SeaCatMich

Sorry for the delayed post. No access to the GLF site via web or Android app via my Verizon connection, so I couldn't post. Got to Thompsaon Marina on Sunday in the late afternoon and got the tent setup. Just in time to deal with rain and wind overnight. That meant that Monday was a bust for fishing too. First 4 days and have only been on the water twice due to big waves. We went 7 for 10 on Tuesday and 1 for 3 on Wednesday. The other days have been 4-6' waves Main problem when on the water has been the water temps. 70-72* on the surface but still 65* down 80'. At 95' it does get to 54* and then it is 43* at 105 to 115' down. Not a lot of fish being marked but some with most in the 90+ area and not real active. Tuesday and Wednesday Dee and Jim joined me in Ludington. We started on the 80' water off the bath house and worked to the Big Sable light house on the 120-140 drop off. Some good signs on the graph but quite a bit of boat traffic and we had to work for the fish. Our hits came from 85' to 115' down over 130 to 180 FOW. Best lures were #4 Silver Horde purple squiggle back plug on rigger (85', 100', 105') and 300 copper (3 for 4) and BW UV meat rig off mag Dipsy down 200# on 1 (3 for 4). Fish were 1 steelhead (7#) and 7 kings (7, 9, 12, 15, 16, 16, and 21#). Here are some pics taken with Dee's camera -- click a pic to see the full size version FisherDee with the 21# King -- caught on wire diver meat rig -- GREAT fight. Jim w/ 16# King Up close of the business end of a King Tuesday's catch and crew (Jim, Dee, Ryan) FisherDee with another nice King I got to catch the little ones Dee with the only fish of day 2 A 34' Pursuit also put itself on top of the north breakwall on 9/2 and Dee got a couple of pictures of it. Big patch on the starboard bow.

After 3 blow days finally got back on the lake on Sunday and Monday. I spent the week camping at Thompson Marina & Campground and was really ready to get back on the water after worrying that my tent was going to get blown away with me and the dog in it. Sunday was very nice with 1-2' seas. Monday started out nice with 1' waves but increased to 3 & 4' after noon. Fished both days in the 100 to 150 FOW area off of Ludington State Park. Sunday had me and my regular buddies Tom and Tim out on the CATtitude Adjustment. Thermocline was pretty deep with 54* down 90 to 95' and 43* at 100 to 110' down. Aside from a couple hits on 300 copper, all fish were 85' or deeper. Went 7 for 10, 6 kings and 1 steelhead. Kings were 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, and 21 pounds and the steelhead was around 7#. Being the nice host that I am, Tom and Tim got to fight the three bigger Kings and the Steelhead :smile: What worked: * Ace High purple and blue squiggle back plugs on 300 copper (1 for 2 steelhead), riggers - 95'. 99', 95' rigger (2 for 2 kings) * Moonshine RV Wonderbread mag size spoon on 300 copper (1 for 1), fixed slider 10' above 105' rigger (0 for 1 king), 105' rigger (2 for 2 king) * UV BW meat rig w/ DW cut bait on Mag Diver out 200' set on 1 (1 for 2 king) The 1 king on the moonshine slider managed to get into a wire diver and after some over/under rod mechanics got that undone it headed for the 300 copper board. Unfortunately the Ace high main plug got right on the board and broke the copper. After some boat maneuvering we got to the board and the fish was still on but got off as the boat got close. Didn't loose any tackle other than 25' of copper. Had to switch to a leadcore. Tim w/ 21# King Tom w/ Steelhead Monday it was a solo day. Got a little bit of a late start with lines in around 7:30. Buoy was right and waves were from the south at 1.5' to 2' -- very fishable. Thermocline had moved up to the 65-75' range for the 54* to 43* temps. By noon had 3 hits (all on Ace Highs off riggers) with none to the net. At noon the waves started to grow making trolling north the only viable direction in the 3' seas. Fish also started to feed though and went 8 for 10 (3 smaller kings released) in the next 3 hours for a 8 for 13 final count -- all Kings. Kept 2 ~12#, 1 18#, and 2 23# fish. Pretty much the same lures as Sunday and I pretty much lost track of the details. * Ace High blue and green squiggle back plugs at 65', 70', and 75' rigger had (~8 hits) * RV Moonshine on 300 copper (1 for 2) and fixed slider 10' above rigger ball (~3-4 hits) Ran a wire diver for a while but with hits coming off the riggers switched to two riggers and one 300 copper. Ran a flasher/fly on one of the riggers for a while but pulled it with as well as the Ace High and RVs were doing. During the noon to 3 pm timeframe the waves had built to solid 3' with lots of 4s and the occasional 5'er. I decided to head in as I had caught plenty and didn't have another pull/run in me for one more trolling pass. Trolling intp those waves solo and trying to fight fish solo isn't much fun. Sorry no pics from Monday -- my cell battery was dead from searching for signal. NOAA sure had Monday wrong. It was supposed to be 1-2' seas all day. 2' was forecast for Tuesday too but was 1' or less when I drove by on my way out of town. Oh well, had to go home sooner or later. I'm already looking forward to coming back to Ludington. Glad that I found out that Thompson Marina has camping right next to the boat slips. Not fancy but a great place for a salmon fishing vacation of a few days.

