Paulywood

Do you always run flashers in front of your spoons? I almost always run my spoons clean. If you run your spoons clean on the riggers then you can run longer leads. I don't know a whole lot myself but I went to a seminar by Dan Keating this summer. He also has a book called Keating on Kings. It has a ton of info and might give you some good ideas. Also, Rich's leadcore idea is one to think about, some days core is all that catches fish. The good news is that the best fishing for the summer is yet to come. Good luck and welcome.

I have 2 sets of dipsey rods, braid on 10'6" and wire on 9'6". The long rods makes setting them a lot easier and lets you use a longer leader. I have 2 different lengths because when I get a bigger boat I would like to use both sets. The shorter wire rods would be inside and deeper than the longer braid rods. I prefer shorter rods, 8' or under for cores and boards. I also like a lighter action because I use 12# test on my boards and like to have the action in the rods to help fight fish. For slide divers I use a short, stiff rod. This makes it easier for me to set on my boat because I don't have a lot of empty floor space.

I use rubber bands on the line to keep the board from sliding. I just half-hitch a rubber band on the line and then put the pin in the back of the board through the loop. My boards are set-up not to release. These are Walleye boards.

After seeing all of the bait and fish south of Muskegon friday night I decided to head there on saturday. We hit the water around 4:30 and made a pass in front of the channel. We marked a lot of bait but no fish so we ran out to 70 ft. and set-up. We trolled out to 100' but pulled lines when we heard a thunderstorm was supposed to come through. Found a shaker that we threw back that was on a Blue Dolphin 65' down on a rigger. Ran up and anchored off the pier until about 7:30 pm when the storm had passed (it actually missed us completely, oh well). Ran south about 2 miles when I spotted a buoy that I assume was marking a set of nets. Turned west and trolled parallel to the nets out to 150'. By then it was about 9 pm and we pulled lines and set-up a glow program and set course back to the piers. Trolled in to 50 ft. where we pulled lines at 10:30 pm. Took 1 3 lb. king on a Glow Froggy free slider over a rigger 45' down in about 100' of water. That was it for our trip. We marked a lot of bait and quite a few fish from 100'-50' but couldn't get anything going. Even pulled lines and recharged lures. Some guys out deeper took a few fish but it sounded pretty slow. The chatter from Port Sheldon and Grand Haven sounded like they were having more success than us. It was a beautiful day on the water and a good time for my brother-in-law and girlfriend on their first trip out this year.

Thanks for the trip Mike, it was a lot of fun. I wiped out twice running for rods, had to be aggressive if you wanted a fish! The ride home sure was hard, I had to stop a few time and stretch my legs to help me stay awake. It was after 3 am before I made it home.

Harperman,

I don't know about the saturday tourney but I have a spot open for next sunday. If you're interested just post here or PM. Talk to you later.

Nick

I'm taking my girlfriend out saturday afernoon/evening. We will probably be going out of Muskegon or maybe Whitehall. Hopefully the fishies cooperate, my girlfriend hasn't been out yet this year.

Mike,

Do you know where in the area these are being sold. I would like to pick up a couple.

Nick

I have been told that they will kick you out of the Snug Harbor launch if they find you sleeping. The launch is actually seperate from the rest of the park. Fisherman's Landing is pretty cheap (Like $10 or $15 a night for tent sites). The tent sites are just a large open grassy area. They have very nice shower/bathroom areas. Last year we just setup camp in a big area and hung out together. I think that Caz slept in his truck. It worked out really well.

Mike,

I know that there are 2 wrecks out of Muskegon that guys perch fish. I have the GPS coordinates somewhere, I'll try to find them. I would like to give perch fishing a try sometime this summer. I always liked catching jumbo perch.

Nick

Congrats Rich. I also go to CMU so I will make sure to keep an eye on her so she doesn't get into trouble:D Hopefully noboby gives her one of those bottomless beers that her dad like so much.

Nice job! Glad to see some cold water back on our side of the lake. I plan on going out next week so hopefully it will still be there.

I was planning on prefishing that day anyway so count me in.

Good job on the fish Mike, sounds like June is here in full force.

I didn't go out but I thought that i'd post a report that I got from 2 of my coworkers. They fished friday morning and went 1/2, the fish they caught was a 2 1/2 lb. coho. Set up in 70' with a surface temp of 58 degrees. Fished out to 200' where the temp was 56 degrees. Found 43 degree water 70' down. They marked very few fish but most of them were around 115'. That's where they took the coho. The other hit was on a full core in the same depth.

