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zgrinder on Fin Warrior

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  1. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    You flat out killed it this morning. Great call to fish the mud (I love it as well) but that was a big boy call to fish in so tight. Enjoyed the pics and clips. Thanks so much for sharing.
  2. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Smart move to put a plug down on a deep line. This time of year I have one down on SWR most every time out.
  3. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Fished from ~ 1:00 to 5:00pm starting off in front of the sliders working 105 to 125 FOW. About 40min after setting down, had a big king hit a KGF meat rig down 97' at the ball in 114 FOW. Got it to the back of the boat enough where I could easily see it but the fish kept running to the starboard side. Move the SB line out, gave the boat a turn, squared up the fish to the back of the transom and our luck ran out as it came off. Felt bad for Juli as she was now 0 for 2 with two nice size kings. She did land a small laker later in the day and that is all the action we had for the day. Video clip below. Fishing 8-27-23 (6).mp4
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  4. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    You bring up a great point and I am trying to break myself of that habit. Thanks for the re-enforcement.
  5. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Great pic and nice king, congrats. I believe that was us last night with the 2 for 3 shout out. Finished 2 for 4 - just posted the report.
  6. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Good friends of ours Ben and Juli came in from out of town for a couple of days to fish and have fun. With high hopes, we pushed off Fin Warrior at 4:30pm for an evening run. I had not been out since August 5th and really needed to wet some lines. Planed out north toward Port Sheldon and set down with a south troll in 130 FOW to give my guests a smooth float. Ran a 4 rigger (95-108’ down at the ball), 2 dipsey (60-65’ down via Smart Troll) spread. Had some copper and weighted steel long lines at the ready but the water was just too warm at that depth. 2 ½ hours of no action with just a tip up. After a complete change-out we had a KGF meat rig and Brad’s cut plug on 11” paddles on the outside riggers down ~95’ at the ball. At the aft, all white mag spoon on the 12# test line (yes, I was running the spoon give-a-way light line again – this was my back-up rod) and a blue-silver J-plug on SWR 104-108' at the ball. The dipsey rods were set with spoons, mag 57 Chevy and a holographic mag spoon from the GR Outdoors show. Just before 8:00pm south of the sliders, I figure we cross over a pod of stacked up kings in 110-105 FOW as we had 4 hits in 25 min. Brad’s cut plug delivered a 16.5# king. No sooner we got that rig back in the water and the light line lit up. We almost got that one to the back of the boat and it came off on a bent hook. The fish stayed down in the water and never surfaced so it likely was a good size. Right after that, the meat rig hit and produces a modest 8# king. And somewhere in all of this, the 57 Chevy dipsey got a drive by hit. We turned around trolling north to try to recapture that magic and had one bite about 9:00pm on the other outside dipsey but never got the fish to the boat. No hits after the sun went down. Ben landed the big king for the evening. Juli had the misfortune of a big strike miss on the light line. Data below. # Time Fish FOW Latitude Troll Rod Bait Depth Bait 1 7:52PM King 16.5# (N) 110 42o44.300' S DR 96B Brads Cut Plug - Lucky Charm 2 8:09PM Miss 105 42o43.450' S DR 104B Mag White Spoon 3 8:16PM King 8# (N) 105 42o43.400' S DR 94B KGF Meat Rig 4 9:01PM Miss 98 ? N Dipsey 63 Mag Holographic Gold/Green Spoon
  7. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Well done! There are some good salmon steaks to be had on that king of yours.
  8. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Sea Foam, sorry about your downrigger ball loss. Last year I had a large white paddle white fly, the last line out of the water that . . . I for got to get out of the water. I am on a plane coming in and thinking, man it sounds like a drag is screaming. Well in fact it was, and when the sound stopped, I took the boat off a plane to check things out and found one rod in the back downrigger rod holder completely spooled. Pulled the ball up but not the gear. I felt like an idiot. Yep it happens. For what its worth, as much as I am temped, I never leave my 15lb balls on the rigger hooks. I worry about bad things happening, like ripping the rigger off the back of the boat if the ball goes down so I just leave them in the aft compartment until I set down. I am sure you are contemplating the same. Glad you only lost the ball and wire and not the rigger.
