FBD

Double digit on that bottom brown? That's a fatty.

Agreed. The walleye color shad rap looks exactly like a goby.

I too will target the drum. Those are some hogs.

Amberjack?

If it wasn't flat and sunny a map like that makes me want to be rolling yellow birds in 8'.

I have 50' of mono over braid on my slide divers and run all of that out before snapping the diver in place on the line. Spoons also. Spinnies get about 20' leads to keep them from eating my other lines. Same leads on my riggers. Add a pair of planer boards with deep thundersticks or snap weights with spoons or J's and I can pull a mean spread off my 14'. A coupe years ago there was a guy in an old blue fin losing his mind as I had a pair of boards out like 15'. We were 5/6 that night with five hits on the boards. Next Saturday come out here's the same Blue Fin pulling two boards per side way out in the fog yelling at everyone to give him room. It was so foggy that day we skipped boards, but had a diver go off the find a nice king tangled up in our line towing a plug and a two color. Nothing like hearing people talk, hearing a drag light up on another boat, and not being able to see them.

All reports have been bleak. Maybe time to look for steel half way to Wisconsin?

I hate September about as much as June... Maybe more.

Cooler 1 of 2. Cooler 2 of 2 in progress with a couple hogs in the mix. Silver red head size 5 J plugs, walleye bait of choice. 10# and didn't trip the rigger.

More fun in the harbor: My last daughter was born the first week of October. We scheduled her weekly doctor's appointments leading up to her birth at 10am and I'd fish before them. If the fish were in, I'd miss them. Third kid wife didn't mind. My oldest and I were late to my middle daughter's birthday party as just as we were pulling lines on an afternoon trip we hit a double. I was at the Outdoorsman in Jenison buying replacement tackle from the trip the night before and grabbing lunch when my second daughter decided to be born much faster than expected in Zeeland after zero progress all morning. Remember that big bump on Chicago Drive in that area? You could launch a Grand Cherokee a long ways off it back then. I crossed lines with a kid throwing a Cleo, and I cut his line and told him to wait. When we came back around I threw it to him, but it hit the rail and fell into the channel. So I dug one out of my box and threw it way over him, where he spent a while digging it out of the sand. I chopped a fillet off a salmon in the channel and traded it for a hamburger someone was grilling at the state park. Finished out a trip with Dave Mull having an Ace Hi hanging off his thumb, as we were on fish. I've netted a fish for another boat while riding back in, a walleye guy jigging that took off chasing a surprise king across Mac. I've had a guest threaten to shoot a king that hung up just out of netting range (he was legal to carry, but we agreed that while Alaskans shoot halibut we probably should not shoot kings, especially in traffic). Back when I had two weeks vacation I took a week off each year just to fish harbors. Had a 500# week in the three fish era, picking up strangers on the pier to stay out fishing. I threw so many carcasses in the field next to my house that run that the cats and vermin could not keep up and my neighbor got an unwelcome surprise walking to his stand on opening day of bow season. We laugh about it now and he cuts through my lawn. Only guy in Saugatuck in the dark, setting the first rod in the release when a king ripped it from my fingers and somehow broke the line. Being a freshly charged J plug I followed him until it slid up the line and popped to the surface. We caught two fish that day with a CO's john boat tied off to my Four Winns and the CO helping to crew as he didn't have much choice at that point. Tried to send a fish with him but he didn't have a cooler. I miss those days.

Labor Day 2011 my wife, buddy and I limited out with 12 kings, three coho, and a 10.4# walleye in the afternoon. A brutal cold north wind and 4-6' waves out front kept fishing and pleasure boat traffic to a minimum, and warm water and low current kept the fish piled up at Big Red. We did not want to quit, so we called my nephew to pick up our oldest daughter from the sitter, and another cooler, and caught 10 more kings after picking them up at the launch. If I can find it there is a picture of 15 fish in a cooler that won't close, sitting on the back seat of my friend's Oldsmobile. He drove around Mac to clean them at the cleaning station, but the DNR was there and he suddenly realized he had three limits and one license, so he took them home and brought them to the station five at a time. I caught more kings that afternoon than I have in the last three seasons combined.

This is the first year in a long time I remembered the rocks stick out more than the break wall. First year I haven't stuck a diver firmly in the rocks on my first pass. We launch by the Tiara docks in the no wake zone. My record, back in the three king limit era, was 47 minutes dock to dock. We set up at the green can and were 4/4 by Big Red that night, went 6/10 by the time we were done.