FBD

That spoon has seen some #$@#

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.

Gotten 8 and lost a few more in my last three trips, but none as big or pretty as that one.  When they get that big they can put on a good fight.  All on spoons / nothing a sticks which is weird.

That's how you sell it, unfortunately the kings aren't quite here yet and the forecast at least for the next week isn't great for going out and looking for them...

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.

Best report I've seen in a long time.  Thanks for sharing.

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:

Ouch.  

I've seen kings take 4-5 weeks to get to Hamilton / Allegan.  Coho, like overnight.

Looks like it should flip again soon.  Rehearsal and wedding this weekend.

My ten year old seven pound outdoor cat bas been giving me the stink eye when I get home, as I've been giving away the fish and not cleaning them.

Still drag the cooler across the lawn to  rinse it out.  She still follows me and then stares.

Anyone want to confess to being the guys that had a dog for crew?   Thought I was hearing things until we picked up the binoculars and confirmed we were in fact hearing a dog...

Fish were there Friday night.  Everyone else headed out, we headed in.  Went 3/7 scraping the piers or fishing closer to shore than the piers stuck out.

Was not easy fishing with traffic and junk in the water.  When that big blue trawler "Neptune" motored up we took about 20 gallons over the bow.  But we also waved off a ski boat from running over a fish and they then circled around and watched us land it and cheered.

All males and all smaller fish.  Makes sense as the plants were in 2018.  Males usually shoot the river first to stake out the good gravel abd make the redds.