  9. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Little Boat, this is very sad that you lost brand new tackle to some knuckleheads. I have had much success with Brad's Cut Plugs and to lose that right after dropping down is a crime. On the upside, your coho look like good eaters. Was planning on taking Fin Warrior out Sunday night with Sweet Caroline across the dock but we punted about 5:00pm as the lake kept building with the the N to NW wind. Would have gone out this morning had the forecast been a bit more accurate. But I got the yard cut before the mid day down pours began.
  10. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Those pics are to die for. A big congrats to your daughter for landing that fat king in the big bounce Saturday night. She has been taught and learned well how to get big fish in the boat. Also a big thanks for looking at the rod guides. Admit I did not think of that but it makes sense. I also have a back up lite line rig that I will deploy next time as I sort this out. Best of luck next time out!
  11. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Waited for the Tournament boats to clear and headed out with a neighbor for fish 170FOW again and then pull in close at sunset. Fished riggers, similar to 2-nights before but with 4 down versus 3 and 2 mono 1 1/2 set dipseys to the side. We got action immediately on the two deep rigger lines as we passed through 170 FOW before anything else was down. Lost one spoon on the 12lb mono as soon as it was hit. Looped back around and hit a lake trout at the start of the westward run. Let it go successfully. Later the outside dipsey fired, good run. Fish was pulling hard. Problem was I didn't go through star drag 101 with my neighbor and he crank it to a dead stop. We lost everything including the Smart Troll probe (I had double OR16 clips on the line - don't know how we did not recover the probe). Got the dipsey back in the water and did another loop. Nothing on this go around so we pointed towards shore to fish inside. Had to run both motors with some additional rpms to pound through the chop. Got a 5lb king heading east on the the other outside dipsey that we kept. I was a better star drag coach that go around. Closer in, the lite line popped again - break off. Got that back in the water and it popped once more - again a break off. The meat rig finally got a rip, no one home. Now I am getting a little drunk . . . . on all the gear I lost so I was done with that 12lb test rod, removed the meat rig and put that rod down with a spoon in place of the lite line. Nothing hit at sunset but we did drag another laker around for some time on the SWR that we released when we pulled lines. I did some late night on-line business with Tackle Haven and Smart Troll over an Oberon when I got home. And tonight, that 12lb test will be stripped from that reel and replaced. Data below. # Time Fish FOW Latitude Troll Rod Bait Depth Bait 1 4:45PM Drive by 164 42o47.640' W SWR 108B Mag PK Green Dolphin Foil 2 4:50PM Break off 165 42o47.640' W DR 104B Mag PK Blue Dolphin Foil 3 5:36PM Lake Trout 8lb 148 42o47.380' W SWR 108B Mag PK Green Dolphin Foil 4 5:55PM Break off 167 42o47.110' W Dipsey 65 Stinger UV Blue Edge 5 7:33PM King (N) 5lb 164 42o48.495' E Dipsey 63 Stinger UV Blue Edge 6 7:46PM Break off 135 ? E DR 104B Mag PK UV Blue Jeans 7 8:00PM Break off 116 ? NE DR 104B Stinger Killer Blue 8 9:20PM Lake Trout 5lb 111 ? SE SWR 108B Mag PK Green Dolphin Foil
  12. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Strategizing about the lines to run this evening – decided to run a throw-back all rigger spread as warm water was 75’ down at the Port Sheldon buoy and the heavy SW 1-2' chop and occasional 3' group of rollers would render dipseys meaningless. Fin Warrior has 4 riggers, the aft riggers would be run low and the side riggers with paddles and something on the business end. Question would be where to start since I could only put 3 down fishing solo. Opted for 2 aft and 1 side rigger spread. Dropped down in 130 FOW at 5:00pm off the sliders and headed north. Alewife and Mongolian beef spoons went down deep and a green paddle/green fly out to the side. Nothing happening. Swapped out the spoons for UV blue jeans & UV green jeans and a blue paddle/blue fly out to the other side. Nothing happening. Changed course to west to get out to my favorite depth for these times, 170FOW. I was the only boat out that deep so it was great. Swapped UV green jeans for UV green dolphin – the latter was a mag spoon and had killed it down deep on SWR several years back. In 172 FOW trolling north, after 90min into the evening, on a deep rigger, the UV mag blue jeans on a 12lb test line got bit, producing to my surprise, a coho. Next, on the other deep rigger, the UV green dolphin down 105 produced another surprise, a steelhead. OK some fish are biting the low lines so I put down a blue/silver paddle, blue/silver meat rig in place of the dodger fly on the upper outer rigger to improve the interest. Unfortunately, no further action. It was about 7:30 and the storm was coming in so I decided to vector NE into shallower water for the evening bite. About 45min after the last strike, in 152 FOW, the meat rig