Ravbowhunter

We went 2-3 on Sunday. Got a 5-6# coho in 85 fow on wire diver with a pearl ladder back jplug. As soon as I got it back in the water it went again but broke us off. I re-tie the leader and got it back in the water and it went again this time it was a 20# king. That was it for the day. We did have a knock off on the swr down 45 with a moonshine bloody nose plug but, for the most part, from 8;00am until 11:30 we were just washing lures. Lots of marks but lockjaw I guess. Worked the channel all the way out to 100 fow and had marks everywhere. Friday 8/30: 5-6 with an 8# coho, 10 and 20# kings and a couple steelhead. Same water and program as Sunday but the fish mostly came one riggers. Thursday 8/29: 1-1. Fish 9:30-11:45am and picked up a 19 pond king in 105 fow with a 300 cu and standard size uv blue dolphin.

Fished tonight. Set lines in the arms and trolled out to 140 and back into 100. Had 5 or 6 knock offs on the way out but no one home. We had to work out due to fog. We marked some fish in tight but didnt want to play bumper boats. Picked up a triple in 100 fow by the nets in the 9s right at dark. Landed two which turned out to be 22 and 12 pound kings. The 22 pounder came on a 2 color with a glow icicle. Got the board almost to the boat then the fish decided to head for Milwaukee and ran all the way out to 580 on the counter before we got her turned again! Also landed a 12 pounder on a 150 copper and a moonshine flounder pounder and the 3rd fish, which was a screamer came unbuttoned on a rigger down 30 with a moonshine happy meal. Good luck and please post your results.

Set lines at around 7:30 in 85 fow and trolled out to 120 taking a big rip in 112 fow on the wire diver back 125 with a paddle/fly. Stayed hooked up for about 30 seconds before coming unbuttoned. On the way back in, the full core started going in about 90 fow with a UV yellow tuxedo. That fish turned out to be a 12 pound king. Pulled lines around 9:30. Didn't have any meat, which is what took my big fish this weekend and Shoreline Service Bait on Lakeshore Dr. right next to Great Lakes Marina closes at 5:30:mad: Seriously...who closes a bait shop at 5:30?!?!?! Tons of boats out and most the chatter I heard was about lots of bait/marks but no takers, which is what we observed. I felt fortunate to get bit twice in less than two hours and had a great time out with my wife on a gorgeous evening. There was some kind of emergency as a coast guard boat ripped past us and a helicopter followed shortly after the boat. We saw some smoke on the horizon but did not hear anything over the radio. I hope everyone is ok.

The last four fish I have boated have been 10, 12, 13, & 22 pound kings (out of Muskegon).

Set lines just before 6:00 am in 70 fow and started working west with the pack. Picked up a 13# mature female king on a full core with a uv yellow tuxedo spoon in 110 fow. Kept pushing out west and in about 130 fow we picked up a 10# male king on a uv blue veggies down 40 on the rigger. That same set took a rip with no one home too. Then all hell broke lose. Shortly after putting the 10#er in the box a rigger that was down 75 with meat went off and started screaming. I handed the rod to a rookie and the fish proceeded to get into my copper and leadcore on the starboard side of the boat. While I was untangling that mess the 300 cu rigged with meat on the port side starts going. I was fishing with three rookies, a guy on his second trip and no mate! I tell one of the guys to grab the copper that is screaming out and he picks up the leadcore, lol. By the time he finally gets the rod, the fish has now buried my church tx-44 and is half way to Milwaukee. At the same time I finally get the other guy out of my starboard long lines, then the one on the copper comes unbuttoned. After clearing that line, the fish that stayed on (somehow) gets into the wire diver on the port side of the boat...AHHHHHH! Somehow, by the grace of god we were able to put the king in the bottom of my net. It was a 22 pound male and the guys on the boat couldn't believe how big t was. They had thought the 13# female we boated was a giant. http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/8/0/0/image_444889.jpg' alt='image_444889.jpg'> The rest of the morning was SLOW. We took a huge rip on a wire diver back 200 with meat in 175 fow but the fish broke off the 20# leader that I had tied up that morning! Ended the day 3-6 which is about what most people were doing based on the radio. One guy came over the radio claiming to have caught a 35#er so hopefully someone can confirm that! The guys had a great time and I hope I have hooked them on big-lake fishing.

Nice report, thanks! I put a J-plug hook into the pad of my middle finger last year from a thrashing king. Went in just above the last knuckle and came out the tip. I invested in a billy club this year...actually I broke a shovel handle this spring and cut it down to billy club size and it works perfectly. I measured the 25 pounder that we boated on Sunday and it was 34 inches. So I would say that your fish is at least upper 20's....NICE!

