2MD

great photo and thanks for the report

nice work and good to know they were chewing good north of Holland too! always kinda a suckers bet knowing where to setup.

The trips are all starting to rhyme and blend together - kids & PUG were doing math on the way in last night and Parker is 71 for 136 on our last 5 trips out... The boat needs a good cleaning and the gear needs a refresh that is for sure! Anyways, here is what PUG figured out last night: Fish were all still heavily concentrated in that 75-90fow. Started eating right away on the set where we had a triple. Went on like this pretty much all night although fish did take a 45min break at 8pm which was strange but allowed pug to relax and take a much needed nap. After dark is when it got super wonko and bites were coming in non-stop. For example, we had 15 bites between 9.30PM-10.15PM. PUG's ratio was crap but we went at it “guts and glory” as usual and ran a lot of stuff risking and experiencing tangles but brought the cavalry with us so we could max out rod count. What a hoot! One of these times they are gonna stay hooked and PUG is gonna score his desired 6 man limit! South and Southeast troll was good but we had to have a 3.1-3.4mph ground speed to get them to eat. North troll and Northeast troll also produced magically well but again the groundspeed had to be between 2.9-3.4mph. That was the sole determining factor for us getting hits last night... we had to be running so fast that the dipseys were leaking a little on both sides. Copp150 – green ladder jplug (went 3 or 4 times) Copp200 – moonshine blue spoon (went 6 or 7 times) Copp250 – moonshine blue spoon (went 5 or 6 times) Copp300 – ratchet jaw moonshine spoon (went twice) Copp350 – moonshine spoon (went 2 or 3 times) Deep Diver out 115 – moonshine flounder pounder (went 3 times and one time actually broke the hook on a pitch black screamer) High Diver out 200 – yellow meat rig (went once) High Diver out 200 – white and blue 8” paddle (went 4 times) Riggers with sliders down 42-57 – moonshine spoons (pretty much took all the rest of the bites – “dancing anchovy” was best for sure) Every rod took fish except for the port side Copp150 running mag moonshine jackal which left PUG in disbelief because that thing had been hit a dozen times already in the 4 trips prior. HIGHLIGHT: trolling next to our original Parker year 2011 off the sliders - so cool that Matt was out there and absolutely crushing em on that legendary vessel with his kids! If the guys who manufacturer these boats in the outer banks of Carolina could have been out there with a drone they could have really enhanced their marketing campaign

PUG left Holland at around 6pm when there were 3+ footers come out of the north with the 20knot north wind so had no choice but to run south. Hadn’t fished down by Saugatuck for a while anyway… Fished just in that 70-90FOW pretty much all night. South troll till we passed Saugatuck and then later a north troll back to about the sliders. Currents were tricky. Had to be crawling with ground speed when running south and ripping fast on the north but both worked. PUG helped us score our 3 man limit. Wish we would’ve had another kid onboard because we had easily 30 bites and ended up letting some go because just 3 of us and 9 rods tonight – could’ve gotten a 4 man limit. Had 4 doubles and 3 triples it was chaotic but a lot of fun. Every rod we ran got hits. Copper150, Copper250. Copper300 (all with moonshine spoons). Riggers both the main bait sliders were hot too (moonshine spoons with BLUE being a really good color tonight) Dipsey went off nonstop too all night. Kept changing baits on the dipsey but anything from meat to a big white paddle and then you guessed mag size moonshine spoon went a bunch after sunset. Best rigger depths were 47 down but then later into the evening they were nipping sliders and baits higher up.

tricky currents and the bite slowed at least down by Holland pug fished mainly off Geneva again 5for9 was the final count I think pug aspired for better but it was good enough and a beautiful night out there first 4 bites come in that 83-87fow zig zagging and switching between east and west troll - copp200 went and also rigger down 60 - later dipsey meat went but came off - copp300 went a few times with rachet jaw spoon too after sunset got one on rigger slider again and maybe one on dipsey pug cant remember - lost 2 huge ones that were just screaming... the first was high dipsey out 155 in 65fow mag moonshine flounder pounder original and the second was a copp150 silver horde green glow jplug again in 65fow captain Rilee from GH gave us a helpful tip right coming into sunset and that was to troll north at 3.1 to get them to eat and indeed that worked better

beautiful fish thanks for the report!

thanks guys flies weren't bad thankfully we didn't weigh any but had many matures two of them were probably 18 knocking on 20 and most in that 13 to 15 pug would've loved to have met the one on the deep diver that ran out 480 and went through both the copp300 and copp250 and came off

