Mega Byte

Fish are up shallow.

How shallow? We haven't spent much time shallow.

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Lots of bait neat bottom where we were. Got a 12 pound king tonight in 118 fow. Talked to two guys who went deep this AM. (190+) It was a mix of Lakers and coho for them.


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Quick report...kings are hard to come by. We got one 15 pounder 3 trips so far.

 

105 to 125 FOW has been the best water for us. We're getting 5 to 6 fish a trip with most being cohos and Lakers.

 

The king hit on the SWR setup with a moonshine spoon. (Pictured.) The rigger ball was at 40 putting the bait around 60. East troll was best.

 

100 Coppers to 300 Coppers all produced fish. 1 laker on a flasher fly on a rigger down 60. No meat hits. Everything else was spoons.

 

Currently the surface temp is 51ish. Temp is 45.4 degrees 47 ft down. We are heading back out tonight.

 

The kings have to show up some time right?

 

 

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Welcome!  I tend to fish one port south of you, but sometimes fish North to Ludington.  

Yep. I know one great fisherman who clips the board on 3 to 4 feet above the copper and backing connection. That way he can always check for line abrasions at the board hookup spot. Another guy I know hooks on 20 - 30 feet above the copper and backing connection. This way if a hooked fish is getting reeled in and makes a run to one of the inside boards it sees to try and tangle up, the fish is running into the backer and not the copper, which he hopes means that the line with the fish won't break. Although I am not sure what is worse to hit, the copper line itself or the braid backer. I would think hitting braid would be worse because of a thinner diameter and stronger breaking point. It is likely less of a concern with a mono backer.

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When I was a kid, I remember the Lakers having white flesh, but who knows how accuratethat memory is. Most of what I catch now are orange. I made her some fillets and will smoke the rest.

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Great post !! Does ur sister have a good recipe for lake trout ??? Growing up we never kept lake trout to eat !! We would go out and use big White jigs and jig for them just for the fight !!! 

I think she cooks it like I cook the salmon, which is with Chef Paul's Magic Salmon seasoning. Put it on extra heavy and fry in olive oil. We didn't get anything bouncing bottom.

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The three really digested ones were longer and skinnier, they may have been alewives. Everything else was gizzard shad.

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Stomach contents. I had a thinfin out to run also but I forgot to put it on. Looks like I should have run more those. That would have "matched the hatch" better.

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Took the kids out because it was such a wonderful day. Got two Lakers, one was 16# and the other was 17#.

 

One in 73 FOW and the other in 71 FOW. 100 CU on a lime green and silver spoon. 200 CU on a NBK. (You know...typical laker setups. ) Hits came on S and N trolls, 2.4 to 2.6 mph at the ball.

 

I have a sister who loves lake trout, so this worked out well.

 

We were going to make the drive to Holland, but Google Maps said the ramps were temporarily closed. Is the Holland boat launch closed?

 

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Thanks.  I was thinking about making a trip that way with the kids.  

That's a busy trip!  Nice job.

When I upgrade, I'll get something from Garmin.  Their tech is just outstanding.

What a difference two hours makes.  This data is from the Ludington buoy.  1.2 feet to 4.1 feet in just two hours.

This guy is in WI, but does nice work:  https://www.facebook.com/MitchMartinTaxidermy/photos/?ref=page_internal.  Not sure if you're looking for a skin mount or a replica.

Nice catch!

Not all of the mature fish you catch later in the year need to be smoked.  They'll go great in this chowder.  We're eating some today and I froze some mature king and labeled them as "for chowder". 

NIce!  Sweet picture!

3 minutes ago, FBD said:

Need an intern?

LOL.     My daughters said, "Dad, we could do school from the boat!  All we do is work on our Chromebooks anyway."  I was actually trying to get some work done...just needed to get on the water, drop some lines and try and stay out of everyone's way.  It was a pretty relaxing day.  The original thought was any inefficiencies caused during the normal working day would be made up for by extending the working day until 9 PM, but I didn't stay that long.  Yeah, and intern would have been helpful.  The big King that hit on the rigger almost got into my diver lines twice.  He stayed deep and tried running to the side.  At that point I thought, yeah, maybe I should have invited someone to the office today to pull one of those dipsys up.

27 minutes ago, Reel-Deal said:

Good job at the office!

