FBD

Bait will do just fine on its own if they have something to eat and don't get decimated from the top down.

Just got done sending in my Salmon Ambassador info.  8 kings this year,  6 were natural fish.  We could stop king planting entirely and not see much off a fall off in catch rates.  74% of fish reported in Grand Haven last year were natural, and only 10% of the stocked kings caught at GH were planted at GH.

Salmon cuts have immediate results.  Laker cuts take longer.  In five years when the alewives are gone and never coming back and we have zero kings to target remember with pride sticking to your guns and continuing to add an alewife only predator to a stressed system.

We'd not been in this mess if the d n r acted more aggressively in 2012 but they bowed to pressure.  Hopefully they don't bow again.

No self respecting king would put on 5/16" over a summer!

One here and there but it seems every body is getting a few.  After thay diver went three times I said I had another version of that spoon and could put it on the other diver, crew declined.

They get it.  Stocking 1 laker for every 5 kings.

And yet they gave idiots that want to stock bait.  That comes up at every meeting...

Quit early to avoid getting wet from rain then got drenched from spray at 7 mph. My 14' doesn't yield much to the waves...

With the chop reading rod tips wasn't really an option.  We had our suspicionson two of them but boat control was such a nightmare we weren't about to cycle through the rods 20 minutes before we quit.

After nearly a month off got out in nasty tight SE chop last night.  From 65' to 80' on a SE troll took three big sheep on a slide diver back 125' on a mixed veggie NK28.  Then a small sheep on a swr flounder pounder down 35'.  Slugged into them to 60', lots of bait in there.  Buildingwaves,and ugly radar compelled us to quit at 7.  Found two small coho and a brown riding along when we pulled lines.

Let's settle this once and for all.  Tail dots, loose scales, coloration, whether you can tail it all help, but this is how you tell:

Count the rays in the anal fin.  13-15 coho, 15-17 king.  Push the forward tip of this fin down until it touches the body of the fish.  If the til falls in the forward half of the base of the fin, king.  More than halfway down, coho.

One good year of natural reproduction and what little bait is out there is gone.  And when it's gone, it's never, NEVER coming back.  The year classes of alewives that stand the best chance of spawning are the ones fueling these healthy, fat kings.

I can get fat on a plate of food if I'm the only on eating.

Lake Huron was throwing more master angler kings than Michigan right up until it crashed.

And if we're wrong, then Lake Huron 2.  Lake Ontario gets all the nutrients from Erie and they're looking at 20% cuts.

I hate this time of year.  If the matures are not at the piers I struggle.

Waiting for my vacation request to clearbefore I make plans to head your way...

We were not supposed to have any mature kings this year, but a pile of one year old fish.  All the catches I've seen have been heavies, with little or no 3-6# fish in the mix.  When we were beating up Coho in April and May, the few kings being caught were 12-15#, not little.

45 degree water out front.

One sheep.

Saturday am decided my time was better spent studying the insides of my eye lids.

No planet board and core,attached to this one?

Love it.

I want all those who want to vote to maintain or increase stocking to write me a promisary note that they will buy my boat and tackle at 50% of purchased price when the lake crashes and the kings are gone.

Nothing like uneducated masses voicing their opinions.  No natural reproduction? I haven't aught a clipped fish in a long time.  

Pinks were stocked once, a long time ago, in Lake Superior.  Now they are well established.  But there's no natural reproduction?  I catch rainbows in streams never planted with them 

Take the divers off and store them with the leader rolled up in the side pocket ofthe boat.  Kind iif s boat specific answer though.

Could not have said it any better.  If we continue with too much planting, have a few good years of natural production, and keep pumping Lakers into the lake, the alewifes will be gone, and the kings will follow.  Then you've gone from two great lakes with a viable king fishery to one, and that's a seven hour trip for me and not ten minutes.

The other fish can get by without alewives, but not the kings.  And while I'll target other fish from time to time, I'm not going to bother with the upkeep of a 29 year old glass boat to chase stuff I can target from my 14'.  I run the Four Winns to catch kings.  Period.

There's even fewer fish eating the reduced alewives.  Hence, the remaining fish have more to eat.  Same thing we had in 2013.

There was plenty of bait and big fish in 2013 in West Michigan but then after two cold winters 2014 and 2015 sucked.

Indiana will be increasing summerr run steel plants to compensate.

And the fishing on Huron was just fine until the bottom fell out.  Better be safe than blow it.  We would not be in this situation if the DNR hadn't bowed to pressure a few years ago, and reduced the cuts more like they had proposed.

I caught my first king in 1979 on my grandpa's boat.  I want my grand kids to be able to catch kings in 15-20 years.  Do you see that happening on Huron?  Why would we want to risk that here?  I'm willing to have a few lean years as an investment for the long haul.

Nice detail.

I remember reading an article about fishing the big reef I think out of Munising.