2MD

my son and I went 6 for 8 in the ripping offshore east wind out of Holland - setup in 80 fow at 7am and trolled out to 140 fow catching only a laker - over 50 other boats and looked like most guys went and stayed out deep just to get blown out deeper - we trolled east and back into 85 fow and fished that on a N and NW troll instead though and had 5 other hook ups. Few hours later when pulling lines we put the east wind behind us and slide out to 125-130 where we had a couple more go off.  Heartbreaking was the beast of a king we lost on copper 300 in 125fow after about a 20min fight.  Ended up with 4 salmon and 2 lake trout.  5color took one. Dipsey spin doctor went twice. Copper 300 went twicw. Riggers down 70-80 also took fish.

Thanks - we did not run a probe so not sure on a temp break - had very low expectations going into trip so just hit em with a wide spectrum running 12 rods - but again it seemed that the only bite was in that 60-75 down - we ran:

2 halfs

2 fulls

1 copper 300 hybrid*

1 copper 200

2 high diver braid 225 out

2 low diver braid 120 out ****

2 riggers 80-100 down

4 for 5

1 big mature king

1 3yr old king

2 lakers

all hits came between 7.30am-10.00am in 125-130fow just south of Holland off sliders

deep diver 120 out went four times green jeans spindoc fly

copper 300 went once, green jeans moonshine hologram 

they would only bite if we cut the current and waves and trolled SW which was challenging 

glad we got out this morning... were going to go tonight but oh baby that would've been bouncy!

had decided after last Friday that it was all good enough and time to be done for the year but then my buddy Bill trolled the kzoo mud at sunset last night and landed a 26 pounder so I had to try for a little while again tonight... not much moving around and jumping anymore... water warming a bit... duck weed was terrible..  caught some sheephead and after sunset in the pitch black fog had dipsey just get smoked and run out 300ft of line and fought what I was certain was a Chinook for about 20min only to encounter the largest flathead kitty we had ever seen when it came time for netting!  

last night mt buddy pulled a 26lber out of the mud right in front of Saugatuck - after Friday I told myself I need to just be done for the year but man its hard knowing the beasts are still out there! problem too now is I think water is warming along the shore which ought to bring any bite to a grinding halt...

nice work! boy you were a long ways out

after fueling up and dinner in Saugatuck with family took boat back around to holland and just had to try again on way out - was overwhelmed by sheephead bite doubles ans triples misery - ended up with a couple more decent ones though and kids were happy

today they were out a bit further in that 20-25 too..... jumpin all over... today it wasn't all dipseys but instead also orange board high lines 80 back with drop weights smoked em too... best plugs were size 4 and 5 green ladder and scaley green

4 for 7 off Saugatuck this Friday morning - same program as yesterday except kept a few on - a couple hogs!

trolled saugatuck again midday today but this time longer and had less kids with me - got 7 sheephead and a catfish - had 5 chinook on but somehow they all got off... usually after going airborn!?!?need to retire some of my old worn out jplug harnesses or at least sharpen everything apparently... funny and random video included here where I somehow captured one of our pierhead doubles and accidentally dropped my phone diving for the other dipsey! gotta love that sound of drags screaming

have the whole fam now with me now and we did the dunes and just got done making a couple passes on the saugatuck piers at 4.30pm - on pass number 3 right out front in 12fow a huge male just smoked the rigger- fought him for 20min we did only to have the heart break of having the jplug pull out! this one jumped completely out of the water 6 times and will long be remembered

1 for 3 trolling Holland Harbor with the kids today.  Once we learned that the kings weren't out front but instead deep into the channel and even into Lake Mac we did better and managed our big fish of the year and my son's largest ever (he reeled it in). 38.5 inch male weighing 23.5 pounds came on size 4 chrome red head jplug in 26 fow down 15 on rigger inside Lake Mac directly out from Parkside Marine at around 3.00pm.  

Moonshine Green Jeans Hologram version (pic attached)

4 for 6 last night the boys and I were - trolled 90-110fow from PS to Holland - lost nice kings on rigger 59 down that was a heartbreak - big steelhead copper 200 - solid coho mag dipsey 125back dialed on 2 - a couple lakers on copper 300

moonshine hologram green jeans best bait hands down - two years running

was out with the kids for the first time on TUES night - Aaron from Lakeshore Tackle said a guy before had 15 kings in 105fow on Mon night so despite it being June we hadn't been out at all this year and had to try.... off the sliders TUES night in 80-105fow we went 9 for 14 with 6 solid kings and 3 lakers - biggest king being just over the 20# mark - everything came on moonshine mag spoons with green jeans being the very best - lots of copper 200 action and 10 color action and also riggers in the that 40-50 down range - was a great start and had over 45 pounds of fillets to show for it

great job finding fish!

yesterday/Friday yet another and I fear our final fall fishing skunk trollin the Holland channel and pierheads for 2.5hrs - nothing like going out with a bang  oh well... a pretty certain sign the season is dwindling when my son netted a 40"+ completely spawned out and dead buck off the low dock along the seawall on the far east side of Macatawa.  Put the fall trolling gear away and will be looking forward to next year and while I suspect there will be less kings from planting reduction hopefully there are some REALLY big ones!

yep that was us fall fishing is always FUN but certainly a lot of work - fortunately my 11year is so good at pulling and deweeding and setting riggers, dipseys, and boards because without that it would be sheer chaos between tue sailboats and kayaks and channel floor snags...  I am always telling him what to do and not do but I swear I tangle things and make more mistakes than him out there!

Warm water and lots of weeds for me and my kids as we trolled the mud off Holland Thursday from 12noon-3pm. Only one release.  Lots of kings still jumping around in there... frustrating 

Thanks guys! And I will definitely shorten up my leads and run em deeper with the riggers.  Bummer there is only about a week left to try to tag the graduating class of 2017 four year old kings!

Kevin, maybe I am not running my plugs deep enough.  I normally only put the rigger down 9 or 10 feet but have em 80-100 feet behind the ball.  I have gotten jacksquat on plugs this year and maybe I am simply too high up.  Question: how far behind the ball do you run yours and are you normally size 4 or 5 or do you run smaller ones? Thanks, Ryan

good luck and let us know how you do on your outing - I am not sure what the wind will do this weekend but yes boat traffic is less especially with fisherman but holland still has so many sailboats - hopefully it will be calm enough where you can just make passes back and forth through the mud in front of the pierheads in that 22-35fow - trolling the channel itself is a hail mary suckers bet with boat traffic and all the weeds - today was especially bad with weeds with the east wind and go figure our hits came just outside the pierheads

we have luck running SpinDocters behind 5 colors and also off dipseys with the rings off em dialed to 3.5 with about 40 feet of braid out when trolling Holland's mouth - it was the dipseys that went this AM - last week got em deep in the channel on this same setup and in prior years even get em as far in macatawa as in front of Parkside Marina on the flashers.  Nothing like seeing a big king go airborn with a dipsey and flasher attached

and just your typical 8inch spindoctor with fly - blue bubble got it done this AM - also a green jeans spindoctor with a green fly

sorry meant SUNRISE - trolled from 6am-9am with nothing happening and then right before we were gonna head in tried flashers and boom they were there.  they were there all morning jumping all over just couldn't get em to bite until last 30min.