jdh

Chandler - 2 to 2.5 mph feels soooo slow now! It may be surprising but I've not got a fish on an SS going slower than 2.5 mph.

That is my first complete Grand Slam! Bob, do you have the big boat fishing yet?

That's a brown. Generally steelhead & browns are very easy to tell apart, but there are some browns that will look similar to a steelie.

Made it out this morning with a friend and fished to Saugatuck and back with 4 browns, a coho, and a steelhead to show for it. Couldn't really get a program going. I tried thinfins, thinfish, jointed rapalas... After our first fish on an orange gold J-9 Rap, we didn't get anything until I started mixing in some mini-streaks. All fish came in about 6 fow and were spread out between Holland and Saugatuck. Pickup up 3 trolling south, and picked up 3 on the way back. Trolling speed between 2 and 2.5 mph. We were about done, but I suggested that we try 20 minutes on 20-30 fow and we put out a 150 copper with a new plastic spoon (chartreuse with dolphin tape) that I picked up at the GR sportsman show. A king decided to scare the crap out of us be peeling off about 100 feet of line before we even knew what had happened. Unfortunately it came unbuttoned about 100 feet from the back of the boat. I guess that's why my boat's called King "Possible". Lures: (1) J9 Gold & Orange Rap - 50 ft back on a mono board - brown (2) Ministreak Lemonberry - .75 oz snap weight 50 ft back - brown x 2 (3) Lil Thumper spoon - 1.5 oz snap weight 30 back - coho & steelie It looks like a mini streak spoon blank? Firefrog colors. (4) Ministreak - .75 oz snap weight 50 back - brown (5) BW Lexan Spoon - 150 copper - king (missed) The photo for the Lexan spoon shows it greener than it actually is.

Forgot to say thanks to Joe & John for fishing with me! Without someone to fish with I might have had to drag my kayak down to St. Joe - and I wasn't feeling like exercising yesterday. Also - photos of the lures & a photo of the fish. Not sure how the fish managed to cover up the king, but she was in there!

Got my big lake shakedown & first tournament day done today out of St. Joe. Had a great day, having gone in without much in terms of expectations. The boat (King Possible) worked great. I love the new Trollmaster for the kicker motor throttle control. We saw all the boats heading south, and I decided to go north. I don't think we had another boat really in sight until we quit fishing and ran back to port. I love fishing out of the pack - so that worked great for me today! We fished the beach, we fished 20 - 40 fow, we fished 40 to 80 fow. There was a good temp break set up out in 75 fow (38 degrees inside and a pocket of 45 degree water deeper. We found the coho in this water. Fishing Report: 11-12 (1 brown, 1 steelie, 2 lakers, 2 kings, 5 coho) (1) 20 fow, 2.7 mph NE troll, Orange/Gold Thinfish mono board back 80 ft, laker (2) 40 fow, 3 mph N troll, Slide Diver on 2 back 25 ft, chrome & UV 8" paddle, chrome/green tinsel fly, 15" king (3) 6 fow, 3 mph N troll, rigger down 5 ft back 20 ft, UV Yellow Sparkler Spin Doctor, chartreuse fly, brown (4) 60 fow, 3.6 mph W troll, 2 Color, Golden Starburst Superslim, king (5) 75 fow, 3.6 mph SSW troll 3 color, Dbl Orange Crush Superslim, laker (6) 75 fow, 3.6 mph SSW troll 6 color, unknown Superslim, coho (7) 75 fow, 3.6 mph SSW troll, 2 Color, Golden Starburst Superslim, steelhead (8) 75 fow, 3.6 mph SSW troll, mono board 3/4 oz snap weight back 50 ft, Golden Acid Rain, coho (9) 75 fow, 3.6 mph SSW troll, Slide Diver on 2 back 25 ft, chrome & UV 8" paddle, chrome/green tinsel fly, coho (10) 75 fow, 3.6 mph NNE troll, 3 color, Dbl Orange Crush Superslim, coho (11) 75 fow, 3.6 mph S troll, 2 Color, Golden Starburst Superlim, coho I'm back to trolling superslims fast. It still works I guess! Good luck everyone. -jdh

Good work on the coho! Were there a lot of boats down that way? -jdh (King Possible)

The ice went north. It's not in Holland anymore.

I've only done this 1 season, but I've had most luck pulling spoons and body baits between 2.5 and 4.5 mph. Mag spoons between 2.5 & 3.3 mph. Standard spoons between 2.5 and 3.7 mph. Small spoons (mini streaks & superslims) between 2.5 and 4.5 mph.

It's got a nice and clean look now! Good work.

Thanks for working to set this up! I left with a lot less gear than I brought in, but I also spent all my earnings on less stuff, albeit more expensive!

Option 2

With the 1-man DNR limit, it's a max of three trout of one species. That would mean, for example I can catch three steelhead and 2 of another other species, whether they are lakers, browns, coho or kings it doesn't matter. They don't have to be salmon. I'm not sure I would be up for starting earlier. If we had a shotgun start, could I just show up a little later and still fish the event?

The 5 fish - 1 person DNR Limit sounds good to me.

