dan agnello

Got our 3 person limit of 15 in about 3 hrs; piers to 3-4 miles south 12-28fow;  5 on bk/wh j11 rapala; 9 on Nascar and Greasy Chicken Wing mini spoons on 2-2 color and 2 mini dipseys. Got one on mimi dipsey on crab face spoon.

Thought I’d post what baits look like.

First 2 pics nascar; last 2 gr chk wing n the gold hot n tot.

Have fun; go get ‘em.

Coho jack fishin is hot from Michigan City to Saugatuck and maybe higher up at Holland, Muskegon and Grandhaven.

But haven’t gotten any reports past Saugatuck.

13 for 13 today from pier south a few miles in 15-28 fow; threw back two small ones and the last fish of the double.

All fish on spoons, except one on high line with gold/bk w/red lip hot n tot.

1&2Color, 2 high lines and 2 Big Jon mini disc dipseys.

Mini Nascar and Greasy Chicken Wing spoons did the trick on 12 of them.

ENE winds 15-20; speed 2.3 or so.

Thanks for nice response. Appreciate it; unfortunately at our SoHa pier we have pretty much the same guys out there. 
In Nov the guy next to me, Mike, got a little snotty because I called a guy in Tecumseh, MI to give him a report so he would have latest for future trip(s).

So what does he do? He calls Jake to tell him the whitefish bite is very good  and Jake is by us in less than 10 minutes. What a hypocrite.

You can’t make this stuff up.

You’ve probably seen some of my lake reports. I try to help fishermen/women as best I can for where and what worked that day. We all know it can change in 5 minutes, but good place to start; as much as I can, I give updates on the water too.

I want everyone to have as much fun as they can on the water/piers.

No more Black River/pier fishing here; all iced up. 

4 man limit - 1 steelie, 6 browns n 13 coho.

All down by Cook nuke plant.

Very good discussion with our non- tribal coalition lawyer about the latest info. 
Go to Reel2Reel Outdoors on Youtube and search for Consent Decree.

Merry Christmas 

Good points thanks.

Thanks for the update.

The dozen or so trap nets from Ludville to Manistee were manageable to fish around when they were properly set, maintained and retrieved. Many times they weren’t labeled very well either.

During a Muskegon tourney a while ago we witnessed that a tramp net, one that broke loose from its moorings, got tangled up in a boat prop and they had to call for help.

Maybe the DBR peopke working on this weren’t around after 2000 Consent Order and don’t know or are not told about the previous horror stories. As far as I know the Tribal Police did very little required enforcement.

Merry Christmas

Capt Dan on The Reel Woman.

How does catch rate for steel line compare w/braid?

I have heard that the “humming” noise of steel helps draw fish in like riggers cable does.

True?

Just bought some steel line and going to setup one steel dipsey, leave the other braid, and compare.

Thks.

Looks like MDNR sold us out again.

The information I have says they’ve approved 2,000ft of GILL nets. Yes GILL nets NOT trap nets as per 2000 Consent Order.

Worst case would be 12 nets between Ludington and Manistee.

Just like 2000 Order w/1O-12 Trap nets in this area

Plus state is giving them $17 million.

Think in 2000 it was $10 million.

This won’t officially be announced until rest of agreement is done soon.

Someone needs to ask for a stay so this can be worked out better.

Wow!  If I knew I was going to get that kind of reaction to my post from a few people I wouldn’t have done it.

You guys know fishing, they can turn on for a short time and stop biting for a long time.

The fact we do well one day doesn’t mean the next will be as good. It’s been up n down all fall. It seams as if we have one good day we’ll have quite a few that are slow.

I was trying to tell people that they are still in. And, I try to let them know what the pier guys taught me about catching whities n steelhead on the pier. I’ve helped a lot of newbies and they appreciate at it and have a good time. New guy was out with his friend and caught a 7lb steelie.

I can see where some are coming from and will NOT post any future pier reports.

Have a safe winter fishing and a Happy Thanksgiving.

We have a lot to be thankful for. 

Learned this quite a few years ago from a fisherman at the Manistee fish cleaning station.

To get rid of fish smell on your hands wash them with shaving cream or toothpaste. I use both.

If they are really bad sometimes you have to wash again..

The whitefish are still in heavy.

Three guys fishing together got their 3 man limit of 30  by 10am.

Out of 10 fisherman as of 10:30 am, when I pulled lines, 55 whitefish and 1 Steelhead were caught. Mostly 3 single, boiled salmon eggs on each of the 2 hooks on each pole. A few were also caught on small spawn bags or spawn clumps.

I caught 4 whities in  2 1/2 hrs.

