jdh

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.

I left my jacket hanging in the station about 12:30 today - at the DNR launch. Jacket has been retrieved. Can this post be removed? -JD

I did decent last October fall fishing out of Holland and Grand Haven. There was still a thermocline last fall though. If you were thinking about heading out soon, I did get several steelhead a week or ago off of Holland in 200-250 fow. Most of those fish were in the top 50 fow.

See my report in the Lake Michigan section: http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36980

I haven't. But I do have some in my pike fishing box. I'll try it. I gave up on the salmon this past Sunday am and managed 5 steelies and 1 coho going 3.6 mph. Most of the steelies were caught in 65 degree water too.

I can't make it next weekend. Going to hopefully be pulling up a few coho out of Platte Bay.

Gave up on the kings after about 2 hours. Went deep and ran superslims and some plugs. 5-5 on steel. 1 coho. 4 snall kings. 16" laker (released). Purple & black SS spoons down deep. Yellow/chartreuse colors up high. Also had a Lyman plug (black/yellow) go 20' down on the rigger while setting a slider. 200 cu, 7 color, rigger @ 20', rigger @ 70 ft, rigger @ 20, 400 copper, 7 color w/ 8 oz torpedo weight back an additional 100 ft or so behind the board., 3.5-4.0 mph at the ball. NW / SE troll was best. 210-250 fow straight out to a little north of Holland.. Overall managed a good morning even though the big kings were uncooperative. -JDH

A double trip quickly turns into a very long day! I got up around 3 am and got home around 1 am. Needless to say, I was a little tired all day yesterday. As long as i'm out there, I might as well put both trips in though. I kept the speed down this time Bob. I've been running 2.2-2.4 lately. I'll wait for the water to cool down in October - then you'll be seeing me running 4+ mph looking for steel or whatever else wants to bite!

Made a double trip of the day going out in the morning, and again in the evening. We found the fish very eager to bite in the am. The evening turned out quite poor comparably. AM Trip: 10-12 We started setting lines in 80 fow slightly south of of the pier heads and began swinging between a SW/W/NW troll pattern. We got our first fish in 100 fow around 6:30. 2nd in 110. Missed one in 125. 3rd, 4th, and 5th came in 130. Turned north in 160 and we quickly got the 6th, 7th, and 8th fish and another miss. Made a turn in and turned back west in 125 fow. Slow until we got our 9th fish in 180 fow. Turned back east and picked up our tenth in 160 feet on. Overall we had 6 kings, 2 coho's, 1 steelie, and 1 laker. We let the smallest king go (3-4 lbs?) and the laker go as he looked under 20 inches. What worked: 2-3. Rigger @ 65 ft -standard size flounder pounder 1-1. Rigger @ 90 ft - mag double trouble 1-1. 200 Copper - mag orange flounder 2-2. Mag Diver back 165 - kevorkian spin doctor & white fly 2-2. Mag Diver back 150 - 10" chrome frog SD w/ meat rig whole alewife 0-1. Standard Diver back 250 (on 3.5) - BW blue dot UV meat w/ herring strip 1-1. Rigger @ 110 ft - mag orange carbon 1-1. Rigger @ 65 ft - lemonberry mini-streak PM Trip: 1-4 Couldn't get anything going. Tried Deep/Shallow/Fast/Slow/N/S/E/W. What got hit: 0-1 Rigger @ 100 ft - Blue Bubble SD 0-1 Mag Diver back 150 - 10" chrome frog SD w/ meat rig whole alewife 0-1 Mag Diver back 165 - kevorkian spin doctor & white fly 1-1 Rigger 65 feet - standard size flounder pounder Overall a great day. The big ones should be showing up near the pierheads soonish right? Tight lines everybody.

Great tip Chasin! I'll give it a shot sometime. I've been fishing slow with meat lately, but if I fish for steelies and next years salmon later this fall, I'll probably be speeding things up again.

King Possible is in.

Fished Saturday & Sunday mornings and then Thursday evening south of Holland. Went 6-6, 6-7, and 4-9 respectively. Sunday was all big fish. Meat rigs. Flasher flies. Mag Divers on 1/2. 125 - 150 back early. 150-225 back after the sun was up. 100-140 back Thursday evening. All had glow something. Most had green on the flasher. 10" spin doctors. Meat rigs in UV & glow. White flies with some blue. 80-140 fow every trip. 2.3 speed at the ball. WNW/NW & SE/S troll direction.

If you have decent reels now, but they are older and the drags are worn, you can replace the drag washers. Sounds like a lot of people like the drags Tuna Tom's carries. You can find their store online.

I run 3-4 boards a side sometimes. I haven't had a fish hit the outside board and tangle with an inside board yet. Just try to keep them separated by 20 ft or more horizontally (let more line out on the outside board) I currently run Walleye Boards.

I use a section (about 50 feet) of 30 lb bloodrun's yellow flourocarbon backing behind the leadcore, and I also use Walleye boards. The heavier line will help prevent break off's near the board. New Addiction added some good information - especially about inspecting the pads/clips. I set my boards to NOT trip. This way if a fish breaks the leader, you can still retrieve the board (it won't slide off). But if you do this, you might want to upgrade to 15 or 20 lb leader material. As to running more than 1 board on a side - listen to Fowlpursuit - "ALWAYS be sure your deepest lines are towards the inside and your higher lines to the outside or you will have a mess." And pretty much you just let more line out so the board swings farther away from the boat. As to copper vs leadcore, a lot of people love to run a 250 to 300 copper. It depends what length of leadcore you are running, but I like running a full core and a seven color on one side of the boat, and then running a 300 copper and a 200 copper on the other side of the boat. I would also suggest trying to find someone who fishes a lot of core/copper and see their setup. A lot of this information I've picked up from guys I've fished with, or have fished with me on my boat. Good luck out there. -jdh

What type of boards are you using, and what pound test backer?

Good skeins in both fish. I would assume that means they're hitting the river this fall.

Fished 5 pm until 10 pm and ended up 4-5 with 1 lake trout, 1 coho, and 2 kings. We started slightly north of Holland in 100 fow and started marking lots of fish. I was running mostly flasher flies and meat rigs, and the fish were coming up to inspect but I couldn't get any to hit those. Tried various directions and speeds - the current was pretty strong. We hit all our fish around 100 - 120 fow. What worked: Mag Streak Blue Dolphin - Full Core - NE troll 2.3 mph at the ball. Lake Trout. Moonshine Mag (yellow edges?) - Full Core - NW troll 2.7 mph. Laker? (Lost this one - and found strip of mouth flesh on the spoon) Moonshine Flounder Pounder - Downrigger @ 50 ft. S troll 3.3 mph. Coho Moonshine Mag (yellow edges?) - Full Core - S troll 3.0 mph. King. Moonshine RV Std Bloody Nose - 200 Copper - E troll @ 3.7 mph. King. Both kings were mature fish, but only about 8 lbs or so. -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