the river.

Fished Platte this morning and went 1 for 2, nice 8 pound coho on a watermelon j plug down 69 over 130 feet of water. Wind kicked up and I got out of there around 8. Pretty slow for everybody including the surf guys. The dredging continues...I got almost hung up on the way out of the breaking surf. There just doesn't seem to be a good cut yet so be careful. I got a rock wedged in between the prop and the skeg on the way in and it seized right up. Knocked the rock out with a small cannonball and was back in business. Weird.

I went to the weir yesterday and they've only passed a couple hundred fish (total) . They have been dredging daily now but it's still pretty skinny water at the mouth of the Platte. Fished this morning and went 4 for 4 with one coho and 3 kings. Green glo ladderback off the riggers at 35 and 45 in 100 feet of water.

The bigger boats have been struggling at the launch. Anything 16' and under are pretty good to go unless they're a really deep V. Hope we get a good run this year.

I use the borax for skein, which works pretty good and the salt water bath for loose. I've tried the stream wash method but the eggs seemed to wash out and become opaque after two or three drifts. A salt cured batch in August lasts well into the winter steelie season in the fridge for me.

Went out Friday morning and last night and had a pretty good time. Friday morning was kinda slow; I think we had 5 fish at 11am, all on plugs off coppper or lead with nothing being "hot". Changed our program and went deep with meat on the riggers and got 10 more and pulled at 1pm. Most of our bites were just north of Point Betsie in 180 FOW with the riggers around 90 down. Bonus fish were a 5 pound brown on a J on 7 colors and about a 9 pound drum on 10 colors, J plug also. Never seen that before.

Last night started good but finished really slow. We had meat on rigger down around 90 in 140 FOW and 10 color J plugs that took the majority of our 8 fish. Did not get bit after 8pm and pulled at 9pm. Temp was WAY down. On a side note, the backhoe was at the mouth of the Platte but had not started digging yet.

Best colors for J's were green and blue, same for the meat rigs. Fish were still in pretty good shape.

Lets just say I didn't push him up on the bank...

If you go out of the river in the dark, you have to watch out for two wing dams that appeared over the summer. There is a big one near the mouth that cuts the river width down to about 8 feet extending from the shore side of the river. I will update any changes and when/if they dredge. I hope we get a good run this fall...I saw a couple fish in the 10 pound range at the cleaning station

It didn't look as bad as those fish. The eyes were bugged out and the insides looked like jelly and were white....it wasn't pretty and it was obvious there was something going on.

I emailed you that photo....did you get it? Let me know if you didn't and I'll try it again.

Got a chance to fish the Platte Bay this weekend and it was pretty typical. We fished Friday morning and got 4 cohos, all around 6 pounds on green glow J plugs off the dipseys back a 120'. Went Sunday morning from 5 to 8 and didn't even get a bite.

I fished out of my 12 footer Sunday and had a hard time getting out of the rivermouth. I had to get out and pull to get back in. There was a few other boats out of there (up to 16') but I think it's pretty much a "get out and pull" launch at this point. They usually dredge after Labor Day but it's never a for sure thing.

It was a little crazy out there since the Benzie Frenzy Tourney was going on. I was sandwiched in between two 57' footers for awhile...I must have looked like a planer board from way up on the flybridge. Lots of the big boys were running lead and not caring about anyone or anything other than getting their cohos. If there ever was a poor location to pull core, Platte Bay is it.

I was at Gander Mountain in Traverse City and they have a wall of Spin Doctors on display. Most are priced the same, around 8 bucks. The top row of the display has all the most productive spinny patterns...for 3 bucks more. The white on white is standard price; put 7 green dots on it, yep, 3 bucks more.

They pull this in the fall with the "firedot" dodger for the coho bite. Every single other dodger pattern is 3 to 4 bucks less. I asked the sales associate about it and he said" That's just how they are priced." Give me a break. I buy elsewhere or put my own dot patterns on. Unbelievable

Thanks. I'll try to get that to you in the next day or two.

I don't know how to post a pic. Any help out there for the computer illiterate?

Most everyone I know runs their core off boards exclusively...up to 20 colors of fun!

I was able to get out for a few hours on the St. Mary's River and it was pretty slow for us. We didn't get out until mid morning and ended up with 2 shorties, a 23 inch 5 pounder and a 13 inch perch trolling the channel with bottom bouncers, orange blades. The perch's eyes were bugged out and when I cut it open, the guts were white and all blown out. I think it may have been VHS...not very pretty. I took a photo and went in to put the camera away and a gull swooped in and took off with it.

