Mega Byte

Yeah. 1 sheepshead and 13 kings in that trip. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

I heard that fishing was good from 120 to 140 FOW, but I never made it that far out. That sonar looked like it had a lot to say while we were motoring out, so I slowed down to check. There were a lot of fish on the sonar. I suspected the temperature was all wrong, but this time of year that is less important, so I decided to set lines in 80 FOW on a SW troll, right out in front of the pierheads at 6:30 am. By 100 FOW, we had stopped marking fish and didn't have any bites. So it was decision time: keep heading SW and get out to 120 FOW, or swing back inside and give it one more try. We swung back inside and got our first bite in 93 FOW. We kept it on a south troll and stayed in 90 to 95 FOW the whole time. The temp 75 ft down was 62. It did get down to 58 further south. This is warmer water than I would normally fish, but there were a lot of fish on the sonar and they were biting, so we stayed in it. Our shallowest line was 50 down. We ran some lines 85 down, but had more luck with them when we raised them up to 75 down. Here's what we fished (9 rod spread): 2 for 2: Rigger down 75 green lightening glow plug 0 for 0: captain's choice natural glow plug, then a white slick paddle and pickled sunshine fly Wire divers were set between 50 down and 85 down. They took fish when I dialed them Into 74 to 77 feet down. I have a SmartTroll system, so I focus on that more than the feet of line out. I think they were out about 180 feet. We ran a pink pearl plug for a bit, but no bites. When I pulled it, it had hit bottom. I switched it out for a magnum green knight spoon and it got bit within 10 minutes. On the other side we ran a green glow spin doctor and meat rig and that was 2 for 3. On my long lines, I switched out from copper to weight steel (WS) this year. On the port side of my boat, I added 2 colors of lead (Pb) to each of the long lines. It gave me more sway in the current than running copper alone, and gave me more depth flexibility when I was running small spreads. I kept that same setup when I switched to WS. Given the flexibility of WS, that might not have been necessary. 2 for 3: 200 WS + Pb 5 eyes magnum 2 for 3: 250 WS + Pb wonderbread magnum 2 for 2: 300 WS + Pb green jeans magnum 2 for 2: 250 WS Bad Toad magnum 1 for 1: 300 WS Wart Frog magnum Speed at the ball was 2.1 to 2.3. 16 bites on the S troll, one on the north, but we only trolled north from 11:00 to 11:30 when we pulled lines. The biggest fish was 19.5#. We threw back a sheepshead which hit on the 300 WS + Pb as I was setting it out. We threw back 2 smaller kings too. So we kept 11. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Dang...that's a lot of fun a huge box of fix. Wow.

Nice job guys.

Nice job Randy.

Looks like a fun trip!

I don't have my notes so I'll make this quick. We started setting lines around 7:00 and fished until 1:30. We had heard fish were deep (200+ FOW) but with the NE wind, the Seagull system was predicting colder water by Little Point Sable, so I thought we'd check that out before running deep. We did find some colder water. We set up in 145 FOW, outside of a few other boats, and put it on a SW troll. Our first hit was in 154 FOW. We took most of our fish in the 160 - 170 FOW, but we did hear they caught some inside of us as well. We did pick up a few out to 195 after lunch. Baits in the top 50 feet did well. 3 color down to 250 WS took fish. All bites were on long lines. Mostly regular sized spoons. Lots of orange and gold. One flasher fly bite. All fish were on the smaller side, nothing over 10 pounds. It was a mix of lakers, steel, coho and kings. I didn't hear of any mature kings being caught.

That's a solid outing for a short trip. Nice job.

