Jolly Time

Amen! Those guys were an absolute mess and it was too fun to watch them and their reaction on every fish. I think fishing is going to get real good here the next couple of weeks. I hope the lake will cooperate and we all can get out there.

Beautiful evening for fishing. Took my 82 year old dad and his buddy out. Thought it would be an easy fish. Set 8 rods in 140' on a west troll. 400 copper w/UV Raspberry Carbon. 300 copper w/ fuzzy bear blue 1/2 slice. High dipsey green fuzzy bear 1/2 slice. Meat moo moo rig inside dipsey . Outside dipsey other side green chin music pickled sunshine. Inside dipsey fish paddle green gasoline meat rig. Starboard rigger 90' beckold white slick w/ riverside fly. Port side rigger 80' yellow tail w/ yellowtail freeslider. 7:30 400 went 15+ lb king at boat dads buddy couldn't reel anymore gave rod to dad he asked to net. Missed and hook caught in net...gone. 0 for 1. Reset line and moo moo meat goes off. Dad reels fish. Great fight another 15+ lb fish. 10 minutes later fish at back of boat. I hand line it to dad's buddy he dips net and catches it in side of head....gone. 0 for 2. Reset line. Half hour and other side high dipsey goes off. Another nice fish. Dad's buddy fights the fish for 10 minutes or so. Back of the boat. Dad's dips net misses and fish goes through and around both riggers. Yep...gone! 0 for 3. Take care of mess and Reset everything. Starboard side rigger I put on a 10" glow slick spin d with pickled sunshine rig. 5 min. Bam nice fish a ripping. Get fish to back of boat...you guess it. The boys lost another nice one. Getting dark and decide to call it. I pull all the lines and the last rod I pull is the 300 copper. Dead as a hammer 2lb king swinging. 1 for 5. Beautiful night and we left a bunch of nice ones out there for you guys. Argh!

Are you saying put it on trailer and head north or put in and head north out in lake towards Grabd Haven?

Well, haven't been out in a couple of weeks. Work! Talked wife into going out this morning. Offshore breeze this morning 6:00am. Went out to 140 north of pier. Set up 6:45. 6 color orange crush spoon 10 color other side with glow blue knight. Braided dipsey set at 3 150' out and other side dipsey at 3 120' out. 150 had krytonite salmon candy flasher/ novacaine fly other had mongolian beef rv spoon. Ran two down riggers one at 35ft green dolphin other with 2 color swr with down 45' so around 55' with blue dolphin spoon. Went on north west troll out to 170ft. Hardly marked a fish. 6 color went off on turn small fish came off after a few minute fight. Secret weapon rod went off on north east troll in 160' bounce bounce off. Other downrigger bounced funny no release didn't check for a few minutes and snapped it up and 1-2lb shaker king on. It swallowed hook and wouldn't make it. Threw it in box. Trolled into 135' hardly marking a fish. Turned boat back out. Waves picked up with still off shore breeze in 1-2 foot Chop. Changed a bunch of stuff out trying different colors and combinations. No takers. Came in at 10:30am. Not a great outing. Saw a few boats out further. If anyone has any suggestions, please share. I am going out tomorrow again. Should I try deeper? 190-220 ft? Colors or combos that are working for you. Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.

Thanks. When moma is happy...well let's say it makes it easier to go out next time. Especially at $4.31 a gallon!

First time out this season. Just wife and I. Went out of Kolen Park. Not one boat launched other than us. Hit big lake and sent south out of pier. Started in 50ft of water. Lots of marks between 20-30ft. A few good hooks at 45ft. Ran two planer boards 3 color and 6 color. Blue dolphin on 3c and gold Rasta Goose 6. Two high dipsy on 3. 90ft and 100ft. White slick spin doctor w/salmon candy novacain fly on 90. Krytonite flasher w/pickled sunshine fly 100. Two riders set at 25ft and 35ft. Blue knight and red dodger green/yellow fly. Trolled south west at 2.5 at Ball. No takers until 7:45am and krytonite/pickled sunshine went 10lb king. Nice way to get season off to a start. BlueKnight at 35ft went at 8:15 8lb king. Went dead and made turn with waves. 3 color went and lost steelhead after a couple of jumps. Krytonite/pickle sunshine went again. 13lb king in 65ft 110. Boat got turned to quick...oops and crossed up in current and downriggers got all messed up. Yanked lines at 10:15am and head in. Good first trip. Best part...wife had a nice time and landed 2nd fish.

Like many this time of year, you have to wait until the lake cooperates. This morning was beautiful but the water is still so warm. Started a little south of pierced in 110ft of water. Temp was down again between 75-80ft. Quite a few good marks early as we trolled north- northwest. Got pinched by another boat and ended out at 150ft. The deeper I went the less marks. We eventually got back to 130ft and started marking fish again. Quite a few in the 20-40ft range. I could not get a hit. Had most of the program in the 70-90ft range. Had two bites on riggers green jeans spoon 70ft. Kevins girlfriend pickle sunshine fly 65ft. Both were on and then off . High and low divers never had a hit. Ran white spindoctor/fly combos on lows and spoons on highs. 300' copper and 250' coppers washed lures as well. Pretty morning but tough fishing.

I have been going out these last few weeks when the weather allowed and waves weren't too crazy. It has been a struggle for me to find fish. We had a great morning today however. We went southwest out of Holland approximately half way to Saugatuck and started in 120' of water. Once we figured out current we started setting lines on south by southwest troll 2.2-2.3 mph. found good temperature at 72'. It took a little while and we had first fish on. High diver with white glow spindoctor/pickled sunshine fly. 214' back. 2 year old king 1/1. had two hits after that on downriggers set at 90' and 75' down. Blue Knight glow spoon and Green Knight glow spoons. soft bites and felt both fish for a minute and then gone 1/3. Got lines reset and inside wire diver on setting 1 on starboard side went off. We had it out 210' with Salmon Candy megatron flasher with pickled sunshine fly. It ripped and after a nice battle landed a nice 13lb king 2/4. Just landed that fish and the same side high diver went off at 265' back. Mongolian beef spoon. Landed another 2 year old king 3/5. Two more releases on the downriggers with no one home 3/7? Out of no where after washing all morning 400' copper went off with green splatter back plug. Dad fought that fish for a while. Fun to watch. Then gone... bummer. 3/8. Waves started to pick up and we were getting ready to call it a morning. I sent portside downrigger down 120' and bam nice lake trout 8 plus pounder on green knight spoon 4/9. We started pulling rods and I let portside down rigger float to surface as I brought in the other one. the rod began to bounce and we had our 2nd laker 6 pounder on green knight spoon again 5/10. Not the greatest percentage but we had a great time out on the lake. All of our fish came zig zagging between 120' and 1:40' on a south troll. 50 degree water was between 70-80' down. We targeted 70 to 100' with our program and it worked pretty well. I hope to get out a couple more times before a close to this year weather permitting.