Pentwater 9/12 AM, 14 for 17 (kings)

[Mega Byte]

I heard that fishing was good from 120 to 140 FOW, but I never made it that far out. That sonar looked like it had a lot to say while we were motoring out, so I slowed down to check. There were a lot of fish on the sonar. I suspected the temperature was all wrong, but this time of year that is less important, so I decided to set lines in 80 FOW on a SW troll, right out in front of the pierheads at 6:30 am.

 

By 100 FOW, we had stopped marking fish and didn't have any bites. So it was decision time: keep heading SW and get out to 120 FOW, or swing back inside and give it one more try.

 

We swung back inside and got our first bite in 93 FOW. We kept it on a south troll and stayed in 90 to 95 FOW the whole time. The temp 75 ft down was 62. It did get down to 58 further south. This is warmer water than I would normally fish, but there were a lot of fish on the sonar and they were biting, so we stayed in it.

 

Our shallowest line was 50 down. We ran some lines 85 down, but had more luck with them when we raised them up to 75 down.

 

Here's what we fished (9 rod spread):

 

2 for 2: Rigger down 75 green lightening glow plug

0 for 0: captain's choice natural glow plug, then a white slick paddle and pickled sunshine fly

 

Wire divers were set between 50 down and 85 down. They took fish when I dialed them Into 74 to 77 feet down. I have a SmartTroll system, so I focus on that more than the feet of line out. I think they were out about 180 feet. We ran a pink pearl plug for a bit, but no bites. When I pulled it, it had hit bottom. I switched it out for a magnum green knight spoon and it got bit within 10 minutes. On the other side we ran a green glow spin doctor and meat rig and that was 2 for 3.

 

On my long lines, I switched out from copper to weight steel (WS) this year. On the port side of my boat, I added 2 colors of lead (Pb) to each of the long lines. It gave me more sway in the current than running copper alone, and gave me more depth flexibility when I was running small spreads. I kept that same setup when I switched to WS. Given the flexibility of WS, that might not have been necessary.

 

2 for 3: 200 WS + Pb 5 eyes magnum

2 for 3: 250 WS + Pb wonderbread magnum

2 for 2: 300 WS + Pb green jeans magnum

 

2 for 2: 250 WS Bad Toad magnum

1 for 1: 300 WS Wart Frog magnum

 

Speed at the ball was 2.1 to 2.3. 16 bites on the S troll, one on the north, but we only trolled north from 11:00 to 11:30 when we pulled lines.

 

The biggest fish was 19.5#. We threw back a sheepshead which hit on the 300 WS + Pb as I was setting it out. We threw back 2 smaller kings too. So we kept 11.

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

 

 

[2MD]

phenomenal trip! thanks for all the details - good kings still out there to be caught! even on the northern ports

[Mega Byte]

Yeah. 1 sheepshead and 13 kings in that trip.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

[Reel-y-hooked]

Well done Jason!

You guys found the fish and dialed them in. thanks for the report.