Jolly Time

You should be fine fishing out of Grand Haven but would suggest making a run down towards Port Sheldon. With the weather, wind and waves the last few days the fish will have moved around a bit. The last week or so the fish have been in tight (80 fow out to 140 fow). Don't be afraid to push further off shore. Of you go out of Grand Haven, I would run half way to Port Sheldon and start in 80fow. Set a troll west southwest and find the fish. I would try to get lines in the water by 5:30am. Current and finding a good line will dictate your troll angle. O have been having good luck with meetrigs and flasher/fly program trolling at 1.8-2.2 at the ball. If you run flasher/fly and spoons I would run at 2.2-2.5. Meatrigs need to be run slow to be effective. I would run spoons and flasher/flies early and things that glow. 2.2-2.5 to cover distance as quick as possible to locate fish. Once light cones up you can slow it down and put some meet into the program. Lately these lures have worked for us. Spoons: Dirty White Boy, green flounder pounder, half green jeans, wonderbread, green and blue dancing anchovies, green hulk and soda. Flasher fly: 8"double white slick w/pickle sunshine or KRW green/blue HD fly, Salmon candy Megatron in silver or white paddle with similar fly combination. Proking dragon slayer as well green crinkle fly Meatrigs: 10" SD crush glow with pickle rig. 8" White paddle glow green fish scale and crush glow and green gasoline meat rig

Already took ice jugs out to take picture. It's really warm out there.

4 for 4 last night. Decided to go out later today. Started putting lines at 7pm. 7:45pm 120fow rigger w/wonderbread spoon 60' down on south troll at 2.2 at ball. 9:30 rigger down 72' with pickle rig went 12lb king on south troll. 9:45 200 copper with double white slick glow SD with green glow fly 18lb king. Pulled lines at 10pm. Screen came to life with lots of marks. High diver went 160 back on #3 with glow Shelly Snack. All fish came on south troll somewhere between 2.0-2.4 speed at ball. We fished between 100-135fow.

Good morning. Got out late trolled north out of Holland 110fow set lines at 6:45am. Third rod in port rigger with wonderbread spoon at 54' 2 color SWR rod went. 17lb king. About 20min or so later. 11" bechold slick glow flasher with green fly 70 down another nice king. Came off at back if boat. Same wonderbread rod as first fish down 60' went and again back of boat lose. Inside dipsey port side out 145' white slick SD pickled sunshine fly. 21lb king. 220 copper took a rip had hook up but lost it. Mongolian beef mag spoon. Last fish 300 copper with Green Hulk took nice 10lb steelhead. Then bite shut down pretty much. 1.8 -2.4 troll. Meet rigs didn't go this morning. Had 3 out (rigger, 325 copper and starboard inside dipsey) no takers. Dead calm and real warm.

Well done! The smile says it all. Thank you for the report and the heads up on the net.

100%. Once we got everything situated and in the boat, I gave three big hugs, told her how much I love her and it was alright these things happen all the time. Tangles are a part of fishing. She will be out with me again soon. She is one of my best fisherman for the Big Red Classic. I got a bit of good news today. A guy that was on my boat when it happened went out last night and fished in the same area. They found one of my boards floating and snagged it. I got a board, flasher fly and a spoon back this morning. Maybe I will get some other stuff back over the next couple of days? Reloading rods today. I have 5 of the eight ready to go. God is good. Fishing is fun.

Thank you.

Hi everyone. Hey, I went out this evening north of Holland in 130fow. and had a huge debacle. We caught a nice 24lber. While I was netting the fish my niece 180'd the boat and it took out 8 rods. I lost everything. Planer boards, four dipseys, meatrigs and flasher flies. All the copper on 5 rods 225, 250, 300, 325, 350. 3 out of my 4 wire rods got half spooled and wrapped around prop. Which, now has to come apart and get new seals which involves pulling the lower unit bearing assembly. Total mess to say the least. Anyway, if my stuff on planer boards screws anyone up... I am very sorry. If anyone happens to find my boards, they are ninja boards with my name and numer on them. If you have any reels that are empty, you might get a bunch of free copper to spool. I hope someone finds my boards and is nice enough to return them and any of the equipment at the business end. Thank you in advance everyone.

Great report. It sounds like a great time out on the water. Thank you for the report.