produced a coho. The line on the bait head got twisted to snot, so I gave that up, grabbed the other rod at the ready and put a paddle and Lucky Charm Brads Cut Plug down without any tuna – just got it in the water in a hurry. Made another course change to SE to head back to port. About 20min later, the light line with the UV blue jeans produced a small king. I tried to release it but doubt it made it. Skies were getting dark at this point so I did not put the light line back down and ripped the Brad’s cut plug. A good eater coho was on the business end well hooked so I kept it. Down to one line left in the water, SWR. I am putting the balls away staring at this rod and bang, it goes off. The joy of fishing on when pulling lines. It was a king, about 6lbs or more. I worked hard to shake it off at the back of the boat and to my surprise, I was successful. So, 1 for 2 on catch and release for the day. All lines were up and I headed in to beat the storm. I have not caught a coho all year and caught 3 on this trip. All the fish had adipose fins. I did not find big fish but am very happy with the coho catch. No reports on 68 - Big Red coming this weekend. Data below. # Time Fish FOW Latitude Troll Rod Bait Depth Bait 1 6:30PM Coho (N) 172 42o47.900' N DR - 12lb test 102B UV mag Blue Jeans 2 6:55PM Steelhead 8lb (N) 170 42o48.890' N DR - SWR 105B UV mag Green Dolphin 3 7:42PM Coho (N) 152 42o50.950' NE DR 95B Blue Silver meat head 4 8:04PM King (N) 5lb 128 42o51.075' SE DR - 12lb test 106B UV mag Blue Jeans 5 8:15PM Coho (N) 114 42o50.718' SE DR 95B Brads Cut Plug - Lucky Charm 6 8:18PM King (N) 6lb 104 ? SE DR - SWR 108B UV mag Green Dolphin
  13. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    The morning was uber busy, many boats out pre-fishing the Salmon Classic. I was not able to get out last night to set up for a morning run. I watched many boats going out in the morning as I was getting ready. Also had a problem with the new wiper blades coming off the arms but I will leaver it at that. Plaining out was a bit tricky with only one wiper working. Fixed it all good when I got back in. Dropped SWR down with a green/pearl J-plug and it got bit before I could tighten up the drag. Lost the fish about half way to the transom but thought great start. Had two other tip ups on the same rod as I was setting a second DR green paddle/green fly down on the SB side. After another reset of the port SWR J-plug rig, the SB downrigger lit up. Fought the fight for a few minutes then the dreaded tip up. All the gear was lost. Would have retired the not if I got down the the boat the night before but that did not happen. 10" Green Jeans paddle lasted ~10 min out of the package before it hit bottom. Still stuck with only one line in the water. Put a KG meat rig down in place of the lost green paddle/fly and a center line with a Brad's Cut Plug. The Brads Cut Plug did not get touched on 300' of weighted steel - probably running too high in the water column. Dumped the J-plug after the sun came up and put a Mag Blue Dolphin foil spoon down on SWR. I finally was able to land a fish, about a 11llb (N) king. Later in the morning, after re-tooling the N-S troll to a E-W troll, the meat rig finally got hit, and hit hard in 112FOW. Could not gain any ground on the fish but that did not matter - another break off at the hook knot. Now I retied that last week, 40lb fluoro, so why it separated is beyond me. Just lost the meat head. I threw a dipsey out at some point and was rewarded with a nice SH that I was able to land. Had another drive by and that was all she wrote. Got bit a bunch but lots of misses and break offs. Kind of weird morning but conditions were optimal. We enjoyed the SH tails for dinner tonight. There were 1 or 2 big number catches reported today. Could not match that running solo and my knots were not up to the task.
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  14. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Been there and I will try to make this a quick story. Back when I lived in IL, fished a tournament in Racine (and back when entry prices were modest). Pre fished Friday morning. Crew was Janet (wife, best friend and great fisher person) and one of my best friends Ben - we were a three boat crew. That morning, the alarm clock rig hit a couple of big fish on a 1-set dipsey before sun up. We set that set-up a side for Tournament Saturday morning. Saturday comes, we come off a plane and begin to set up in the dark, Janet and Ben are setting lines on the port side, I and working starboard. The alarm clock rig goes out on the port side - then I hear where is it. Evidently, it was thrown over the side, dipsey, paddle and fly without it hooked up to the rod. The go to presentation was gone. So I rigged up another set up from my back up gear as quickly as possible, handed it to both of them and with a straight face let out, "just throw this over board too" (I go by capt. Dick and this was a stellar moment). There was silence on the boat . . . . for a long time I might add. OK, that was me being a d&%K at my worst. But today, we laugh are butts off at that now because of the whole moment, me being me, and how fun it is to look back at miss adventures.