Yeah...but I think I owe my boss a few makeup hours...  

1 hour ago, Fin scout said:

What was your temperature at 50 fow?

It was 47 - 48 degrees 48 feet feet down, which is where I ran my rigger.  Actually...it could have been a couple degrees warmer in 50 FOW.  I spent most of my time in 54 - 65 FOW.  I think I remember seeing 50 degrees on the probe when I was in 47 - 50 FOW.

Decided to move my remote office onto the boat for the day.  I talked to a poor fella at the dock who hasn't had a bite in his last 5 trips to Ludington, including that AM when he fished North off the point.  I saw a charter captain had an almost-skunk this morning so I wasn't really expecting to do much, but figured it was better than working indoors at a desk.

Got lines set at 11:25 just in time for an 11:30 meeting.    I started setting lines as soon as I cleared the pier heads.  I had some nice marks in the upper 40s FOW so decided to work 50-ish FOW.  I ran two braid slide divers and one rigger.  I didn't run long lines because of the boat congestion.  I started with a plug and spoon on the divers and a KGF spindoctor and meat rig on the rigger.  I got lines set and put it on a S troll to work out of the boats.  I took it all the way to the project and then spun it around and headed back North.  During the trip South, I had several fish come up and inspect the rigger ball.  It was down about 45 feet.  Then they would slip back down and lay on bottom and disappear.  I think there were a lot of fish we aren't marking that were just laying on bottom.

I tried switching baits to see if I could turn those follows into biters.  I tried different colors, sizes, flasher-flies, and a plug.  I tried different colors and presentations on the divers too.  Finally at 2:54 PM I had my first hit..  That 20.5 pound King made it into the box.  It hit a blue and white spindoctor and Howie's double-aquafly.  The diver was on a 3 setting 150 feet out which would have put it around 45 feet down.  I had just put that bait on about 10 minutes prior so I was thinking Blue might be the way to go since it was the first time I had run Blue all day.  I switched out the other high diver for a Blue J-plug.  One the rigger I put an all white Ghostbuster paddle and meatrig.  

The Blue J-plug was the next to fire at about 4:35 PM.  It was on a diver, #3 setting out 130 which should put it around 40 feet down.  That was a 17# king.

As that king was laying the next, the Blue/White spindoctor and fly went off again.  (So, 4:45 PM-ish.)  This one was set with 150' of line out to the slide-diver.  This fish ended up getting off because my king that was in the net managed to get the J-plug hooks embedded in the fabric of the net and fish was hooked really with with both hooks.  The fish I was fighting ended up getting off about 40' from the back of the boat.  Because I was working to get the net available, i wasn't able to keep enough pressure on the fish.

At 5:45 the rigger starts bouncing and then a big King gets airborne at the back of the boat.  This one took a while to get it.  There were many times I was sure it was going to get into one of the divers.  I turned the boat to try to keep the fish centered in the back and that worked.  I did a lot of circles, avoided other boats and managed to not tangle the other two lines.  The 23# king made it into the boat.  I also saw two more kings rolling on the surface when I was out there.

I reset the lines and fished for another half hour without any more bites.  It was starting to get really crowded out front and since I was by myself, so I decided to call it a day.  I didn't want to get a fish on solo, get a tangle and manage that with so much boat traffic.

All hits came in 54 to 62 FOW.  Speed was 2.2 to 2.4.  Enjoy the pictures.

 

Here are the baits that took fish.  The spin-doctor and fly took two hits.

Rain started to move in to our North.  I managed to stay dry the entire trip.

 

235# King:

 

Not a bad box for a mid-day solo trip:

 

Just beat this big boy back into port:

 

Nice trip!  That is a busy morning all before 8:30.  Well done.

This will help: http://www.educatedangler.com/magazine/from-the-field/1169-port-basics-ludington

When I have the kids on the boat, especially if I'm alone with them, trying to maintain a bottom bouncing setup as you navigate different depths with everything going on, it becomes a wasted line because I can't consistently keep it on bottom.  Then you have the darn accidental releases where you have reset the whole rig or you get the small laker that doesn't trip the release that you drag around for a while.  It's too much hassle for me on most of my trips.  Maybe I need to train one of the girls to maintain the lake trout setup.  They would probably enjoy that.