2MD

Water was still freezing cold & lake had flattened so PUG felt inclined to give it a try again. Set lines at around 6.45AM. Beautiful morning out there but unfortunately we couldn’t dial them in the same way we had on Sunday morning. Ended up 2 for 5 on Kings Also, landed around 8 sheephead with two of them being super large, one measuring 29 inches and the other 32.75 inches Basically all of our king bites were on chrome read head. Fish were pressed in super close. For example the big one we got was in 11fow just a football field north of the north pier on a 1color Deepest bite was in 22fow We did run the channel but all that did was produce more sheephead Sorry LittleBoat that the kids had the music so loud I couldn’t hear you when we tried to communicate. Did you end up boating some kings? Passed by a guy trolling Holland channel on way in and he said he had landed 2 salmon so that is good to hear. Anyways, if some of you guys go tonight please report so we can try to figure out if the majority of em are already up river or what exactly is going on 20240910_080033.mp4 20240910_091113.mp4

also, multiple people informed PUG that his videos from the Monday night trip would not play on iPhones so here they are reattached in a different format this morning was similar to Monday night... lots of plants and quite a few males 20240902_202002.mp4 20240902_193114.mp4 20240902_204114.mp4 20240902_205328.mp4 20240902_203823.mp4 20240902_200420.mp4 20240902_185051_(1).mp4

17 for 30 tall seas especially while we were wrapping up and heading back to Holland all jplug and no flasher today - two dozen of the hits came on chrome red head plugs - they wouldn't touch green which was weird so eventually PUG just ran 5 chrome red heads water temp in the 50s yet they didn't come easy and PUG had to figure em out all action in that 14-18fow directly in front of piers or a tad south 20240908_112200_1.mp4 20240908_094644_1.mp4

PUG is now heading to Saugatuck - conditions are now perfect for the Season Opener - will report later today on results...

pug checked Holland Channel late morning today just did 2 passes dipsey popped once but we weren't marking squat in channel or Mac so we pulled and will return later

what a trip!

Congrats on the Master Angler award Kevin!

shoot yes they must have moved - wild PUG may give going tonight second thoughts now

PUG suspected that with fall in the air we had better check in on the Saugatuck mud this evening now that the gang is back from Isle Royale. PUG’s intuition served him well… 14for21 all in that 29-36fow with all bites taken in the actual mud itself (not the clean water) and most action being just south of the piers Large white paddle with green fly on dipsey without a ring out 62 probably got taken 8 times. JPlugs size 4 and up did the rest of the damage on 1color, 3color, and 5color (they wouldn’t touch the size3 plugs tonight for whatever reason). Did get one nice Chinook on a moonshine greenjeans hologram spoon in 35 fow with the rigger out 37 literally scraping the bottom. Several chunky mature Coho, lots of mature kings, one or two immature fish. The most unique part of this trip was that all of the mature Chinook were male and 7 of them were plants which is something we have not seen in several years… I guess this explains why none really tipped the charts in weight (apparently the DNR unfortunately uses scrawny nothing kings at the wier to gather spawn from so the DNA on the plants is innately a smaller fish we have seen in the last decade – almost all of the master angler kings we catch and get mounted are naturals). Regardless, such a great night out on the water though and lots of good action! Hoping some of the big mama mature hens start making the rounds. Could be tricky with water temps warming but PUG is determined to find out… 20240902_205328_1.mp4 20240902_200420_1.mp4 20240902_203823_1.mp4 20240902_204114_1.mp4 20240902_193114_1.mp4 20240902_185051_1.mp4 20240902_202002_1.mp4

solid night! seems like going out of PS was a good choice and that fish must of been setup in there south of GH

