Dr Hook

Only had one bat on my boat that was more than enough. Not afraid of the bats so much as the rabies they can carry.

No, inches is correct, it why I said sort of

Hey there, I think you passed us leaving Mac. Salmon were out a bit deeper out of Saugy. We found them, sort of, in about 55 fow. 15" king hit a dipsey 120 back with flasher fly. Took a big rip at about the same depth heading back in to Holland on a 7 color with orange spoon, but backing snapped when it buried the board. That was it, one for two.

Will probably start in that 100-150 foot range tomorrow and move out to 170+ for steel. Haven't been tearing em up in 170 but found enough to try again

Doh! just noticed date should be 9/23 not 9/26, will be out Saturday with hopefully a better report

No marks in 150 when we went through this morning

First day of fall big lake fishing ever for me, results weren't too bad. 4 for 4 with 2 lakers and 2 steelhead. Start was delayed a little bit waiting for a freighter to leave the channel. Guess he needed to be on the lake when the fish were biting as well. Set lines in 110 and began trolling NW. Water temps were again pretty consistent throughout the day and with buoy temps this morning. They were a little warmed than last weekend with 51 deg 80 feet down. First hit on NW troll, laker on dipsey 150 back with UV crush spindoctor and Last brunch fly in 130 fow. Swung around through same area and took a steelhead in 125 fow on 240 copper with Captain's Choice Lucky Charm plug. Trolled back and forth in 120's and 130's mainly on north-south troll for about 2 hours with no hits, so began to head deeper. Hit the 170 fow on west troll and both dipseys went. Same UV crush with Last brunch only it was 200 back. Other dipsey was 225 back with the wrapped laser lightsaver Spindoctor and Bushy Beaver fly. Fished that water for another 2 hours with nothing going to called it quits.

Motored up to Port Sheldon this morning to see if starting on a south troll would do me better than the north troll did yesterday. Nothing doing. Set up in 80 fow off stacks, trolled more or less due south. Hit 90 fow at 7 AM without any luck so set autopilot on 215 heading and ran out to 160. Zilch. Came back In one SE troll to 100 fow, nada. Flipped around to troll with the waves for awhile in 85-85 fow and pulled lines at 10 AM. Skunked. It's official now, more stinky woodland creatures in my cooler this season than a Disney movie.

We probably would have left as well if we hadn't gone north at the start. Just got about 10 min of rain and that was it.

Went north to set lines and had all lines in at 80 fow by 6 AM. Lots of marks but no bites on north troll but was trolling 1.9 on gps and 2.8 at the ball. Since trolling any slower would have put me in neutral decided to turn around and head south. Turn and traffic took us out to 100 fow but when got back to 80-90 fow marks had gone. Finished a south troll at 2.4 at the ball with no takers so made one more pass north with no fish before heading out deep. All flasher fly bite for me today in 145 fow, laker on dipsey 165 back, steelhead in 180 fow dipsey 180 back, and another laker 200 fow on rigger 100 down

Had lines set by 6 AM, first hit at 6:30, last at 8:30 except for the laker

For those of you chomping at the bit to get back out there after all this bumpy water. 3 for 5 today all in 85 - 95 fow. Two 11 lb kings and a throw back laker. Pretty much equal hits on north and south trolls. First hit came 1.6 at the ball just after setting up, others were 1.9 - 2.2 at the ball. Warmer water still seemed to be set up toward Holland. Probe down 75 feet had 55 deg and was pretty consistent with buoy. Trolling south in that 85-95 fow range temp on probe jumped to 63 deg and eventually came back down trolling north. Moved out to 105 - 110 fow and dropped rigger to 90 and probe had 46 deg, jumped to 50 trolling south then back down again coming back north. Couldn't really get a fix on where it changed but didn't really get anything going that far south. First hit 300 copper with blue spatterback plug on north troll. Coming back south 150 copper with Dreamweaver Captain's Choice Black Lightning plug and rigger 75 down with wrapped laser lightsaver spindoctor and Bushy Beaver fly went. Lost the rigger hit but 11 lb king came in on the 150. Back on north troll braid dipsey 150 back on 3 with Proctologist fly and white/glow/green spindoctor fired but was gone after rod jumped twice. Last one was throwback laker on the Proctologist rigger 90 down pulling lines.

Was looking forward to this but unfortunately its a no go for me.

Had to put a new autopilot on my 28' after the old one (10 year old Sportpilot) puked out over the winter. Can't say enough good things about the Raymarine EV 200. Holds course in waves I wouldn't have fished before even though the boat could've handled them easily. Money well spent.

To each his own. After a 3 for 4 day yesterday with Laker, King and Steelie, ran into Dave Ash from Killin It at the cleaning station. After a bit of discussion about his successful no spoon program that day, I decided to try his plug heavy presentation this morning. Set up in 80 feet off Tunnel Park with 5 plugs out and one flasher fly on dipsey, and began a north troll. Had 2 quick hits about 30 min apart on........ the flasher fly, Big Weenie Last Brunch with UV crush/crush spindoctor back 135 in 85 and 90 feet of water. After 2.5 hours with no action, eventually began changing out plugs for flasher flies and took one more king in 105 fow on blue/chrome spindoctor with blue bubble fly. Finished the day with only one plug out and 5 flasher fly combos out. To be fair, I might have had better results with the plugs if I had been able to run more than six lines. But at least I caught just as many fish as the day before with less lines and the biggest king of the season so far. Next time out think I'll start flasher fly heavy and change out to plugs.

Set up in those marks in 50-60 as well but couldn't get em to go either. By the time I got out to the 80-100 range, bite was over, managed 3 for 4. King at 105. Took laker at 120 and steelie at 140 probably because no one else fishing out there. Everything came on S troll. Can't tell you what speed due to the bouncing

FWIW The lake started to settle down after 9. Went from 2.5 with forecast 1-2 down to 1.5.

All in all not a bad day of fishing after a big blow with water turning over and having to pull lines early for barfy crew. Finished 4 for 5 in only 2 1/2 hours of fishing with small laker, 2 steelies and a chunky coho. Thought about setting up in close but didn't see any marks in 50 fow so went out to 80 feet and set lines just north of channel. In fact didn't see many marks all day. Began SW troll and had first hit at 117 fow on rigger 45 down with Monsoon spoon. Took 2 more hits in close succession as we trolled out to 120 fow. Lake trout on braid dipsey 100 back with UV Crush spindoctor and Big Weenie Last Brunch. Coho on 150 copper with RV blue flounder pounder. Continued south but didn't take any more so turned in and started north troll in 90 fow. Took a pair of steelhead trolling into the waves in 110 fow on 5 color with Jerry Lee spoon and 7 color with magnum green/chrome/yellow spoon with Glow tape. Heard reports on radio of kings in 90 fow on dipsey 200 back south of channel and heard drag screaming on the Black Pearl in the channel as we came back in. Actually went out this morning, Aug 12, not Aug 11.