2MD

great job! that is a BIG one!

Thanks all of you who chimed in and responded. Hopefully, we have an actual "run" in Holland/Saug this fall and can get into more of them like this. Was out of town this spring but heard from many it was the best salmon fishing spring in 15-20 years so maybe things are on the up and up. Any of you remember the hogs of 2001? Shoot there were more Master Angler awards that year... good stuff!

holland 7-30 evening 1 for 3 tonight off Holland. The one we did get fought us for 1hr and 27min though and proved to be a beauty. 9 colors out in 105fow trolling south surface speed 2.6 with moonshine mag green jeans. Nearly spooled us running the orange board out about 800 feet. Eventually worked it back in and got board off 30min later. Then for the next hour went back and forth with the beast. 3 times we had all 10 colors of lead back on the reel only to have them run out completely again. Hooked into this thing north of spyglass in 105fow and when we finally netted it we were off the first slider and in 155fow. I've caught bigger kings but never one this strong. Weighed in at 25.3 pounds. Crazy thing about this fish was the girth... almost triangular it was so wide... thing only measure 36.75 inches. Anyways, the other 2 rips we had tonight also occured in 105fow. It seemed like 35-40 down was the happening range since the rigger inmediately fired once we worked back to 105fow. Half-core went at sunset too but that was short-lived.

Thanks guys... Choc lab puppy - finally starting to get some sea legs of his own and no longer pukes when we take him out

The older kids and I decided to venture out and fish since the lake had finally calmed down a little. It was not calm by any means but it was fishable. We had hard 4 to 5 footers out of the north crashing into us so we ran north into them and swung around and setup in 45 FOW off tunnel park and trolled south. Ended fishing for only about 50 minutes. Ran two high-lines with orange body baits. Ran 2 half core. Ran 2 full core. Ran 2 dipseys. 1 for 1 High-line orange board with jointed Rapala orange body bait. Our biggest steelhead of the season. Jumped at least 14 times and ran out the counter to 460 feet. The thing never really tired out on us and was even jumping behind the boat as we went to net it 20 minutes after hooking up. Beautiful fish. We did not weigh it because we could tell it wasn't master angler. It wasn't but a few years ago we managed a couple 12-15 pound steelies on this same setup but this year they just weren't as big. The head on the thing was monstrous but it looked kind of starved and anorexic. Fun time and felt good to be back out there. Wish it wouldn't have been so rough!

My 11yr old and my 9yr old and I left lake Mac mid-afternoon today and shot down to Saugatuck with the waves crashing behind us. We were hoping to find some late run mature fish swimming in the cold water out in front of the piers since this run had been so late and strangely different than in years past. Ended up going 7 for 8 making passes in front of the pierheads. All fishing and action occured in 16-25 FOW. South troll was a piece of cake but north troll was a little tricky with the waves and wind howling. 1st fish - Salmon (actually came on our first pass) - scaley green size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board 2nd fish - Steelhead - mtn dew coyote flasher fly on braid dipsey dialed to 3 with 31 feet of line let out 3rd fish - Brown - chrome red head size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board 4th fish - ???? shook off - moongoose size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board 5th fish - Salmon - blue green spin doctor on braid dipsey dialed to 3 with 34 feet of line let out 6th fish - Brown - chrome red head size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board 7th fish - Salmon - moonshine happee meal with red tail spoon on 4 color 8th fish - Salmon - green ladder size 5 jplug - highline 100 feet back on the orange board (this one was big and fought hard - it was why we went down there - it was about 45min after sunset and we were pulling lines - I had even taken the orange board off this line and was reeling the plug in at a decent clip when all of a sudden out of nowhere the king hit!) This may have been our last fishing trip for the year. It has been a decent year for us. Even though the salmon count is admittedly down to 25% of what it was in year 2012 for example it was still a blast to be out on the water with the kids. Here is a really good article I found today that summarizes the problems the fishery is facing and the approach being taken by the DNR. This by the way is the article which states that the salmon count this year was indeed down to 25% of what it was previously: http://www.9news.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/30/salmon-population-drops-michigan-great-lakes/73078686/ Anyways, interesting... looking forward to next year whatever it brings! Good luck everyone.

Great job - glad to hear you found em again.

