BenLubbs

I've been running the flies on and off this year but the fly bite seems like its finally starting to pick up so they should be getting more water time now So far I've caught two fish on them, both lakers. One came a few weeks ago on Striper behind a 8" blue/chrome spin doctor. The other came this past weekend on It-l-do behind an 8" Frog spin doctor. My impressions: A very well built fly that should stand up to lots of fish. Also, Great hooks! Both fish had all three points buried in their mouths, no getting of Will update as I get out more this summer and fall.

I never targeted lakers once this weekend and still pulled in 8. That being said, we did catch a hog Saturday night after dark while pulling lines. He took a Mag UofM Frog Silver Streak dragging bottom on a rigger (I wasn't purposely dragging bottom, just was busy pulling the other lines )

Sounds like an awesome trip!

My 7 color setup had 200 yards of 30lb powerpro and then however much 40lb mono i needed to fill it the rest of the way. To me it looks that you will want some more backer just to fill the spool.

So I was fortunate enough to be able to fish three times this weekend. Friday night I headed out with a group of friends from school and also one friend's brother who was visiting from Hawaii. Got on the water about 6:30. Ran out to 80 just south of the peirs. I got one rod in the water and turned to find the freeslider and the rod goes. I hand the rod off and we landed our first fish of the night That was a king (7-8 lb) on a mag glow mixed veggie (I think its a silver streak, but not sure) down 60 on the rigger. Don't remember exactly what happened after that but we ended up 6 for 7ish with 3 lakers and 3 kings, the biggest at 12 lb. Fish came on mini Glow Ludington Melon S.S. free slider, glow yellow fin free slider, and 11" white crush glow/fishscale paddle and mirage fly w/ blue bead (Thanks Nailer ). After the first fish the rest came in ~127 FOW. Saturday morning I headed out with two of my younger brothers and Dave Ash. I wanted to beat the tournament rush so we were fishing by 4:45. We did a little probing in the cold water around the peirs but couldn't get anything going. Ran out to 80 FOW and set lines again. Didn't get a hit till after sunrise. We got most of our hits in 82-84 FOW. Ended 5 for 13ish with a small laker returned to the water. Got fish on Glow Ludington, Mod Blue Veggie UV BLL, Yellow Frog BLL, and the big paddle, We had something BIG on the 350 copper with a Patriot BLL but couldn't turn it, whatever it was. Ended up fighting it for 10 min and then the hooks came loose. Called it a day just in time not to be fishing in the rain. I will say that I'm glad we beat the tournament boats out because it was scary enough to see 20 boats running strait at my side through the haze Saturday Evening I headed out with three of my friends from high school. Ran out to the same place I was fishing friday. Didn't mark any fish or get any hits and started heading south. Caught a couple sub-legal lakers south of the sliders, one on the Mag glow mixed veggie, the other on a Frog spinny with Yogurt It-l-do fly. Started heading out and hooked into a fish in 90 FOW on the glow yellow fin free slider on the rigger 65 down. Landed that fish and it was a 8-10 lb king. The next fish came on the mag mixed veggie free slider on the rigger 55 down and was a 3-4 lb king. The next fish was came on the 11" paddle as it was going out on the wire diver, I don't know where it was at when it started going. I grabbed the rod and the counter was reading 400 ft before the fish stopped running. A half a minute after we got that fish on, the rigger with the mag mixed veggie and glow ludington goes. The fish was a small king but got off when he ran into the high diver. Finally slowed the boat down to 1.6 so I could gain on the fish. When we finally got him in the boat I was screaming. It was a HUGE king, I was saying 25lb. After weighing it at the fillet station (I forgot the scale in the truck) it turned out to be 23 lb 5 oz Did I mention that it was my birthday today , can you say best present ever. The fish it by far the biggest I've ever caught and the biggest for the boat. Ended the night with a Hog laker that came while we were pulling lines on a U of M Frog S.S. draggin' bottom in 60 FOW. Ended the night 6 for 7. SOG for the weekend was from 2.8 to 3.2

Awesome fish Jimmy, glad the boat is back in running order

For my short cores I have Okuma Classic XPS (???) in the 45 series. They work fine for as much as I use them. As far as running a core down the center, I did last weekend when I forgot one of my sets of boards and I wanted to run an additional long line but I wouldn't recommend running anything too long because you know if I get a fish on another rod that core is coming in hot so that we don't get it tangled with another fish.

