Honey Pit

Good job in 2 hrs! Any general depth that was best? Did they all come in that 175-205 depth, or also inside of that in to the 130?

Gotcha. Thanks! I don't have a lot to sell but would certainly be interested in buying! If you could post more info as available that would be great.

Sounds interesting! Can you explain a bit how it works? I'm picturing a bunch of guys taking tackle they have extra of or don't use and "trading" with others? Is that right? 

How about date/location?

Nice! How far down were you in the water column & what type of rods - downriggers, copper, dipsys?

Tough night. Started in 90FOW. Slowly trolled out hit a nice 15# King in 125 FOW. Did a few circles on the waypoint with no more hits. Went out to 150 FOW and then back in to 80 FOW with no more hits. Ended 1 for 1.

Caught the King on a wire dipsey, 140 out, spotted dick meat rig.

Something else to try would be a larger diameter copper (60# versus 45#). We tried that last year. I liked the idea because I could get the same depth with less line out. It worked out good and we took as many hits on it as our other coppers. I was worried about fighting the weight of the copper instead of the fish, but because you can have less line out I think it's a wash compared to a lower diameter with more line out.

Guys,

I have a gift card to use and need some more flashers. Curious your top "go-to" brands, colors, sizes? The ones you need to have in the water almost all the time... There are so many out there now it can be hard to know where to start. I'd rather go with something that's been proven by my fellow fisherman. FYI - I'm in West Michigan and fish out of Port Sheldon. Thanks!

That's great! Where were you going to put a handful of 20# Kings if you caught them? Maybe tie them in front and they could pull you - save even more gas!

Weather looked good so made time for a quick 3 hr trip last night. Decided to head out deeper for steelhead & younger salmon. Ended up 3 for 3, 2 steelhead & 1 laker. We started in 170 FOW and trolled out to 200 with no hits. Decided to turn back east. Hit the Laker in 195 FOW and the Steelhead in 180-170 FOW.

Trolling speed was 2.6 SOG. What worked:

Rigger down 40', double orange crush spoon - 8# Laker

200' copper, Caramel Dolphin SS spoon - 11# Steelhead

Mag Braid Slide Diver 90' back, silver w/ redhead Jplug - 4# Steelhead

Didn't kill em, but not too bad for 2 hrs with lines in the water. Had a few flasher/flys and 1 meat rig out that didn't take any hits.

Great evening on Lake Michigan - sunshine and calm water! 4-4, 2 kings & 2 coho with one nice 24 lb male. 110-120 fow. 2.3 SOG. South troll. Both kings came around sunset.

Wire Dipsy meat rig green dot spin doctor 180 back took the 2 kings (24# & 14#).

Rigger blue crush spindoctor/moo moo meat rig 95 down - 3# coho

Rigger copper dolphin 45 down - 6# coho

Meat rigs have been producing also both on riggers and divers. I'd target the 60-80' range for where to have my lures running.

We ran out of the bigger mid-teen Kings out in 160-180 fow, but instead started hitting a lot of coho and steelhead out there along with a few smaller kings. Caught fish on both east and west trolls. Fun fishing for 3 days straight! Back to work now.

AM - 9 for 13. 160-180 FOW. 2.1 - 2.3 SOG. 5 coho 5-9# range, 1 steelhead 7#, 3 kings 7-11# range.

PM - 6 for 8. 140-170 FOW. 2.1 - 2.3 SOG. 3 coho 5-8# range, 2 steelhead 7 & 9#, 1 king 9#.

Rigs that took hits:

- 200 copper with green/silver protroll/mirage fly - 1 for 1.

- Mag Wire Diver 160 back, green meat rig, 10" blue & white crush spindoctor - 1 for 2.

- Mag Braid diver 160 back, 10" blue crush spindoctor mirage fly. 3 for 5

- Rigger 75 down, Moo Moo meat rig, 10" purple mirage spindoctor - 4 for 4

- Rigger 80 down, Blue Bubble spindoctor/fly - 2 for 3

- Rigger 35 down, SS lemon ice - 2 for 4

- 100 copper, bloody nose dalmation - 2 for 2 (steelhead)

I think most of our hits were on a southwest troll.

Seems to be picking up and I think it helps to be able to go out consecutive days.

AM - 6 for 8. 160-180 FOW. 2.3 SOG. All Kings 12-17# range and 1 shaker.