  15. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    A man with two fishing boats - you are my hero. The 2102 Trophy is a well set up fishing machine. I like that is has portability to be dropped in at other ports. And it is small in that it is easy to get around and fish it. And you have it well rigged. Reminds me of the Corner Office, a Penn Yan Predator that predated the Fin Warrior, Rampage Barta Canyon. The Corner Office was so easy to fish and a good running boat in most water. It had a modified V hull so it did not handle big chop very well but on a calm day it could plane out at 35mph. A nice throaty response when the engines were fired up. I brought it across the lake from Waukegan to Holland in 2009. I knew every corner of that boat and my ear could tell if anything was a miss. However, it had wood stringers and water in the transom fiberglass which was the end of that boat without making a huge investment. Many good memories of that boat. Pics are from 2008.
  16. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Well that is an interesting trip. Sorry you lost gear on two rigs. Been there and hate that double whammy. Pack more ice in that cooler cause I got this feeling you are going to hit it big on another trip. The pic you have with your ID appears to show a boat with an array of rocket launchers - is that a former boat or am I miss reading the pic? The channel can be nutty but hats off to you for keeping your head and keeping you and your boat safe.!!
  17. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Agree with the leader recommendation - all my dipsey leaders are 25lb test. Secondly, set the drags as light as possible where they spool out a bit of line when you make a turn. If the water is choppy, try adding an Off Shore #8 (small red clip without the pin in the center) to the base of your rod. I am not at the boat to send a pic so I will do my best to describe it here. Put the large split ring that comes in the package through the back of the last hole of the OR8 clip. Tie the split ring to the base of the rod with fishing line (I use 40lb test). Wrap tape over the line (electrical tape will do) leaving the split ring free to wobble so the clip does not slide up and down the rod. Once the dipsey line is deployed and the drag is set, clip the line into the OR8 clip. It will not hold that much (works better on a wire dipsey versus a superline dipsey) but will help keeping the line for creeping out of the reel. This has limits. If your running 3.0mph or in 2' waves, this suggestion will probably not hold the line. An OR1 clip might hold better but it is bigger and personally I don't like it flopping around the rod (they are great for downrigger ball releases). OR8 clips can be ordered on line. I recommend going to the Off Shore website and getting familiar with the clips and and how they are named before ordering so you purchase the right item. I recommend not buying the knock offs - yes they are much cheaper but some of these just do not hold onto the line very well. Also, when using no-stretch lines and the fish are big, I now run a snubber after the dipsey and 25# fluoro leaders for spoons and 30# mono for dodger/fly presentations. A clear Dreamweaver Ripcord 12" snubber is my personal preference. Fished for ~30 years w/o running a snubber but after losing a bunch of gear fishing bigger fish with wire divers and the heavy weight dipseys the last couple of years (the mag dipseys are getting pricey!), I added snubbers to my program.
  18. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Put down straight out of the harbor in 140FOW and pointed North as there was a 2' wave push in that direction and dragged lures from 140 to 130FOW. Ran with Tom so we got 5 rods out initially. Not much happening with a rip or two until a laker hit the green paddle/green fly down 95 at the ball and wadded up in the 300 weighted steel. I dumped the laker in disgust as it made a mess of the gear. After that, I pulled the 16oz ball off the weighted steel as my gut was telling me I was running that to low (Brads Cut Plug and Paddle set up) and put it on a Off Shore board without the added weight. Bang, that hit not soon after is was put down in 129FOW. The rollers and the long line made for a really long finish to boating a 19lb (N) king. Love those VMC 2/0 xtra strong hooks. Took perhaps 10 min to unbutton the fish. Put out a 400' copper with meat but it didn't get any interest. Had another jumper bite a dipsey about 60' down with a blue dolphin in 130FOW but lost it during the fight. Weird in that we got all the gear in the boat and we were about to drop the dipsey in the water and noticed it was not attached to anything. The snap swivel was bent wide open. How we got the gear in the back of the boat is still a mystery to us as we think it should have been lost when the fish came off. Slid into 110-90FOW water after sun down but no takers for our offerings. We were on the low volume end of the catches tonight per radio reports but happy to get a fish that can be steaked. Think I heard Parker call in at one point with a good report. One boat reported a cooler of 9. We trolled north all evening. Fin Warrior had to run back past Port Sheldon into the SW chop back to Holland and did a stout job at that. Courtesy of Tom (many thanks!), I finally got a fish pic on the water.
