EdB

Started the weekend off Friday prefishing for the tourney. We went north down the back starting off before Big Point and going to the 06's, we got a couple decent kings and a lake trout. Then we made a long run NW to the 39's out in the 13's. We had a steady pick of Lk Trout with some steelhead mixed in out there and came in with 14. Green and white blade spin doctor and a green fly took the kings and caught fish all weekend. Offshore, a Yeck fireball was hot on 1, 2, and 3 colors. Blue bubble SD and fly on a hi diver out 80. A super slim firecracker was good on a half core. Here's our box. The radar image did not look good Saturday morning to start the Classic. We went north down the bank again and boxed a couple nice kings. We had concerns about running offshore with the weather and checking radar it was headed for us. We planned to work the bank and stay closer to home and see what happens with the tourney. When the storm came on us, it looked like a wall coming across the lake. A buddy took this pic 5 miles farther south then us. We were not seeing lightning so we were going troll toward home unless they called it and they did so we pulled lines and ran but it hit us pulling lines. I love this pic of Big Sable Light. It was nasty out there on the run in. Since we did not fish 4 hrs, day 1 was cancelled. That was good for us, we only had 2 fish. Some other boats were doing better. Day 2 we set up way short in the 59's and trolled north on the bank. Not a good plan. Took a long time to hit our first fish. My buddies north of the point were doing real good on kings. We had 2 fish by the time we got to the point. We decided to pull lines and run offshore to try to get our 10 fish. Went back to the 39's out and 13's north. The fish were still there, up high in the top 40 feet and we had a steady pic. We got 10 more fish out there, mostly lake trout but we had our 10 to weigh. We pulled and ran back to the bank to try to hit some mid day kings and upgrade our weight. We never lifted a rod. We weighed 63 lbs with 7 lake trout, 2 steelhead and 1 good king. It was good enough to finish in the money for 6th place. We needed to dial in our king program which kind of sucked all weekend. Some boats did much better on kings than us but did not get their 10 fish. A chrome Mt dew SD and plain meat head took our king. The yeck fireball was hot offshore again on high cores. Here is the box we weighed in.

NOAA got the forecast wrong for sure.

Thanks for the report

Nice catch, fishing is getting better lately.

Nice job, that storm was a doozy off Ludington too.

Looks like a lot of fun!

The lines will stay separated below water if the divers are on 1 and 3 regardless of the rod holder position. The position of the rod holders are important for the how the rod tips and lines work above the water line. You don't want them rubbing together or crossing above the water line. The real test will be on turns. If the rods and line don't rub/cross above the water line and the hi diver is hitting the water with some separation from the low diver, you should be fine. Nice to have a 10 ft rod for the hi diver and an 8.5 or 9 for the low but it can be done with identical rods. My boat has great lakes double rod holders for divers pointing 90 degrees off the gunnel. These are the best diver rod holders out there IMO. I run the hi diver rod holder angled out a bit higher than the low.

Your sons sure are growing up, great pic of all of you!

Nice catchin!

The satellite map looked good off Manistee so we went there. We ran west and set up in the 35', hit one setting up and didn't hit another until the 42s out. Then we boxed 3 on a nice temp break in 20 minutes. Thought we would light them up. It was just a slow pick, we boxed 7 and lost 3. 1 nice king, 4 steelies and 2 lakers. MS carbon 14 on a rigger down 30 was our deepest fish. Clean birds, 2, color and a 25 ft coppers were best with ss fireballs, Goldie locks, dw orange crush. The king came on a spin doctor with blue dots on white and a blue bubble fly on a diver out 75 ft. We were a bit north of Manistee. The boats south of us had some nicer catches. Good luck!

Great catch there!

Welcome to GLF!

Looks tasty Frank!

Nice catch!

Nice job Frank, you are tearing up this spring!

Great catch!

Nice to have some King action!

Thanks for a great report!

Nice catch Bob!