Fishing in front of the harbor remains mediocre at best. That has not stopped us though. A couple of the kids and I went out on the duck boat at sunrise. Fished for 4 hours and managed 3 big kings and a handful of sheephead. First beast was right at sunrise on rigger 6 down (80 feet back) on scaley green LuhrJenson J-plug Second hog was about an hour later on 4 color with forest green spin-doctor and green fly Third screamer came on mono dipsey 44 back with green spin-doctor and fly at about 10.30am Only saw one other king fought by another boat and it looked like it got off. Saw a couple times where the net dipped on the north pier but not sure if it was sheephead or not. It was a bummer that the little northern gale quit so early and the lake temp didn't roll over. Oh well... onward and hopefully they keep showing up. For whatever it is worth all 3 of the pigs we landed were full of eggs (so maybe the run is really just that late and the males will start staging next).

The kids and I saw you out there that morning. It was a beautiful morning yesterday and an especially beautiful sunrise. Too bad fishing was pretty poor! We seen 1 king caught on the north pier at sunrise. As for us we got up at 3.45am and got out there and dragged moonshine jplugs through the dirty & clean water out front for a couple hours even before the sunrise. It was a gamble and I should have known better that with the warmer water temp it would not pay off. We went 1 for 2. Caught a king on a half-core with monshine mongolian beef. Missed just a hog of a king that creamed one of our orange board high lines that happened to be one of my older Okuma MAG45 reels where the drag does not always work apparently and get this the thing nearly broke the pole and eventually the line and ran off into the waves with our orange board and the whole deal! Salt on the wound for getting up so early and battling the solid 3 footers in darkness for hours. We will make them pay though and get em back the next time the water rolls over a little and the lake flattens...

Setup in front of Holland pier in the dark at 6am. Probably 15-20 other boats out there. It was intense making passes and not getting cut off. Boom - nailed a nice big four year on a happee-meal glow jplug on our rigger north of the pier a tad in about 30 fow at around 6.15am. Did not see anyone else really get em going or net for the duration of the morning. We fished until around 10.30am and threw everything we could think of at em. The water was freezing cold. The water inside the pier all the way back by big red was 55 degrees even. We did manage net three more 4 year olds so we ended up with a total of 4 for the day. 4 for 6 was our score. Photo of the proud kids holding up their catch BELOW. My 9 year old son brought in two of them. My 11 year old daughter brought in the biggest. And the kids and I agreed that I brought in the one that fought the most. Scaley Green size 5 lure jensen jplug they hit 4 times between 8am-9am. The other pig came on a mono dipsey with 44 feet let out dialed on 3.5 with a glow green frog spin doctor and glow fly on it. All of our bites and fish occurred just north of the north pier. While it felt good to bag 4 of them I still say the fishing this fall is ridiculously slow and difficult compared to any other year. I was cheered, however, this evening when my buddy Randy along with a couple other boats reported slaughtering 4 year olds in 50 fow well south of Holland off the sliders. Could it be the kings never got the memo that the lake turned over and are still waiting to come to the pier? Either way this huge warm up and the 6 footers we have coming out of the south the next two days isn't going to help the cause. What's the good word Kevin? Were you out today? My kids and I did watch you and Littleboat drill through those 4-6 footers yesterday and when we passed you in the channel and heard you hadn't even had a bite we knew fishing sucked and it had become futile.

My kids and I fished the Holland pier for 2 hours this morning and 2 hours this afternoon off our 18ft duck boat. While the water cooled off the bite was miserable honestly. We must have made 30-40 passes and turns and ended up 3 for 5. A couple inside the arms and one outside the arms. Became brutally rough when trolling outside the arms late afternoon. The amount of sailboats and other boat traffic was unbelievable too. We had a big one going on a dipsey for about 20 minutes and those "car boats" were there and rubber-necking and surrounding us as we pulled lines and fought it in the channel and they got so stinkin close to us taking pictures and asking questions that the salmon nearly plowed into the side of one of the cars when it did its 4th run away from the boat. It was a fun day but a sheer battle. I never saw another boat net a salmon. There was no pier bite after 7.30am from what we could tell. Here is a pic of one of the 2 big ones we managed. Bizarre that there were not more fish in there with the lake having turned over... we will see if they are there in the morning...

