FBD

This post, not too bad.  The first shot off Facebook my nephew sent me had at least 7 hash tags in it if not more.

Always taught my kids when we win tournaments to go up there, look the guy in the eyes, take the money, shake his hand, then sit down.  Act like you've been there before.

For five years, all planted kings had the adipose fin clipped.  This program is now wrapping up and moving to mass marking of steelhead.  Since a rare king makes it more than 3 years in the lakes (don't believe all the bs about kings running at 4 years old, when lots of studies have shown that unless stressed most kings, like 95% depending on the river, run at 2-3 years old) at this point in time it's safe to say all kings in Lake Michigan that are stocked are fin clipped.

What's so impossible to explain?  Pinks were planted, once, by accident like 40 years ago and now can be found all over Superior and Huron and even in Michigan.  The Pere Marquette has not been stocked in like, forever, and has a great run of kings.  Coho naturally reproduce in many Lake Superior streams, and I catch rainbow smolts while brookie fishing in Allegan County.  There's been natural reproduction of almost all the fish to some extent in the big lake for some time, with the lakers taking off as the alewive population crashed, due to a switched diet - the alewives had a chemical in them that hampered egg development.

We even allow people to catch spawning fish and wade through their redds.

With so many salmon and so much productive water they can spawn in, it's kind of amazing that with all we do not to protect the fish, we still see about 70% wild fish in the catch.  But even one pair of kings successfully spawning can hatch 1000's of smolts.

Thank you for the info.  I've looked at the launch on the south side and used the public one on the north side once, in April, and the water was so low I had to push the 14' out in waders.  That was a couple years ago when the water was very low all around.

Typically this time of year for the heavies we find where the thermocline hits the bottom, go 10' deeper, and just pound that bottom 10' of water.  Doesn't always work, but it can be very good especially early and late.

Where do you launch and is the cleaning station public?  My parents live up there but I always fish Ludington as it's familiar.  Whole lake is no wake if I recall?

We used to wail on out of temp matures in 30-40' in front of Holland when there were more kings.   You had to have your stuff in the bottom five feet, you had about a twenty minute window to hook them at dark, and some days your graph would look like demo mode and nothing would hit.

I recall a perch trip with my nephew and dad in law where we hooked up all four rods out and squashed the one poor perch in the cooler.  As it got dark we watched these long lines swim across the graph so quickly threw out the salmon gear.

Solo trip this am.  Alarm goes off at 4:30, say screw this I'll take the kids tonight and roll over.  Woke up at ten.  Didn't know I was that beat.

Kids had plans.  Well, most of them.

Launched at 5:45 was set up at the buoy by 6:30.  Somehow ended up in 105' off Camp Geneva when we pulled them, took half an hour to get into port in the 14'.

Had my three year old and wife crewing.  Lost something small that hit a s w r flounder pounder in the flutter up, letting my boo reel it in. 

About eight pm a wire diver, white spnny green fly out 225' got thrashed.  Stopped at 400, took a break, and then went to 600.  I cleared the 225 copper and we spun circles around it, got it to 200 and it took off again.  Came in towing the 300 copper then went through the other wire just to be like that.  30# beast, no, more like a 15# with an attitude.  Just got set back up and the s w r down 80 tapped once.  Reeled down to it, and Billy Bob hook set when it got tight.  Three year old piles on my lap and we reel in a 6# coho.  Trolled back into 80 nice marks and some bait but no more hits.  Called it at 9:15.  Great night.  Daughter fell asleep on my wife's lap on the way in and then talked about the 11 fish we caught as we rode home.  Girl already talks like a fisherman.

Steel 125' down on a plug.  Weird.

Ludington 8-19 pm

Buoy said 1.6'.  Buoy was wrong.  All waves look bigger in a 14' but it was sporty out there.  Not dangerous but far from comfortable. 40 minutes to bludgeon our way out to 80' off the project, marking bait in 70-80'.  SW wind becoming south but the thermocline came up while we were out there.  Weird.  And currents were a mess.  I bet our plot last night looks like a college pub crawl on quarter draft night.

Had a swing and a miss on a white spinny green  fly out 250' on a wire in 110' then took a fat 7.5# coho on a mag SS UV green dolphin off a 300 copper.  Cloverleafed that spot and nothing more so we headed in closer.  Took a small, and I mean small laker on the same wire diver.  About eight lost a good king on a swr down 60 mag bloody nose Moonshine.  Got all set up for the late bite that never happened.  Had to turn when some big azz car ferry would not move for me.  Really?  I got coppers out...

