highpointdf

saw a report of steelhead in 200-270. The water is so cold you cannot see or catch fish.

Look into braid line. Very little stretch allows you to snap it harder.

What type of line?

I am far from a genius. But I just got home from Holland State Park, and I will guarantee you the wind was blowing harder than that.

We have Gimbal mounted tracks. I got them at BassPro, they are Bert's 17" track. They work great, downriggers as well as a rod holder or two fit on them. The best part is, when we are done fishing, pull them out, and you cannot even tell we fish with the boat. Plus you can store them somewhere secure and out of the weather.

Nice job on the kings Dan. Which Led spreaders did you go with, I would like to upgrade mine.

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that having a captains license doesn't give you any right of way over sail boats when their under sail power.

I ordered Genssi lights off of eBay. It looks good and throws a ton of light. 72watt I believe. Pretty happy with them.

Went out early to try out the new LED Spreader lights, I think I got a sunburn before the sun came up. Set up around 50FOW, first hit came at 60 FOW, Green and white Paddle, Green and White fly made by Charger, 45 down on the rigger, 14LB king. Went out a bit, came back through the 60FOW and picked up another 14LB king on the same exact set up. Worked the area for awhile, no more takers. Worked out and back, trying to find the fish with no luck. Fog was pretty thick, a Sail boat tried to run us and the boards over, so I had to get on it to get out of the way. While trying to get all the dipsy's reset, a Blue and white Moonshine with black ladder back went on a rigger down 25' By the time I grabbed the rod the fish was 4 feet out of the water. Big steelhead are fun, 12LB, he put on quite a show. Had one other hit on a blue and white meat rig down 35'. Not the hottest action we have ever seen, but the fish were good sized. Did I mention I hate Sail boats?

Apparently, after today, I need to rescind my previous statement about dipsy's and Boards being better. 3 for 4, 4 dipsy's out, 4 boards out, 4 lines on the riggers, all hits came on riggers. Usually it is the opposite, not today.

Here is the thing. As the water seems to be clearer the fish are more skittish. We have had many trips the downriggers were dead. The advantage to the dipsy divers and boards is they widen your presentation limiting the effect of the boat. We run two riggers, 14' beam on the boat, so we could run more, but, the divers and the boards are cheaper, and seem to be more productive. Plus, we can cover 200' of water instead of 14'. Just my opinions.

Great Night!!! Hope they stick for a while.

They were pretty bad in grand haven Friday too

Friday our riggers never went once. 4 for 7 and not one pop. We tried different depths and temps and nothing.

Got out about 5 AM, set up in 80 FOW and headed south, marked some right away straight out of the piers. Wasn't too long before the 300CU went 10.5LB king on a Hawg Wild, Awhile later the dipsy set on 2 back 75 went, green paddle white/green fly, 9.5LB king, while we were fighting that one, dipsy on 3 back 60 white paddle white fly went, lost. 300CU went in 100 FOW, Blue Flounder, small laker, went back. Got slow so we headed west. about 190 it started back up again. 225CU went, Dreamweaver blue and red spoon, it was my daughters turn, she caught a 11.2LB Coho, it was big enough we used two copper set ups to get it in, kind of a mess! Same 225CU had a rip a while later, as did the Dipsy with the white paddle/white Fly, which was now back 175, hook came unbuttoned on the fly. Beautiful Morning to be out, and spend time with some family. Over all we ended up 4 for 7, keeping 3 nice fish.

Blue flounder took hits for us yesterday too. Meat was quiet. Low blue puke was good too.

Sounds like there is a grounding issue somewhere.

Welcome Laura. Watch out for the nets!

I have a couple of the Talora roller rods. They are worth the money. When I bought them they had both, he said these were what he used. Been very happy with them. No issues at all.

Welcome to the site!

Ryan is correct. Another thing you could do is lose the riser and get the flush mount for the Bert's track. Lowering the rigger will lessen the flex.

After fishing Sunday from 6am until 1pm, I think you made the right decision. 1-2, flies as thick as the fog, you could barely see a boat 75 yards away, you'll grow more than 7lbs of strawberries. So you definitely won. And at $5 a gallon, we probably spent about the same too

Nice boat Jon! That'll fish nice! Drink more gas too!

They were a bit finicky yesterday. Nick is right, learn how to run meat, there is really nothing to it. Meat took a 13 and 15 pounder yesterday for us. The other 11 lines took a 3 and 11 pounder. The colors you are running are what's working. Some days are better than others.

Went out this morning with a plan. The plan moved deeper. We were setting lines shortly after 6am i 80 fow. Meat 40 down went. Didn't stay. It got pretty slow. Pointed it west and ran out to 255. Picked up a 13 pound king on the same meat rig on the way out there. A bit later the 150 cu with a Carmel Dolphin went, smaller king. Hit 255 and stopped marking. So we turned east. Hit 190 and were marking a bunch. Turned north. After a bit the 225 cu with a bloody Carmel went, fighting that one and the meat rig we moved down to 90 went. Got both of those, 11.25 on the CU, and 15.25 on the meat. Overall it felt pretty slow, but it was beautiful out there! Ended 4 for 7.

Darkmind both. But especially with a fish on.

Gmfishon. There is more to running a charter boat than going fishing for 4-6 hours. Those big boats don't run and maintain themselves, they don't clean themselves. Quite often they are running two charters a day. So 8 -12 hours on the water, taking care of the clients, their fish, and the boat, all on top of having families themselves. I am very thankful for the information they do give on here. They don't have to, but they do. If they are not treated well they will stop. There are great charter captains on this site. Matt is one of the most helpful you will ever find, an all around great guy.