Sea Eagle

Thanks - I plan on giving Tackle Haven a call.

Does anyone know of a plubic fish cleaning station in St. Joe? I usually go to South Haven mostly because of the fish cleaning station at the plubic launch. However after smacking them hard on Friday and Sunday in St. Joe and only going 2-4 in South Haven on Saturday, I'm real interested in spending more time in St. Joe. Not having to clean fish when I get home or needing to get rid of a bunch guts would be great.

Thanks

05/18/12

Fished out of St. Joe on Friday aboard the Timmer Lou. Had to work at it, but we took a five man limit of a mix of kings and cohos, a couple of lakers and a nice steelhead. Not my boat so I was not always paying attention, but it seemed like everything was working. I believe that 135 -145 was the best depth. All of the usual suspects were taking fish, blue and green dolphin spoons seemed like the most productive with flashers and flys taking a few fish. A brads cut plug took several fish.

05/19/12

Took some folks from work out of South Haven on my boat on Saturday and stunk up the place. Could only squeeze out 2 fish for 4 hits. Enough said.

05/20/12

Said heck with that South Haven nonsense on Sunday and in an attempt to redeem myself, took a co-worker, the spouse of a co-worker and his dad down to St. Joe on Sunday. Hard to believe that 30 miles down the coast makes so much difference, but had a hard time keeping all of the lines in the water. Never got them all down until 9:30. Wound up 15 for 17 by 12:00 when we called it a day. 12 kings a coho and two lakers. As far as I know, we fished northwest of the pier. 135 to 145 feet seemed best in the morning, but we continued to take fish all of the way out to 170 feet later in the morning. I say as best as I know, because “the dad†a gentleman named Ralph, was a seasoned angler and did such a good job driving the boat, I was able to spend the day working the back of the boat. ½ core, full core, 200 ft of copper & 300 ft of copper were by far the best. The down riggers and mag dispey divers only took a few fish. Here are photos of what worked. Tried a brads cut plug for the first time after seeing it work on the Timmer Lou. The craziest thing was the two lake trout we took on the ½ cores with a small carmel dolphin spoon.

Great job. Hope to sneak out Sunday morning before Mothers day dinner.

Great job on the second place and nice to finally meet you.

Two man limit in 2 1/2 hours. Mix of Kings and Cohos. Could not keep up with the log book again with just two of us in the boat working doubles and a triple. Here is what I believe happened.

We set up in around 120 feet of water northwest of the pier on a west - nortwest troll.

Got our first hit (and the last log entry) in 135' on a glow bloody nose spoon on a Mag DD set on #2 145' back. Nothing else until we hit 150' after that I'm going on memory.

As I recall, we took at total of 5 additional fish on Mag DD's (both set on #2) back 145' and 175' with glow mongolian beef spoons. The DD back 175' was best.

A SWR on the DR down 75' with another glow mongolian beef spoon and a free slider set on the other DR down 85' with a med sized mixed veggies UV spoon took each took one.

300' of copper with a pearl SD with a new green KRW UV fly and 200' of copper with a mixed veggies SD with another green KRW UV fly each took fish.

We caught 10 out of 11 fish (the last one had to go back - another double) in 150' on a south - southwest troll.

I agree with raising the limits. Let the fishermen put a dent in the fish populations now. Cutting the stocking will acomplish the same task, but that will take several years to accomplish something we could start doing this year. I have too much of my money and my soul invested in Salmon fishing to see it all go bye, bye.

Just curious Jeff - what color paddles and spin doctors were you running?

I just wanted to give an "assist" to EdB. We decided to fish the colors we did due to his 4/27 St Joe report. I really like how people are starting to show the spoons that caught fish.

Caught a 3 man limit ( 6 cohos, 9 kings) this morning out of SH. Lost at least 4 more including the big king of the day when yours truly hit it in the head with the net.

Too busy to keep up with the log (had two triples), so I will try to summarize. Set lines northwest of the pier around 115' and trolled West out to 180 then back in to 160' on a Southwest troll. 160' to 170' was best.

Everything caught fish. 10 color, 200' & 300' of copper, Mag DD's set on #2 down 72' & 64' and SWR on the DR at 75' & 85' with free sliders. The SWRs on the DRs and the free sliders were the most active.

I will post a photo of what worked, but the new UV spoons from Michigan Stinger were by far the hotest thing going (FYI - I have no ties to Michigan Stinger). Ran the UV Blue Dolphins on the SWR with a medium UV mixed veggies on the free slider.

Well done! Was this the shake down trip also?

No. We went out of SH last Sunday. Went 3-3 fishing the mud line.

Went down to St Joe Saturday looking for some of those Kings that were reported to be in shallow last weekend. Our first surprise was all of the boats in town for the Brown Blast Tournament. It took us a little longer to figure out that the fish were out deeper.

Started out in the 40-50 ft of water range. Picked up a couple of small Cohos in the mud line that we sent back, then headed out to 90 ft or so. Nothing going on in 90 ft of water so we started out deeper.

