Mega Byte

Started setting lines at 5:30. Marked lots of bait (finally) in 45 - 55 fow. Fished that range all the way out to 170 fow. Maybe 1 hit on a 100 Cu, or it was a wave that pulled it under. Started the morning with 1 footers. Finished around 11:00 with 3 to 4s with the occasional 5. Had good water temps 45 to 60 feet down (temps in the 40s). The currents were brutal. Had to run shorter rigger leads or they would get into the wire divers. Watched waves breaking in two different directions at the same time. Because of the currents, I opted to pull the laker setup. I have had 3 skunks in the last two weeks out of Pentwater. I must be forgetting how to do this. Sheesh. At some point more fish will show up...right? [emoji1696] Sent from my LM-K500 using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

For this trip I played it stubborn and intentionally didn't target Lakers. If you want Lakers in Pentwater, they are there. The smaller ones are in 80 - 110 fow, but they get bigger as you out. 120-130 would be the best depth to target good sized lakers. Anyway... Decided to fish deeper looking for elusive kings and the occasional steelhead. Work 150 to 220 FOW with a 17! rod spread from 7 am to noon and only got one hit. Most of the fishing was from the surface with a flat line down to 100 feet down. We did see a couple of steelhead on the surface. Once was eating bugs and the other was chasing baitfish right by the boat. I only marked 2 fish all morning long, and I finally marked a school of baitfish. It's the only baitfish I marked in 4 trips. It was in 200 feet of water, right on bottom and had a big arch above it. In case anyone is wondering, it's 40.7 degrees 180 feet down. We put a couple of lines down there to check it out. The only hit we had was on a high diver, but it tangled with the wire diver and got off. It wasn't a big fish. It didn't even pull the drag. There were very few boats out of Pentwater. We saw a couple of charters who were pounding bottom for trout, we were out and maybe three or four other boats out there fishing. The silver fish should show up at some point. The last couple of years it was about this time to the 2nd week of July. If you want Lakers though, there are plenty of them.

Fished 2 hours with a 3 rod spread targeting kings right out front 8 PM to 10 PM. Started in 175 fow. Worked out to 190 and back into 164. Ran king baits 65 to 85 feet down to start, then raised things up into warmer water as it was getting dark. Picked up a laker on a flasher meat setup but I used a glow MC Rocket instead of meat. No other hits. No marks on the graph. Sent from my LM-K500 using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

I talked to a guy that did well on trout. But everything hit before 8:30. Sent from my LM-K500 using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Fished from pine island south to the point. Worked 80 fow out to 200. Got a bit of a late start, but fished 8 am to 1:30. Didn't have a hit all morning. Fished baits 20 ft down to 120 ft down for kings and steal. Spent a few hours with a rigger and wire diver bouncing bottom for trout too. Speed was 2.3 to 2.7. The few marks we saw were in the 130s down 50 - 90 and in 180 down 20 and 50. Only marked 4 or 5 fish all morning. Tried flasher flies, meat and spoons. Sent from my LM-K500 using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Welcome to the group.

Thanks for the report.

I know out west (Pacific Ocean) they'll run a 11" paddle in front of a spoon with a 6' leader between them as a standard setup. I've taken salmon on that setup in Lake Michigan, but usually I run my spoons naked. If you're running 4 riggers, I'd start your morning with 3 flashers and run one naked spoon as your deep line. Run the flashers a bit higher in the water column in the morning and the fish should come up to investigate. If they don't hit, they'll peel off and head back down and see the naked spoon. As your morning progresses, you may have to remove the flashers if they aren't getting bit and go with naked spoons, or try increasing your length behind the cannonballs. I usually lower my cannonballs as the morning progresses also. You can also run fixed sliders and free sliders above your primary baits.

Good stuff. I thought I add a printable recipe for those that want it. Adirondack Salmon Chowder.pdf