NBK

great job, thanks for the detailed report!

Nice job JD! Thanks for the report

Big thanks to Austin (JuicyBaron) for finding and returning my knife. Lots of great people on this site!

I believe I left my fillet knife at the Holland cleaning station on Saturday morning (6/14). Please PM me if found, thanks!

thanks for the report! nice job!

wow, glad someone got em going, nice job! At what temp do the browns usually leave the beach?

I fished solo on Thursday morning(5/8) out of Holland. I went 0/1 with the only hit coming just outside the pierheads on a gold j-11 rapala. I tried north, south, on the beach, out to 30 fow with nothing going.

This morning (5/10) we went north of Holland fishing between 5-20 fow. Finished 5/6, all small cohos, most of which were discovered upon reeling the lines in to check them silver streak minis were best.

This evening (5/10) we tried going south in a bit deeper water. We found 53-55 degree water everywhere inside of 50 fow with not much going on. Finished 1/1 with another small coho on a silver streak mini. The fishing sure has changed since last week...hopefully someone can figure them out better than I have

Thanks for the trip JD!

Fished saugatuck from 1-5 pm today with a friend from school. Finished 12/16 with 9 browns (3 released), 2 coho, and 1 steelhead. Set lines in the channel and the first brown hit just inside the end of the pierheads. Made another quick pass in the channel with nothing so we headed south along oval beach. The rest of the fish came in around 8-15 fow (forgot my graph so I'm just guessing). Best lures were j-9 rapalas, j-11 rapalas, and thin fish 30-50 ft behind the boards.

I set mine to release and use an OR-16 clip on the back to prevent the board from sliding down the line when it releases. Before this I had issues with it diving and hated fighting the board along with the fish. Now when I have a fish on, the board releases and floats on the surface with no resistance and you don't have to worry about pointing your rod tip at the water.

Thanks for the report. Is there a free launch in South Haven? If not, what is the fee?

Glass or aluminum boat? You can break a lot more ice than you would think with an aluminum boat....

Aluminum. I'll keep that in mind...didn't feel like finding out the hard way.

Fished solo out of PS today, went 1/1. Fish was a 2-3 lb brown that came on a fire tiger j-9 rapala. I launched out of holland this morning and hit a thin sheet of ice as soon as I got out into the bay. Plowed through it for 100 yards or so before thinking better of it. Backed out and went to PS instead. With the warm weather today it may have melted off though.

I took a walk out there yesterday and there was a guy out in the middle of the lake ice fishing so it could be a little bit yet. The channel was clear though. I heard pigeon was open so I'm going to give PS a go next weekend.

I had the same issue the first couple times out running longer coppers. Here is what I changed and haven't had an issue since: 1. Let it out slower. 2. I lowered the angle of my diver rod holders so the rod tip is closer to the water...it gets the diver line down and out of the way faster. 3. make sure your divers are pulling straight before letting out the copper. 4. when you let out all the leader and first get to the copper, pause for a sec and wait to see your lure skipping along the surface before letting out the copper. This makes sure its back and above your diver. The dive curve for a diver is much steeper than copper so you shouldn't have problems. Hope that helps.

The past couple times out I've set my 300 copper(32 lb blood run) in 80 fow while trolling out, and both times it came up with muscles. I even had a spin doctor and fly on it one of the times, figuring the added drag would keep it from hitting bottom. I'm assuming this is happening while I free spool the board back out and around the dipsy. So my question is what is the minimum fow you would set a 300 copper in, and are there any techniques to prevent it from dropping to the bottom while setting it? Thanks!

Let me know when your in the area. If I don't find one before then we'll work something out. I'll let you know if I do so you don't haul 2 big coolers out here for nothing. Can you post the dimensions? Thanks.

With fishing this good, I need a bigger cooler. Doesn't have to be huge, just big enough to fit 10 fish. If anyone has an extra shoot me a picture and a price. Thanks.

Thanks a lot Aaron, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Aaron, are you using church or offshore boards? Could you post or pm me a pic of how you set it up when you get a chance?

I've been using church walleye boards for copper and I have them set to release. They release just fine and slide down the line, but when the board gets to the swivel at the copper and stops, it sinks when the fish takes drag. I've tried pointing the rod down at the board. I've also tried half hitching a rubber band to the line where the board is clipped and then putting the band in the back pin so it can't slide down to the copper, but it still went under.

Any tips from you guys who set your boards to release? I know the norm is to have them not release. Thanks in advance.

a 5 color leadcore with a normal size stinger double orange crush spoon seems to work well for steelhead.

Thanks again for taking me out Dave, had a great time!

yea, they've been horrible the past couple times out so last night I finally broke down and wore jeans. Being a little warm definitely beats slapping flies all night.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Does a longer lead (20-60') have a negative affect on the action of a spin doctor? Also, could I run a spin doctor/fly combo off a swr? I'm thinking that would be the best way to get it down the deepest while trying to avoid ridiculous blowback.