On a better note, the walleye dinner was outstanding!!!

I just double the line over and tie a double granny knot (simple crossover). With that loop formed, I pull it through the swivel and then pull the fly and hook through the loop, if that makes any sense. Amazingly, the knot doesn't break or pull apart....my friends and I have been doing this setup for about 20 years now and it makes changing flies really easy.

Has anyone been using the Berkley cut bait? I gave it a half hearted run for about 45 minutes and it never got touched behind a John KIng flasher off the rigger. It smells worse than the real deal IMHO..or as the package says, 400x more so.

I haven't really needed to run meat this year as spinnies and spoons have been pretty good so far up here.

I have been trying to find the source of a leak on the motor trim and I can't seem to do so. It leaks about a pint every month regardless how much I put the motor up and down. It isn't coming from the resevoir I fill or any of the outside lines. The pool ends up under the block with the water. This is a 1972 Starcraft Holiday, the motor is a 120 Mercruiser I/O.

Any ideas?

Point Petsie is 4 miles and is a great place to fish. If you're fishing from straight out to the point (great area to fish), I would highly advise a north/ south trolling direction as there will be a 100 other boats doing the same thing. Both of those directions are equally good, but may change depending on the day.

It's been kinda a cluster**** lately at 10pm when all the boats get back to the dock/cleaning fish at the same time... you might have to wait a bit.

I just realized that report was lacking the good info. We fished in the 140-150 foot range straight out and headed north toward Point Betsie. White crush glow spinnies with no -see-um flies on the dipsey and spoons off the riggers. Hot Lobster, Blue dolphin, and Cold Duck down 50-75 were the best.

I have fished out of Leland and Glen Arbor, running to the island from both ports, but I mostly fish out of Frankfort.

Since the crowds are getting worse, I am going to try out of Glen Arbor a lot more the rest of the year. PM me and I will try to offer what assistance I can and if you up fishing, give a call on the radio, channel 10. Boat name is Grind Line.

Got out for a couple short morning trips on Thurs. and Sunday. Thursday got a little bumpy and we were back at the pierheads by 7 am. Trolled north for an hour and had 3 kings around 12 pounds all on the dipsey about 150 back.

Sunday was much nicer but the boat traffic had picked up substantially. We ended up 3 for 7 with kings a little bigger, about 15 pounds. For some reason the kings were missing the fly and foul hooking themselves. Two came in backwards only to fall off 100' behind the boat. As we fought them we were wondering whether to keep these or not, but they made the decision for us.

Our program shut completely off at daybreak and trolled for an hour and a half without a bump, pulled lines and were back in at around 9am.

Had last week off and got out several times out of Frankfort. Took a bunch of kings before daybreak and not very many after. Kings were smaller on the average, 12-15 pounds. Had terrrible south wind all week and temp was way way down. Everything would go early, riggers from 40-65 were the best, with Flounder Pounder and Hot Lobster taking most of the abuse. Green Spin Doctor with a no see um fly was my best dipsey set up. Charters were running 450 feet of copper and 20 colors of lead. Didn't get a chance to go over the weekend, but with the north wind that blew Thurs. and Fri. I bet fishing was great.

We fished up and around the island this past week and had a ball with the herring. Most averaged between 1-3 pounds and fought like crazy on the trout rod. If you've never done this or want to have great time with the kids, this is tough to beat. Hex patterns worked great on a perch rig.

Talked to a couple guys at the dock and they showed me their catches of salmon...nice. Kings in the low teens and Atlantics around 6-7 pounds. Not big coolers, but great looking fish. Mostly on spoons, orange being the primary hot color. Couple LT's as well.

Going up to Drummond for the week and have never been there before. I will have a 14 foot aluminum with a 15 hp to get us around from our place we're renting on the NW corner of the island.

Anybody ever fish these parts this time of year? I heard there is a herring run up the St. Mary's River and you typically fish these like perch for the most part.

Any info/advice is really appreciated. Thanks.

Fished Grand Traverse Bay this weekend. Fished a steep bank from 20-80 feet, staying in 30 most of the time. Had three 6.5 foot medium action spinning rods with 14 pound braid and 8 pound mono leader and ran those on riggers at 17,20, and 24 feet down with spoons. We lost count, but ended up in the 16 for 26 range of 4-7 pound lakers from 11am to about 12:30pm. All fish released with needle nose pliers.

We would go about a quarter mile before turning around again and could get all three rods to pop almost every time. It was glass out and you could see the lakers cruising around in the clear water. There was nobody else fishing around us. Green glo tape on anything was good. PM me for specifics if you're interested.