Another great evening out on the water in Holland. Made it out and set lines at about 6:45pm. I thought I would be smart after the two days of north blow and pushed offshore. I am not too smart! Started in 140fow. On northwest troll. And had a few marks and they went away after 170fow. I didn't mark much bait either. Argh. About face and worked our way back in. At 135fow we had our first fish and it stayed pretty consistent from there. We ended up in 130-145fow the rest of the night. 20lb king 135fow 8pm white flow SD with green fish scale and pickled sunshine meet rig on 325 copper 18lb king 142fow 8:30pm 300 copper w/ Megatron flasher and krw HD green/blue fly 8lb coho 175 copper w/wonderbread white SD with wonderbread fly 8:45pm. 14lb king 139fow 72 feet down on rigger. 10" white slick SD with pickled sunshine meat rig. 9:15pmish. Then the sunset and or screen was littered with bait and hooks. Bam, bam, bam we had a triple. 225copper w/glow crush SD with pickled sunshine fly, inside mag starboard dipsey at 135ft w/green knight proking flasher and white fly, and port side high diver 230ft with 8" white slick SD and KRW green glow fly all went at same time. It was a crazy half hour heading straight south on troll. We land 2 of 3. 13lb king on 225 and 17lb king on high diver. We ended the evening 6-9. We had 3 other hit and misses but 9 good hook ups. This fish are there. I haven't seen fishing like this for a while. We tried spoons earlier in the evening and had a few out at the end all glow. Not a spoon hit all evening.

I said mongolian beef in post. It was actually blue dancing anchovies and wonder bread.

Pickle rig is a pickled sunshine meet rig. I use Dreamweaver set ups.

We started in 130fow. Trolled south with the wind angling out to 160fow. Best action came between 135 to 150fow. King bites came at 2.0-2.2 - 2.4-2.7 at surface at ball which was at 55fow. 48-50 degree water. Chrome/blue flashers early w/blue/green flies Later in evening switched over to more glow w/green program.

Ended up 5 for 5. 25lb, 23lb, 20lb kings. 8lb & 6lb cohos. 1st 25lb king came on 325 copper w/ Megatron flasher & KRW HD blue/green fly @ 7pm 2nd King 20lb came on 225 copper w/white slick 8" spin doctor w/pickle rig @ 7:45pm 1st coho came on rigger down 50ft with blue mongolian beef rv @ 8pm 2nd coho came on rigger with regular moonshine wonder bread at 55ft. Last fish of the evening was 23lb king on 300 copper with white glow green fishscale spin doctor w/ pickle rig @ 9:30pm. Tons of bait clouds. All kinds of marks all evening. What a night!

What color combinations were working on meet rigs please.

I troll using one of the two motors. I switch from side to side to share the duties but my port side motor does troll better. I do not have a kicker. The transom on a Grady White will not all. I could put a 300hp on instead of two 150's and then a kicker but.... I don't know? I know I would probably use less fuel. When I find out more, I will let everyone know.

Thank you. Glad I have a twin screw boat for exactly days like today. I sure am glad it didn't blow out in 200+ feet of water. It would have been a miserable ride in.

Had an interesting day out on the big lake this morning. Of course the marine report was wrong...again. around 1 footers. Yeh right! More like 2-3 with an occasional 4. Got a late start and didn't drop lines until 6am. Thought I would try and find the cold water that was still in tight north. That did happen and no bites. Pulled up and ran west and set up again in 140fow. Down rigger went off at about 8am 61 down 10" with spindoctor green dots with riverside fly. 16lb king. Dropped it back down. High diver went w/green frog spotted heck spoon. 160' 12lb king. Waves started to pick up and we turned and went with the waves. Same rigger went off with a 10lb king. It was about 10am and we started troll towards shore. Picked up shaker on 200 copper and released it. Pulled lines and ran in. Then a terrible sound came from port side outboard. Then bam. Lower unit let loose. And put gaping hole in case. Limped in on one motor. Ugly. But we caught fish. Looks like I will have some repairs in my near future.

Last fish for the weekend. Too bad that work thing gets in the way. Took wife and her friend out for a quick fish this evening. 3 for 3. Went straight out to 100fow. Set 6 lines. 200 copper, 8 color lead, two high dipseys and two riggers. Two kings 8lb and 7lb on fishhawk rigger done 60ft. Both came on Shelly Snack 50 ft behind ball. 8 color took 11lb steelhead on Raspberry Carbon rv. Two hour fish. Too fun. Fish were really starting to fill up screen at 7:30pm but wife said... that's enough.