Sorry, but I misread the MiDNR page about the summer run steelhead (https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_53405-217036--,00.html). Michigan has stopped rearing summer run fish, but continues to plant them -- see the last paragraph in the link. The fish are all being raised in Indiana hatcheries.

Ray's Mini Mart normally has it. 2210 Holton Rd, Muskegon, MI 49445 (231) 744-7436 They open.at 6 am M-Sat, 7 am Sundays.

They stay in the river until they spawn. The Skamania hatchery is actually in Washington. it was there that the summer run strain was developed. Indiana first started planting them in the St. Joe in 1971. They now raise them in the Bodine hatchery and plant ~240,000 in the St. Joe annually . Michigan used to plant them in many other rivers (especially the Big Manistee) but discontinued plants in the late '90s due to concerns they would mix with the traditional winter/spring run strain of steelhead. While there may be some summer run steelhead in Michigan rivers, they are not planted by the DNR. There are also rivers that get early (summer) runs of Chinook salmon but the DNR does not plant a summer run variety. It is natural selection in play.

About half of the steelhead caught in my last two trips out of Holland have had the very light colored flesh. Didn't see anything different about them until at the cleaning table. Tastes fine too. Have seen color variations in almost all species over the years. Mostly caused by water temps and what they are feeding on. Most of the steelhead caught in those trips were taken deeper (70' and deeper) than usual... maybe that is a factor too.

Have never fished that way, but I can't really imagine it being very much fun... and at least for me that's why I go fishing. Heck, I know I'd catch more walleye if I trolled for them, but the fun of fishing to me is the fight or the strike and you don't get either when you troll for walleye. So I cast for them. If I want it easy I'll just go to the Meijer "fresh" fish counter.

On a big fish my main goal is to wear them out. That means making them run against a drag and not letting them rest by always being ready to pump up and reel back down. NO SLACK in the line! The drag is usually tightened a little after the initial run. To keep the slack out I coach those on my boat to lift the rod to the 12 o'clock high position and reel down to no lower than 10:30 (45*). Any lower and you unload the rod and risk slack in the line. The other thing that I have to break of many who don't fish the big lake a lot is to reel whenever they feel a little slack. Often this is the fish running at the boat but the angler thinks the fish is gone. You will hear me screaming "REEL, REEL, REEL". I steer to keep them centered out the rear of the boat away from the board rods and 100'+ off the boat until they are pretty much done with the big runs. To shorten up the amount of line between me and the fish, and if boat traffic permits, I'll start a slow turn -- still keeping the fish pretty much strait off the stern. Getting other lines out of the road depends on what is happening on each fish. * For board rods it is either get them in and out of the road OR let them further out to make a wider landing strip. * For divers, I almost always let them out further -- high/outside ones first. This moves them down and away from where I want to fight the big one. * For riggers they are usually not a problem but if I have any higher than 40' then it is either put them deeper or pull them. In deep water I'm more inclined to put them deeper. Main thing is to get the lures away from the fighting area and most fish will come up and not go down much once they are close enough to the boat for riggers to be an issue. Wjhen the fish is worn out and we start bringing it near the boat expect at least one or two more relatively short runs. At that point attention moves to maneuvering the boat to keep the fish out of the other lines (riggers & divers) plus being on the throttle to keep it out ~20' until it can be controlled or is spent and ready to net. Typically my stern riggers have the rods in the inside rod holders when trolling. At some time before bringing the fish in for netting, I move the rods to the outside Some fish never get to the "spent" category, but you don't want to net one with a lot of energy left. Back when I had a boats center engines (outboards or I/O) and had to net off a corner, the stern rigger on that corner was usually pulled to make room to net a big fish.

Very nice post with useful information. Thanks.

I believe that Chip lost access to his manufacturing facilities to make them. He had the company up for sale a couple of years back but I don't think anyone bought it. He taught industrial ed in a high school, but has retired.