Trolled out of Holland this AM north and ended up in Port Sheldon where the boat will stay overnight on anchor as I am going to fish again tomorrow morning. Zig-zagged back and forth with east and west trolls since in the current this seemed to be the only way to get them to pull true. Fishing is so bad this year and just for fun and variety decided to stop running riggers so ran 6 dipseys just like on my last five or six trips. Also, ran a couple full core and a couple half core. Managed to get our biggest fish of the year (did not weigh it but probably an easy 20# with the size girth - see included photo and you will see what I mean). This fish came in 88 FOW at around 8am on the inside deep diver dialed on .75 with 85 foot of braid out. It ate the green spin doctor green fly. Other than that not a single other hit and we threw it all at them. Actually, no that is incorrect. We did get a screamer on a half core running a hot steelhead bait and this turned out to be a big channel catfish which created all sorts of trouble for us. Half cores are fine and do not tangle into the fulls UNLESS the targeted species turns out to be a bottom feeder that dives down as it passes around the inside board. Anyways, we landed the kitty and untangled all the core in the 40 minutes that followed. Great fishery we have this year. Hats off to the DNR. So much bait and hardly any trout or salmon to eat it so the kitties are moving offshore and getting a piece of the action apparently

We were off Port Sheldon in the same 80-100 FOW as you last night. We got just 1 as well. 1 dipsey spin doctor 150 back dialed 3.5 - lost fish 30 seconds in - felt like smaller fish 1 rigger 46 down at sunset with Flounder Pounder mag moonshine = 14 pound king South troll for us - speed 2.6ish

Went out again tonight. Just a perfect night be out there with no wind and no flies. Fished north of Holland again. Went 1 for 2. Full core 95 FOW north troll moonshine green jeans - fish got off 20 seconds into fight Braided dipsey 90 FOW dialed to 3.5 with 150' out south troll green & blue spin doctor = 17.4# chinook

we didn't mark much bait at all, not on the last 3 nights so last night was not really any different

after a couple decent days in a row we figured why not and tried again this evening... we ran the same program but it was humbling and we didn't do as well. only hit we took was full core in 85 FOW and it proved to be a 8# steelhead which we eventually landed. sounded like some guys were just nailing the lake trout out there tonight but that Salmon were kind of slow. yesterday morning my buddy Randy caught a 21# chinook off of Holland - that has got to be the biggest one I have heard of caught this year - anyone else top that? Thanks

Was a lonely boat off Holland last night - strong current and winds made us eminent for heading north - trolled more north of tunnel and off port sheldon. Could not get em to go - threw the whole variety at em including adding extra dipseys - then suddenly at 8.30pm in 95 FOW we got a quadriple - not your drawn out spread out quad either - they all went and almost all at once - full core first, then inside dipsey, then high dipsey, and finally rigger. The kids and I tag teamed em and dealed with sheer chaos netting as they arrived but got em all 95 FOW North troll Full core - 40 down - Moonshine Happee Meal Dipsey spin doctor dialed on 1.75 150' back Dipsey spin doctor dialed on 3.5 200' back Rigger 75 down - Moonshine Green Jeans This is only the 2nd time ever I have gotten a quad and managed to get em all - good times! Couldn't have done it without all the helping hands. Beautiful night out there too. Will let you know how we fare tonight.

Thanks guys - we went again last night and just killed em again (will post another report here in a second hopefully) - going again tonight too - Who said Fishing was Bad?

Fished just north of Holland off tunnel park in 80-100 FOW this evening. We had a double going and were facing the sun when apparently that plane crashed off of Spyglass so unfortunately we missed seeing that. Ended up going 4 for 4 and here is what worked. East troll - speed 2.2-2.4 Rigger 65 feet down = 4# brown Dipsey braided with mag size diver back 130 dialed on 2 spin doctor = 14# chinook Full core Green Jeans Moonshine = 10# chinook Full core Green Jeans Moonshine = 7# steelhead

A couple of the kids and I decided to honker down and try trolling the piers and channel with our new waverunner rod hold contraption today. The equipment worked great! We were able to run 4 boards and our speed was spot on. We only trolled for about 90 minutes total but never got a screamer. We even tried inside Mac all the way up to where the no wake ends in front of Tiara. Anyone know anything? Anything still happening or have the fish pretty much all moved on down the line? We did see some hogs jumping for whatever it is worth and may try again tomorrow. Check out the PICTURE of the jetski all rigged that I took of it when we shot over to the sliders to play a little after getting skunked.

anyone still getting 4yr old kings in holland channel or the west side of macatwa how about the piers thanks