Mega Byte

Some pics Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Saturday: 9 for 11 We were planning to set up in 80 FOW but saw good marks in 50 FOW as we were motoring out so we stopped to check it out. Sometimes I've had that pay off big time where it takes 2 hours to get all your lines set because you keep getting bit. Other times it has been a waste of time. We dropped the probe down and found 61-degree water near the bottom. We decided to fish it anyway and picked up a 6-pound brown trout. I don't do spring brown trout fishing so this is the first one I've caught. With no other takers, we quickly slid out to 80 FOW. (Unlike you guys in the Southern ports where there is no such thing as quickly sliding out to deeper water.) Anyway, we picked up a 14# king on a glow plug in 80 FOW on a rigger down 70. We had good bait marks in there and worked out to 100 FOW where we picked up another fish - a steelhead if I am remembering correctly. There was a lot of traffic from the Ludington tournament. Most people were right off the point and I don't like combat fishing so we stayed off the dunes and moved west of the group and headed back north. We had good marks in 150 FOW and better marks near 170. We ended up getting most of our fish in this deeper water. King bites were down around 60 - 80 ft. Steelhead and coho bites were around 40 - 60. It was a spoon and flasher-fly bite for us. We only got one fish on a meat rig despite giving them a lot of time in the water. The hot bait for us for the Yeck Wart Frog, magnum-sized on a SWR rigger. The ball was around 70 ft down. It went 3 times and boated a 17# king and a steelhead. Riggers and divers targeting 70 - 80 down did most of the damage. We did get a king on a 250 Cu Green Jeans spoon. Oh, I should add, this was a Grand Slam trip for us. We got 1 brown, 1 coho, 1 steelhead, 2 lakers, and five kings. The biggest king was 21 pounds and a new PR for my daughter. The king hit on a heavy, ringed slide diver out 240 with a Kevin's Girlfriend meat rig. Sunday: Didn't fish. The lake was super calm too. Monday AM: 6 for 9 We started in that 80 - 100 FOW range and picked up a 17# king down 80 in 100 FOW on a double-glow plug. After not much action we slid out and got bit in 130 FOW on a Green Jeans spoon on a 250 Cu. We had additional hits in 172 FOW (Green Knight spoon on a high diver out 220), 164 FOW - Steelhead on a 250 Cu NBK, that Yeck spoon pictured above on a SWR ball at 80 in 174 FOW. The hot bait was a pro troll flasher that was green and had this gold/RV-looking tape on one side with a double aqua Howie fly. It was on a low slide diver out 190 feet. It took 4 hits. 1 was a coho. 1 was a king lost 10 feet from the net. Two we don't know. So the deeper water was better for us and we had a lot of late-morning (after 10 am) bites out there. We lost some really big fish today. Riggers and divers were hot and took a lot of powerful hits. One king showed us I needed to re-spool the wire diver as he took it to the backing. I didn't have as much on the spool as I thought. The big King for the AM trip was 24 pounds. Monday PM: 8 for 8 We worked the 150 to 175 range and it yielded two fish: a nice steelhead and a 4# laker that was hooked in the tail. When they are hooked in the tail... four-pounders fight like 20 pounders. We had good marks out there a tried a couple of directions but didn't get any king bites so we headed East for shallower waters. The rest of this trip is kind of a blur. We had fish all full time from about 8:15 PM until dark. There was always at least 1 fish on. Often more than one. We once had four on at one time. We had some young ladies in the boat who do a lot of inland lake fishing, but for one, it was her first big lake experience. We had some massive rigger and diver hits. Line was getting ripped out incredibly fast. The big king (24 pounds) pulled out 800+ feet of line on high diver (green knight spoon out 220). We also had a 300 Cu that pulled drag for what felt like a minute or two but was probably 30 - 40 seconds. It wasn't a fast pull, but it was steady. There were a lot of violent hits. We took 6 fish between 130 and 110 FOW. 5 were kings: 24, 21, 20, 8, and 6 pounds. The magical flasher fly that took 4 in the morning didn't get touched. Since most of this bite was later in the evening, a lot of my glow moonshine baits got bit. We only had 1 meat bite. The bites were a bit higher too, with most coming from 40 to 60 down. It was mainly a spoon bite but we did get a nice king on a plug. Riggers and divers did most of the damage again. Also, since we were always fighting fish, I didn't reset the poles when the fish came off. We were trying to avoid getting more fish on the line thinking that with the younger anglers, we might get tangles and lose both fish. It was a special night with a lot of king fishing action. There were a great sunset, moonrise, and trucks on the dunes. My buddy took most of the pictures and shot some videos. If I get some copies I'll post them. So the bottom line is the kings are in Pentwater now. If it's like last year they will be there consistently through mid-August, with some days better than others. Another thing is my riggers and divers were on fire for the first time this year. I think it's a combination of 3 things: 1) Kings are in 2) The fish were deep and my longest long line is a 300 Cu 3) I put together a three rigger program. My boat has an 8.5' beam and outboards, so usually I only run 2 riggers, both out to the side. For these trips above I picked up a new Willie T's ball cannonball that has an adjustable fin that lets me send it to the side so I could spread my riggers out just a bit. For the chute rigger, I ran a big paddle and flasher fly. I made it my highest rigger bait. I know a lot of captains make the chute rigger the lowest, but my theory is that big paddle attracts them and I'll run it in warmer water and I'll run the two side riggers below it in the colder water. They'll see the side lines as they move up to check the big paddle and again if they peel off the big paddle and go back down into colder water. I felt I had the divers and riggers working well on these trips, but it's always easier to do when there are kings around. I'll post some pictures in the comments.