My brother took my boat out despite the bumpy conditions. Set lines in 63 fow and worked out to 100. Finished 3-5 with a few other hits but no one home. Big fish was a 20# king. The others were smaller, immature kings. Had two hook ups on a wire diver with a blue paddle and blue fly. SWR took one of the small kings. Sorry, I don't know any other details as I wasn't there.

I am not calling you a liar, but I ran south out of Muskegon on Sunday and I was getting my hits around 2.3 at the ball. We picked up a screamer, which turned out to be a 25 pounder and when she almost spooled us, I bumped the boat back to 2.0 and another rigger went off, which turned out to be a 23 pounder. I normally troll faster than most, between 2.7 and 2.9 but they liked it painfully slow for me on Sunday.

Ha, thanks! I have only reeled one fish in on my boat all year. I love helping to put people on big fish. To see a grown man literally jumping up and down over a fish is a pretty special thing.

Fished a little South Sunday morning. Started setting lines at about 5:50 in 90fow and marked a bunch of bait. Had our first hook up around six on a rigger with a green spinny and green fly but lost him a few minutes into the fight. Hooked up again at 6:14 and this one stuck. That fish came on another rigger down 50 in 95 fow on a white paddle/oceana fly combo. The fight yielded what was at that time the biggest fish ever boated on the Angler-at-Law, a 20# king. We kept working SW and at 6:40 all hell broke loose. First, the SWR started screaming at us. It was down 65 with two colors and a mag moonshine flounder pounder (except it was orange not green so I don't know what it is really called). That fish ran us out to 486 on the line counter before we turned her. About 10 minutes into that fight, the same rigger that brought the 20#er went off again. That one was a screamer too. So, we had a double with two big fish. After about 30 minutes, we boated the second fish that hooked up but the SWR was still screaming. Another 5 minutes of battle and we finally boated the second fish. We had successfully landed a 48-pound double (25# and 23# kings). The rest of the morning was rather pedestrian but we did pick up another 12 pound king and a 2 pounder. All our hits came on riggers with the exception of the 2 pound fish which we got on a full core and we took a rip on the 300 cu but never even got the board to the boat before he came unbuttoned. All in all, a fantastic day with the most fun hour of fishing I have ever experienced and all I did was net fish! I boated the three biggest fish I have ever caught...what a day! The 25 pounder: The box:

My brother went out this morning and worked 50-150 fow. Ended 4-5 with one nice upper teens king, two smaller kings and a coho. Rigger down 35 with a stingray size bloody nose took the big king, 1/2 core, 100 copper, and wire diver back 40 all got bit. Most action was in 90 fow. Good luck and please post results.

we had our one hook up in that water but I plowed back into the pier heads because of all the marks. I guess I should have stayed our there a bit.

We hit the pier heads at about 6:45 pm and the lake was a little bumpy, 2-3 footers with a stiff NW wind still blowing in. The surface water was 53 degrees and we marked a little bait so we dropped lines in the mud and pointed the boat NW into the waves. The water was 49 degrees 10 feet down and 46 degrees 20 feet down so we set all of our lines in the top 20 feet. As we got out deeper, I dropped some wire divers down further. Pushed out to 95 fow and the graph was dead so we headed back East toward the pier heads. By the time we made it back it tight (just before 9) the graph was going crazy with bait balls and fish stacked in the top 25 feet of the water column. Alewives were jumping out of the way of the boat! We only had one confirmed hit all night and that came in 60 fow on a rigger down 20. It was a 3-4# steelhead that spit the hook right after coming to the surface. Pulled lines right around 10pm. I don't know if the fish had lockjaw from the high pressure/cold front, if they were too busy gorging on the abundance of ales, or what but they were definitely there, just not willing to bite. I ran spoons of all sizes, UV, moonshines, regulars, flies on paddles, flies on spin drs, and various plugs. Ran braid and wire dipseys, lead core, and riggers. Varied speed at the ball from 2.0-3.0--NOTHING! Talk about frustrating, it's one thing when you can't find the fish and an entirely different thing when you can't get bit! There were 3-4 boats doing the same thing as me and I didn't see any nets. Saw some boats out in the 100 fow range, maybe they found some willing fish out there. Hoping that I fare a little better this weekend.

how big was the flathead?

Had to fit it into the window that the babysitter (grandma) provided!

Went out for a quick trip with my wife Sunday afternoon. Set lines shortly after 4:00pm in 90 fow and worked nw. Had a rip in 130 fow on the high diver that was set on 3 and 150 back with a green spin dr and a pickle sunshine fly but lost the fish abt half way to the boat. We marked a lot of fish 60 down between 130-160 fow so I turned south for a bit without a bump before turning back east. Picked up a 3# steel head in 150 fow on a wire dive back 100 with a white spin dr and green fly. Continued the east troll until I started pulling lines in 130 fow at 6:00 when the rigger went off. Picked up a 10# king on a stingray sized bloody nose down 50 on the rigger. Beautiful night on the water, marked a ton of fish and, most importantly, my wife had a great time.