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  19. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    I am just getting ready to head down to the harbor to decide what this storm front is going to bring for the evening. Now you are giving me second thoughts! The morning might have been off a bit due to the blow on Friday. Glad you at least hooked up with one.
  20. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Happy you found some big fish action. With several of your hits coming on long lines in a little over an hour, it must have felt like non-stop action. Great stuff!
  21. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Love the pics. The steelhead will be good eaters. Thanks for the report.
  22. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    What a great start to a float when a line gets bit as soon as it gets wet. It makes you feel your where the fish are and want what you have to offer - even if another bite doesn't come for a while. Thanks for the report and happy catching!
  23. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Arrgh, you got me Little Boat. Writing up the post the morning after and I missed that little detail! Post is from evening of 7-18.
  24. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    Lake calmed down on Tuesday with 1' waves from the NW. I had not been out in over a week so I was primed to troll. Fished the evening with lines down by 5:00pm through sunset. Trolled north of the harbor mainly North & South between 130-140 FOW with one venture into 110FOW that did not produce any bites. Finished the evening 5 for 6. I tend not to run long lines when fishing solo because it takes quite some time to bring fish in. However, posts on this site convinced me to run a center chute rig and I was 'schooled' on how effective long lines can be. Five of the bites came on the center chute rig comprised of 300' weighted steel with a 16oz weight fastened immediately after the weighted steel was spooled out using an OR-16 clip. On the business end was Brad's Cut Plug loaded with tuna set behind an 11" paddle. Based on prior Smart Troll measurements with this rigging, at my trolling speed of 2.3mph, the bait should be down about 70' The first strike was the best as I just happened to be watching the rod tip when I noticed it arc 90 degrees down to the water followed by a screaming drag. That battle produced a 19lb king. I decided that if it was going to be a big fish night, I need a better hook and replaced the Mustad 3550 2/0 with a VMC 9650 X-strong 2/0. Good thinking but the other three kings that come on the right were not as big as the first (13, 9, 5lb). This was the last line pulled after sunset and it got bit in the dark. I lost it somewhere after removing the 16oz weight. The leader on the the Cut Plug was all twisted and likely got wrapped around the fish in some manner. A bit surprising it came off as the hook was buried in each of the other catches. The riggers produced one fish late in the evening, 11" white paddle white fly down 85' on the ball (15lb). Of course it got caught up in the weighted steel line but fortunately it did not wrap around and I was able to land the fish and release the weight steel line back down by hand. There was a call out for a fishing report which got about 10 responses. My apologies for not contributing as I was at the beginning of bringing in the 13lb king and maneuvering around another boat with boards out. I recall in one of the report fish being caught in 160FOW and other hits coming on dipsey meat rigs and blue flounder on a downrigger. One other comment, all the fish caught and released were naturals, noted as (N) in my report below. # Time Fish FOW Latitude Troll Rod Bait Depth Bait 1 5:43pm King(N) 19lb 135 42o51.300' NW 300WS + 16oz 70 Brads Cut Plug & Green/Silver Paddle 2 6:24pm King(N) 5lb 141 42o51.900' N 300WS + 16oz 70 Brads Cut Plug & Green/Silver Paddle 3 7:28pm King(N) 9lb 132 42o51.870' S 300WS + 16oz 70 Brads Cut Plug & Green/Silver Paddle 4 8:22pm King(N) 13lb 131 42o.49.050' S 300WS + 16oz 70 Brads Cut Plug & Green/Silver Paddle 5 9:35pm King(N) 7lb 133 ? N Downrigger 85B White Paddle White fly 6 9:50pm Miss 130 ? N 300WS + 16oz 70 Brads Cut Plug & Green/Silver Paddle
  25. zgrinder on Fin Warrior
    That dog is awesome. The big king battle through dusk must have been heart pounding. Great night fishing and many thanks for the pics and data.
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