Just Hook'n

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET. This is very nice to have. Now if we could get current readings (speed and direction) below the surface that would be amazing. I thought there was one like that in Muskegon, but now I can't find it.

Nice work Dave. Way to get a few trips in the Mud before the crazy mob came out for the weekend. You had a pretty nice couple weeks.

Can't say that I've ever had that happen, if the splitring looks good. We had numerous hooks come back this weekend with 2 of the three trebbles. We had to replace more this weekend than I think we've done in year.

Matt, WOW. Nice work. 19... not bad...hahahha. That is amazing. Great job out there.

I only use Big Weenie flies with double hooks. They are SUPER sharp and great setups thanks to the BW team. I am not sure why the fish are coming undone recently.

Those are some pigs. Great work, and thanks for the report.

HOLY CRAP Steve - 2am. And my guys complain about leaving the dock at 5. I don't think I've ever been out at 2 am.

Nice job up there Matt. Great reports and great fishing. WOW, what a summer so far.

What a way to break in a rookie. Awesome job.

We had an awesome Saturday in Holland this past weekend (sorry for the late report). Saturday morning we left the dock at 5 trying to beat the crowd out because we had heard they were in close. We figured we may do a couple laps in front before going out. Well, on the way out we decided to just go for kings and not play in the traffic, but that we would drop in early. we dropped in at 40fow and started setting. Marked a ton in there, but didn't get things going until 70 or 80 fow. It was a strange morning. We had 5 big lakers (8-12lbs) on normal dipseys with mag rings set at 1.5 back 120-140feet in 85-100fow with 11" paddles and flies. We had a few steelhead hit 300 copper in the same water - spoon was blue huckleberry I think. We had another steelhead hit a 100 with a white with pink dots moonshine. Other fish came on 11" white paddle with green fly on middle rigger down probably 70. We got pinched so we could not get out to the water we wanted and played in less than 100 all morning. We did actually catch half of our fish going north back home. Ended up 10 for who knows. Kept missing them on dipseys. On, and came undone early. Also lost one when the 300 tangled into the 200 board and fish got loose. Lost another on rigger 50 feet behind boat. Just a lot of fish coming off. Saturday night we had my brother, his son, and a couple from his church on board. We had a riot getting them on fish. With some great tips from Brian (Flycatcher) we ran a spinny program on down, dipseys, 300s and spoons on top of that. Also ran meat down the chute rigger at 90-100. Water we worked was 120-150. 135 was the best. Ended up 13 for who knows, but didn't feel like we lost as many as we did in the morning. Certainly didn't loose any due to tangles. Biggest fish was close to 20lbs on 300 copper pulling a dreamweaver mixed veggie looking spinny with a green/yellow fly. Pictures to follow. I have to turn my camera settings down. I keep taking 4.5M pictures and can't post them on the site.

Nice mess of fish Roger.

We troll pretty quick (according to some) too. 2.7-3.2 at the ball most days. Which this weekend meant 3.0sog on most troll directions out of Holland. AND we still got lakers with our divers high in the water column. It was a weird weekend.

Nice work Jim. Sucks about the ball.

Fishing is always best at sun up, and at sun set. It almost always slows down when the sun is up. We drink beer, pray to the fish gods, throw pennies at our downrigger rods, do the doghouse dance, have someone make a phone call, have someone light a cigarette (that one usually works), have someone piss off the boat (second best option), start screwing with any setup on the boat, etc. You question largely depends on if there are fish where you are fishing. If you are not marking fish, try the above. If you are marking fish, try chaning speed, direction, lure size and/or color. But quite honestly the same lures almost always work on our boat. It's usually troll direction and speed we have wrong.

Congrats. Second best day of your life????

Guys that do this run really really small swivels in the lines - number ones I think so they fit through your level wind. It certainly works, but there is just a lot more places for things to break (knots and terminal tackle). I've not done it myself, but I've heard of guys doing 100' lengths then mono then 100' and so on.

These are all opinions of course, but here are my answers/suggestions. 1. I love my wire divers. If I had the choice, I would personally run wire vs. braid. 2. What you ran is a "free" slider. It finds its normal resting point in the bow of your line. They can be affective. When a fish hits on the slider, you have to reel like a mad man to catch the slider up to the main line. 3. not sure - but I'm betting you will get some answers from guys over there. Glad you are enjoying the site and getting out there. GREAT to hear there are fish returning to Lake Huron.

Nice work Clyde. Great job getting out of the crowd and still smackin em.

I think the sponsor is considering leaving, because the board is NOT listening to the majority of the fisherman that want the rules changed, but you are entiled to your opinion. I'll probably just donate $100 to the cause (because it's a good one) case a vote and fish the 333 only. Though I guess I should value more the opinions of someone who has posted on this site 8 times versus some of the more serious members. But that's up to me too. Ain't America great. We can all have and voice our opinions. No matter how wrong or right they are.

Awesome work Andrew. The bait fish are in because the lake flipped over (temp). The fisherman (and fish) are stacked at the pierheads and I've heard stories of "hearing" the bait trying to escape the steelhead litterally pounding the pier. Crazy cool.

Amen Jim. The fisherman who catches the most fish is better IMHO, that is why I prefer to see more weighed. Grand Haven just flat out sucked ... but the boat who caught the most fish ultimately won and they deserved it, which is the point most guys are trying to make here. Great fishing boats catch a lot of fish and Jim's comments are dead on. We want fishing tournaments, not culling tournaments.

I would echo what Medic said, but ask one question - how tight are you trying to turn? When you run multiple lines you can't do crazy Ivan's like you used to be able to do with just down riggers back in the day. We run commonly 11 lines, and have run all of them spin doctors at times. You have to turn VERY slowly and methodically.

Rick, you run meat typically on a different style paddle. A really good article was posted on this site here: http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27010&highlight=meat

I am little worried too Don, though I am enjoying the hell out of it this summer. Seems like everyone is slamming the fish and most of the fish I ahve caught recently have bait in them... and we are marking huge bait balls - the biggest I remember in the last 5 years. However, I just don't know how the lake can take all these salmon being caught by so many fisherman and still keep giong year over year. Something has got to give eventually. We've not "boxed" yet this year. We've gotten 14 and 15 and just called it good because the cooler was full and we were getting hot (and the bite may have slowed). The one HUGE factor this year that must be very challenging for the biologists to through into the equation is the weather. Such a strange winter, spring, and now summer. Hard to say what we should expect with this pattern.

Awesome job out there and great to hear they are still around. Hoping to get out this weekend and keeping my fingers crossed that the weather/lake doesn't change too much.