Mega Byte

There was finally a couple of adults in the boat with me which allowed me to take better notes on my trip. We fished from 6 am - 1 pm, but didn't have a hit after 9:03. We started in 80 FOW and slowly worked southwest. The fish were deep...80+ feet down. We worked out to 180, back into 130 and back out to 160 again. We saw some good suspended marks about 100 down in 150 to 170 FOW but didn't have any takers. Most of our hits came north of the sand dunes. One was off the dunes. We fished south to the point. Here's what worked: Time FOW Toll Fish Bait Pole 6:28 AM 109 SESW 10# King Green/Glow spin doctor & meat Wire heavy slide diver, #2 setting out 190 6:35 AM 114 SW 14# King Big green glow plug w/ black ladderback SWR Rigger down 80' 7:23 AM 134 S 12# King Green/Glow spid doctor & meat Wire heavy slide diver, #2 setting out 190 8:05 AM 134 SW 20# King Double glow plug (plain) Rigger down 110 9:03 AM 148 S 19# King Green haze paddle & meat 300 Cu + 6 oz Dive Bomb For those of you viewing on a phone, the above table looks horrible so this might look better: Time FOW Toll Fish Bait Pole 6:28 AM 109 SESW 10# King Green/Glow spid doctor & meat Wire heavy slide diver w/ring, #2 setting out 190 6:35 AM 114 SW 14# King Big green glow plug w/ black ladderback SWR Rigger down 80' 7:23 AM 134 S 12# King Green/Glow spid doctor & meat Wire heavy slide diver w/ring, #2 setting out 190 8:05 AM 134 SW 20# King Double glow plug (plain) Rigger down 110 9:03 AM 148 S 19# King Green haze paddle & meat 300 Cu + 6 oz Dive Bomb The 300 Cu is the longest rod I have in my boat and I know I needed to get deeper so I added a 6 oz Dive bomb about 25 feet in front of the copper. I put about 40' of line out between the board and the dive bomb. (So Pole --> Board --> 40' of Braid --> Dive Bomb --> 25' of braid --> 300 Cu --> Fluorocarbon --> Meat rig.) This particular copper setup doesn't have 2 color colors of lead after the copper. This setup is working for those deeper fish and has taken 1 fish each of my last 3 trips. We just couldn't find them after 9:03. Maybe they were deeper than 180 or shallower than 130. We didn't target trout. Here's what didn't work: 200 Cu: Carbon 14 and a magnum orange and green Moonshine spoon 250 Cu: Green Jeans, Yeck Wart Frog, NBK, 5 Eyes 300 Cu + 4 oz dive bomb: Green & Chrome spin doctor & meat High Braid Slide Divers out 300, 220, 150 and 140 with Green Knight and Wonder bread spoons Low wire heavy slide divers out 190 and 210 with a slightly darker green and glow spin doctor and meat Various paddles and flies on the chute rigger. Most hits were between 1.9 and 2.2 mph at the ball with one coming at 2.4. Did try speeds up to 2.7. The water was so warm that we didn't run anything above a 200 Cu. Pictures to follow in the comments.

I am spoiled with the days I fish. My job gives me that flexibility. I wait for the forecast to be waves less than a foot and then I go. I get enough fishing in that way and I'm not thrown around. Nice fish!

Hey....when you're good, you're good! Nice job. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Final pictures Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

A few pics from the 8 for 8 trip. We always had at least one on for the last 2 hours. The girls has sore arms by the end of the trip! Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Also...fished with a buddy on the 8 for 8 trip who has friends that have caught 5 kings in PM lake already. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

My buddy has the pics of the 8 for 8 trip. I will throw a few up when I get them. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

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