We found some fish, but lost more than usual. We also had two unusual equipment failures where we had breakoffs on our 100 Cu and 3 color lines. I left a couple of Church planer boards floating out there. We set up a bit shallower than planned, because we saw some marks on the sonar. We were about 6 miles NW of St. Joseph. While we did get some bites under 100 FOW, they were very small fish. Once we got to 120+ we got into some nicer fish. We made a NW troll for a while and had a lot of bites, often with two or three on at once. We circled back and went through the same area with not much to show for it. We turned back NW to work out deeper, thinking they may have slid out. They did. We got into the fish again in 140+ FOW. We marked fish pretty consistently out to 178 which is where we ended up after all the lines were pulled. Most of the kings we caught were 10 - 13 pounds. Nothing huge, but nice fish. Details are below. I'll be back out there Tuesday morning for my last St. Joe trip of spring. Oh, the "red" spoon, I can't remember the name of it. It's got red and some orange on it. And some pics.

Shout out to @dan agnello for the nice report out of South Haven last week. On Friday, we headed North out of St. Joseph almost to the Palisades Power Plant looking for some nice sized kings. My 9-year-old granddaughter caught this king that weighed 20.35 pounds on the official scale at the Tournament Trail event in St. Joseph. It happened to be the largest king caught during the 333 Tournament and she won $333. On Saturday, we headed back up to the same area and went 11 for 11. While the hit to catch ratio was perfect, the fish were on the smaller size. Since we're a bit away from Saturday, I'll spare the details, but it was generally 105 - 120 FOW, with baits down 40 to 60 feet. Long lines, divers and riggers all took fish. All hits were on spoons. If you've been around this site long enough, you know I don't typically trout fish. it's too much work to keeps adjusting things, especially when you have kids and the waves usually drive the troll direction and it can be difficult to maintain the FOW you want to stay in. If we could have boated a few trout, we would have had a nice 333 box. But, we didn't because I'm horrible at catching trout. We weighed our 7 fish for the Amateur event. I'm not sure where we finished, but the kids had fun which is all we cared about.

Thanks for the great report. Nice job. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Filling the cooler! Nice job. I hope to be out there by the end of this week. Getting a bow mounted trolling motor replaced and I need to shift my windless to make it fit.

Quick post...took us a bit to find them. Blue spoons worked best for us, and then a glow program right before dark. 22# king up in the warm water on a 200 copper with a blue jeans rv. That was in 153 fow. Got more bites inside of 117 FOW on divers and coppers 40 to 60 down. Someone was on the radio sharing they were getting bit in 75 fow. One 8# coho and the rest were kings. One was thrown back. Another should have been based on size, but it wouldn't have survived. The biggest kings were 22#, 19# and 16#. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Nice job with the net! That's always a sketchy part of the solo adventure.

I managed to leave the handy-dandy notebook in the truck, so I don't have all of the details, but we mainly fished 140 FOW to 170 FOW. We did venture into 100 and out to 200. Just about every boat fished shallower than us, but we were getting bit and were able to avoid boat traffic so we stayed where we were. Our first bite was at 5:30 am (11# King) in 142 FOW on a rigger down 90 ft. It was a 11" white, double-slick paddle with a pickled sunshine fly with a 42" leader. I clipped 2 oz tadpole divers in front of my 300 coppers to get them to run deeper. One had a green flounder on and the other a green haze meat rig. At 6:12, the 300 with the green flounder went. It was a small king we decided to keep. That bait went multiple times for us. Our biggest king came at 6:54 on the 300 with the meat rig. It was a 21# king. While fighting that one, and on a West troll, we had another hit in 165 FOW, but I didn't note what pole that was on. It was a 12# laker. Then the 250s started going. One at 8:11 on a green jeans and one at 8:28 on a green flounder. Both got off. One looked like a steelhead and the other ripped it like a nice king. At 9:40 the 300 meat rig got hit again. At this point my note taking dropped off because my daughter hijacked my phone for a movie. But we continued to pick away at them at a pretty consistent basis, except when we went deeper than 170. We got a nice 11# steelhead as we pulled lines at 2:00. We probably would have limited out in another couple of hours, but I had kids that were tired and ready to head in. We finished with 3 kings, 1 coho, 4 lakers and 4 steelhead. 250s and 300s were good. Riggers down 60 to 90 went three times. Nothing on a 3 color, 100 or 200 copper. Wire divers only went once (laker). We didn't have high divers out. Baits that worked well were all magnum spoons: green jeans, green flounder, hulk. These got time in the water but didn't take fish: a-bomb, bloody nose, blue jeans. I'm sure there were a few others that I didn't note. We also had 3 flasher fly bites and 2 meat bites. So, for us, 140 to 165 was best, 50 to 90 down. Troll direction didn't seem to matter. We'll be back out on Sunday.