?!?!?!?!?! What prevents the Coast Guard from just removing them?

what is taking so long to get these moved? It just seems like the problem has been around for months and that it should be able to be fixed in a day. I guess I am at a loss as to what is taking so long?!

Heard a report this weekend that there are some unmarked nets in 130 fow about a mile South of Duck Lake--watch out!

Thanks...honestly, I debate about my reports every time I write them because I get so sick of people getting on here and reading but never reporting! However, I feel like karma always finds its way around so I try to be as helpful to everyone on here because someone always seems to help me out when I have questions.

I fished the Tri-Port Challenge for the first time this weekend and also fished the Ladies/Children's tourney on Friday. 07/12/13: I chose to start South of Muskegon just outside of the nets at 43'10 in 110 fow and put a few laker set ups right on bottom...that did nothing so we just kept trolling South and ended the day down around Grand Haven. We worked 90-175 fow and picked up our only fish in about 160 fow, which was a 7# steelhead. We lost one other fish in that same water. Can't remember what we got the steel on, but the fish we lost was on a 250' copper with a stingray sized blue dolphin. The fleas were terrible! 07/14/13: Not wanting to run all the way to Pentwater again, and seeing that the #2 amateur boat (which weighed in an 80# box on day one) set up in 85 fow basically straight out of Muskegon, we follow suit. We worked WNW out to 120 fow when we popped our first fish, a 16.7# king on a paddle/Oceana UV fly combo 70' down on the rigger. We stayed in that water for a minute trying to find more kings but didn't have any takers so we worked further West. We found some Coho in 150-180 fow and boxed two 4.5#ers and an 8#er. Two of them came on paddle/fly combos on the riggers and one came on a 250 copper with a bloody nose spoon. After boating our fourth fish at 10:15, we were feeling pretty good and were on a mission to find some kings. We didn't take a bump for over 2.5 hours. Ultimately, we decided to work out deep (got out to as far as 280) in search of some steel to fill our box, and we found some in 230 fow. We had a fire drill with three rods going within five minutes of each other and we only managed to land one of the fish . They were putting on a show with one of them (ironically, the one we landed) jumping about 3' out of the water. We landed a 7#er and lost one about the same size right at the net and one that was a little smaller at the boat as well. Had one other knock off in that water before we had to pull lines. All the steel hit riggers down 50 with white spoons or paddle/fly combos. Put together a respectable 40.40# box on day two, which was good enough for us to finish in 9th place overall in the amateur division. Fleas were worse than up North but nothing like GH. We were very happy with the results considering that I hadn't been salmon fishing since May. There were a lot of big fish caught. The announcer at the awards ceremony said that there were over a dozen kings weighed in over 20#s. The big fish of the tournament was 25.3#s and I watched the #2 fish get weighed in (24.8#s). The #3 fish was 23#+ as well! All the fish we caught were full of bait and nice and fat. I am really looking forward to this hot weather setting up the lake for some huge king action!

Because of work, weather, and kids, I have only been out for one real trip so far this year and that was in May, but I am planning on taking my wife out for a few hours tomorrow evening before picking up the kids and in-laws at dusk and watching the fireworks from the boat. I would appreciate any help on where to start and what to use. I know that the fishing has been tough but any help would be appreciated....I am really trying to get my wife "hooked" on fishing the big lake. PMs are welcome. Thanks in advance!

Made my first real trip out other than a couple of one-hour shakedown trips. Set lines at about 6:05 in 115 fow about half way between Muskegon and GH. Continued on a West troll until we got our full spread out then turned SW out to 190fow. Turned North and trolled a zig-zag NE to NW between 135 and 175 all the way back to Muskegon. Picked up one 2-3# Coho and one 5-6# king. Coho came on a braid diver set on 3 back 100' with a spoon (can't recall which one) over 155 fow. I can't say exactly when we picked up the king because I think we drug him around on our lead core for a couple of hours but we picked him up on a full core with a UV watermelon spoon. Had two downriggers release 65 down with a caramel dolphin spoon but they were just slap hits and had the wire on one of my brand new wire diver set ups snap immediately after a hit without any drag going out (which was set light enough that it would click occasionally just from the tension while trolling) so I have no clue what happened there. The break off was not at the knot either as my counter still read 65 when I got the end of the wire to the boat...maybe a weak spot in the wire? My radio wasn't working so I'm sorry if I was clogging up channel 68 with radio checks but I couldn't hear anything! I hoping that I wasn't the only one struggling to find fish on Monday?

I saw about 200 fishing boats between Muskegon and grand haven when my wife and I went for a cruise...anyone willing to give a report?