tbutcher

Grand Haven 7/15 am

Fished from 9am-1pm. started in 100' fow and 125-130 was our best depth. We ended up 4for5 with two very energetic 10lb. steelhead , 5lb. coho and one small laker.

MS green jeans on a 100 and 150 copper caught both steelhead which went airborne bunch of times.  The kids really enjoyed that. Not sure how they stayed hooked.

UV green meat rig on DR down 60 got the coho. dipsey set on 3 back 200 with yellow uv spin n glo took the laker. lost something big on big white paddle and fly.

Beautiful day on the water.

Grand haven 6/10 am

White Whale is back on the water! Boy does it feel good....

Started at 8:30 and pulled lines at 11am. We landed a 17lb. king in 100-110 fow on a sw troll going 2.7-3.0 at the ball.

setup was big white uv slick paddle with OCEANA MIRAGE/UV fly on DR about 50' down. We were lucky to land this fish after tangled in a 5color.

Glad the kids came along they were a big help in landing this one. Even our Boston terrier got a few licks today!

Very good info thank you mrhookup! Whats the longest you would make the tether for this scenario?

Fished from 3:00-6:30 pm on the white whale very bumpy on our way out. rode into 3-5' waves from 80 worked out to 160. could not mark much and could not get anything going on coppers, cores or diver. Dropped down a green spin glo and dragged bottom riding the waves back in was much smoother and picked up a 2lb laker that we must have dragged for half hour looked like a blowfish.

I use a scotty release and was surprised it didn't release setting it right on the line.

Anyone have a suggestion on what to do about that?

Overall fun time with Gian and having my girls along for the ride.

The launch is a mess and we had to stop a few times and clean off weeds or the boat would not speed up.

Agreed been doing the same on the pier definitely shad... I hope that's not a sign of alewives declining.

Excellent Ed! We are finally taking the white whale out of Port Sheldon tomorrow and if all goes well we will drop some lines. Hope to have something to report we shall see.

Great job Ed that king is a beauty!

Wonder if it pushed them in, and or starting in the rivers?

That could very well be. We probably should have made a pass in shallow but ran out of time. If we get out tomorrow morning we will try shallow first before we head out to 110fow.

1for2 small coho 9:30-noonish

Got out with Ed(littleboat) on the white whate today and we managed to catch at least a pan frier. Seems like the fish moved around since the lake got blown out the from the wind storm. The hits we had were in 110fow on downrigger and the coho on 150 copper. Nice to get out and try some of eds streamer spoons and catch something on them. Hope to get out one more time before we pull the white whale for the year.

Are you docked on the southside?

Yes they said we can stay in till first ice but they pulled out some of the big poles last week. two boats left now. we decided to stay in till thanksgiving.

Besides red I am going to try green and yellow. I am going to buy some good trebles and tie them in the vice and then just switch out the hooks. When I get to it I will post the final product. Hopefully I get to test the theory.

Good i hope the green and yellow produce like the red. let me know what trebles you go with and how you like them with the streamer setup. i cant wait to see pics of you testing the theory. i will post pics again if i get out monday.

very nice ed! you have been busy. i love the different color streamers. that orange one will get crushed. they all will.

Monday is looking good calling for south wind 2' waves. might be my next trip if all is well on the white whale. she got knocked around in that wind storm. the docks and boat had to get secured again yesterday the wind and storm surge was pushing them away.

I added a red streamer and copper flashabou to my cyconite spoon. I'll do some other types patterned spoons and see if there is a trend toward the spoon or the pattern on the spoon. Hopefully the winds will die down next week.

nice work ed that looks great! did you tie with red thread? i bet you get more hits. before you let it out watch the action beside the boat make sure the streamer has good kick to it. 2.8sog worked best for me. i think it imitates a bleeding minnow for a easy meal. the streamer definitely adds more contrast also. i sure hope we can get out next week maybe see you out there.

Fantastic trip! I will definitely be doctoring some spoons at the fly tying bench this winter. Thanks for sharing that trick.

You find it works on the steelies mainly or do salmon like it too?