It's nice to see some big kings get boated!

We fished around 27 FOW a few miles West of West Sister Island. Troll speed between 1.3 and 1.8 caught fish. Chrome and blue bandits did most of the damage. Most fish came in the top 15 feet. Lots of big fish. 4 hours to limit on the 7th and 3 hours to limit on the 8th. (From first fish to limit fish.) We also saw the eclipse from the boat. Enjoy the pics. The biggest walleye was 8.5 pounds. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

And some pictures from my brother. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

We set lines out front in 50 FOW on a SW troll. The low wire heavy slidediver fired first. It had a white spin doctor and meat rig set on a 1.5 out 85 ft. As we were fighting that fish, I put the high diver out to the same side, with the same bait. We put it on a 3 setting and set it out to 150 ft. Right when we tightened the drag to stop it at 150 ft, it got bit and we were doubled up. We boated 17 and 12 pound kings. Then we had a two hour pause with no bites as we worked South. Then in 107 FOW the Starboard high diver out 150 finally fired with a blue-ish J-plug. It got off just as we were pulling out of the rod holder. Then another hour and a half pause with no action. During that time we had spun back North and sought deeper water. In 145 FOW we picked up a throwback laker on a Craigs Flounder on a 200 Cu. We kept heading NW. We got into the fish in 170 FOW where we picked up 3 hits in 6 minutes. The blue J-plug on the high diver fired again. A pink stripped plug fires on a 250 Cu. A double orange crush took a rip on the 100 Cu. That fish was really ripping line and a rookie tightened the drag too much and the hook got straightened. The others were boated and included a 10# steelhead and 9# king. Our last two hits came about 50 minutes later on 300 coppers. One in 180 FOW (17# king) on a blue Haze blade and meat rig. The other on a green haze blade and meat rig. That fish ripped the board back, but got off pretty quickly. We finished 6 for 9 with 4 kings, 1 steelhead and a throwback laker. Divers took the first four hits and coppers took the last 5. We ran a 15 rod spread with 4 rigger poles that never got touched. It was great to finally get a calm day on the water. Also, there were limited posts from me this summer because I've been crazy busy and had engine issues, which prompted me to repower with a Mercury 300 Pro XS. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

The visibility looks horrible! Thanks for the report! Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

It was really slow for most boats in Pentwater. I found some colder water near the dunes, where the surface temp was 52 rather than the 57 degree water that was deeper. This colder water was right over structure and contained the most bait fish I have marked all season. Seemed like a good spot to be, but we never marked any big fish and only took a single hit which was a nice 11# steelhead. We fished 80 FOW out to 217 FOW. The bait was in 106 to 119 FOW and anywhere from 25 to 50 feet down. We found a smaller school of bait in 170 FOW. We fished the cold water, at the transition points and in the warm water targeting kings and steelhead. The steelhead hit on a small coho sized (5") orange spin doctor and green/gold/purple peanut fly on a 3 color. That setup has been producing a lot of steelhead for us lately. There was also a ton of bait in the channel. The channel isn't very deep and the turbulence from the prop seemed to disturb or spin up those baitfish and the gulls were feasting behind the boat. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

We have seen a lot of lamprey scars this year. I don't think they treated the rivers during COVID. We'll be headed out of Pentwater in the morning. I am hearing it is slow. That is one big steelhead! Nice job. Thanks for the report. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App