Last Friday wasn’t as good; I got only 1 whitie but friend got a nice 7 lb steelie. 

Happy Thanksgiving 

Sloooow today on south pier.

 By 11:30 six fisherman caught 3 whitefish (1 myself) and 4 steelhead, 3 were very small 10-14”, but guy next ro me got a 7 lber.

Going to try next Monday.

Should have been there yesterday;
Caarazy day catching on S pier; of 7 guys on the S pier by 11:30 around 38 whitefish and 3 steelies were caught. I got 6 whitefish (2 were a double), 1 small steelie and 1 sucker. Latter 2 were returned.

Almost all w/3 single boiled salmon eggs in each hook. Have never caught a double except for perch. Nuts.

Peak is usually around Halloween, but think it’s delayed till now due to water being so warm.

So get out n get ‘em.

3 small steelies caught were probably ones planted here in the spring. But, good sign they are starting to come in.

Finally, lakers are in the river heavy; guys by the clock on north side and across on the south side of the river are slaying  them.

Yes, not a good yr for fasher/flys for me.

Meat did pretty good in May n June but not much after that.

But, meat would have done well in Frankfort, but had to cancel that annual trip this yr.

I did an unofficial non-scientific count on this forum and another forum and here are the spoons that caught the most fish: 

1.(7 times) Dreamweaver blue dolphin and rv bl dolphin.
2. (5) Moonshine (MS) bloody nose.
3. (5) MS Bad Toad RV
4. (5) MS Raspberry carbon and RC rv. (Rasp C caught record 46 or 48 pd king last yr)
5. (4) MS green flounder
6. (4) MS dancing anchovy.
All with 3 times on list:
Flea 4 All by Fuzzy Bear Lures
MS 5 eyes
MS Green knight
MS wonderbread
MS blue jeans.
Notice a pattern here? Moonshine glow spoons almost all. We always have a bloody nose and blue jeans rv down.
And, some non glo  that that I use a lot:
Bl or gr dolphin
Carmel dolphin
Double or crush
Bl or gr mixed veggies
Jagger bomb
MS flounder pounder
Rasta goose (gold in spring); silver later
Gr toad w/white back (spring)
Jordo n gold Jordo
MS happy meal
Whammy (by Warrior, this is usually down mid morning)
NBK , aka nat born killer 
Watermelon
Any one called alewife: gr, pk, etc.

Very few guys post reports, so results could be skewed, but gives a good idea.
And, when none of the above don’t work I look in my boxes for stuff they haven’t see in a while. Lol.

I go worst  case and always look at open water even if I plan on fishing shallower. 
With all their technolgy, satellites, radar, software, etc how can they be so wrong.

A joke!

Skunk in a few hours.

Noaa lied again; supposed to be 1-3s coming down to 1-2s. By the time we set lines in 60’ 2-3s; got to 100’ n 3-5s; trolled back in to 60’ n pulled lines.

The Reel Woman, my 21’ Grady, needed a new water pump so she unfortunately went into storage 6 weeks early.

Wanted to work 130-150’ at least, but not today.

From reports from 2 boats in the river today and yesterday the kings aren’t in the Black River yet.So they should still be staging up in Big Blue.

So we’ll try to get in another trip or 2.

Bummer on rigger and probe.

Here ya go. Your lucky day; my boat is parked in front of my house today for Saturday vet trip.

They are both DW spoons; one with green on it is uv Jordo, I think it is a super slim; other is reg spoon, gold Jordo w/gold back.

The east wind past week has brought some kings in to stack up out there in around 100’’ or so.

Taking vets out Saturday so hope they are still there then.

3 for 3; SB rigger caught all 3. small coho; 22 and 23lb kings. Rigger was 50/50, 50 down n 50’ lead length.

22lb king hit the slider, a reg size Jorgo spoon. For my 23lber he hit the main spoon, reg size gold Jordo spoon. 
Had quite a few marks and quite a few times we could see on the fishfinder that the fish would come up, look at both riggers and swim away. Obviously wrong spoons. That’s when I put down Jordo spoons; hit 5 minutes later.

Coho caught in 88 fow trolling west; both kings in 103fow trolling uphill, north.

Waves 1-3s, then 1-2s and around 1:45 starting building up again.

Usual speed 2-3.1Sog; hits were in 2.7Sog area.

Fished 120-220 pretty much straight out.

1 for 2; nice steelie in 188’ trolling west on 290’ copper on Warrior whammy spoon.

Backing line broke on nice fish on 225 copper in 210’ on MS bloody nose spoon.

Good job, but foul hooked fish could be expensive.