Your welcome i hope this works for you and others! Good idea with the fly tying i have a bench and will be using it. Looking back the last salmon i got was two coho october 1st and i was not using this yet. I only have four trips landing 14 steelies and counting using this method. i hope to get out next week and add to this total. I can't say that it works for salmon yet though. Please put some pics up id like to see how this works for you and others.

Your spoons are nice. It looks like you slipped a small tube over the flashabou once it was added to the treble and cemented it or did you fly tie it on? Did you add any paint on the spoons themselves?

Thanks Ed! i love adding my personal touch to lures makes it fun. i also make steelhead plugs and usually fishing them up the rivers very soon and all winter long. my friend gave me access to the white whale so i find myself still on the lake. i did slip the orange tubing over and tied it with the same fishing line that pulled it to the hook eye. same tubing my dad uses to make homemade spinners. i added holloween red nail polish to give it a spooky bloody look.

very nice. my solo trip out of Holland was a tough one in a 16' boat but did manage 2.

Nice job on the fish.

Good job on the solo trip especially in the 16' boat. Glad you got some. those 3' rollers were tough so we road with them.

Tim- Did you add the red feather like material on the hook? Thanks

Yes i did and it works like a charm. I like the action and different look. my strike and catch ratio has gone up considerably. I will be adding more.

6for11 fished 9:30am-noon

The lake was good to us today we got our limit before noon. It was quite bumpy but the 25' white whale did awesome again. We started straight west in 130fow and road the waves north to GH 110 to fow. We had a 45 minute ride back to port sheldon but well worth it. Everything seemed to work that we put out. The dowriggers and ten colors went four times each and coppers went three. SOG was 2.5-3.0 all the way. Even got a nice brown in the mix!

Hope you can make it on Wed. I'm planning on it and hoping to get a rider to come along. 1 prospect so far. Looking forward to it. If you go tomorrow let me know how you do. I'm debating on which port yet but leaning toward saugy or PS

Didn't make it out today. Tomorrow is looking good. We have to go out of port sheldon thats where our slip is. The one limiting factor but we have done very well. Hope to see you out there good luck.

There were a few birds, I didn't see them chase the bait. I was too busy trying to unclog my main motor while I was fishing .

Sorry about that i don't have to launch the boat or i would have mentioned that. I did notice the water in pigeon lake has dropped the last two times i came out of the canal into pigeon and back in the props are just brushing bottom which i don't like.

Nice job Ed! we wrestled with some big ones yesterday that we lost jumped a bunch and threw the hook. happee meal is a good one im going to doctor mine up. Tomorrow looks good i hope you get back out. Did you happen to see the birds going after bait in the 100-120fow?

Thanks for the report. I'm hoping to go Wed am.

I might be out there. Debating on going tomorrow or wednesday leaning toward wednesday.The big winds come in wednesday night thru friday. so we should get out before that if we can. Hopefully see you out there good luck.

Awesome afternoon! What coppers were they hitting on?

The same 100 and 150 has been working great for weeks now. Both getting about the same amount of action. We had the two coppers and two downriggers and that was enough action for the two of us.

Is that a piece of red yarn on the hook? Is that done to all the spoons you were using or just the one that got hit 7 times?

It is actually synthetic hair my dad uses on streamers, saltwater flies or bucktail jigs. Its also called super hair. not sure where he got it but buying more. I have not caught a salmon on it yet but i bet they will like it. comes in 8" length and i have done 8 hooks and still have some left. we had four rods out and three of the four had the doctored moonshine with hair that went 8 times.

Started out frosty about 8:30am had to scrape the windshield of the grady white. dopped lines in 90fow spotted some birds and headed nw toward them to 120'fow. All hits were in about 120fow. Waves about 1' and slowly built to 2'-3' by 1pm. . First spoon Craigs flounder ironically uncle Craig's first fish of the day on rigger nice 10lb steelhead in 120fow . Then doctored moonshine(green jeans) took over had the next seven hits on copper lines landing two. Then on our way back in doctored moonshine took last fish while bringing in downrigger. we ended up 4for9 at 1pm. Couldn't ask for a better day. I was fortunate to get out and have such nice weather and spend some quality time with uncle craig.