jdh

To clarify my temperature thoughts - if it's a NW or NNW the water might cool down.  If it ends up being a W or WNW maybe not.  I'm hoping to be out fishing in Holland on Sunday and will be checking the buoy for cold water.

With a NW wind the warm water is going to stack up near shore.  I haven't ever fished Pentwater before but I would be wanting to look for stable water - so deep.  I would probably start fishing in 100 fow near the bottom, but look for the cold water.  With 6 lines I would probably run 1 rigger & 1 diver down deep, 1 diver or rigger just around 55-60 degree water & then figure out 3 boards to get 1 a bit above the 55-60 degree water, 1 in the 55-60 degree water and then 1 just below the 55-60 degree water.

Also, would run mostly spoons & plugs and trying to cover ground at 3-3.5 mph.  Slowing down occasionally for a few minutes to try and trigger a bite.

Took a couple trips yesterday.  Both trips fished about 3 miles north of piers - between the Grand Haven Fleet & Port Sheldon fleet.  Only fished near 1 to 2 other boats.

In the morning launched at 7:30 am and dropped lines around 8 am in 60 fow.  We worked on a NW until stuff started firing in 95-105 fow.  We stayed in that water for the rest of the morning going 5-8.  Stopped fishing by 10:30 am.

In the evening we launched at 7:30 pm dropping lines around 8:15 in 95 fow and stayed there for the night.  Ended up 3 for 4.  Stopped fishing at 10 pm.

Notable fish were two of the steelies at about 10 lbs which provided multiple aerial displays for us and a nice king just shy of 20 lbs.

What worked:

AM - North & South Troll 3.0-3.5 mph at the ball

King - 300 Copper - Moonshine Yellow Flounder Mag

Steelie x 2 - 100 Copper - Superslim Lemon Ice

King - 400 Copper - Moonshine Blue Flounder RV Mag

Laker - Rigger at 40 ft - 8" Green Bikini Bottom UV Spin Doctor & Yellow/Green Fly

PM - North & South Troll 2.5-3.0 mph at the ball

Steelie - 150 Copper - Moonshine Green Shorts Halfmoon Series

Laker - Mag Diver back 150 - Pro King 8" Blue Baracuda Paddle & Blue Fly

Steelie - 100 Copper - Superslim Lemon Ice

7-21 am - Port Sheldon

The the King Possible out of Port Sheldon this morning with my dad and a friend of ours.  Got out on the water and set lines at 6:30 and fished until 10 am.  Ended up 3-8: 1 steelhead (7 lbs), 1 king (25+ lbs), and 1 coho (10 lbs).  I said 25+ for the king because I don't trust my scale, but he was 38-inches long.

We fished the from 6:30 to 8:00 am in 100-140 fow going 2 for 3, and then worked out and finished up in 160-170 fow picking up 5 more bites and pulling in a big coho.  The fish liked it a little fast this morning and we mainly fished S/SW at 3.0-3.6 at the ball.

What worked:

2-2 Steelie/Coho - 300 Copper with a Moonshine Mongolian Beef Spoon

1-1 King - Downrigger at 91 ft with an 11" white UV paddle and BW poofster fly.

0-3 - Wire Mag Dipsy on 2 back 135-145 feet with a 10" Kevin's Girlfriend SD & JJ's Boyfriend Meat Rig

0-1 - Wire Size 1 Dipsy on 2 back 155 feet with a 10" Netminders UV Showtime & BW Spotted Dick Meat Rig

0-1 - 300 Copper with a Glow Back Mag Silver Streak Blue Dolphin

I saw the picture before reading your post and said - "Is that an atlantic?".  Awesome.

Port Sheldon 5/14 am

I've been trying to get a friend of mine out on my boat for a while.  We got our schedules to work out for the most part although we had a strict 3 hr of fishing time on the water.  Good thing the fish cooperated also!  Started fishing right at 7:30 and had 3 coho in the boat before I got my 4th line down.  This included a double/triple with 1 coho on the rigger ball, one on the free slider, and one on a 200 copper.  The king bite picked up around 9 am.  We ended up with 14 fish in the box and release a three small fish (14-18" kings) hoping to pick up one more big one - but the last three fish we hooked wanted nothing to do with the net.  I estimate we had between 22  & 25 fish on - it's tough to keep count.

