jdh

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.

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 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.

Oops. I meant 5/10 am.

Couldn't really get anything going in shallow. Water had warmed up to just over 50 degrees. Did pick up a lake trout in 35 fow on a 3-color with a green/orange spoon. Any tips on getting browns on a day like today? Beautiful day on the water! -JDH

Went out solo and decided to make several passes from 40-70 fow, south of the pier heads and didn't mark a single fish on the graph. Is the water just too cold yet? So I gave up on that and put a couple thinfish down trolling into the channel. That worked as I promptly picked up a 28" walleye. That's my biggest eye, beating my previous best by 6 inches. I figured that was enough luck for the night and headed in. -JDH

First time fishing in the WMFL. Thanks to Blood Run Tackle for sponsoring the event. Also thanks to Jon Marvin for organizing. Thanks to my friend Jim for driving across the state this morning to give me a hand, and thanks to Jeremy for responding to my rider request on Friday. After a couple laps in the channel we ended up heading out around 7:00 am and saw most of the boats heading south so I turned and headed north. Fished 5-20 fow. Turned around after an hour and trolled south until getting 6 fish in the box and then pulled lines and headed in - it was a little to0 rough for us out there. Ended up 6 for 9 or so all browns, including two of the biggest browns I've ever caught (big one coming in at 11.7 lbs). NW troll took most of the hits. Now for what worked: Brads thin fish, Storm Thin Fins, and a Lemonberry Mini-Streak. And the fish: Never thought we would take first this week in the WMFL, and probably never would have without all the reports and advice I've learned on this site. -JDH