PUG had a super slow start and struggled to get em going tonight. Worked through and around the Saugatuck mud and even out to 60fow. Ice cold water but very few marks on the graph. Seemed like we weren’t the only ones scratching our heads, including the guys further out in that 70-120fow from chatter on the radio. Eventually after the sun went down we got some redemption with our program. Went 4for6. Boated a smaller king followed by 2 large matures and then a nice chunky coho and also lost 2 other large matures in the nightfall chaos. Rigger down 26 in 31fow – moonshine spoon 5color with with moonshine mag spoon – green jeans in 32fow Dipsey with glow jplug out 60 in 34fow 5color with moonshine mag spoon – green jeans in 37fow Dipsey with green splatter glow jplug out 69 in 38fow Rigger down 28 in 33fow – moonshine spoon Local buddy of mine in closer yet got em real good too on his 14footer. Also, ZGrinder had handful of fish earlier on and gave us some advice while we were searching and we sure appreciated that (we were fishing too deep apparently but we slid out because we weren't marking jack squat) Then another guy PUG knows off Holland apparently connected with a couple matures in that 70fow range after sunset deep down right off the bottom. Heading north to Isle Royale for a week with a bunch of the kids on Friday morning, so PUG is going to have to back off for a while. Leave a few for him when we get back! 20240821_205618_1.mp4 20240821_211052_2.mp4

ran out of Holland at 345am down to Saugatuck and setup in close, deciding to gamble there seeing as the lake flipped first fish was at 450am ended up 9for14 34-40fow south troll was mainly what worked wonderbread plug and chrome spindocter green fly and a handful of other plugs and moonshine spoons were what worked we suspect we would have done better out deeper in hindsight but it was a lot of fun and PUG was quite pleased full moon played a factor too on the sunrise bite 20240820_063231.mp4 20240820_063734.mp4

what a trip! thanks for the report

This sort of thing happens more often in Muskegon or Manistee with the arms around the pier. Not very common for Holland though. I honestly can sympathize for the guy and kinda picture how he might have made the mistake. That weather station (that we swear by in the fall) deep inside the Holland channel flickers green and because it is directly across from the lighthouse I suppose it could allow for someone mistaking it as the tip of the north pier? I don’t know… sad & scary situation and just glad everyone lived.

Sad & scary what we encountered leaving the pier heads this morning: https://whtc.com/2024/08/15/holland-woman-thrown-into-water-after-boat-crash-with-pier-head/ Thankfully no one drown or was killed in the crash! Setup in 150fow at around 7am Got a double in 158fow Took a 3 more hits in the hours that follow Ended up 4for5 Super high winds & current and the lake was really really building out of the south and that made it tricky, especially considering the fish we were targeting were down 90-130 A couple larger boats just kept trolling west but Parker stuck around… I wonder how they did? Sure was getting rough out there. What worked for PUG: 158fow Copp350 with an extra 200ft of mono let out at the end to get it down just a little more – kevins girlfriend SD blue version and blue fly – 18# king aka our biggest fish of morning 158fow Deep dipsey dialed on 1 out 190 on white SD greenfly 162fow Another on same SD 151fow Deep dipsey dialed on 3 out 290 wonder bread jplug (thanks for the color suggestion ZGRINDER!) 125fow White paddle on rigger down 120 Gonna be rough now til at least Monday but the lake should flip over, which makes PUG excited

thanks the super detailed report! PUG just woke up and is gonna give it a try here in about an hour before the weather goes fowl and will try to update later if anyone else is out off Holland radio Parker on 68

what a hoot! great job figuring em out - the secret recipe was down deep with plugs apparently... awesome!

my oldest son got these off the sliders this AM - he didn't have PUG but I do believe everything was 80-130ft down

PUG thanks you for the report strange setup with all this warm water for sure -- or maybe it is normal for August and we've just been spoiled

1for4 between 105fow-118fow direction = insignificant white paddle green fly = very good water warm top to bottom so best bet was to run riggers down 115 and low divers out 190 and high divers at 300 heartbreak because we fought and had 3 huge kings come off behind the boat each after 20min hook pulled big white paddle in rigger white spin dictor on deep diver glow green splatter jplug on copp300 after dark

great job especially considering all of the variables at play! thanks for the report. any idea of they are still going to have the Waypoint tourney this weekend in tall seas?