jdh

I'm new at this, but I have already found several pieces of "structure" fishing in the Holland area (especially when fishing shallower the 130 fow). I have found some of these are places I like to be when the currents are from certain directions. One thing I've tried is working a NW or a SW direction until I start marking fish, then I'll start working a NNW/NNE or SSW/SSE to try and stay near the same depth.

Its probably easier if the water has warmed up near shore because then I try and start out where the water is around 44 degrees on the bottom (checking with a probe). With all the cold water like right now - I don't really know what to do.

Read Dan Keating's book about how to locate fish. It has some pretty interesting stuff in it.

Fished Saturday and Sunday mornings. Saturday was much better than Sunday bite wise.

On Saturday we fished the Dreamweaver Charity Tournament and went 4-7 (I think at least 5 were kings and maybe 1 steelie that got away. We fished from about 5 am until 10:30 am and found all of our bites a couple miles north of the piers in 90-110 fow with NW & NE trolls. Best speed was 2.5 mph at the ball. Thanks to Jeremy and Andrue for fishing with me.

Mag DW Green Skinny Jeans - 150 copper went 2 for 4.

Superslim jawbreaker on a 3 color took 2 fish.

We took another hit on a 200 copper with a DW standard size gold/copper colored spoon with UV tape.

Too bad I mentioned that we hadn't lost any fish after the first run - and promptly lost the next 2 fish after really them in halfway! The 4 fish we caught were kings with the big fish weighing in at 17.9 lbs.

On Sunday I went out with kid coulson and ended up having a really slow morning. Nothing from 6:30 to 10:30 in 60 to 120 fow. We decided to change things up running deep with my superslim fast program. That didn't work either but we did lose a big fish on the rigger down 90 ft in 200 fow on a rasberry dolphin. I was kicking myself because we started marking a lot of big fish down deep (from 100 feet to 150 feet down) but I left my meat rigs and all my flasher/flies at home. Though we were going home with my first real skunk of the year, but while pulling lines a nice steelhead hammered the slide diver setup as I was reeling it in. This fish hit a clarkspoon (east coast mackerel spoon) that was going maybe 8-10 mph on the retrieve. So we got the skunk out of the box last second!

I won't be fishing for the next little while - but hopefully good numbers of big kings will show up soon!

Until next time, tight lines everybody.

-JDH

Fished from 7 pm to 10:30 pm north of Holland between 100 and 160 fow. Ended up 3-3. In order - 1 steelhead, 1 laker and 1 king (15 lbs). We were hoping for a few more kings as it got dark...

Full Core, Moonshine Halfmoon Dingo Spoon

North Troll 2.5 mph.

Mag Wire Diver @ 1.5 back 150 ft, Chrome/Kevorkian Spin Doctor, white/blue fly

Southwest Troll 3.0 mph

Full Core, same spoon as above

East Troll 2.0 mph

Thanks again to Kid Coulson for coming along. It was a great night to be on the water.

-jdh

Thanks to Big Weenie for sponsoring the event, and thanks to Jon Marvin for organizing.

We started out north of Holland in 90 fow and worked a NW troll out to 130. We picked up 2 fish here - 1 king and 1 coho. After getting no more bites from 130-150 we started on a W or WSW. I started to speed things up and switch to superslim spoons on several line and picked up 1 steelhead and 1 lake trout in 180 fow. After switching to superslims turned to SW and S trolls, picking up our big fish of the day, a 19 lb king, and another steelhead. Overall we went 6-8.

Thanks to Jim and Jon for coming along.

Jon with the big king

What worked

Great job Chandler. Way to get into em!

Late report but here you go:

Fished 8:30 -10:30 PM north of the pierheads. NNW troll from 90 fow to 125 fow. 2.2 mph at the ball. Went 4-5 with 2 lakers, 1 king and 1 steelhead.

What worked:

Wire Dipsey Mag @ 1.5 out 175 - Chrome/Kevorkian SD with white/blue glow fly (1 for 2, Laker)

Rigger @ 75 ft - 11" glow/uv slick paddle with white/blue glow fly (Laker)

200 Copper - Moonshine Halfmoon Green Slice (King)

400 Copper - Moonshine Halfmoon Dingo (Steelhead)

Good results for only 2 hours of fishing. The king also had a little bit of size to him so that was nice too. Best part of the night was when the king hit and it was my cousin's turn to pull in the fish - her first salmon. I don't think she will forget it for a while.

Almost there - ok not really!

Great job Andrea!

I switched one of my rigger wires to a 300 ft spool of Mason Multistrand Leader Wire in 125 lb test. If you aren't bouncing bottom you could probably even get away with the 90 lb test. The smaller diameter really helps.

http://www.masontackle.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=145

You do have to slow down to get them in, but I have also noticed that I get some bites as soon as I speed back up after landing a fish.

guys i think he understands and has the speed thing down he is catching fish and only trying what he describes above when the fish shut off. wich i give credit for i think most would say ok the morning bite shut off the fish are getting into a negative mood lets SLOW down. good for trying something different. i think longer leads on the paddles would be better for going that fast. i am not sure how fast the regular size warrior spoons will troll but i know the flutter spoons they make will approach that speed range maybe look at prokings also.

gmfishon has it right. I've been speeding way up once the bite slows down. I'll give the regular pro-kings a try as well as look into some flutter spoons. I have some spoons that they use out west behind flashers as well. I know this type of fishing is more geared towards shallower colder water.