1) The best launch on the north side of the lake is the DNR launch on Ottawa Beach Road between Anchorage and Yacht Basin Marinas. 2) There is no real structure to speak of (at least that I'm aware of). Places to start looking for fish are in 80'-110' in front of "the sliders" south of Holland. The sliders are dunes with no trees on their face so you can see white sand. The other place to look is in the same depth of water in front of Tunnel Park. Tunnel park is north of the channel and is harder to spot. It's about 2 miles north I would say (someone else want to chime in?) There's quite a few people on here that fish out of Holland and post reports. I'll be out this weekend and will have reports up.

JP slammers are carried by VanWieren Hardware on Ottawa Beach Road on the way to the boat launch in Holland or talk to Jimbobber on here (one of the owners). Big Lake Lures are available at Powderhorn Guns on the corner of Ottawa Beach Road and River or on their website or you could contact Luremaker (Larry) on here.

5 color leadcore with mod blue veggie UV Big Lake Lures spoon has caught the majority of my nice size steel this year.

Hey guys, just wondering if you ever got the issue resolved. Mine does the same thing currently. If the lake is perfectly calm and there is no wind it will steer the boat fine. As soon as there is any breeze, away she goes, back and forth. Mine has the rudder position sensor and compass. I plan on emptying out the entire front of the boat this weekend before I go to make sure there is no magnetic metals anywhere near the compass. The main cause of the problem that I see is that it starts correcting but then doesn't stop once the boat starts turning, it just goes until it reaches its heading and then starts turning the wheel the other way, after its past the right heading. Could this mean my rudder sensor is not working? It seems like it should only turn a little bit if the boat is only off a little bit.

I thought it looked like a winning box. Good job again

Kevin, the boat is looking great. Those downriggers cleaned up really nice, and I like the color matched booms

Wish I could help you out. We've done that more than once in Hamilin. There's some damn shallow bars in there where you wouldn't expect them.

On my boat I currently run 3,5,7, and 10 colors of lead and a 300' copper (not sure what size, whatever the standard is that Lakeshore Outfitters in Saugy sells). I would defiantly recommend adding a 5 color, as mine has taken quite a few of the fish this year and it will work year round (mine has been catching feisty steelhead lately). Other than that, I would add another Copper set up, maybe a 250 or 350? I don't really know, trying to decide myself what my next copper should be. You can put together a budget 5 color leadcore combo for ~ $100 or you can spend more that that on the reel, it really depends on what you are looking for. I have some cheaper combos and I like them but I only use them 1-2 times a week.

That it was. Javier had the sentiment that he was going to miss nights like that one when he goes back to Mexico in September.

Good job Mark. How many boats were in the tourny?

68 is the channel. There was very little chatter after 8:00 saturday, not sure why, maybe because no one was really into a lot of fish.

Great Day Love the brown too.

Look at the spoon right below the eye and it looks like there are letters there. I think I see a DW for dream weaver but looked on their site and didn't see it (but they do have some spoons with no pictures). Those letters will tell you the manufacturer and then you can check out what the name of the spoon is

Nice fish!!

Something I forgot to mention, ran the probe down to the bottom. The thermocline was from 30-35 ft down where the temps when from 69 to 58 degrees. From 50 to the bottom the temp was a steady 43 degrees. All of my non-green came right at the thermocline.

Lakers are defiantly something to target if you want to catch fish and arn't too much of a fish snob The fishing yesterday was tough, from the people I've talked to nobody was doing much. We did manage 5 in the morning and 6 at night in 85 to 90 FOW. Make sure you are fishing stuff right above the thermocline and right below it because that's where all of my non-lakers came from last night. In Holland it was down 30-35ft. If you don't have probe just ask on the radio and I'm sure someone will tell you where it is. Good luck.

Great Job Josh! Out of curiosity, what leader length are you running your flies at? I haven't caught anything on a f/f setup in two weeks.

Quick one tonight. Didn't get out as early as I wanted to, we made it to the water by 6:45. Went out with my friends Jason and Javier. Set up in 80 FOW just south of the piers heading south south west. Made it out to 100 and then turned her back in. Started hitting fish in front of the sliders in 85 FOW. After that it was pretty consistent action till we pulled lines at 10:30. Ended 6 for 7 Mtn. Dew Stinger Rig (Grease Trap) with fire tiger spin-n-glo on the rigger bouncing bottom - 6 lb laker release unharmed White/fishscale tin can and fire tiger spin-n-glo on low diver on bottom - 6 lb laker kept UV Mod Blue Veggie Big Lake Lure on 7 color - 9 lb steelie Glow Bloody Nose DW on 5 color after dark - 10 lb king SOG was 2.4-2.6 MPH Hot Rod: DW Glow mini yellow fin free slider on rod with U of M Frog S.S. on the rigger 60 down. Slider took all hits. 10 and 2 lb kings and another hit. This was the hot setup last week for me too.