Holland 6/26 PM Skunk *Any Tips?*

[Billy Philly]

Headed out of Holland around 7pm for the evening bite. Heard of a couple good reports from between Holland and Port Sheldon, so that’s where we went. Spent the night trolling north in 120FOW. 8 lines down 35-70 deep. Marked some bait and some fish, but no bites. It’s was rough pounding into the waves. At 9:30 we headed back to port defeated by the lake.

The program:

North trolling 2.2MPH on GPS

7clr lead with 3” green splatter back plug

7clr lead with UV Glow Bloody Nose

300cu with NBK spoon

300cu with NBK spoon

Dipsy back 150 with Dragon Slayer Spid Dr and Olive Oil fly

Dipsy back 150 with Kryptonite and Pickle Sunshine fly

rigger down 70 with IV Glow Green Jeans

rigger down 70 with Modified Blue Dolphin 

Any Advice?

 

 

 

[jdh]

Don't fish both downriggers down same depth.  Don't run both dipsey setups the same depth.  Probably better to run a 250 copper and a 300 copper to vary the depth of the presentation.  Probably better to run 10 color and 7 color again instead of same presentation.

Spoons and lures seem ok.  

Speed may be an issue.  Depending on current 2.2mph  GPS could be 3.5 mph lure speed or 1.5 lure speed.

Call on the radio and see if anyone will give you down speed in the direction you're going.

Or just see how hard the dipseys seem to be pulling back and how much the riggers are blowing back.

Final tip - there's not many fish around right now, but it's picking up.  Fish when more fish are around!

[zgrinder on Fin Warrior]

I fished last night going 3 for 5.  Specific to last night, these are my thoughts.

1. North blow created a big current.  When that happens, I forego SD/fly setups for primarily spoons, possibly a J or a brads cut plug, or meat on a bait head only later in the season.

2. I started with UV spoons with the sun up at 5:00pm and the fish did not want them.  When I moved to standard painted spoons, I got bit.  I fish dusk a lot.  UV or RV lures seam to shut off between 7:00-8:00pm, later if it is closer to the summer solstice.  I see you did have NBK and a blue dolphin down.  For whatever reason, I catch mostly lakers on NBK.  Blue Killer produces more kings.

3. The baits right about 50' down got bit.  I only had one bite at 43'ish at dusk and the was a purple stinger set up purposely high in the water column for dusk.

4. I have measured the depth of 300' copper trolling at 2.5mph on a calm day.  It only gets down to 45'.  It does not run near 60'.  10-color lead runs at 40' or a bit higher.  Just guessing that running into the current, your long line baits might have been running way above 50'.  Thats ok but last night was odd regarding the bait depth interest was only near 50'.  Had I not been there, I would have come home empty.

5. Riggers: I run 15lb balls nearly all year.  Trolling at 2.5mph, the depth loss due to blow back is about 20% (I know current is a big factor).  So as a rule of thumb (and I have Smart Troll probes to confirm this), I multiply the downrigger counter by 0.8 to determine the depth I want my lure.  For example, I ran my riggers at 62 to 64 on the counter to get near 50' down.  And I use what I think is called the rule of 100'.  That is, DR bait down 50' should have a 50' lead which is how I ran last night.

BTW - I think I miss reported the spoon that worked the most last night.  If it is not a mixed veggie, its a yellow tail.  It does not have the red nose to the paint profile.  I have a bunch of these from way back so I may have confused the name over time.

Hope this helps.  I bet you get a cooler full next time out.