Duraflame

What a great evening on the lake. Set lines around 6pm in between thunderstorms SW of port. Trolled S, N, and E with little success in the 80 - 90 fow. Just before a strom rolled through, I decided to head west to deeper water. At 100 fow, hooked and lost a big laker on a tin can and custom fly 85 down on rigger, then hooked and lost three kings, one on 250CU with 11" paddle and custom fly, one on meat rig on wire diver out 113 set on 2, and one on a black and glow spoon 45 down on rigger. Then lost a big steelhead when the storm passed through. The smart fish was outrunning the boat, and started surfacing, and tossed the black spoon that was down 45ft in 120fow.

Trolled back in to 100fow to try the W troll again, but no takers. Decided to turn and head in on a SE troll. Just as the air was setting, we caught four kings all around 100fow. First one was in the wire diver out 113 with meat rig, second one was on a 7color lead with a ProKing spoon holographic, next one came on the wire diver again, and the last one came on a generic, net craft spoon, white in both sides all glow down 45 on rigger. For a two man crew, it was complete fire drill and made for a great night.

Went 4 for 5. Started in 100fow at 5pm did loops between 100 and 80. Had a hug rip on a dipsy set on two, 80 feet back with a white spin doctor and a white/glow homemade fly. Soon after caught a small laker on a tin can with a homemade green fly and spinnie. Then caught an 8lb laker on a full core with a flounder pounder glow. 10 minutes later caught a 10lb King in the same full core. Decided to leave the deep water and hit the plume just before sunset and caught a nice Coho on a 5 color with a small white glow spoon.

I was wishing I had my nice camera, but the phone still turned out a good one.

Late report, but I just got this site working on my phone. I 6-7lb brown in 8fow on a rapala j9 black and silver flatline off a board and one 15lb king in 30fow on a 5.5" rapala husky jerk on two color lead.

I finally got into some kings recently, after numerous steel. They are still not showing up like I would expect this time of year. I'm still hopefull for improvement. I like seeing that there have been some 20+ pounders caught recently. I have started using meat rigs, which has been accountable for the few kings. I also had one hit a monkey puke spoon on a 3 color lead, which I found odd.

I believe Tower Marina in Saugatuck has some available slips. I have my boat there, and I have been pleased with them. The only downside is the 3 mile idle to the lake.

They have been in Ludington for quite some time and a good mix of year classes.

LOL, good response. Down south about 60 miles, they have been few and far between what we saw last year. I first thought it was the cold winter to blame, but it's mid July now, and not much improvement has happened.

I've heard we aren't supposed to see the affects of the king stocking reductions until 2015, but is it just me or have they been difficult to find this year. Plus, the ones I have caught have been quite small. Thoughts?

Thank you for posting a worthy fishing report. I'm not being sarcastic. Some of your other posts have been less than helpful. The point of this board is to help each other out, and I'm glad to see that happening. I have some family and friends I need to get on some fish this weekend, so I depend on good reports. I too will post reports once I get a working program.

My biggest fish last year, almost 27lbs came on a 300 copper with 11" paddle and one of my custom made flies. It was hot in august last year. Not much going on it yet, just one 10lb king, but I believe it will pick up as the bigger kings show up.

I used a mast the last two years on my old boat, and now that i'm using inline planers, I miss my big boards. I think i'm going to install two masts on my new boat, as I hate fighting the inline boards. I used the scotty mini releases, and they worked flawlessly. Here is a link for them at BPS.

http://www.basspro.com/Scotty-Mini-PowerGrip-Plus-Release-Clips/product/10211982/?cmCat=CROSSSELL_PRODUCT

FYI, the steelhead bite has been good in the 150 to 170 fow out of Holland. Which just happens to be same waters the kings are in. I hope this lasts for awhile. I caught a 10lb and an 8lb on Monday. The big one came on my downrigger 50ft down, which I found to be odd. The other was on my outside board on a 5 color lead with a carmel dolphin spoon.

I also watch the rod tips on lead or copper rigs I have long lined off the side, if I'm not running divers. You can tell if the spoon has good action based on how the rod tip moves.

On 5/22 just north of Saugatuck I had a nice one on in 65fow with 150 copper and a clown spoon, but he managed to shake off. That was all I could get to go. I did have pretty rookie crew with it being my wife, who hates to fish, my 4yr old, and my 4 month old. So needless to say, I only had a couple lines out.

I'm in. Hoping my crew and weather holds together this time.

I think you'll be okay fishing close to the piers in the spring and fall, but I wouldn't chase them 4 miles out in the summer, when a storm can pop up and catch you out there before you can motor in.

Freshwater lakes have a short wave frequency, which is a major reason so many small boats sink. The shorter the boat, the more effect the short frequency waves have, and if you add height to the waves, they could be rolling over the bow in a mod v pretty quickly.

Just stay close and head in at the first sign of worsening conditions, despite what your passengers are telling you.

Nice Job!!! Do you have pictures of the spoons?

I had to pull some images from the web. The first is the dotted copper. I forget what brand it is and what it is called. The second one is a small Stinger Carmel Dolphin.

