Reel-y-hooked

Nice work and thanks for the detailed info. My daughter and I went straight out of port Sheldon and had lines set at 6:30 pm. We stopped and fished 125 fow. Marked tons of bait and had several good hooks around the bait at 40’ down and all the way to the bottom. Had two steelhead porpoise in front of the boat. port down rigger went once at 90 down with a ss glow frog and  starboard rigger went once down 80 with a std Mongolian beef. Port low diver back 165 went once with a ss glow frog. 2 escaped and we landed 1. Pulled lines at 8:00 (school night) 

What a beautiful night ! water was flat and sunset was fantastic. 
 

It is nice to have a little realtime intel to start out with. Our fish were full of small baitfish too. Thanks for the report. 

Ran straight out to 150’ and trolled south. Had 3 bites on the south troll. Turned around and had 3 more bites on the north troll. Turned NE towards the pier and had 2 more bites. One in 100’ and last one in 90’. We boated 6 of the 8 bite’s and released one small king. We had a nice steelhead and a lake trout in the mix. 

much thanks to jolly time for the detailed report about small bait. We ran super slims and a couple standard size spoons. our best king (10lbs) bit a super slim 1/2 green jeans on a 12’ leader behind an 8” white slick spin doc. It was 100’ down on starboard rigger. 
Other bites were on both high divers back 260’ and 280’. Port rigger down 125’ and the free slider. 300 copper. Low diver back 180’ went twice. Spoons were ss green jeans, ss 1/2 green jeans, ss A-bomb, ss rosta goose, ss glow frog, and Mongolian beef. 
Lake was calm and no boat traffic and a spectacular sun set. 

Thanks for the updated report after cleaning your fish. Great info. 

Thank you for your detailed report.

Yes we do pick up muscles off the bottom and we try to just skim or lightly bounce on the sand. we don’t catch any fish on the main line but the sliders seem to wake up and catch fish. I wish I knew how far down free sliders run. I have to believe they work there way down closer go the ball rather than run in the middle. We only do it if we see fish tight on the bottom and Im assuming when we stir up the bottom it brings fish into the spread and the fish are close enough to see the stealthy presentation of spoons. 
we laugh about it on our boat and call it the reverse SWR. When it works to avoid a skunk it’s well worth it

Thanks for the report,

For whatever it’s worth….when there’s warm water around and the bite is tough we put the cannon balls on the bottom and let the free sliders do the work with ss spoons. Stealth presentation seems to help em bite. 
 

Thanks for reporting. Sounds like steelhead are hungry for spoons. Steelhead always surprise us. Our biggest this year came on a low mag wire diver back 140’ pulling a (fish catcher black crush) paddle and a Krw Julie bird fly . We’ll put a variety spread in the water this weekend and see what happens. The weather and wind should make for a fantastic boat ride. 
thanks again for the info.

Set a 6 rod spread at 6:30 pm. Marked fish on the bottom in 90 fow About 4 miles north of the pier. 
only needed 1 rod. Our 300 copper went 3 for 3 on a south troll in 90 fow.  All were 6 to 7 lb kings. Ran one of my dad’s old spoons. (White with a green ladder back) I thinks it’s a doctored up pirate spoon. It’s been a good late season spoon for several years.

Had a boat pass us running up on full plane about 200 yards inside the pier head after dark on our way in. That’ll get your attention in a hurry. Other than that idiot it was a beautiful evening out on the big lake. 
 

Wow very nice ! A 40” pike is pretty special ! Your youngest got a trophy. 

Nice !

Did you get a length on that northern?

And yes you are  fortunate to still have that plug. Normally that would be gone. 
That was a great evening of fishing. 

Dandy coho !

Looked like we were fishing the same water and found out the same thing you did. The fish were there on the bottom in that hundred foot depth and they needed to wake up and get hungry before they would bite. When the sun went down, they got active in the screen came alive with dozens of marks.

5/5. fished just south of the Buoy. Noticed a lot of fish laying on the bottom when headed out so set down in 100 feet and fished 60 down to the bottom. All spoons. 300 copper, high diver back 200,  Riggers set at 70 and 90 with free sliders. All set ups took a Fish. Mongolian beef, green jeans, a-bomb and dancing anchovy. Biggest king took a slider. 

Hey you avoided the skunk and it looked like a beautiful evening to be out fishing. Thanks for the report 

Pulled the boat up north for the holiday. Fished little sable point south of pentwater. 7 for 10. All kings. 
Ran a 8 rod spread and every rod  had a fish on at least once. Fished 90 fow. 
200 copper, 225 copper, 2 high divers, 2 low divers and 2 riggers with free sliders. Different lures on every rod. SD white slick, SD black slick, SD wonderbread. All pulling KRW riverside flies. White glow plug with black ladder back, Spoons were ….MS standard raspberry carbon, MS Mongolian beef rv, MS dancing anchovy rv, DW A-bomb ss, DW standard green jeans. We had to quit a little early to check out of cottage so we left em biting. 

Thanks for the report and pics. 
looks like it was worth the trip. 
 

That’s exciting when you’re fishing solo. Well done !

Lake was flat this morning and lots of boat lights out in front. 
went north to rosy mound and marked a lot of fish in 100 fow. No bites for a while so changed out some baits and had 8 on and boated 4. Fought a good one on 200 copper with a green jeans spoon for a long time. He eventually won and escaped. 
A-bomb free slider above a raspberry carbon on main line set at 65 both caught a fish. 225 copper pulling a white glow plug caught 2 fish. Our biggest fish has a clipped fin so we’ll get the head to the dnr for data analysis.  It was the last morning of the ultimate salmon derby and even though we didn’t win any prizes our team had a ton of fun. I fish with my daughter and her husband. Thanks for the reports over the summer. The info is invaluable and helps us all catch fish. 

Incomplete post. See above post 

It takes time to get all the gear working correctly and figure out the mood of the fish. If boat traffic is heavy, then we go north too. 
re-tie your snap swivels and loosen your drags a little. You’ll catch fish 

Thank you for the info. You are running the right stuff in the right place. We never stop learning when it comes to salmon fishing.  do not be ashamed of being a beginner or a rookie. we all were sometime. I also run the Uni not on all my set ups and I re-tie the  knots on dipsy set ups quite often. No need to run your drag tight either. Let those big kings run and they will get tired. There is no hurry to get them in the boat,  if they are hooked up good you will get them.

did you fish straight out of the harbor or did you go north or south this morning? And again, thank you for the detailed information.

7:00pm - 8:30pm.    Went out to fish the sunset on the rollers.  2 for 3.

6# and 10# kings. Shook a small one off behind the boat.  DW white glow plug on a 225 copper. A-bomb on a slider with rigger set at 55.  South troll in 85 fow. Report at the launch was a lot of 1, 2, or 3 fish in 50 -110 fow at sunset. 

Both of those fish had their adipose fin. We landed 3 clipped fish this season and turned the heads in to the dnr. I agree with the importance of the data. We have a fantastic fishery and I hope it continues. 
We will be on the water this evening hunting for big 4 yr olds. 

That should make for good fishing in our neck of the woods. It’s nice to see our part of the lake receiving good numbers of fish stocking. I imagine grand haven will be decent too due to wild fish returning to spawn. On a nice day it’s pretty easy to run up to the south side of GH and tap into that fishery.