PM - 5 for 6. 160-180 FOW. 2.1 SOG. All Kings 11-17# range.

Rigs that took hits:

- 200 copper (60#) with Purple Holographic protroll & mirage fly - 2 for 3.

- Mag Wire Diver 160 back, green meat rig, 10" blue & white crush spindoctor - 2 for 3.

- Mag Braid diver 160 back, 10" blue crush spindoctor mirage fly. 2 for 2

- Rigger 75 down, Moo Moo meat rig, 10" purple mirage spindoctor - 3 for 4

- Rigger 85 down, Blue Bubble spindoctor/fly - 1 for 1

Rigger 70 down, Moonshine Bread Winner - 1 for 1

You bet. I forgot to include that a bit slower speed seemed to be working - about 2.3 SOG. West/SW troll on most.

Got a few days off work to take some visitors fishing. Kinda tough fishing but managed to find a few.

AM - 1 for 3. 80-140 FOW with all action coming in the 110-130 range. 13 # King.

PM - 3 for 5. 70-180 FOW with 160-170 the best. 15 & 20# Kings, 6# Laker.

Rigs that took hits:

- 200 copper (60#) with Purple Holographic protroll & mirage fly - 2 fish/1 miss

- 300 copper with Blue Bubble spindoctor/fly - 1 fish

- 200 copper with 10" blue & white crush spindoctor & blue bubble fly - 1 miss

- Mag Wire Diver 160 back, green meat rig, 10" blue & white crush spindoctor - 1 miss

- Rigger 75 down, Moo Moo meat rig, 10" purple mirage spindoctor - 1 fish (biggest @ 20#)

- Rigger down 55, SS Lemon Ice spoon - 1 miss

6 for 8 Sat evening. Fish came in 70-90 FOW. 4 of the 8 hits came about 30 min before sunset and in about a 5 min span - yep we had a "quad-header" going! It was chaos - got 3 of the 4 in. All fish were Kings. Biggest fish was about 12# with the rest around 8-10#.

Rigs that worked:

Moo Moo meat rig/10" DW Blue-White Spindoctor, rigger 50' down - 1 and 1 miss

Green Glow J-plug rigger 55' down - 1

Braid Slide Diver w/ Blue Bubble spinny/fly 110' back - 1 and 1 miss

Wire Diver w/ green-glow meat rig/8" DW Yellow Spindoctor -1

200 60# Copper w/ 10" Purple-Mirage spinny/fly - 1

200 32# Copper w/ SS Lemon Icicle - 1

Thanks all for the responses. They were very helpful and answered all my questions.

Makes sense. Thanks!

My questions and references were related to dipsy and slide divers. Sorry, should have been more specific.

Thanks Ryan - very informative. Regarding the last leader/connection question - how about when using a slide diver?

I'm still using braid on my divers but am hearing I should transition to wire. Could you educate me a bit on wire divers?

- Are there different brands/test of wire and what is recommended?

- Will I likely need a larger capacity reel vs. my current braid reels?

- Will I need different poles/line guides?

- Do you use braid backer, then wire, then a leader? If so, use a knot or a swivel for the connections?

Anything else I missed that you learned the hard way and can help me avoid?

If you're like me when I started running multiple planers, you're probably also wondering: If I get a fish on the outside planer, get it reeled in, how do I get the planer back out (on the outside) without tangling with my existing inside planer? I asked that on a post like this several years ago and what I was told has worked:

- First to minimize risk you can temporarily reel your inside planer in a ways to get it closer to the boat.

- Once your planer going back in is attached, feed out the line "freespool" with just the clicker on and your pole tip pointing straight back. This will prevent the planer from "grabbing" and swinging over.

- Once you get the planer straight back and out well beyond your existing inside planer, you can start to thumb the spool and/or click you spool lever and let it swing it over your existing inside line. You can always err on the side of caution and let extra out and later reel some back in once it's swung over.

- Once it's out you can let your inside planer back out to it's original position.

Good luck!

Very helpful to run different depth rigs on a side together, with the shallower running rig always to the outside. For example, 7 color on outside & full core on inside. When a fish hits the outside they are already higher in the water and will tend to rise higher yet when hooked, and normally clear over top of your inside rig during the fight. This will greatly reduce your tangle risk.

I use 20# leader. 12# is kinda light in my opinion. Even with a light drag, with typical leadcore/copper lengths there is a lot of weight for that leader to absorb with quick runs from bigger fish before the drag strips.