PUG set lines at around 7pm out off Geneva in 90fow most boats were fishing deeper pretty much caught fish all night in that 75-102fow range with 88fow being the very best direction of troll didn't seem to matter much tonight but PUG had us running mainly north and south added a handful more after dark with the last one we netted being at 10.34pm PUG desired a 4 man limit and nearly got it but time was up! Bummer PUG lost so many. Kid you not... one of our high diver meat rig rods literally had 8 fish come off (need to revisit the type of hook on that one) Parker ran pretty much what she always does - spoons and boards didn't work good at all until about sunset. The first 10 salmon mainly came on either meat rigs on dipseys or spindocter fly. We also got a decent one on jplug on rigger. As night set in though then the boards like copp150, copp300, and copp350 started barking nonstop with spoons (pretty much all moonshine mag variations). Tonight there was fish down super deep eating and then also a batch up top pigging out. One time out of tunnel coming into sunset we passed a bait ball of alewife on the surface and right there next to the boat a 10-12 pound king skied out in the air gorging on them. Anyways, the point is that the middle like range like 45-65 down did not produce for PUG for whatever reason. on the 20260707_201842.mp4 20260707_222505.mp4

I still can't he believe he stayed out there - haha Alumi-Nati and Parker were racing in 40mph+

great report and good golly them were some less than ideal conditions to troll in! very impressive you stuck it out and wish the sunset bite would've shown up to reward you for your resilience (PUG made us bail and head in at around 730pm)

if the weather cooperates may try again tomorrow night - Happy 4th everyone!

12for22 off Holland which was better than PUG expected considering he got a late start. all action was in that 103-117fow except mongo skam/steelhead in 90fow pretty much every rod got hit mutiple times so I am not gonna get way into bait names and stuff like that (hint we run a wide assortment of moonshine spoons mainly) north and east troll produced but south troll was best so that was our focus going straight into the waves... highest rod to go was copp150 with bluefairways spoon (that was the big steelhead) riggers were on fire but for whatever reason they just wanted the sliders tonight copp250 barked once copp300 went 5 times and PUG lost just a screamer once that was aiming to empty the reel copp350 went at least 3 times dipseys were a bit disappointing because we had high hopes for meat rig pigs but they only went twice probably could've landed more but the storm and lightening off sliders spooked PUG near thee end

thanks for the report

fishing has been reportedly terrible - oldest son won the GH Pro Tourney on Fowl Hooked on Thursday so congrats to him and Captain Sam - these guys had to run 40 miles to get into quality fish though - PUG salutes you on your success! nonetheless, left PUG and the gang scratching our heads on what to try on Friday night though - ended up getting a later start but setup way down in Saugatuck mud - picked up a fish or two there in that 38-46fow but we weren't breaking records so we slid out slowly as the night went on - deepest we fished was 106fow off sliders ended up 7 for 10 bloody nose spoons worked quite well (thanks FBD for the rec) and went on dipsey out 120 and also rigger 5color went nice steelhead on what I think was fireball spoon (actually our biggest fish of night) happy meal went on copp200 have to check with the boys but there was a 3color rip on some tangerine spoon and then all the rest of the bites were rigger and especially sliders so that made em in that 50-55 down where they were chowing West and NW troll was all they would eat on for us Sadly, no huge Chinook although I lost one that was probably 12pounds when the hook pulled coming into netting (again that was rigger slider) 20260529_190343_001.mp4

welcome back

the BAIT sure was ultra -present as we pushed into and thru Holland channel in that thick fog - probably should've just fished in tight all night - one of my sons woke up early and went back with a cast net and loaded up early this morning - oh to be young and never have to sleep!

PUG setup in 140ish on a SW troll and hit like 6 bites right on the set so we all thought it was gonna be a banger of a night ended up 9 for 18 or something like that deepest we trolled was 175 problem we ran into was all the fish out deep were kinda small and FBD reported some bigger ones in that 50-70 fow so we eventually trolled in which was a conducive decision with the fog as thick as it was pretty much all the quality action came in the top 40 feet rigger with a half a meal moonshine spoon was best down 38 half cores went several times copp150s sounded off too high dipsey lost a good one twas a slow ride in and back to the dock on far east side of Macatawa as the fog only intensified as the night went on 20260524_214513.mp4 20260524_214328.mp4

what a haul - nice work

thanks for the report Littleboat

haha thanks guys - cheers to the beginning of another season - Zgrinder it sounds like you have been busy - 8 days in NOLA had to have been nuts! was there with a couple of my boys for a sailboat regatta back in November but just for 2 nights - when the sun goes down that town is no place for children or pug

11 for 14 off Holland on Sunday night – first trip out on Parker here in 2026 Blue Flounder was our best bait on rigger 50 down Yellow Gobie on Copp150 went 3 or 4 times too Trolled 190-110 fow – started deep and zig zagged in all night Only 3 or 4 of the Salmon were mature Got rough coming into sunset as the storm came in just like they forecasted Flies were MURDER despite it being cold out there with the surface temp 49 degrees PUG questioned his decision of returning to Michigan here in May and wonders if he should have stayed in Florida another 3 or 4 weeks catching Tarpon