mrhookup

Check out the classifieds section on Lake Ontario United, it's one of the more active forums in the great lakes region and there's a good number of boats on there typically most of which are located on Lake Ontario ports so they are usually freshwater boats, an important thing for your price range in a boat that size. I just purchased my new to me 22' Aquasport from a guy on there and the transaction went very well. Was a pretty long drive, but I got exactly what I wanted after having searched for a while. Also, for searching on Craigslist try using Searchtempest.com, it searches across all Craigslist sites in a given radius instead of having to search them individually.

Fished the mud in the morning for a couple hours before the storm kicked everyone off the lake. Managed to go 1-2 landing a steelhead on a Michael Jackson spoon 25ft down on a rigger in 35 FOW. Based on the radio chatter and the boats spreading out relative quickly, sounds like it was pretty slow for most. Water warmed up some and the fish that were in close were closer to bottom as a result. Had some good marks in there but had to get off the lake before we could get them completely figured out. So much for that 0% chance of rain that was forecasted....

Went 0-2 last night out of PS. 12 rod spread and fished from 50-175 FOW starting north of port about half way to Grand Haven and working our way back toward the pier heads. Both hits came on a mag Happee Meal on 200ft copper between 115-135 FOW.

We run 14lbers on tracks with Cannon electrics with no problems. Its a fiberglass boat but if the tracks are properly mounted I doubt you'd have any issues.

I think I saw some in The Outdoorsman Pro Shop in Jenison the other week, can't remember if they had 300' spools but id try giving them a call

If you're gonna ignore everything else and target just the slams we've done well running a small spread of orange spoons on boards at 3-3.5 SOG. Many times the fish are concentrated in specific areas so running less lines actually helps you turn quicker and stay on the fish.4 total planer boards with baits in the top 8ft is pretty standard for us.

Agreed Joe, the weather looks great tomorrow through Sunday. Also looks like the north winds flipped the lake today, could make it interesting the next couple of days.

I would have run more lines above the break in the top 40ft., probably at least half of them to start the morning. We always seem to take a majority of our fish higher than expected...during the "primetime" bite windows especially. We caught a 14lb king about a week ago on 30ft of copper with 64deg surface temps on a regular stinger double orange crush at 11am...didn't expect that one.

Thanks Ken!

Thanks Dan, really like it so far, still dialing her in and learning how she fishes but it's been a fun ride thus far in the first couple of weeks. I'm considering a night trip out of GH on Thursday night with the full moon this week since some buddies of mine and myself have Friday off. Will report how we do, success or not, but looking like good weather after tomorrow for the rest of the week and weekend so planning on being on the water as much as possible this week.

It's been some time since I last posted a report, haven't been able to get out as much this year as last so far but thankfully that is looking like it will change for the rest of the summer. Made the big decision to upgrade the rig this year from our 16' Grumman to a 2004 Aquasport 215 Explorer with a 2-stroke 200hp outboard and a 4-stroke 9.9hp kicker on the back. It's 22' overall with a T-top, two person cuddy, two Cannon Mag 10 STX riggers, tracks, a bunch of rod holders, Fish Hawk, and a couple of Hummingbird Units. She fishes great and motors fast, VERY happy with the purchase so far. Now for the fishing... Grand Haven 6/20 am - Took a couple buddies from college out for their first time on Lake Michigan and first time salmon fishing. Managed to go 5/7 if you include the two shaker kings. Six out of the 7 hits came on high slide divers out 120ft with UV Green Dolphin and UV Wonderbread spoons. Lost 2 nice kings in 120FOW, picked up a 5lber in 135FOW, hit a small steelhead in 160FOW, and finished the day picking up about a 10lb king in 265FOW on a Double Orange Crush on 30ft of copper while running fast looking for steelhead. PS 6/25 pm - Got out on the water around 6:30pm after work and fished until 11pm. Finished up 3/3 with a good size steelhead and a couple of 10-13lb kings. Glad we stayed late as both kings came after dark. Took the steelhead on a Dbl Orange Crush on 30ft of copper in 150FOW, first king on Glow Yellowtail behind 30ft of copper and a 2oz torpedo running about 25ft down in 135FOW, second king on Flounder Pounder on a rigger parked at 40ft down in 130FOW. PS 6/28 pm - Took my mom and sister out for their first time in the new boat. Fished from 6-9pm with only 1 good rip around 8:30pm in 150 FOW. Marked good numbers of fish in the 130-150FOW range straight out and a bit south of port. The water was dirty with a decent break about 40ft down in this area. Wish we could have stayed latter as the bite was just picking up in the same area for others I was talking to but had to get them back because of work in the morning. It was a beautiful night on the lake nonetheless, flat calm out there again. Hopefully the South winds and warm weather continues going into next weekend. We had 67deg surface temps last night with the top 30ft of the water column in the 60s, the 30-60ft range in the 50s, and below 60ft in the 40s. Getting close to having a nice temp break setup.

Awesome to hear, I might throw one out tomorrow when the bite slows

Thanks for the report. We typically start with all three sizes out (stinger/ss, stingray/regular, and magnum) and see what the fish want. We usually put a stinger or SS on my highest line that is looking for steelhead as I've always had my best luck on that size for them.

Before you hit the kings while heading in, what did your catch primarily consist of? Steelhead, lakers, or a mixed bag out there? Great report, thanks for the info!

I've been counting the skakers this year to keep the skunk off......hmm what's that I smell?

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