We fished the 120-140 fow straight out of Port Sheldon and a made loops to the south 2.7-2.9 at the ball.  Fished the same water all morning making. Never straying more than 1 mile from where we started.  Most fish seemed to be down 50-100 feet. 

What worked:

2 coho - free slider rigger down 90 - blue icicle superslim (missed two kings on this setup)

1 coho - rigger down 90 - DW flea 4 all spoon

1 coho, 1 shaker, 1 king - free slider rigger down 75 - mini streak uv gold jager bomb

1 shaker, 1 coho, 1 king - 300 copper - mag silver streak blue dolphin (lost some king bites on this too)

1 coho - 100 copper - stinger stingray hawg wild

1 coho - 150 copper - mag silver streak mixed veggie

1 steelie, 1 shaker - 200 copper - stinger uv mixed veggie

2 kings - mag diver on 2 back 180 ft - pro king 8" paddle chrome uv blue bird with mirage fly

1 king - mag diver on 2 back 225 ft - pro king 8" paddle chrome uv charlie's special with mirage fly

1 coho - slide diver on 4 back 100 ft - stinger pickle seed

Fished in from 60-90 fow from 5:30 until 9:30.  Waste of time.  Couldn't get then to go.  Then ran out to 250 fow and found a few kings and coho.  Ended up boxing  9 coho & 1 king.   Ended up releasing an additional several fish that all decided to bite before we could pull lines.

Mag wire divers & chrome pro king paddles were hot.  Back 225-250 ft.

Riggers down 80-150 were also firing with free sliders taking most hits.

2.7 mph at the ball.  N & NE were best direction.

Almost all the fish had a few to several alewives in their stomaches. 

ALL THE LAKE TROUT WERE STUFFED WITH "NON EXISTENT" ALEWIVES THAT LAKE TROUT DO NOT EAT... but whatever.

Holland 5-9-17 am

Launched in Holland this morning and set lines in 60 fow.  Worked between 60 & 80 down to Saugatuck and then turned around and worked back north between 80 & 100 fow.  I think we ended up something like 11 for 18?  Put 4 kings, 1 coho & 6 lake trout in the box.  Lost about 3-4 kings and 3-4 lakers while pulling them in.  Awesome day on the water.  Mag spoons early, normal or small spoons later - mixed veggie was hot.  Flasher fly on a diver out 100 ft in 60-80 and out 140 in 80-100 was the rod for the lakers.  Speed was 2.6-2.8 mph at the ball.

What worked:

1-1 King - Mag diver on 1.5 back 67 ft with Pro King antifreeze & mirage fly.

1-2 King - Rigger down 33 ft with silver streak mag mixed veggie

1-2 Coho (king) - Rigger down 50 ft free slider silver streak mixed veggie

5-7 Lakers (lakers) - Mag diver on 1.5 back 100 & later 140 ft 8" spinny kevorkian & poofster fly

1-2 King (laker) - Slide Diver on 3.5 back 75 ft  green/white/yellow stinger spoon with copper back

1-1 Laker - 6 Color Lead with UV orange BLL Solar Flare

0-1 (king) - 150 Copper with Stingray Mixed Veggie

0-1 (king) - 200 Copper with Stingray Mixed Veggie

1-1 King - 100 Copper with Stinger Mixed Veggie

Fishing Port Sheldon?

I've done it on my 17' Lowe, and I used 2 sheets of marine plywood laminated together with West Systems epoxy and sealed completely with the same epoxy.  It will be  a $200-300 to do it.  A lot of older boats seem to have come "new" without sealed transom wood so anything  you do to protect the wood from getting water in it should significantly extend its life.

Also - check out the iboats Stracraft Owners forum.  They'll generally help you out with any questions.

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/owners-groups-by-manufacturer/s/starcraft-boats

I was reading that you had good success on steelhead with the slide divers.  What's your setup for those?  I haven't been able to get steelies on any divers.

