chandler

Went 12-17 all day today. Mixed bag of kings, coho, steelhead and lakers. We took hits mostly in the top 30 feet. Fish seemed to like it fast at about 3.0-3.3 SOG. Lots of steelhead up high on 3 and 5 colors of leadcore and the 75' of copper with a few kings and coho mixed in.

150 copper with a Jäger bomb took 4 fish.

3 color with an orange crush took 4

Downrigger 30 down with a warrior climax spoon took a 16 pound king.

Diver 90 out wih a RV bloody nose got a 13 pound king.

5 color with a frosted veggie spoon took 2 also.

My advice is go deep

Anyone been out of Port Sheldon and getting any perch? Going out in the morning and trying to get some perch after we get done trolling.

Yeah I wouldn't say by any means that there are a lot of walleye out there. I've fished in Port Sheldon and this is the first walleye I've ever caught or seen caught. Unless there's a big secret that I don't know of Then I think it's safe to say that it is very unlikely that there are a lot of them in the lake. By the piers in holland though during combat fishing is another story. I've heard of a couple people catching them there and a few inside the river.

awesome walleye -you need to update the fish #'s

Yeah just did it. Finally on the board.!

31 inches and 10 pounds

Got out here once the waves and wind died down around 6:30 and trolled right outside of the pier heads around the bubbler in 15-20 FOW. Trolled for about 15 minutes when the 3 color with a uv mixed veggies went screaming out and he came unbuttoned at the back of the boat. Set it right back out and a couple minutes later it went off and we pulled in a small lake trout. After that we were about 2 miles from the pier and I saw the wire diver out 25 with a thunderstruck moving a little and I yanked it up and a 10 pound walleye came up and I was surprised to say the least. My personal best and my first eye out in Lake Michigan. Then as we were pulling lines at 8 the 2 Color went off and we pulled up a coho to end the night. The boat ran great for the first time out. Got a little chilly at the end of the night. I'll try and post pics if I can figure it out.

In Lake Michigan once the season gets goin all of our fish are usually the from dark to the first 30 minutes of light. After that it's just one every now and then. It does make a difference leaving at 5 and fishing because all the fish bite early. You can tell who didn't get out early because there box comes back empty.

Then the whole Wisconsin side is wide open!

Here's where the ice ends right by the power plant in Michigan City

Was on a plane today and we happened to fly over Lake Michigan and the whole michigan side has ice for a couple miles but from Michigan City on there was no ice left. Shouldn't be too much longer!!

Yeah there would have to be a hole.

Yeah I don't really know for sure but that's what I hear a lot when I talk to people that I talk to. You'd have to come out with us sometime because it's a small spot that everyone fishes and we have a waypoint on it.

Im really not sure.. I know of some talk of a small like 3 or 4 foot drop down hole by there and that might be it but im not positive

Chandler what depth of water south of P.S, and are you fishing any kind of structure?

The only kind of structure youre gonna find is sand and more sand. We catch them about 20 FOW

Chandler where did you get the perch? by the bubbler?

No nobody really fishes the bubbler for perch because its full of sheephead and thats pretty much all you catch. When the perch start biting you usually go about a half mile south of Port Sheldon and theres tons of boats there and we usually get a bunch of big fat perch.

Yeah I've grown up with PO'd people fishing because my dad doesn't necessarily love fishing and when we would be out fishing I'd get a lot of crap for not catching fish at times and learned to deal with it. And hooked up, I sent the guy on craigslist an email! Thanks!

From July to the end of the season we pretty much set our whole spread with meat rigs to get the bigger 4 year olds. Don't really start fishing meat till the big kings start showing up.

First Mate Spot

I was wondering if anyone on here knows of anyone who's hiring for a First Mate out of Saugatuck/Holland/Grand Haven/ or Muskegon. I spend my summers in Port Sheldon as most of you know and I turn 16 at the end of February and im looking for a first mate. Im open from June to the end of August. I got my dad into taking me out on the big lake a while ago and alls he will do is drive the boat and reel in fish so I had to teach myself. Now at this point I can run 15 rods no problem as long as we have that many people out on the boat. We went out around 40 times this summer so I has quite a bit of experience. I plan on getting my first mate card in the spring so that I can first mate at the start of my summer break. If you know of anyone hiring or if anything pops up you can reach me at 517-395-7694 or email me at [email protected]

Thanks,

Chandler Webster

Loved the report and pics, nice to have those thoughts in December!

Yeah I've been trying to make it through the winter waiting for the big lake. Went out ice fishing today and just about froze to death today with the -50 windchill. Got me thinking of those 20 pound hogs screaming out line and the warm weather and i ended up logging back on here... spring cant come soon enough!

We got around 20 give or take.. This year we fished mainly for big kings running practically all meat rigs and plugs starting through june. Even though our overall numbers wern't very high our big kings count was. Our first one over 20 surprisingly came in May. That one weighed in at 21. Our biggest one was a tad bit over 26. The 3 biggest fish(26 and two 25s) all came on downriggers deep down late in the day.

We were up there last winter.. Sure wa crowded but we got around 50 or so gills the day we were up there.. Also ran tip ups and we got a lot of decent pike and my personal best that was 36 inches.. We were out of the boyscout camp..

Pretty much every boat out there in holland runs boards.. The only people who don't are the people where they have no idea what's going on and they run a couple downriggers and run through everyone's lines.. So don't bash on him for running them as most people out there in the pierheads do run them.. And most of the time they catch the most fish!

Saw you over by the rocks couldnt figure out what was goin on. We did hook down rigger cable twice in the channel.

Yeah we tried to get them unhooked from there but no luck.. Kind of hard to maneuver around everyone in that big boat.. Getting rid of this winter to get something more practical.. But Whoever was in that aluminum but parked it in neutral had no idea what to do in the channel.. before he parked it in neutral he went along side of the pier and hooked onto a few pier fishermans lines.. Then after he was in neutral whipped it around and went through the middle of the channel and went over some more peoples lines.

Got into the channel around 6AM and didn't get bit till around 8.. First To go was a 75 copper with a blue splatter back plug.. As that starts going off the Downrigger 20 down with a lucky charms plug got hit and so did the diver 40 out.. We got the 2 of them in the net and the last one to come in wa a monster.. We went to net it in the backup net and right as it was about in the net it took on shake and broke the treble hook right off.. Should've known better as that was the only plug we didnt change the hooks.. All these fish we right where the mud and clear water met.. So we decided to go through the channel and was about to pull the boards when a 3 color took off with a silver plug on it.. Got that one in.. So we ended the day on a good note so we thought till we were going out the channel pulling lines when boat went in neutral for some reason and started drifting towards us and we got blocked in and pushed by the rocks.. Ended up losing a couple cannon balls..:angry2: .. But we ended with 3 nice kings all around 20 pounds

Yeah we went 3 for 4.. Hit a triple right where the mud and clear water came together.. Had 2 fish In the net and had a huge one come up to the back and we had to use our small net and we went to net it and it took a run and straightened out the hooks and got off.. One more going through the channel on a three color.

You will really want 200+ yards of backing.. Some do 30 pound mono backing but I prefer 50 pound braid. With the big fish around if you only put 100 yards on you're gonna get spooled. We even got spooled this year with 250 yards of backing. We just get the big 1500 yard spools from power pro and it works pretty good.. Just tie in a splice of mono about 5 foot between the braid and the leadcore to clip the planer board on and you're good to go