I have the following thoughts: Because I have smaller boat, the set lines @ 6 works better for me. But actually most of my fish have been caught after 9 am anyways. I'm willing to go with the shotgun start. I would rather the ports stay within Port Sheldon to South Haven as my boat is on the south side of Grand Rapids. I would like to see Lakers stay as a 5 point fish and have silver fish & browns all be 10 point fish. I like the raise in cost to $25 per event. I organized all my fishing gear once this year already. I'm almost ready for the season... Except I have my boat half torn apart. I'm working on rewiring & remounting rod holders & such.

I'm already starting to go crazy at home, and wish I was out fishing again. If I make it on the ice soon that may help calm me down. But for now, I needed to find something to do. For a joke last year I put a bunch of spoons on our Christmas Tree instead of the regular ornaments. They are shiny and lots have glow in the dark - so the tree looked pretty cool. This past Christmas we got a bigger tree and pretty much put all my spoons on there. Due to having all my spoons on a the tree and having a bunch of people handling them, I decided to give the spoons a good wash before storing them back in their boxes. I tried just a mix of borax and water. This also gave me the opportunity to pull all the spoons out and take a picture. I present my spoon collection: I'll be reorganizing all my flasher-flies and meatrigs next. And then its on to plugs and body baits.

I didn't really figure out the flasher fly bite too well and I'm new to this, but what I noticed was this: I took 17 fish on flasher/flies (11 kings, 4 lakers, 2 coho). 8" spin doctors and paddles - 18" - 22" leaders worked better when travelling 2.5 - 3.3 mph - 22" - 28" leaders worked better when travelling 2.0 - 2.5 mph 11" Paddles (Never did 'well' on these but did pick up some fish) - 54" leaders got hits when travelling 2.0 - 2.5 mph - Didn't get hits on 36" leads, but I didn't run these that much

I know some guys will take a morning in the tree stand over a fishing trip - but I suppose I'm the opposite, in that I'd rather spend a morning on the pier (or boat if the weather permits). Speaking of piers... any good whitefish action yet?

Lake calmed down over Saturday night enough to where I decided to try out fishing in the morning. We got out about 8:30 and didn't get much for the first half hour. Trolling SW when in 130 fow the rods starting popping. Went 3-4 pulling in 2 steelies and 1 laker (released) in the next 10 minutes. Kept going south for another half hour and then turned around and trolled NE. Rods started firing in 130 fow again and we went 1-3 with a steelhead. Another thing we did was run into a bunch of yearling kings - all 6 rods fired... We kept a couple that were not going to make it, but managed to release most of them. Also picked up a 15" king and a 15" coho. The wind had kicked up when we got out there, and after the two passes it was rough enough we decided to go home. What worked... Good time for a last??? outing. We'll see how the weather cooperates.

It was a good trip - with 1 fish here and there, but I suppose I want to do better every time I go out!

I experimented with the 8" spin doctors & flies today travelling from 3.5 - 4 mph and confirmed my suspicions that a shorter leader would provide a bit more action. 14" to 16" leaders provided good action to the fly. I didn't run any while fishing though so I'm not sure if the fish would agree with me! If there are a few kings around that I know of I'll try running a couple with the shorter leads and see what they pick up.

Slow fishing Saturday am, but we managed to end up 6-6 on the day. Couldn't find any sort of pattern and we fished from 100 to 250 fow starting with a variety of spoon types/patterns in the morning, and switching over to all superslims (SS) around 9:30 am. No consistent troll direction as we picked up fish going west, east, northeast, and south. There was also very little cold water in the area and we found 59 degree water on the surface - and 57 degree water down 150 feet. What worked: Steelhead - 400 copper, w troll @ 3 mph, 160 fow, mag blue dolphin streak Lake Trout - 100 copper, w troll @ 3.8 mph, 180 fow, Steelie Dan SS Lake Trout - Rigger @ 130 ft, e troll @ 3.8 mph, 235 fow, Raspberry Dolphin SS Steelhead - 400 copper, ne troll @ 3.8 mph, 225 fow, Blue Whale SS Brown Trout - Rigger @ 105 ft, ne troll @ 3.8 mph, 220 fow, Green Dolphin SS King - Rigger @ 70 ft, s troll @ 4.0 mph, 160 fow, Raspberry Dolphin Just needed a coho to complete a "grand slam". The two steelhead were pretty big and strong - and the king fought really well too. We'll have to see if the wind and waves bring a thermocline back before the lake temps drop too much.

I understand that the fish may be deeper, but my last 3 trips most of the fish I found were in the warmer water. Actually most were in 60 degree water and only up to 50 ft down. I suppose the best way learn where they are is to go fishing!

I'll be fishing throughout the fall on Lake Michigan - weather permitting, but I noticed that the water surface temps have decreased to 58 degrees already in the Holland area, and I expect they will decrease to the mid to low 50's in a week or so. Where would I start looking for steelies and salmon? Out in 200+ fow or right on the beach (probably steelies only)? Any tips? I typically spread my baits where I think the productive water might be, so in the colder water I'd be running mono lines near the surface, but also running long coppers and deep riggers.