2MD

2 matures in the mudline just outside the pierheads in holland this AM. Ran plugs from an hour before sunset til 9am anf got no takers - turned out they wanted SpinDocters instead b/c switched to those and took one on each of our last two passes - dark males

that sounds like some fast and furious fall fishing - wish you had a youtube video of that trip - i remember back in 2004 hearing about a guy who went 30 for 40 in the Saugatuck mud - no joke

Buddy of mine checked Allegan Dam this morning and the tubes at the farm and both had salmon... this seems kind of early... another guy I know who lives downtown GR days they are showing up decent at 6th Street.

I hope Dr. Hook is not right but I fear he is... at least we got one yesterday though to remind us of tge ole days. We didn't weigh it... it wasn't that big just really long being a male. If I had to guess I bet it weighed somewhere in that 19-21# range and yes my son knows how to hold em out and trick the camera

the run has begun - Holland Harbor Had the boat out in West Olive overnight camping on the shore so come 10.30am the kids and I decided to troll on back to Holland to return the boat to the lift. We zig-zagged in that 30-40 fow the entire way running almost all flasher flies even on the cores but only got one release. We did see a big Chinook jump out of the water about off Riley Street so that was kind of neat. Anyways, when we got to the Holland pier heads at 1pm we seen the channel just full of boats and figured it to pretty much be a lost cause trying to troll since even without poles it was a nightmare circus squeezing through all the traffic. So we pulled all the orange boards in and just left out a couple riggers and dipseys. Then about 3/4 way through the channel where you get into the rocks on the southside our inside dipsey with 42 feet of braid out and a blue bubble spindoctor on it just got crushed. Big ole male. First big male we have taken of the season. An insane fight ripping out line and nearly getting run over by several clueless boaters. Eventually after fighting it well into Lake Mac we finally netted it while in neutral bobbing around in front of the old Piper Restaurant. How random and bizarre to catch this hog at high noon in the heat of the day with all the engine noise and commotion in the channel. The fall run of 2017 has begun. Let's cross our fingers and hope what we ran into today wasn't just a fluke but that this year will more closely resemble 2013/2014 verses 2015/2016 where the run was almost non-existent!

hey this is great info! thank you

plantings Anyone know what year it was that the DNR in effort to control fish population stopped planting chinook in Holland and Saugatuck? Just trying to gauge what the fall run may or may not entail this year... thank you

beautiful fish! way out and down deep they were - IMPRESSIVE I was out there last night too and workrd that 130-160 fow but didn't do as well... just 1 for 2

great job! that is a BIG one!

Thanks all of you who chimed in and responded. Hopefully, we have an actual "run" in Holland/Saug this fall and can get into more of them like this. Was out of town this spring but heard from many it was the best salmon fishing spring in 15-20 years so maybe things are on the up and up. Any of you remember the hogs of 2001? Shoot there were more Master Angler awards that year... good stuff!

holland 7-30 evening 1 for 3 tonight off Holland. The one we did get fought us for 1hr and 27min though and proved to be a beauty. 9 colors out in 105fow trolling south surface speed 2.6 with moonshine mag green jeans. Nearly spooled us running the orange board out about 800 feet. Eventually worked it back in and got board off 30min later. Then for the next hour went back and forth with the beast. 3 times we had all 10 colors of lead back on the reel only to have them run out completely again. Hooked into this thing north of spyglass in 105fow and when we finally netted it we were off the first slider and in 155fow. I've caught bigger kings but never one this strong. Weighed in at 25.3 pounds. Crazy thing about this fish was the girth... almost triangular it was so wide... thing only measure 36.75 inches. Anyways, the other 2 rips we had tonight also occured in 105fow. It seemed like 35-40 down was the happening range since the rigger inmediately fired once we worked back to 105fow. Half-core went at sunset too but that was short-lived.

