JVanderVennen

Fished from 7-10am south of Holland ended the trip with one king. Rigger 70 down in 125 fow, blue bubble spoon. I marked fish sporadically through the morning between 85-130 fow, sounded like 65-75 feet down was the spot for most guys. Good luck to everyone heading out tomorrow morning. 

Simply grouping baits in a targeted range where the fish were active.  When I get a strike and mark fish at a certain depth I usually try to hone in on that deep with the most active lures for that day.  Started the morning running the riggers with about a 20-25’ spread but slowly worked them together.  We had other baits and lines spread through the water column too.

First trip of the year and first post in awhile, so why not, unfortunately no fish stories today but a bit of info for the guys headed out tonight.  As I said no fish in our boat this morning but we did manage to find them on the sonar.  Worked 180-200 fow from 6:30-10am, two rigger knock offs, no body home.  Marked continuous fish between 40-60 ft down and 80-100 ft down.  Riggers were set 77 and 79 down in 185 fow, dw double uv crush 8” paddle w/ white fly and 8” white/ green spin dc white mirage fly.  We’ll try again another day, good luck! 

September is a great month to catch coho on the Grand River below sixth street dam in downtown Grand Rapids. I've found that blue fox spinners and Rapala rip sticks work good along with hot n tots and thundersticks chartreuse or orange is a good color. The Manistee River below Tippy Dam is another GREAT spot to put some long hours into fishing. It maybe be one of the top rivers in the state. It normally provides good opportunities to catch salmon in the fall along with steelhead throughout the winter and in my opinion it offers one of the best spring steelhead runs in the state. The best way to learn to fish any river or inlet is probably trial and error. But local bait shops can offer good advise and if all else fails just sit and watch other anglers. Find out who is catching what and most importantly how they are catching them. Also find good local fishing reports to help you locate where the fish might be throughout the state so that your maximizing your fishing time. Hope this helps a little


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FBD, then what's your opinion on the current salmon population?Because lately I've heard a number of people stating the same thing. I still stand as up in the air with the whole proposal and I am wondering what other fisherman's thoughts are.

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I'd say that's close enough, nice job on a great fish

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what was the weight?

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I had the same issue this morning with wends in Pigeon Lake.  I thought my lower unit was going out on me 

Started fishing this morning just about straight west of Kirk Park in 85-105 fow.  Ended the morning 1/3 with about a 5 lb king.  Fished a 5 rod set up with 1 full core 2 riggers 47 and 59 down and 2 dipsys set on 1 with green uv spin doctors.  All three hits came on riggers with 2 on moonshine flounder pounder and 1 on uv green dolphin.  Best trolling direction seemed to be anywhere from North to east.  Marked a few fish till about 9 am then they seemed to scattered, not as many big marks as last week for sure.  Fun end to the weekend with myself and my dad.  

The bigger of the two fish had three alewife in the stomach all of which were around 6 inches in length 

Tried catching the early bite this morning started fishing around 6:30am and ended 2/2 with an 22lb & 16lb king at 10am.  130 fow +/- a few feet was the desired depth to run for us this morning with a sog of 2.6 - 2.8 on a North troll.  First fish came before 7am on a braid dipsy set on 1, 149 ft back with green splatter pearl SD and a white pickle fly.  Second fish was just before 10am on downrigger 49 down with uv pearl ladder back spoon.

Well we were one of those fishing the 80-100 range and didn't do much, 130 fow took a rip on 8 color core and lost it...oh well  nice job on the fish though!

Went for a fun holiday trip this morning  with the family.  Set lines around 8am well north of the stacks and pulled them about 11 am straight out in front of the channel.  Consistently fished 80 - 90 fow because we kept marking a lot of fish 35 - 60 feet down in that depth of water.  Started with three lead cores 4 color, 6 color, 8 color and two riggers 40 -50 feet down, with a North and South troll all morning.  With no luck switched to a quick trout set up and went 1/2 south troll in 85 fow 70 down on riggers.  Two tin can set ups one with 4 foot lead and slim purple stinger spoon behind it, the other 3 foot lead and pickle fly.  Both trout hits were at slow speed around 2.1 - 2.5 sog 

Quick trip last night fishing after work from 6:30-9pm.  Started north of stacks in 60 fow couldn't find anything on the sonar so we moved out to 90-110 fow.  Then we finally marked fish along the bottom with a few suspended down 50' but needless to say still couldn't get a bite.  I ran four rods last night 1. Deep rigger with tin can and fly 2. High rigger uv mixed veggies 3. 4 color with watermelon spoon 4. 5 color with yeck fireball and double orange crush.  I think there are a few fish around just not hungry last night, hopefully this weekend is better

First trip of the year aboard Tha Double V and happy to say everything went great.  Motored north just south of Grand Haven and Fished from 9-11 am in 60- 70 fow on a east to west troll pattern and ended 3/3 with all steelhead.  What worked was 4-5 color lead with mixed veggie and watermelon spoon and rigger went once at 35 down.  

I would not suggest doing that....you might be looking at a blown motor instead of just rough idle. Clean or rebuild carburetor if it's a carb motor drain gas tank and run pure ethanol free gas and check timing if applicable

Run pure gas no ethanol that helped me I had the same problem with mine this season. But what really fixed it was a timing adjustment at the sport center now it runs the best it ever has since I've owned it, plus check your plug gap, the gap is almost never true out of the box, and that makes a difference on marine motors. And what type of motor is it? ?

Nice work!!

Not as good as Saturday morning and that's a fact. Choppy conditions hampered our efforts a little but still fished till 10am. We didn't put any fish in the box marked a few in the same water as yesterday 80-100 fow 65 down to the bottom. But south wind was blowing warm water which wiped the graph of any and all marks by 9:30. Did have a rod in 95 fow with a blue silver plug bounce never released but definitely was a strike. We will try again tomorrow weather permitting then I'm done for the year, time to hit the rivers.

85-100 fow all plugs and spoons fished for an hour before storm went 1/2 with a 15lb king in 95 fow green ladder back plug 65 down on rigger, then lost one 60 down 87 fow on a rigger with silver halo green dolphin spoon. Marked a lot of fish and bait all 60 feet down to the bottom straight west of stacks. I'll be back in the morning

I have a 20 foot and there have been many a time I still feel and little uneasy, just my two cents...

Started late around 9am stayed in close just north of Port Sheldon fished 50-60 fow and by 10:15am (when the boat broke down ) we were 1/2 with a 10lb steelhead 40 down on rigger with perch spoon, took the other rip on 5 color yeck fireball. If we stI'll had a motor we probably could have kept picking away at them but oh well. Marked a lot of bait and fish all morning in the same small area of water.

Ran solo last night for the last hour and a half of sun light (quick trip) just to see what this weekend might bring. Regardless put nothing but a skunk in the box lots of marks 100 feet down in 140 fow north of the stacks but no takers. Pretty slow right now if you ask me we'll have to wait and see if things change I guess.

Heading out tomorrow morning thanks for the report!!

Nice work!! You definitely found them this morning.