jdh

Non UV Spoons I'm going through all my tackle and I've been using a UV/blacklight flashlight to pull out the non or minimal uv reflective spoons. Most of these are silver/gold reflective, but some are plain pain colors like white or purple and don't reflect uv. I'm just wondering if you can tell me what conditions you would choose to run these spoons? I've included a picture of a couple of these spoons. I've got a bunch though from all different brands. -JDH

All the kings were full of shad. They look like ales, but their not the same. I've been netting baitfish off the piers for years and know the difference. Another picture:

The bigger on weighed in just shy of 11 pounds. Very healthy looking. I'm hoping the weather lets me get out to deeper water a few more times this year. Or maybe lets me put a hurting on the lake trout before November.

Fished with Jon & Kelly out of Holland today. We fished 130-155. Lots of bait below 100 ft. My guess is they were schools of shad. We ended up 4-8 with 6 kings on and 2 steelies. Spoons & flasher flies on riggers/divers/coppers/lead. Kings came 60-110 ft down. Steelies on 3 color lead. 2.5-3.0 mph. Only west/south/southwest directions took fish.

The people I eat bluegill with don't like fish that tastes like fish... So I fillet and skin. I've been cooking 2 ways lately. The first is way is in the oven with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Dip the fillets in melted butter - coat with the parmesan breading and back in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 375. This keeps the smell of frying out of the kitchen. The other way is to coat the fillets in all purpose flower and to fry in a skillet. I like both methods.

Took the row boat out for panfish this weekend - as I didn't end up making it out on the big lake. There is a good bite going on now. 22 gills & sunfish on the Gulp red waxworms. I know every lake is different, but a dropshot with the hook about 18 inches above the weight worked for me. This was in the mid afternoon and all fish bit near the bottom. 15-20 fow. Never anchored, just drifted around. -JDH

Often times, I find the coho will appear more like steelhead than kings. Dark back, but greener than a steelie. Immature kings often have a purple/blue hue to them. The dots on the tail are not the best way to distinguish them. I've found that I can determine if it's a king or not simply on the structure of the tail. If you can pick up the fish by the tail and it doesn't collapse - its probably a king. If you try to pick it up by the tail and the tail collapses and slides out of your grasp its not a king. If it looks salmonish - then its probably a coho if the tail doesn't hold up. Once you start catching both in the same trip they're much easier to distinguish between them. I know I've come back to clean fish before with 6 or more steelies in the box only to find out 2 of them are coho when pull them out!

Finally got the boat back and its working well. I had forgotten what its like to have a motor that can idle under 1400 rpms without shutting off - especially in no-wake zones or when docking. We left the pierheads and went NW stopping in 60 fow. We set lines and held a NNW direction. Started with a 150, 200, 2 x 300, and a 400 copper, 2 riggers at 45 & 70 ft, 2 divers back 75 & 110 ft with a mix of flasher flies, spoons, meat & plugs. Wound up 5-6 with 1 big king (20 lbs? - biggest i've pulled in in a long time) and 4 lakers in the 3-10 lb range. Best troll was NNW & SSE, hits from 2.0 to 3.8 mph. Only had lines in the water for a little over 2 hours - 7 am - 9 am. What worked: 1-1 300 copper, mag Flee 4 All spoon - Big King 2-2 downrigger @ 70 ft - 11" white paddle with BW Poofster fly - Lakers 1-1 mag diver on 2 back 110 ft - 10" green Wienie with green meat rig - Laker 0-1 300 copper, mag Modified Blue Dolphin - King? Quickly ran out 50 ft of line and then disappeared. 1-1 downrigger @ 110 ft - superslim Thriller - Laker Quite a productive morning considering the shore fishing period. I marked lots of bait, but not lots of fish. The fish I did were close to where we were picking up the lake trout, so I'm guessing that's what most of the marks were. Good luck this weekend everybody. Is there a big tournament on Saturday or something?

6 hits 6 different spoons, 3 sizes, multiple colors. -JD