FBD

After three trips offshore looking for kings only to lose one laker, my preferred Saturday routine is: Drink a lot Friday night. Sleep in. Cut firewood in a mosquito and poison ivy filled swamp. Put money from firewood in Roth IRA. Day trade IRA money. Used to be my side gig money was my fun money, but I'm not inspired to put it into fishing gear lately. These are sad and troubling times, then I'm up 17% ytd. Not nearly as exciting as listening to a drag sing.

Got beaten up in 1-3' chop Saturday AM, fished out front (junk) up the beach (more junk) ran out to 70' (rough) trolled out to 130' (rougher) back to 70' (not bad) back to 130' (taking them over the bow) and then trolled back into 80' and pulled them. One 4# laker off the bottom in 117'. Ran stuff from flat lines as it was low 60's on the top, all the way down to 130'. Took one last shot out front as we came in and tripled on sheep, all master anglers from 11-13#. Had a 14 year old newbie out for the first time on Lake Michigan and he thought it was fascinating.

I don't think you can find something they won't hit. I took one on a paddle / fly trolling for kings out front in September. Anything you'd troll 2.2-2.5 mph for walleye (plugs, spoons) will work, the uglier the color the better. Hot and tots and flicker shads (hooks are sharp but not durable) for sure. I kindly informed him I can fish wherever the @#@#$ I want and he should learn how to drive. The cops could have had a field day last night with people running up to Big Red before coming off plane, huge wakes in the no wake zone, opening it up 100' before the buoys, running at plane well within 100' of other vessels. And apparently people trolling in the channel too, what @$$holes...

49-54 degrees out in front of Holland, nice river plume. Two hours out there caught one alewife. Should have been at least one steel around. Counted 18 rods between both piers never saw anyone run for one either. Not even sure why I bother any more. At least a couple consolidation sheep in the channel were fun until one of the blow boat racers yelled at me as I'm not allowed to fish in there.

Saturday was hit or miss, Sunday was mostly miss from what I heard. Sometimes coho and even browns don't mind a brisk troll, but usually after the water warms up.

1-2 colors. Then I spend a lot of time in shallow. But you'd be amazed how many out of temp fish there are up high year round.

Most people have pared down riggers to 2-3 per boat. I'd run a pair, one per side, up the gunwale about 3' from the stern. This leaves each back corner open to net fish.

Keep them coming. And as a guy that puts bands on geese every spring, I'll warn you they do not take kindly to being netted, but that's a lesson the kids may have to learn on their own :)

But rewarding when you string it together and finally wail on them.

That was me, beach to 40'. Two trips out there one coho. Last year we were limiting on Lakers with bonus fish about every trip.

Fished +/- 1 mile north and south from 4-20' with the usual mix of sticks plugs and spoons. Water was 57, clear, little debris. NW 1' chop wind switched to NE and some SOB was grilling and I could smell it. Rained. Wasn't a good time. Never moved a board. I'd say it was good to be out, but really, it wasn't.

Trying to remember what year I had 1256# on 171 fish in October. Usually add a couple hundred more # in Lakers if we can get out from Thanksgiving to New Years.

I run mine in Excel and can sort / filter or pivot chart by any column. Most handy and I've used it to shut down more than one person that's called bs on a post. One thing with steel late in the year. Find one hit that area hard.

Deep: 10/9 Holland 215 DR 190' NK 28 Mixed Veggies Stand Up 91 116 78% 465 10/9 Holland 215 PB 5 color 190' Size 3 J plug Silver pickle Steelie 9 91 115 79% 474 10/9 Holland 215 PB 5 color 190' Mini Streak Orange crush Steelie 8 92 117 79% 482 10/9 Holland 215 PB 225/45 Cu 190' Nailer Watermelon Steelie Lost 92 118 78% 482 10/9 Holland 215 DR 1 color 190' Nailer Bloody Nose Steelie 6 93 119 78% 488 10/9 Holland 215 DR 200' NK 28 Mixed Veggies Steelie Lost 93 120 78% 488 10/9 Holland 215 PB 5 color 200' Mini Streak Orange crush Steelie 6 94 121 78% 494 10/9 Holland 215 DR 200 NK 28 Mixed veggies Steelie 7 95 122 78% 501 10/9 Holland 215 PB 5 color 220' Mini Streak Orange crush Steelie 5 96 123 78% 506 Or not: 11/6 Holland 215 DR 15' Jr. Flutterdevle Hammered silver / orange Steelie Lost 96 124 77% 506 11/6 Holland 215 PB 15' J-9 rapala Orange Coho 1 97 125 78% 507 11/6 Holland 215 PB 15' J-9 rapala Orange Steelie Lost 97 126 77% 507 11/6 Holland 215 PB 1 color 15' DW LD Alphonse Brown 2 98 127 77% 509 10/21 Holland 14 PB 8' Thin Fish Red w/ black squiggles Steelie 8 Released 171 236 72% 1256