mrhookup

good to know we weren't the only ones struggling out there . It seems the June slow down has begun...

1-1 with a very small shaker king last night out of Port Sheldon from 5:30-10pm. Started in 125 FOW slightly north of port, headed Southwest to the 140 FOW range and we were seeing some small marks and baitfish so we turned south. Ran that track for a while, turned around and tried a north troll for a bit. Heard of a king caught in 104 FOW around 8:15pm so we turned in and trolled into 95 FOW. Work the 85-105 FOW range the rest of the nice with no dice and not very many marks on the graph, bait or otherwise. The shaker came on a UV Blue dolphin Stingray in 140 FOW, ran everything but plugs. Tough night out there for us and the couple other boats we spoke with at the dock, it was very scenic as always though....

Tough night out there, I think we talked to you at the take out, we were the 1-1 with a shaker.

I was on the pier Sunday morning and water temps dropped from 61 to 52 from Saturday according to the others I spoke with. All but two of the tournament boats went deep and south.

Hey guys, someone PM'ed me about this topic which I pulled up on my phone yesterday but now it's gone. Can't remember their name on here, so if it was you, my apologies for not responding yet as I've been out of town. Please send me the message again and I'll respond with any help I can offer. Thanks

Brett, I've had mixed results following that chart. Now we don't have a Fishhawk so we read currents the traditional ways, but even so the chart has been hit or miss as to whether the surface currents match the bottom currents. I use it as one piece of information to help complete the puzzle. Watching the wind directions on a daily basis also helps to "guess" where the current is most likely coming from and which troll direction to start with, even so, we still try both a south and north troll typically to figure it out. It does seem though that if you drop in on top of the fish first thing in the morning direction isn't as critical but as the sun rises it's important to get it dialed in to help keep the action steady throughout the morning.

We usually use different flashers, either spin docs, I personally like echip flashers, out best this spring has been a mtn dew flasher with a home tied pickle sunshine fly and a green e'chip or spin doctor with a chartreuse red dot spin n glow or a chartreuse p'nut. Let you ball down till u get slack in the cable and bring it back to tight then raise it about 1 to 2 feet. If you aren't getting bit try slowing down, we have had to go as slow as 2 mph this spring, but normally 2.3 to 2.5 is good laker speed. Last week end we tried to stay within 1 foot of the sand, and that is where we got bit. Another good set up is a trash can Dodger with a P'nut, ( wobble glo) When the other stuff is silent I always put that combo down.

Mike when you say Mountain Dew echip, are you talking about the white blade with Mtn Dew tape, or the Mtn Dew blade with either pearl or Mtn Dew tape? Seems there are a few different options and I've always wondered which is being referred to by most...if it even matters to the fish that is.

I was toying with the idea of checking myself this past Saturday when the lake was like glass but decided to stay in and work the few kings that were around. This time last year we had great steelhead action on our boat in the 140-180 range, lots of fish that had spawned and returned that were feeding heavily. Haven't run into one yet this year, but the steelhead run this year was mediocre IMO and very late, just as late or a touch later than last year. With a smaller run there's less drop back to target for the early season offshore fishery I would assume. I'm guessing it will pick up next month when the Skamania start to show themselves and hold for the rest of the summer, but that's just a guess, we'll see what mother nature decides.

Nice morning on the lake today after having been out of it for a month. Water was like glass with cloudy skies and fog. Ended up 6-6 with two shaker kings, two lake trout, a 4lb king, and a 9lb king. Started the morning hitting a couple in 50-60 FOW, 30-50ft down. Slid out as far as 105 FOW later in the morning with hits at 72, 75, and 84 FOW. Spoons on riggers and spinnies on wire slide divers took the fish. Attached pic is what worked for us. Blue dolphin was hot for most on the radio and heard of one boat that was 11-15 with about half the fish being kings. It seems to be picking up somewhat, not on fire, but getting better.

Looking for suggestions on boat storage in the greater Grand Rapids with 24x7 access. Doesn't need to be covered looking for a good monthly rate.