Did you get out late? Looks like the first bite was at 10:15 am. Nice report Dan.

Some of my best trips are those last minute decisions to go. That's a great box of fish. Nice report.

The lake is making up for a sucky June.

Great job! Nice king.

2 coho, 2 lakers, 1 smaller king and 1 Stealhead. Everything was 6 to 8 pounds except the steelhead which was 10. Early fish were in 150ish FOW. Later fish were 180 to 200. Lost a big king with a split ring failure. That king was on a 250 Cu with a NBK. The other miss was on a blue jeans high diver out 150. I'm thinking it was a coho based on the hit. High diver with a small mountain dew paddle and double aqua fly took a laker and a coho. One at 150 ft out. The other as we were resetting it and only 50 ft had come off. The rigger took a coho and king down 56 ft with a big white paddle and pickled sunshine fly. One laker came on a white 8" spindoctor with a bloody nose big eye fly. The steelhead hit on a wire diver. Can't recall the lure or depth, but I know it was a spoon. Orange crush on the 100 Cu was ignored. So was Kevin's girlfriend spindoctor meat rig one the wire diver. That's been ignored the last 2 trips. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Fished south of the port from 70 fow out to 195. There was a youth tournament today. We got a 13 pound laker which won first place i the laker division. Go us![emoji16] Big king for the tournament was just under 21 pounds. Next biggest king was 2.5 pounds. That should tell you something. I heard on the radio there was a 27 pound king taken south of the point, but I think it was further south than we were able to fish for the tournament. It sounds like there's a nice school of mature kings working their way north. They're just not north of little point Sable yet. Here's what went: Mongolian Beef out 135 on a braid slide diver #3 setting Dancing Anchovy out 100 on a braid slide diver #3 settjng (twice) Big green haze paddle and meat on a 300 Cu (twice) SWR with a green hulk with the ball down 70. (Big laker) Big white paddle and pickled sunshine fly down 50' on the rigger (small laker) Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

This is a great recipe for those smaller fish that don't provide the big salmon steaks. The recipe calls for Lake Trout, but I used Coho and it turned out great. I was cooking over propane and to get the blackened effect I ended up slipping it under the oven broiler for the last 15 degrees. https://www.realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/grilled-blackened-honey-lake-trout I used Chef Paul's blacked redfish seasoning. Grilled Blackened Honey Lake Trout.pdf

Here's the king Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

We struggled in Pentwater tonight. We ran a 6 rod spread and covered from the surface down to about 70' deep. We worked 70' of water out to 188' of water. We got a small coho and a 23 pound King around a 185' of water. The king hit on a N trolls, 2.4 mph at the ball on a Moonshine wonderbread RV spoon on a high diver out 150. The coho hit on a free slider that was blue and silver. The bait was probably around 25' as the cannonball was at 50'. 100 Cu, 200 Cu and 300 Cu didn't get touched. Same with riggers and the wire diver. We ddn't mark any bait this trip. Nothing on meat or flies. We will try again in the morning and focus on some deeper water. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

I've been catching those coho on some of my magnum moonshine spoons. They can barely fit the hook in their mouth but they are aggressive fish and they'll nail them. Beautiful color on that king.

We marked some bait about 40 - 50 feet down in 205-ish FOW. We did have the occasional arch on the screen, but overall it was pretty quiet on the sonar.

We started in 155 FOW about a mile north of the dunes with a 9 rod spread and trolled WSW. At 225 FOW we spun it around and headed SE. We hadn't marked a fish or had a hit so I took off the big silver paddle and fly thinking it may be throwing too much flash and moved to a white paddle and fly. We started getting into the fish once we got west of the dunes. Here's what worked: Time FOW Toll Fish Bait Pole 7:00 PM 211 SSE King Moonshine Hulk RV Wire heavy slide diver, 1.5 setting out 180 7:30 PM 200 SE Coho Blue Jeans RV 200 Cu 7:57 PM 209 S Steelhead Dancing Anchovy RV 200 Cu 8:08 PM 204 SE Steelhead Blue Jeans RV 200 Cu 8:51 PM 208 SW Steelhead Dancing Anchovy RV 200 Cu 9:00 PM 215 N King Moonshine Ice Shadow Braid slide diver, 1.5 setting out 170 With it being so bright out, it surprised me that the darker Ice Shadow and Hulk spoons took fish. But they've been working well this spring so I kept them in the spread. I'm glad I did. The 100 Cus (orange spoons) didn't get hit. The green spin doctor and meat rig on the 300 Cu didn't get hit. Part way through the trip I added a 250 Cu with an Blue Jeans RV spoon, but that didn't get touched. A Green Jeans spoon on the SWR down in the 50' range wasn't touched. The big paddle (white with a white fly) on the other rigger down 40 wasn't touched either. Overall, it was a great night on the water. Enjoy the pics.

3 for 4 this morning. 2 cohos and a laker. Cohos came between 20 and 30 FOW. The missed fish was a coho. TONS of bait in there. Based on the radio chatter, it was a very slow morning for most people. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App