Nickle plated is supposed to shine "black" in the water I thought.  Silver & gold are supposed to be the right way to go.  Mister Twister looks UV flourescent?  The spoons are kind of easy to figure out because you can see the clear coat coating really shine up instead of the painted colors.  I think the ladderback non-uv would show up as just the ladderback, but the UV ladderback might show up with a larger profile.

I'm going to take pictures of the actual spoons that have got me lots of fish and see if there's any patterns I can follow.

-JDH

Thanks Dr Hook.  I guess I didn't think about them all "reflecting" ultraviolet light.  I suppose my question then come down to UV-fluorescent.  I've attached 2 pictures below that show what I'm talking about - and they show three types general color patterns:

1 UV-fluorescent coating (first picture far left, second picture right & left)

(2) UV-fluorescent colors (first picture dots on spoon 1 & edge of spoon 4, second picture center

(3) Not UV-fluorescent (first picture spoon 2 & 3)

Thanks for the response Kurt.  I'm hoping a few more people chime in on this.  Almost all spoons & flashers have a large amount of uv reflective colors such as green/yellow/orange/pink.  With the blacklight these guys shine so bright!  When I shine the light on the non-uv lures you can barely even see what color they are.  I'll post some pictures later.  I'd like to know when people would choose intentionally to run non-uv lures over the uv.

-JDH

Non UV Spoons

I'm going through all my tackle and I've been using a UV/blacklight flashlight to pull out the non or minimal uv reflective spoons.  Most of these are silver/gold reflective, but some are plain pain colors like white or purple and don't reflect uv.  I'm just wondering if you can tell me what conditions you would choose to run these spoons?

I've included a picture of a couple of these spoons.  I've got a bunch though from all different brands.

-JDH

That's what I do with my 2-stroke.  For the 4-stroke I would check the oil before & after every trip to make sure there's no water in it.  Also, I would try to make sure the engine is heated up fully for a little while (under decent amount of power).  If you're idling/trolling the whole time the engine may be running a little cold and may "make oil".

Another thing to check would be the lower unit oil.  I would change it now to make sure there's no leaks.

You might think so, but I'll fish as late into the year as the launches allow.  If we could just get the water temps to drop below 50 degrees the skinny water should start producing well.

Skunk.  Fished the skinny water for an hour with nothing.  We then ran to 100 fow.  Trolled several directions 100 to 245 fow and back into 160 fow.  Nothing. Very few marks.

What piers?  If the waters above 55 degrees right now - there may be a few fish around, but I've had better luck when the water drops below 55 degrees.

All the kings were full of shad.  They look like ales, but their not the same.  I've been netting  baitfish off the piers for years and know the difference.

Another picture:

The bigger on weighed in just shy of 11 pounds. Very healthy looking.  I'm hoping the weather lets me get out to deeper water a few more times this year.  Or maybe lets me put a hurting on the lake trout before November.

Fished with Jon & Kelly out of Holland today.  We fished 130-155.  Lots of bait below 100 ft.  My guess is they were schools of shad.  We ended up 4-8 with 6 kings on and 2 steelies.  Spoons & flasher flies on riggers/divers/coppers/lead.  Kings came 60-110 ft down.  Steelies on 3 color lead.  2.5-3.0 mph.  Only west/south/southwest directions took fish.

The people I eat bluegill with don't like fish that tastes like fish...  So I fillet and skin.  I've been cooking 2 ways lately.  The first is way is in the oven with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese.  Dip the fillets in melted butter - coat with the parmesan breading and back in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 375.  This keeps the smell of frying out of the kitchen.  The other way is to coat the fillets in all purpose flower and to fry in a skillet.  I like both methods.

Took the row boat out for panfish this weekend - as I didn't end up making it out on the big lake.  There is a good bite going on now.  22 gills & sunfish on the Gulp red waxworms.  I know every lake is different, but a dropshot with the hook about 18 inches above the weight worked for me.  This was in the mid afternoon and all fish bit near the bottom.  15-20 fow.  Never anchored, just drifted around.

-JDH