Good report Mike, like the pics. I was wondering how you guys ended up. I was really surprised when that king took the GCW only 25' down but after reading your report I realized that it is a walleye-sized spoon, maybe that had something to do with it. I will have to file that away for future reference. I was surprised at how few boats there were out there. The launch was practically empty when we launched. There were more trailers there when we came back but I think that a lot of them were bass fishermen.

I go about 5-6 ft. If they are longer I just have the person reeling back up to the front of the boat. The charter we were on last year used long leaders (10+) on the dipsey's and just had us reel until we hit the dipsey and then back up, that way you can use longer leaders. It also works good when you have newbie fisherman, if they back up to the front of the boat they won't try to bend over and look at the fish when you go to net it, which equals FISH OFF. This is from experience.

I always have people use the compass, that's how I learned and it's easier to explain. I also think that it makes turning easier. My dad was out with me for the first time on Monday and when we had to turn I had him go 10 degrees, let everything straighten, then go 10 degrees more, etc, until the turn was completed. And we avoided tangles. I think that the compass is a lot easier for people to understand.

I also printed out labels at work and attached them above the reel.

I took 1 fish (our biggest) on a dipsey-spinny-fly combo Monday. That is the only fish I have taken this year but I'm running only flasher/fly combos on them. I thought that my flasher/fly program was real weak last year and I'm focused on improving it by running them every trip and tweaking the presentation.

Thanks Matt. Yeah, the boat is running fine now. I got it back on friday and waited until monday to take it out when I knew that there would be another boat in the area I knew in case I had trouble. I don't know when I will get out again (bachelor party and wedding the next 2 weeks) but I am thinking about heading north in June, maybe I'll get in touch if I head up to your area.

Nick

Headed out of Muskegon Monday morning with my Dad. Thanks to the report from Lion Den last night we headed southwest and setup in 125'. Ran 6 rods:

Downrigger 55' down 35' back w/ Moonshine Moonshine

Downrigger 75' down 25' back w/ Hot Lobster

Braid Dipsey on 3 175' back w/ Blue Bubble SD and White Fly

Braid Dipsey on 3 225' back w/ Mountain Dew SD and Aqua Fly

7 color core w/ Glow Wartfrog

Full core w/ NBK

First hit on 7 color while setting lines, fought for a couple minutes then came off. 0/1

2nd hit on Rigger w/ Hot Lobster, while my Dad fought this fish the other rigger popped, landed both and they were each about 5 lbs. 2/3

Dad thought that the rigger w/ Hot Lobster bounced a couple times so I pulled it and found a shaker that was released. 3/4

Around 180' the 55' rigger w/ Mooshine spoon fired and we landed a 6 lb. king. 4/5

By this time we were out to 200' and decided to turn back in and run over the same area again. We were slightly north of the pier in 150' headed east when the Mountain Dew/Aqua dipsey went, 11 lb. king. 5/6

After landing that fish we had worked into 100' so we turned back southwest to run over the area we had taken fish earlier (Dad remembered the GPS coordinates, what a good wingman). I changed the 55' rigger out to a Mixed Veggie spoon because I thought that my spread was too glow heavy. Also pulled the Blue Bubble dipsey and put out a 3 color core w/ Double Orange Crush for steelies.

Worked out to 140' and the rigger w/ Mixed Veggies fired and landed another 5 lber. 6/7

Full core w/ NBK went off in 180' w/ a 6 lb. king to finish our king limit at 7/8.

Decided to pull everything high and try for steel. Pulled the 75' rigger to find another shaker that we released. 8/9

Put out a flat line and reset the rigger to 25' down 65' back w/ a Greasy Chicken Wing, 5 minutes later this rigger went off in 210' of water. Another king around 8 lbs. that we released at the side of the boat. 9/10

I didn't want to play catch and release w/ kings so I pulled everything but the flat line and 3 color and trolled in to 175' where we decided to call it a day. Neither of us had a watch and I forgot my phone but we figured it was around 11am or noon. We were surprised when we arrived at the launch and found out it was only 10am. All in all a great morning on the lake. I know that my report is long but I tried to include the WHY in my decision making. Good luck.

Nick

Good job on the fish and thanks for the report. I am heading to Muskegon monday, always nice to hear good reports.

Nick

I missed this post also. Sorry to hear about your back Caz. I've been there and know that it can be a long, painful ordeal. Hope you feel better soon.

Nick

My boat is fixed, picking it up tomorrow, so I plan on going out, just don't know where yet. I might head to Muskegon monday. If I do I'll give you a shout Mike and Tim. I am thinking of trying Grand Haven or Holland on saturday. First i have to see if the weather will cooperate.