Took the new boat out for the first official shakedown trip with my friend Adam, and we did pretty good considering the conditions. Got a late start and made it to the piers around 9AM, but we trolled our way out there hoping for some fish in the river. Hooked up to a 5lb Brown as we hit the pierheads. This was caught on a small Carmel Dolphin spoon on roughly 3 colors of lead. Turned around and came back in for another pass, and landed a real nice 4lb Smallmouth just as we entered the pierheads. This was caught on a small gold spoon with wonderbread dots on 2 colors of lead.

Trolled back out onto the lake, and the wind really started howling. We tried to do a shallow troll north of the piers, but the wind kept pushing us out. It really started getting frisky out there after 11AM, so we decided to come back in. It was a good day to test out the boat, and I'm glad we didn't get skunked on the maiden voyage.

I'm in, my unofficial boat name shall be my call name on this site "Duraflame"

Scott,

The rules for this season already being posted, rule # "7. Start out of the same port as the weigh in."

But if I get no rejections I can make a rule change,

I see no issue in changing this rule to be a Tri-port league, Saugatuck , Holland, & Port Sheldon Start, but the weight in will be at the Holland State Park Launch @ 1 pm.

Again the purpose of this league is to help each other out & do a little friendly smack talk.

Jon,

Have you had a chance to get any feedback on me starting in Saugatuck and finishing in Holland for the weigh in?

One thing I haven't figured out is where I can park the boat for the weigh in at Holland. Any advice?

Thanks,

Scott

It feels so good to see the boat in the water. I took it out last Saturday and cruised around the icebergs, it was a really neat thing to witness. It was like a scene from the movie "Orca"

Update on the upgrades:

- Kicker is installed, decided to have the marina mount it, as I didn't have the time or energy. Only problem is that the cable I was going to use to tie it into the hydraulic steering won't work, so I have to figure out how to steer with the kicker.

- I picked up the Traxstech and I'll be installing it this weekend.

- New Scotty electric down riggers should be arriving in a few days

- Installed new 5' VHF antenna

- Halfway done installing the new VHF radio

- Still need to get spreader lights and a stereo

Should be ready for fishing in a couple weeks, just in time for ice out.

That's going to be a great boat to fish on!!

Only took about 2 months of not having bottom paint on a boat I had up in Ludington before I had it painted. Ludington/Pere Marquette is a whole lot cleaner than Saugatuck/Kzoo river . Power washing at the car wash required lots of scrubbing with a stiff brush and by the end of June the slimey algae growth was heavy enough to need cleaning every two weeks or the boat was a lot harder to get on plane. It amazed me that the stuff didn't come off when cruising at 30 mph in a nice 2' chop, but it didn't. A key to a good bottom paint is to have a barrier coat paint applied first. Keeps the water out of the gellcoat and also makes applying new bottom paint easier.

When I moved to St. Joe and got the SeaCat, I didn't want to paint the bottom to prevent the gellcoat from blistering, so I bought a boat lift instead. Made it easy to keep the hull clean plus made it easier to get on board with fluctuating water levels (high in spring, low in summer/fall). When I calculated the cost of the lift compared to bottom painting and maintenance it was cheaper after 4 seasons. I was then able to sell the lift for about 1/2 of what I had in it and the net overall cost was actually lower than painting... plus I still have the nice clean unpainted fiberglass hull.

I was also

OK, well I did some more research and spoke to the head mechanic at my marina, and I've decided to get it painted. I'm getting three coats of barrier paint, and two coats of SR-21 for $1300. From what I researched online, it appears to be a decent price. At least I'll have some peace of mind now. Plus they are installing my kicker mount and engine, which is one less thing on my to do list, for an additional $80, I'm providing the parts. Next time I see my boat, it will be in the water in about a week. A full 20 days ahead of schedule.

Nice Rig. How was the haul home? I'm getting ready to head to Florida in a couple weeks to bring mine home. I'm a bit nervous about that but I want to get my eyes on it even after I have had a surveyor look at it.

The ride was long, about 14hrs. The previous owner, who owns a tire shop, put new tires on the trailer, as he didn't want me to have any trouble. However, 40 miles into the 850 mile trip, I blew the back passenger side tire. I called the owner, and he sent a local guy to put on the spare, which had no rim. The failure was a bad valve stem. So, make sure you check them, as they will leak air as centrifugal force increase with speed.

After that, the trip was pretty smooth. I hauled it with a GMC 2500 HD diesel, and the boat gave it a good workout through the mountains in NC and TN. Then I had 30mph headwinds through KY, IN and into MI, so it killed my MPG. I averaged 18.8 on the way down, and 13.8 hauling the boat back up. Didn't help that the fuel prices spiked that week, as it was the first week of spring break, averaging $4.15/gal.

Safe travels.

Looks great!

Are you going to get it bottom painted too since you're getting a slip?

I hadn't thought about painting the bottom. I read some other forums on it, and it's a 50/50 split on whether to do it or not. I know the kazoo river is pretty dirty, so I could easily pull it out every month and clean it. The other concern is blistering. I'll go unpainted this year and see how it does.

Thanks,