jdh

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.

My observations from this summer: Spoons/Lures: After the morning bite slows down, speeding up with superslim spoons run in the 3.6 - 4 mph range (probe) has really helped put several more fish in the box, and has saved a few fishing trips from ending up with very few fish. Superslims work great at high speeds but what about other spoons? I've tried a variety of other spoons in the 3.6 to 4 mph range, but not had any luck. however, I have gotten BLL, Silverstreak & Moonshine lures to be productive up to 3.4 mph or so. I've occasionally run a flasher-fly or a meat rig fast, and had luck on the meat rig, but nothing on flasher-fly combos. I did check on my last trip and noticed that at fast speed the spin doctor rotation really tightens up (smaller circles). I also noticed that in order to get the right action on a fly, the leader would have to be shorter than normal. Next time out I'll try running a few shorter leader lengths to the fly and report my results. Based on what I saw a 14" to 18" leader might be about right. 22" or longer and the fly was just dragging along. Colors: Orange has not worked well near up high since the water warmed above 60 degrees. I still would run at least 1 orange lure though. Greens & Yellows / Mixed Veggies / Jager Bomb up high, with greens & blues mid range & longer leadcores & up to 300 copper. Blues, purples, & black lures on the riggers deeper than 60 feet & on 300 to 400 coppers. LEMON ICE - Killer spoon this year on sunny days on a 100, 150, & 200 copper - best luck on the 200 copper. Also occasionally worked on riggers - mostly down deep (but I never really ran it up high on the rigger). RASPBERRY DOLPHIN - Took a fish almost every trip I put it out. Riggers deeper than 70 feet. Species: Steelies are the most common, but when I was around kings & coho I would get them too. Possibly my biggest king this year came on a raspberry dolphin superslim down 90 on the rigger in 180 fow. Also surprisingly to me many of the lakers I got this year came on the fast program. Most of the salmon came on the riggers or 300 & 400 coppers. Delivery Method: COPPER & LEADCORE: 100, 150, 200, 300, & 400 copper were almost always out there. 3 color (water below 60 degrees) 5 color, 7 color, 10 color Riggers run deep - 65 feet down or deeper - remember at fast speeds there is a decent amount of blowback. Picked up a few fish running the balls down 110-140 feet (who knows how deep they actually got), but the best combo was 1 at 85 ft & 1 @95 feet. Free & fixed sliders also took multiple fish. Divers tended to pull too hard, but I did catch a few fish while running the regular size slide divers. Trolling Direction / Plan: If I started the morning in 70-100 fow, I would pull lines and run out to 180 fow and setup out there. If I started the morning in 100-140 fow, I would just keep travelling out on my best troll direction of the morning. I picked up several fish between 140 & 200, but the best fishing was often out past 200. If I had 1 bite here and there I would keep going. If I had a few bites nearby I would circle around after about 10 minutes without a bite and troll right back through where I got the fish. Best troll direction if I got on top of the fish - any direction. When looking for fish, the best direction was NW or SW. Well, I hope this helps some people out - I know this website has helped me out tremendously. Tight lines everybody. -jdh

Jacket retrieved.