Thanks guys... Choc lab puppy - finally starting to get some sea legs of his own and no longer pukes when we take him out

The older kids and I decided to venture out and fish since the lake had finally calmed down a little. It was not calm by any means but it was fishable. We had hard 4 to 5 footers out of the north crashing into us so we ran north into them and swung around and setup in 45 FOW off tunnel park and trolled south. Ended fishing for only about 50 minutes. Ran two high-lines with orange body baits. Ran 2 half core. Ran 2 full core. Ran 2 dipseys. 1 for 1 High-line orange board with jointed Rapala orange body bait. Our biggest steelhead of the season. Jumped at least 14 times and ran out the counter to 460 feet. The thing never really tired out on us and was even jumping behind the boat as we went to net it 20 minutes after hooking up. Beautiful fish. We did not weigh it because we could tell it wasn't master angler. It wasn't but a few years ago we managed a couple 12-15 pound steelies on this same setup but this year they just weren't as big. The head on the thing was monstrous but it looked kind of starved and anorexic. Fun time and felt good to be back out there. Wish it wouldn't have been so rough!

My 11yr old and my 9yr old and I left lake Mac mid-afternoon today and shot down to Saugatuck with the waves crashing behind us. We were hoping to find some late run mature fish swimming in the cold water out in front of the piers since this run had been so late and strangely different than in years past. Ended up going 7 for 8 making passes in front of the pierheads. All fishing and action occured in 16-25 FOW. South troll was a piece of cake but north troll was a little tricky with the waves and wind howling. 1st fish - Salmon (actually came on our first pass) - scaley green size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board 2nd fish - Steelhead - mtn dew coyote flasher fly on braid dipsey dialed to 3 with 31 feet of line let out 3rd fish - Brown - chrome red head size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board 4th fish - ???? shook off - moongoose size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board 5th fish - Salmon - blue green spin doctor on braid dipsey dialed to 3 with 34 feet of line let out 6th fish - Brown - chrome red head size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board 7th fish - Salmon - moonshine happee meal with red tail spoon on 4 color 8th fish - Salmon - green ladder size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board (this one was big and fought hard - it was why we went down there - it was about 45min after sunset and we were pulling lines - I had even taken the orange board off this line and was reeling the plug in at a decent clip when all of a sudden out of nowhere the king hit!) This may have been our last fishing trip for the year. It has been a decent year for us. Even though the salmon count is admittedly down to 25% of what it was in year 2012 for example it was still a blast to be out on the water with the kids. Here is a really good article I found today that summarizes the problems the fishery is facing and the approach being taken by the DNR. This by the way is the article which states that the salmon count this year was indeed down to 25% of what it was previously: http://www.9news.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/30/salmon-population-drops-michigan-great-lakes/73078686/ Anyways, interesting... looking forward to next year whatever it brings! Good luck everyone.

Great job - glad to hear you found em again.

Fishing in front of the harbor remains mediocre at best. That has not stopped us though. A couple of the kids and I went out on the duck boat at sunrise. Fished for 4 hours and managed 3 big kings and a handful of sheephead. First beast was right at sunrise on rigger 6 down (80 feet back) on scaley green LuhrJenson J-plug Second hog was about an hour later on 4 color with forest green spin-doctor and green fly Third screamer came on mono dipsey 44 back with green spin-doctor and fly at about 10.30am Only saw one other king fought by another boat and it looked like it got off. Saw a couple times where the net dipped on the north pier but not sure if it was sheephead or not. It was a bummer that the little northern gale quit so early and the lake temp didn't roll over. Oh well... onward and hopefully they keep showing up. For whatever it is worth all 3 of the pigs we landed were full of eggs (so maybe the run is really just that late and the males will start staging next).

The kids and I saw you out there that morning. It was a beautiful morning yesterday and an especially beautiful sunrise. Too bad fishing was pretty poor! We seen 1 king caught on the north pier at sunrise. As for us we got up at 3.45am and got out there and dragged moonshine jplugs through the dirty & clean water out front for a couple hours even before the sunrise. It was a gamble and I should have known better that with the warmer water temp it would not pay off. We went 1 for 2. Caught a king on a half-core with monshine mongolian beef. Missed just a hog of a king that creamed one of our orange board high lines that happened to be one of my older Okuma MAG45 reels where the drag does not always work apparently and get this the thing nearly broke the pole and eventually the line and ran off into the waves with our orange board and the whole deal! Salt on the wound for getting up so early and battling the solid 3 footers in darkness for hours. We will make them pay though and get em back the next time the water rolls over a little and the lake flattens...

