Holland Am 10-26-26

[littleboat]

Short hard trip today, 8-9:30am, fished 60-90fow. 2/4, unfortunately the two were a small steelie and a small sheephead threw both back. Lost a RV std bloody nose when on of the flybys took it with him. Waves gave me a short trip once they became a a steady 3-5ft. Lots of marks 60-75 fow, but the waves were bouncing me around pretty good. Had to quit. It got to precarious to maintain stable footing. Evidently the wind didn't read the forecast.
 
Glow Tangerine std and Atomic Melon std caught the only two I brought to the boat. Both fish came off the downriggers 50 to 60 ft down. Ran 5C and 7C at different times, but no hits.
 

[EricMcWay]

Thanks for the report — interesting that both fish came off the downriggers 50 to 60 ft down, with marks at 60-75 fow. For comparison, the Holland station surface reading was 56.7 degrees Fahrenheit, observed October 26, 2026 at 12:24 PM EDT, from NOAA station 9087031. That is a surface station reading, not a depth temperature, so it should not be read as the temperature where your downriggers were fishing at 50 to 60 ft down.

 

— Eric McWay

[Reel-y-hooked]

I agree Ed, I wish the wind would read the forecast 

Thanks for the report.

[littleboat]

My downrigger has a fishawk probe connected to it, which gives me the ball speed, temperature and depth. So looking back at this morning the temperature at the ball at 60ft was 55.9°, spd was 2.4 and I was in 80fow. The remarks about other fish (60-75 fow) was in general that I noticed where I saw more marks(fish) than in deeper water. If you look at the surface to 82ft depth under the port sheldon bouy you will notice very little change over the whole depth range but at approx 50ft down you will see a approx 5° , change in water temperature from the surface, that's where I stuck one of my downriggers. The other one 5-10ft higher or lower depending depth and temperature changes on the deeper one. My riggers got bit 4 times. They just didn't return the fish of the size and type and wanted. The big waves didn't help my situation either.

The probe(fishawk) doesn't match exactly to the bouy because sea conditions and where my boat is as it travels.

Hope this helps you Eric.

[FBD]

With those temps fish can be absolutely anywhere.  Narrowing down a target window, especially solo, is a bit of a trick but you’ve got it sorted out well.