They're Gonna Be Big Again, St. Joe 4/18-19

[mrhookup]

Took a day from work and took the boat down to St. Joe on Friday morning with my good friend Jake. Started by trolling south to the wall like last weekend without a bump and not marking anything on the graph. Decided to turn around and fish the mud out front and a bit north doing circles in 25-40 FOW for the rest of the morning. I kept everything up high for cohos but decided to drop one wire diver down low "just in case" there were any early kings around . That rod ended up taking a king and a laker which made the trip for us. Quit at 12:30pm with 2 throwback cohos, 1 keeper coho, a laker, and the surprise king. Here's what worked:

Rigger - Stinger Steelie Stomper, down 6 back 60 --> coho

Wire Diver - Stinger Gold Dbl Orange Crush, 3 setting out 30 --> coho

Wire Diver - DW Carmel Icicle, 3 setting out 40 --> 7lb king

Wire Diver - DW Carmel Icicle, 3 setting out 40 --> 5lb laker

Board - Gold Black Back Rapala, high line back 50 --> coho

Jake with his King

The box

Went back Saturday morning with my good friend Rob from work and was received with some pretty bumpy seas...at least for our boat ...and a brisk 35deg breeze that made it feel like it was in the 20s. Started by trying a few circles out front with pretty much the same spread we ended with on Friday with nothing going so we decided to work the shoreline in tight and south to try to get out of the wind. Worked down to the wall and back in 20-30 FOW and got one coho about 11am after the weather broke, the sun came out, and the lake started to settle down. Marked a ton of fish all morning just couldn't get them to go for some reason. Decided to work back up by the pier head but out deeper trying to find some midday biters in 50-60 FOW. Put a rigger and diver a bit deeper in the 30-40ft range again...just in case but nothing going until 2pm when I decided pull lines. Had just brought in a rigger when a wire diver out 70 with a Stingray UV Green Dolphin started thumping hard. Handed it to Rob and he landed this nice king that tipped the scale at 19lbs. Tried another pass through there with nothing going and called it a day.

Heard of a few more nice kings taken on Saturday for the Brown Blast as well. I'm guessing if we get the warm weather forecasted this week the king fishing could take off down South.

[danthebuilder]

19 pound king... awesome news.

[Nailer]

Sweet. Thanks for sharing

[EdB]

Nice king!

[Hooked Up]

Well done! Can't wait to get out...it's been a loooooooong winter!

[Priority1]

Thanks for the report.