Did not get a hit until we got to 125 ft of water around noon, then all hell broke loose. Went 6-9 running west out to 160 ft and back in. 3 nice kings, a small king and two Cohos went in the box.

One King came on a new UV Green Tuxedo spoon on a SWR as the DR was being pulled up. I will bet that almost happens once per trip. An old fishing buddy of mine told me several years ago to leave the line attached until the ball is almost to the boat (thanks for the tip Bill)

A missed fish and a Coho on a small hot lobster spoon running on the free slider.

A Coho on a gold/pink thin fin on a high line back 300’

A missed fish and a Coho on the ½ cores with an orange NBK & a carmel dolphin spoon with black spots (don’t know the name)

Three Kings on Mag Dipsey Divers set on #2 down 56’ & 64’ with a muffin man spoon and small BSO spoons.

Wished we had pulled lines and ran out deep sooner.

Great job. Hope to get out myself next weekend.

Great job got my boat ready this weekend. Hope to get out next weekend

90' out of South Haven

I run both trees and rod holders. I just installed the trees in my boat this year and wish I had them in my boat all along. They are a great way to keep all of your planner boards seperated. They work very good on smaller boats like mine. I run them in tracks with a couple more rod holders for my dipsey divers.

Here is a photo.

I went steelhead fishing on the Kzoo the day after Christmas for the first time this year. Caught two and a nice Pike. I plan on going back.

Going to a Michigan Steelheaders Meeting for the first time in January to see what that is all about.

The fishing show season starts with the one in Detroit in January.

I hit the Maumee river for walleye as soon as March.

Then back to the big lake in April.

Here are a couple of photos from our trip this week.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/glf_1_thumb.jpg

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/glf_2_thumb.jpg

You are my hero. I'm so jealous. I wish my boat was not put up.

I have an old fishing buddy who moved to California, but still has a boat in his dads heated pole barn. He is coming home for the holidays and said he might be up for a fishing trip on the big lake.

Thanks for the report.

I just put a couple of wraps of electrical tape around it to keep it together. I only need to remove it at the end of the season.

I took 4" of 1/2 dia copper tube and flared the ends, drilled a hole in one end, use a SS nut and bolt to hook the cut off antenna to it and zip tied it to my Big Jon Pro Tournament DR boom.

Here are a couple of photos:

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/dept_raider_antenna.jpg

I rerouted the wires underneath the gunnels using a rubber boot since this photo was taken

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/1/9/depth_raider.jpg

PS: those scotty beads work great. I put one on each end my Big Jon bead stop

Fished for a good 6 hours out of South Haven on Sunday. Went out to 200 ft looking for clean water and then back in to 80 ft when that did not work.

Wound up 1-1. Took a 14" perch on a blue dolphin spoon in 160 ft of water on 200 ft of copper.

I think it was a sign that it's time to put the boat up for the season.

It was a very good year. Sad that it had to go out with a wimper instead of a bang.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/showimage.php

Thanks for the info. Going to try and get out this weekend. Not sure if the lake is going to cooperate. The offshore forecast keeps changing.

I agree with shannon - "Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught"

Just ask my buddy Denny - the more he tells the story the bigger the one that got away on Saturday gets. Just kidding Denny.

It was a nice fish, but he was more up set about it that anyone else on the boat. As we all know, it is just one of those things that happens.

This is only Denny's second year of Salmon fishing and it was the biggest fish he ever had on the end of a line. He gave it a good 20 min fight, but it got up on the surface with a mag dipsey between Denny and the fish. The fish shook its head a few times, rolled over and spit the hook. Not too much he could do about it.

Went 9-10 with 2 missed releases. 8 small kings with one small laker we tossed back. The big fish of the day, I’m guessing somewhere in the 15-18 lb range (although my buddy who lost it thinks it was bigger) was the one that got away.

Best water was in the 110-135 ft range. We fished straight out, down to the south, then up to the north.

Moonshine glow spoons took a couple early, a small Kevorkian spoon down 85 ft on the DR took another with the balance coming on various colors of the new Luhr Jensen UV shoehorn spoons I picked up at Cabelas on Wed. One on the red color spoon on a ½ core, one on the green color on the DR down 75 ft with the balance coming on the yellow version on the DD’s. I was running mag DD’s set on #2 back 145’ for my low divers and #1 DD’s set on #3 back 180’ for my high divers.

Went out of South Haven Friday night with fishing buddies Jeff Moreau & Denny Laskowsky.

Wound up 7 for 8 with 2-3 missed releases on the DR & DD.

Set lines around 6:00 in 70' of water straight out of the pierhead and trolled out to 135'. Took the first hit around 100' of water, with 110' to 120' feet being the most productive.

Trolled down to the south and then back to the north of the pier.

Ran a mix of SWR on the DR, DD, 1/2 core, full core and 200' of copper targeting depths from 25' down to 75' down. The full core took one fish with a glow george spoon at sunset, other wise all of the other fish came on the DR & DD running between 56’ to 75’.

Spin Doctors (kevorkian/blue bubble) & greenish flys took two fish before sunset and a small alewife spoon took another. The balance of the fish came on glow spoons at/after sunset.