SUPERTRAMP

Fished the evening bite, left piers about 7:15. Headed SW on a 240 heading hit 70 FOW and started setting lines. First fish came on a Dipsey set on 2.5 back 110 Moonshine bloody nose. 15lb King, in 93 FOW headed on out to 110, and picked up a small king on the same spoon on rigger Set down 57. Number 3 came on that same rigger, and came unbuttoned behind the boat. #4 Was another King on 300cu you guessed it Moonshine bloody nose. Had another hit on the other rigger down 43 on a Moonshine bloody nose. Lost another on the same rigger, and lost 1 on the 300cu. Ended up 5 for 8 all kings big one 18lbs others 8 to 14 lbs. no pics as the daylight left us before we got back to the marina. Fished until 9:30 so not bad for 2.5 hours. SOG was 2.7 to 2.9. We marked tons of bait balls, and the further south the more fish. When we finally pulled lines we were marking a lot of fish up off the bottom to about 40ft.

It better not cost me anything, I just put almost $6000 into that engine. It only had about 30 hours on it.

Nice one Kevin.

These fish are gorged on Alewives, Big Alewives. I have marked top to bottom schools in the area, I believe that most of the fish I have taken are not stocked fish. Not one had a clipped fin, all really healthy and really angry. I grew up in Oregon, my brother fishes there, when I sent him pictures of our catches he replies that he fishes for 8 to 10 hours, and get 2 fish, that is their daily limit, they are limited to 1 rod per person, and have to use barbless hooks, and must release any wild (non hatchery) fish. We here in Michigan have it pretty darn good. I am 72 and started fishing Lake Michigan in 1973, I will bet we get some fish over 40lbs this fall.

Fished Thursday and Saturday this week out of St. Joe. King fishing is still going strong. Thursday we went 21 for 30. All on Magnum spoons, Green Dolphin, Green Froggy, Blue Dolphin, Carmel Dolphin and Modified Coyote, all caught fish. Riggers were set @ 44 48 52 and 58. all took multiple hits power pro dipsy's set on 1.5 out 168, amd 168. 4 color and 5 color lead core both took fish. and 10 color took a couple of hits. Had 2 300 copper rigs out but only had 1 hit on them. Fish are in the top 60 feet and are still there 70 to 160 FOW. Straight out to about 3 miles north is where we fished. Best thing is this is old time Downrigger fishing, 8 to 10 feet behind the ball and the fish are not shy. 2.7 to 3.0 on the Fishawk, and have fun. Saturday was the same program but the 300 coppers got hot. Ended the day 15 for 24 we had several short hits on the riggers, busted the rubberband and were gone. We did get the Grease drought broken, 2 both on the 300 Copper. Blue dolphin. This is the best spring king fishing biggest fish and biggest numbers I have ever seen in over 45 years on the lake. Will be out of action for a bit as the motor I just had rebuilt lost oil pressure on the way in Saturday and pretty sure it is toast.

nice size Coho.

I use Okuma Convector CV30lc for my wire rigs, and after 6 years they still perform flawlessly. I have replaced drag washers, only as a preventative measure.

Science says that if we keep going the way we are with the Kings, we will have a catastrophic failure of the forage base, remember Lake Huron, People are short sighted, these reductions will benefit the fishery for years to come, remember Lake Trout , Steelhead, Coho and Brown trout are not dependent on the alewife for forage, they do terrorize the goby population though. The Ideal way to get things in balance would be to attack the mussel issue, not worry about the number of Kings you catch.