1. In your opinion, what is the best brand? And do I need to buy the flasher, fly, and meat head combo as seen on John King's website, rather than using my own flasher or spin doctor? Initially I tried some other brands of meat heads, but then tried the Big Weenie heads and have used them very successfully for 4 seasons. Maybe others work just as well but the shape of the BW heads seem to work well with very little tuning of the meat inserted. As for the flasher, I have used the matched setups and also mixed and matched with success both ways. I do try to keep UV heads and flashers together but otherwise typical color pairings work with a white flasher/paddle kind of being a good base. I'm also a big fan of the "black mamba" rig and its variants. I do prefer the bigger flashers/paddles -- 10"+ with meat. 2. Where or what is the best place to buy Herron strips? Kind of depends on where you are located. At least on the Michigan shore almost all of the tackle shops now have meat. I have seen Earie Dearie and Dream Weaver brands and both work. 3. Can these be used in combination with spoons, flasher flies, and plugs? Because I heard these require a different speed. Yes. While I have seen a certain seller of the meat rigs advocates running just a couple of meat rigs, I have found that I will have up to half of my lines with meat and the rest with spoons, plugs and flasher/fly. Sometimes the meat isn't working but most often get fish on a variety of lures and often have doubles and triples on the variety of lures. Most of the time my wire diver(s) have flashers/meat and then a copper and a rigger. Depending on what's working I then change lures to what is getting hits with more or less meat in the spread. Most of the time I run 2.5 mph on my X4 +/- .2 mph

Tuna Tom can fix the drags on the Daiwas and significantly upgrade the Madga Pro and Penns for around $15 each. Tuna Tom is in Ludington and the web site is: http://www.tunasreeltroubles.com/ Give Tom (or probably Paulie) a call at (231) 907-0052 and see what kind of turn around they can do. I don't usually send mine in the summer, but 2 or 3 day turnaround is possible if they are not overwhelmed with rush jobs.

The Daiwa SG reels are great -- I have many that are 15 years old and aside from keeping them clean with new line, have not needed any repairs. The new Daiwa Accudepth Plus-B are a step down but now have bearings and are nice for the money. They come in a variety of sizes too. Convectors have a good reputation but I just don't like the feel of them. What are your old reels? If it is just the drags causing issues, putting in new drag washers is pretty easy to do yourself or get them done by a place like Tuna Toms. Can make old reels feel like new.

Sounds like a kink and those can be hard to see. Fortunately kinks don't happen nearly as much as way back when I started using riggers as a kid. Have not had a kink in probably 20 years as the cable has definitely become more forgiving. I have only replaced my rigger cables one time -- 2 of them when I got into a net and had to cut the wire with 80'+ out on each. The store had Scotty, Big Jon, and some other brand. I went with the Scotty since it was 300' and 150#. Over the winter I considered going to 200# Power Pro as it would reduce blowback and be easier to terminate, but didn't like the stories I have heard on how water fleas would collect on it. I actually have a spool of the PP that I bought at a swap meet.

Where did it break... near ball, mid way, at rigger boom...? Do you know how it broke... kink in cable, bottom snag, caught on roller, termination came loose...?

Manufacturer( Bechold & Sons) sells them off their site (http://www.fishcatcher.com/). Not positive, but I think I saw some at Lakeshore Outfitters at the north Saugatuck exit on I196.

No change other than different sizes introduced a few years back. When DW first brought out flashers they were a knock off of the Bechold Fish Catcher. Bechold sued and the DW models were gone by the next year... but they were not called Spin Doctors. The SDs were brought out a couple years later.

Except for Coho peanut flies, I always use a double hook snell on my salmon flies. Most of the time it is rigged with a single hook and a treble in a "tournament tie". Here is a video of the knot I use to do the double hook rig. http://youtu.be/tAD9YJ9pjLo http://youtu.be/tAD9YJ9pjLo

What port? Sent from my SCH-I535 using Great Lakes Fisherman mobile app

I don't use the Slide Divers for wire -- I use them on my braid outfits as high divers. Have talked to those that have but they add a segment of braid on the end of the wire to have the Slide Diver clamp onto and then slide down after the hit. Personally I think the wire going directly to the diver is one of the reasons it works so well. Downside to not using the Slide Diver is the distance from the diver to the flasher is somewhat limited to the length of your rod and/or willingness to handline the fish to the net. I usually run a 6-7' "leader" of 50# Big Game mono from the diver to the flasher and then the 40"+ 50# flouro leader to the meat head. That length still makes for some interesting netting at times.

"Diver" to me means any of the various round diver discs which include the Luhr Jensen Dipsy Diver, FishHawk/Walker Deeper Diver, and the Slide Diver/Slide Diver Lite Bite. All have their own naming as far as size but the ones I most commonly use are the ~4.25" diameter divers. Depending on the brand you can increase the disc size with add on rings and/or heavier weights to get them to dive deeper.