wishfull thinking

Gotta go when you can. Noon to 5:00. Set lines in 80 fow on a west troll. First fish was a steel in 105 fow on a green veggies. Worked out to 220 and landed another small king on same spoon and lost 2 more steel (after they went airborn). Turned east and lost a really good king in 180. Trolled into 60 fow and pulled lines. We did have a good fire drill when we hooked a net bouy with our outside copper, just lost 1 spoon. I wish I could spin figure eights like we did when actually fishing, never tangled a line. Go figure. 1 rip on a standard dipsy 125 back and everything else was on 200, 225, and 250 coppers. Ended 2 for 5.

ran out to 200 fow of water around 3 pm. Set riggers at 40 and 50 with no hits all evening. Mag dipsys back 75 and 100 with 11 inch paddels, no takers. Size 1 dipsys back 150 took a laker in 220 fow. Trolled our way back east and got a king on a 200 copper with a blue dolphin spoon in 158 fow, small king on a 225 copper in 130 fow with a blue dolphin, Broke off a large king on a blue veggies spoon on a 200 copper in 126 fow, 150 copper took 2 smaller kings between 110 and 85 fow on blue dolphins. Ended 5 for 6, pulled lines at 85 fow. Lots of boats from there into the channel.

She can't drive that either, I put mine on this spring and love it.

Took the wife and kids out after work. Fished around the nets just to the north. Took a double on standard dipsys on setting 3 back 150 with blue dolphin warrior spoons. Nothing on mag dipsys, nothing on riggers, nothing on big paddels, 1 fish on a 200 copper just before we left with a dreamweaver captains choice plug with the black dots. Ended 3 for 3, at least all the kids got one but one of them was 21.5 lbs and it made a nice mess of both of the coppers on that side of the boat. Does anyone else think their 4 year old can drive a boat better than their wife???

Fished from 3:30 to 7:00 p.m. went 2 for 4. 1 king in 130 fow and 1 coho in 95 fow. All spoons out were something with some orange and UV. 2 hits on rigger down 35 and 2 hits on size 1 dipsys back 115 on 3 setting. No hits on 6 color, 150 copper or 100 copper. Our last bite was at 5:00 p.m. Was good to get out.

It takes us 2 hours to get from my driveway to setting lines and the same to get back. We spend another 6 to 8 hours actually fishing, our longest day was 13 hours. We don't take many days off so we try to make it count. Some of the trips we do are stupid early in the morning. Probably should have called the boat Red Bull.

Well thanks guys, I don't feel so bad now. That's the price we pay to fish. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

So far this year I've lost: 1 spoon caddy box full of warrior uv spoons (think it flew out of the boat) 1 mag dipsy with 11 inch paddle and fly 1 silver horde plug 2 moonshine spoons 1 warrior uv spoon Had a guy cut the hooks out of my net (he didn't get invited back) burned up a couple penn reels last but not least, most of what little sanity I had left:lol:

We took out with a friend who just had his daughter get married a couple weeks ago. Also had his son in law and daughter with us. We got our first skunk of the year...Saw some fish jumping and some fish caught in muskegon lake and a couple taken off the pier. I spent most of the morning getting grass off the lines. We made it out to 70 fow before we figured its time to turn around, not sure how big the waves were but a couple looked pretty big according to the graph. It was still a fun trip, got to spend the morning with friends, get called an a-hole by some idot on the pier(guess i should have threw the boat into reverse to not get too close to his spot IN the channel), and ride some waves. Best of luck to Mica his son in law, he is going over seas in a few weeks in the marines. Cant wait to get back to deep water

Some are worse than others.

Can we load all the poorly marked nets up before getting out the saws all? I'll bring the torches. What do you think we could get for the scrap ?

I don't if you would call it high hp but we troll with our 90 hp 2 stroke merc. It's on a 1890 lund pro v and does the job. Kinda a pain sometimes, no assist on the steering and sometimes we have to steer with our feet when fighting doubles and tripples but there are worse problems to have.

Put me in for $100.00

Figured out how to upload pics thanx to Nailer! Uncle Mark and Aunt Tracy's first salmon trip!

Yeah, best day we've had in a VERY long time but it was a really late morning bite for us. Speed didn't seem to matter to much or direction. Some day I'll learn how to upload pix.

3 coho, 1 laker, 9 steel, and the rest kings. 3 of the kings were hens and the rest males. All silver fish today. Everyone was really good to fish around also, nice change of pace. If you guys were out there, well done and very professional.

We run one or two paddels and the rest plugs, only spoons for us are moonshines in the dark and then they get changed to plugs at day light.

Fished normal people times, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Had my aunt and uncle from kansas out with us today and it started slow. Set up in 60 fow and went south west, 2 hours later we had our first fish. About the time most of the few boats left we went west and it got crazy. Landed 20 of the 24 we had on. Water was 120 to 180 fow. We had riggers down 80 and 100, mag dipsys back 150, regular dipsys back 140 and 180, coppers were the hottest in 225, 250, 275, and 300. Have to say thanks to the red boat that changed course to avoid us when we had our tripple on, it was a mess and these guys saved us from losing our gear. First class bunch of guys, hope we can do the same some time. There was a little yellow bird out there that hung around our boat and every time it came around we had a double or tripple on. Here's what worked... rigger down 100 with pearl fish scale paddel and oceana fly rigger down 80 with wonderbread glow silver horde cut plug mag dipsys on setting 1 back 150 with double glow silver horde cut plug size 1 dipsys back 180 and 140, same 2 plugs as above 225 copper with green splater silver horde cut plug 250 copper with glow silver horde with black dots (done with sharpie) 275 copper with another silver horde with gray ladder back 300 copper with same glow wonderbread spoon as above

A little reflective tape on those stupid sticks out there would go along way. We fish alot in the dark and there is always at least one oh &^%$ moment. We run two riggers and have side cutters by each one and a plan on what to do if/when we think we are going to be in them. Maybe someday someone with a really big boat will "accidently" hook them all and drag them all into a pile in 10 foot of water.

Not so good, landed one in the dark in 75 fow of water on a mongolan beef moonshine down 40 on a rigger. Went south when we saw the huge pack of boats forming in front of the channel. Landed 3 more after the sun came up on plugs in 85 to 110 fow 40, 45, and 75 down. Lost one on a dipsy. All smaller fish, 6 to 8 lbs fish, very silver though.

Thanks for the heads up.

Heading out of muskegon around midnight tonight, anyone else heading out in the dark?

Fished from 3:30 to 7:00 without a single bite. From 7:00 to 9:30 we landed 7 out of the 11 we had on. Had a few close calls with the nets in the dark to the south of the channel. Fished from 85 to 110 fow 60 to 90 down. Ace hi silver horde plugs and 11 inch pearl fish scale paddels worked best. Mag dipsys back 135 and 150 with the paddels and flys, standard dipsys back 180 and 200 with plugs, riggers down 60 to 90 with plugs.