Setup in front of Holland pier in the dark at 6am. Probably 15-20 other boats out there. It was intense making passes and not getting cut off. Boom - nailed a nice big four year on a happee-meal glow jplug on our rigger north of the pier a tad in about 30 fow at around 6.15am. Did not see anyone else really get em going or net for the duration of the morning. We fished until around 10.30am and threw everything we could think of at em. The water was freezing cold. The water inside the pier all the way back by big red was 55 degrees even. We did manage net three more 4 year olds so we ended up with a total of 4 for the day. 4 for 6 was our score. Photo of the proud kids holding up their catch BELOW. My 9 year old son brought in two of them. My 11 year old daughter brought in the biggest. And the kids and I agreed that I brought in the one that fought the most. Scaley Green size 5 lure jensen jplug they hit 4 times between 8am-9am. The other pig came on a mono dipsey with 44 feet let out dialed on 3.5 with a glow green frog spin doctor and glow fly on it. All of our bites and fish occurred just north of the north pier. While it felt good to bag 4 of them I still say the fishing this fall is ridiculously slow and difficult compared to any other year. I was cheered, however, this evening when my buddy Randy along with a couple other boats reported slaughtering 4 year olds in 50 fow well south of Holland off the sliders. Could it be the kings never got the memo that the lake turned over and are still waiting to come to the pier? Either way this huge warm up and the 6 footers we have coming out of the south the next two days isn't going to help the cause. What's the good word Kevin? Were you out today? My kids and I did watch you and Littleboat drill through those 4-6 footers yesterday and when we passed you in the channel and heard you hadn't even had a bite we knew fishing sucked and it had become futile.

My kids and I fished the Holland pier for 2 hours this morning and 2 hours this afternoon off our 18ft duck boat. While the water cooled off the bite was miserable honestly. We must have made 30-40 passes and turns and ended up 3 for 5. A couple inside the arms and one outside the arms. Became brutally rough when trolling outside the arms late afternoon. The amount of sailboats and other boat traffic was unbelievable too. We had a big one going on a dipsey for about 20 minutes and those "car boats" were there and rubber-necking and surrounding us as we pulled lines and fought it in the channel and they got so stinkin close to us taking pictures and asking questions that the salmon nearly plowed into the side of one of the cars when it did its 4th run away from the boat. It was a fun day but a sheer battle. I never saw another boat net a salmon. There was no pier bite after 7.30am from what we could tell. Here is a pic of one of the 2 big ones we managed. Bizarre that there were not more fish in there with the lake having turned over... we will see if they are there in the morning...

Trolled out of Holland this AM north and ended up in Port Sheldon where the boat will stay overnight on anchor as I am going to fish again tomorrow morning. Zig-zagged back and forth with east and west trolls since in the current this seemed to be the only way to get them to pull true. Fishing is so bad this year and just for fun and variety decided to stop running riggers so ran 6 dipseys just like on my last five or six trips. Also, ran a couple full core and a couple half core. Managed to get our biggest fish of the year (did not weigh it but probably an easy 20# with the size girth - see included photo and you will see what I mean). This fish came in 88 FOW at around 8am on the inside deep diver dialed on .75 with 85 foot of braid out. It ate the green spin doctor green fly. Other than that not a single other hit and we threw it all at them. Actually, no that is incorrect. We did get a screamer on a half core running a hot steelhead bait and this turned out to be a big channel catfish which created all sorts of trouble for us. Half cores are fine and do not tangle into the fulls UNLESS the targeted species turns out to be a bottom feeder that dives down as it passes around the inside board. Anyways, we landed the kitty and untangled all the core in the 40 minutes that followed. Great fishery we have this year. Hats off to the DNR. So much bait and hardly any trout or salmon to eat it so the kitties are moving offshore and getting a piece of the action apparently