Mega Byte

Pretty thick. Visibility was around 100 yards or less most of the time.

3 man limit on big kings, plus 5 coho. Could of had more if we had more people in the boat. 160-180 fow, 40 to 70 ft down. Green paddle went 4 times down 70 on a rigger. Green moonshine flounder pounder went 4 times on a braid mag diver, 1 setting, back 91. Got two on meat. All baits pictured took fish. SWR down 40 did well. Thanks for all the help with my first GH trip.

Which launch do you use in Muskegon? (That's another port I haven't used yet.)

My crew wants to fish Grand Haven tomorrow instead of Pentwater. I've never launched from there before. Is the Grand Haven Municipal launch the best site to launch from? (On another map I see the same location being called Harbor Island Boat Launch.)

Well, they went from stocking around 8 million kings a year in 1995 to a 330,000 last year. That is a huge change. The logic was the invasive mussels are messing up the food chain which is killing off the alewives, which is 99.9% of what the kings eat. However, I am amazed at much bait I've seen the last couple of years. And these kings are getting huge. I think we are catching more fish, and bigger fish now than we did when they stocked the salmon in the higher numbers 20 years ago. I know some guys and 1 charter captain that got out of salmon fishing - sold their boats and gear while there was still a market for it - thinking the collapse was inevitable like it was in Lake Huron. But, these low stocking numbers have allowed the alewives to rebound, and with them the salmon. What I was expecting to be the worst King fishing of my life has been some of the best these last two years, and now onto year 3. For 2018, the DNR now plans to stock 553,000 Chinook salmon, up from 330,000 that had been planned previously for this year.

That is a great catch for 2 1/2 hours and only 3 lines in the water. Well, you probably only had 2 lines in the water most of the time. Man, it seems like the rigger bite has been going crazy lately. That is great. Keep sending those fish North. I'm going out of Pentwater on Wednesday.

My guess is you won't notice much of a difference cutting through the bones. You could probably argue that the 50 degree angle might hold it's edge longer. You might notice more of a difference trying to get skinny and strip those rib bones off of your fillet. I have the same sharpener (just ordered some bulk replacement belts last week) and I keep it simple and use the 40. But hey, you should do some research on this. Fish, fillet, report and repeat until we have a good sample size.

Wow, what a day! Great job. The SWR was hot for us last week too. It's great getting them on the rigger. Great job. Thanks for the report.

Decided to go where the fishing was hot for our first trip of the year. We pulled lines at 7:30 because of the long drive home. We finished with 5 kings, 2 coho and 3 lakers. The hot bait for us was NBK on a SWR with the ball at 40'. It took 5 fish, including the big 22# king (pictured). Our best water was 105-116 feet. Speed at the ball was 2.7. SW troll was best. After us another boat came in that had 5 and another boat that spent time in 120 fow came in skunked. It definitely got rough out there. By the end of the night, some of those swells were an easy 5'. Baits 40' - 60' down worked best for us for kings. Mostly a spoon bite for us.

That is one busy morning! You didn't lose many fish. Great job.

Nice!

I thought this was pretty interesting... http://www.mlive.com/news/us-world/index.ssf/2018/05/lake_michigan_endured_two_mete.html

Nice job.

@BlueEye FYI

I've never had an issue with the fat, but I bleed them out and remove the skin every time. Buy some of this, remove all skin, coat each side and edges generously, fry uncovered in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil just a bit over medium heat until the internal temp is 135 degrees. (Flip half way through.)