If I try it again this year I will put out a few spin doctors with 36" and 48" leads to see if that does something.

BTW having a 10lb + steelhead or king hit at 4 mph is quite a thrill.

Thanks for the replies.

I've been experimenting a bit when the first light bit dies by putting out dreamweaver superslims and speeding up to around 4 mph at the ball. (Only tried this on sunny days). I've had decent success picking up steelhead, coho, some kings, as well as a few couple lakers. I've also gotten a few nice kings on a 300 or 400 copper pulling a spin doctor with meat at that speed too!

So my questions are as follows:

Are there any other larger spoons I can run that might get me a few more king bites?

If I were to add in some flasher-fly combinations - do you think a longer leader to the fly - perhaps 4 or 5 times the length of the paddle would work? (Probably would only run the 8" SD's at this speed)

Let me know if you have any tips for this high speed trolling. Thanks!

-JDH

Count the King Possible in.

Took some visitors from overseas out fishing last night for a quick trip. Trolled around for an hour with nothing - and then I cranked up the speed. Running NE at 3.5 at the ball ended up 4-4 in only 30 minutes. 125-100 fow.

What worked:

2-2 On a Slide Diver set on 4 out 85 ft - moonshine halfmoon blue/chrome spoon.

1-1 On a slide diver set 4 out 65 spin doctor glow crush & green spots with a chrome/white tinsel fly and glow beads

1-1 on 150 cu with moonshine bloody nose mag.

I would be interested in seeing if there is a difference between the two when trolling flasher/fly setup. Maybe the 45 lb would go a little deeper in that situation.

The King Possible is in.

-jdh

Nice Jim. Get to the fish quickly!

Started out in the dark as I had other stuff to attend to in the afternoon. We fished 80-110 fow on a SW/SE troll pattern and ended up 6/7 in 4 hours. All kings between 6 & 13 lbs. 2.7-3.1 mph at the ball.

What worked in the dark:

Rigger @25 ft - Flounder Pounder standard - 1-2

Slide Diver back 60 ft - Wonderbread Spin Doctor with a white glow fly - 1-1

7 Color - Moonshine Bloody Nose mag - 1-1

What worked after sunrise:

300 Cu - Silver Streak Blue Dolphin Mag - 3-3

A couple of notes:

- 3 of our 4 bigger fish came on the copper.

- It looked pretty busy out in 110-160 fow - so I'm glad we found a few fish away from the crowd. Hoping to get back out on Tuesday.

-People threatening fist fights at the dock over the radio - please grow up.

-JDH

Fished in the WMFL and had a great day.

We started out near Saugatuck in 60 fow trolling SW (2.7 at the ball) and had three fish in the box quick. A big steelhead and two smaller kings. Then we turned and trolled NW/NE cutting through 80 fow but got nothing to go - even though we marked a bunch of fish. After an hour of nothing I checked the coastwatch surface temp map and decided to run deep. At 250 fow we hit a temp brake and scum line. We changed all shallow lines to orange super slims and the deeper lines to purple super slims - and didn't get anything until I bumped up the speed to 3+ mph. Then it was on. We got 2 kings and 4 steelhead in the next 40 minutes before deciding to turn east. I bumped up the speed at 4.5 mph at the ball and we got 2 more steelhead in the box as we were pulling lines. What a blast fighting all those steelhead - and what great weather to allow the 17' boat to make that run.

Here's what worked:

We got our box weighed in, unfortunately I was running late for a wedding and couldn't wait for the results. Can anyone tell me how we did?

Lets see how quickly the summer weather and water conditions set in as I've got to put the boat away for a few weeks now.

Tight lines everybody.

-JDH

Started South in 120 fow and quickly picked up 1 steelhead & 1 small king (both on 3 color & thin fish). Turned NW and didn't mark any fish unt 170 fow. We hit a double on meat rigs in 180 on divers back 250&280 feet.

That was it. We did mark a ton of fish out in 175-185. Mostly 70 feet down.

Thanks for the tip. I've been fishing several times in the past week and have had very good luck from 90-150 fow for salmon. I have not tried for steelhead - although I have managed to catch a few anyways.

I have not posted any reports recently as the ones out of Holland pretty much have covered whats going on - lots of fish being caught.

Thanks for the info! I'll see what I decide to try. Planning to fish Sunday & Monday.

I generally fish out of Holland

I'm thinking about heading out to deep water for the first time this year to maybe try my luck at a few steelhead or whatever else I may find out there. I was thinking about running boards and high divers, as well as some deep rigger presentations.

Is this something people are doing already, or is the lake too cold?

Or are people just waiting for someone to try, and to report back?

From the surface temperature map it looks like 38 degree surface water is sitting about 10 miles out.

Thanks Dave. The King Possible is in.

Got up late. Got to the launch late. Fished 9 to 12. 3-3 with two smaller kings and a big one pushing 20 lbs. Fish caught in 40-50 fow trolling south.

Rigger down 20 with BLL Hog Wild.

Rigger down 10 with UV Yellow Sparkler SD & White/Chartreuse Fly (Hit while adding fixed slider).

3 color with Stinger orange spoon with pink dots & UV tape (name?)

Good morning overall on the water.

Thanks Bob for having me along. That boat is really nice.

No real big fish, but big enough to put up a nice fight.

Looks like I'll be out solo in the AM. Have to pull lines at 10:30 though.