Thanks!

great job Mike! Were you dragging bottom continuously dropping your riggers as you headed out or were you just keeping them in the bottom 10ft or so?

thanks for the report Kevin, great job on a weekday trip!

Great report as always, thanks!

Good job Mike!

great looking fish!

Thanks for the tip! Headed out there tonight!

Good luck! Hopefully the water hasn't changed too much as the wind switch to coming out of the NE pretty good while we were out there.

Took Dad to Port Sheldon to fish the beach this morning from 8-11am for brownies. Went 1 for 2 on browns and lost a real nice lake trout in the 20lb class at the back of the boat, one of if not the largest lakers we've hooked on our boat. The laker and the brown we landed came on hot n tot's and the other on a UV Blue Freakin Veggies Stinger spoon.

First brown of the year

If you're headed out this evening/weekend, fish to the south toward Holland. The water was significantly warmer that way, 41-42 deg the whole way down the beach while to the north it quickly dropped to 36 deg after passing the bubbler. That's where we hit our laker and it seemed like most of the action on the radio was in that direction.

The lake was beautiful out there this morning, tight lines!

Great job! You may have just put a wrench in my plans for tomorrow morning. Hmmm...now do I drive all the way down to St. Joe or fish Port Sheldon for browns? Decisions...decisions...

Nice going Ed, we probably waived our lackluster results to you on our way in going through the channel. The pier was definitely the place to be on Saturday morning in St. Joe, we struggled on our boat.

Hit St. Joe this morning for the first trip of the year. Windier than forecasted to start the morning and the lake was tore up pretty good from the storms, the water looked like it does in Chicago. Trolled the mud out front, north, south, in tight, etc. with the usual suspects and only managed one throwback coho on a silver/black Hot n Tot. Sounds like it was slow for others as well, most we heard of being caught was 4. On the positive side everything worked on the boat other than the handle coming off our trailer winch on the ride down. Ready for the warm weather this week to get things going next weekend. Good luck out there!

How far out behind boards do u run? Riggers and dipsys work this time of year??

We run our boards from 50-100ft back with body baits and smaller spoons (clean or with weight). Generally keep it on the longer side when targeting browns though, for coho is doesn't matter a lot of the time. Dipsies work well for coho, although we've never had a lot of luck with them on browns. I would think slide divers would work well for browns, but have never tried so can't comment there.

For us we use the following...

Leaders on Planer Boards:

- 12lb fluoro for browns and cohos

- 20lb fluoro the rest of the year for kings, etc.

Dipseys/Slide Divers:

- 30 or 40lb 7 strand wire, 20lb fluoro leaders to spoons, 30lb fluoro leaders to flashers, also run slide diver on section of 30lb mono (for added stretch) between wire and leaders

Downriggers:

- 20lb mono

- 12lb mono rod occasionally goes in with a small spoon set deep and 100ft back in high sun, per the light line rig by Dan Keating http://www.outdoorhub.com/stories/2013/05/01/downrigger-twists-for-michigan-king-salmon-all-day/

Very true! Although we were fishing out of our little 14 foot boat with three people and when the motor breaks down half a mile from the pier heads it gets a little stressful. Still a good time though. Gotta love a day on the water! (The best feeling in the world was when that motor sputtered back to life. Saved us from a lot of paddling lol)

The perils of a small boat . We only have a main engine on our 16footer as well and making sure it is in top working condition is always my number one priority and I'm constantly checking the condition of everything on it since it's an older model. We've never gotten stranded ourselves but it's bound to happen eventually that's why it's important to have a couple backup plans in place for when it does occur. This time of year can be tough to get a tow with limited traffic out there, which does make it a bit more of a risk, just another reason not to wander too far out from the beach. Glad you made it in safe and didn't have to do it under "man power".

outdated flares have ALMOST gotten me (had 3 days to spare when got checked by CO last year)

haven't heard or been out there myself but this time last year they were getting them before you could get out into the big lake. if I remember correctly, I stopped into Gold Coast around that time and they said the action was only good for a few days then word got out and the added pressure put the fish down.