Ran back in, well, more of a brisk jog, pump running the whole time as those 1.6' were coming over the bow.

Cleaning station didn't have much of a line.  Guy who went 9/12 in the am was skunked last  night.  Would have been nice to have that king.

But after towing the boat up here 8 times and fishing four I finally got something more than 2# out of Ludington.  Every time I tow it up here the weather turns, I run out of time, or there's enough ducks around that I don't get to fishing.

Now to drive 20 miles to the cop shop to see if I can get my $30 parking ticket tossed as my receipt slid off my dash last night.  Sigh.

Sheriff in Port Sheldon on the way out last night but not on the way in.  Should have been.  Lots of idiots going 8-10 mph throwing up huge wakes to get to the launch two minutes faster.  They should just punch it up, plane out, and save us the trouble of surfing their huge wake.  The ticket's the same.

Lots of currents out there last night.

I run standard with a mag ring on wire, and at a two setting I get a foot of depth for every three feet out.  I've pulled Lakers with them 400 out in 140' of water.  x

That's an awesome fish, but every post about it reads like a NASCAR winner's post race sponsor plug.

Love it.  I gotta retire.

I don't have the Manistee thing figured out at all.  There's structure and currents up there that we don't get in the flat lands around the southern end of the lake that I call home.  But when the fish come up the beach or harbor on cold water, then it's all the same regardless of port.

Glad to see some heavies in these reports.  The last two years have been slim pickings for me at least.  Would love to put some 20's in the boat, regardless of where and how!

Love the detailed report, even if we don't share friends 

Try your own thing.  Local advice is killer, sometimes, but the last time I fished Manistee we trolled down the beach all by ourselves running six planer boards with J plugs and rapalas and wailed on the kings.  We had to jink around the swim buoys at Orchard beach we were so tight to shore, and there wasn't another boat within miles.

This was a tournament that Captain King put together for members of his board, begging me to come as the fish would be in the harbor as I love to fish in close in traffic, and then changing the rules the morning of the tournament to say no one could fish in the harbor.  No vote was held, he just made that choice and told us how it was.

He caught one fish that day.  And I lost a lot of respect for him.    Several boats that came 3-4 hours to fish it said screw it and fished the harbor any way.

Fish in close, in the mud around the piers I'll take spinnies with flies, and plugs, over spoons any day.  You know the fish are there so you can just sit on the and grind them out, instead of looking for them.

It happens.  Don't worry too much.

Cool to share with people, especially kids, something that we take for granted but is completely awesome to them.

Two months since I've been out.  Two months.  No kid's tournament, no B4k.  Had a hunch some fish should come in in a flip so at ten on last night the coppers and wire came out and the slide divers and short cores were loaded.

It didn't flip.  Worse, it kind of flipped.  So we dropped where the cold water met the bottom in 30' and started marking hooks and bait.

Didn't take long and a white spinny with a green fly hooked up off a slide diver and went to 290' on the counter while letting out the last core.  16# king.  Other slide fired with a two pound Brown in a magnum moonshine, the the same spinny picked  up a 14# king.  So we switched to all spinnies and beat that to death right as it died.  

Still wantjnv to get steel, which I saw,a few caught from the surf, we went into the grass filled plume water and promptly caught a 23" 7.4# football brown ofc a silver Jr. T stick.

Pulling lines at the piers, we took a 19" walleye off a mag stinger on a two color.

Weirdest steelhead trip ever.

How much of that "vandalism" is from people running over or running gear into poorly marked nets?

We ran down the markers one time, on the Badger of all things.  Bounced them right down the side of the ship at 15 knots.

Solid cooler and chunky coho.

I helped validate two patents that ate used now industry wide on vehicle suspensions.  Both started with a guy asking "what if we...".

If you do the math, with standard rigger cable and especially coated cable, your cable at about 70' down has more surface area and thus causes more blowback than the cannonball.  I got some thinner cable from McMaster Carr but with thin cable and 10# sharks my out downs got way in front of my 12# round ball coated cable probe trigger, so I went back to normal cable in those to keepp them all in a row.  I'll bounce bottom in 140' with a 10# shark, in fact they're not 10# any more as the bottoms are ground flat.

I'm an engineer.  This is pretty cool.

I'm sure that makes the op feel better.  Care to share details?

Fished that same water and ended up 3/4, two small kings and a 9# fall back steel.  Went to the beach and broke off a brown.  Had most my stuff 40' and higher, seems like I should gave fished deeper.

That's the proper way.  Hell of a fish.  Did you get a weight?