2MD

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

fished holland harbor again today with the kids - was a blast - finally a warm day too went 3 for 3 on kings - all rather silver yet - all females that fought like the dickens jumping all over it took us a while to find out where they were hiding - nothing in the channel or mac - they were north of the pier directly off the ottawa beach pavillion deal in that 'hole' that exists there where depth drops from 32 feet to 40 feet. took a double on riggers 7 down 80 back green ladder and chrome red head at 11am and got both then a couple hours later nabbed one out of there on orange board with drop weight and fickle pickle jplug what i cant figure out is how last friday i boated 10 really dark males in the channel and now we are getting silver hens in the open water - i think that the late april ice pack threw the kings off and is making this run very unusual with a lot of fish thinking it is still august did not see anyone else off holland or on the piers catch fish today

hey smoke on the reelz... what did you find at hamilton dam trying to gauge if the run out front is all but over or if this is just some sort of head fake

Went out off Holland harbor again tonight. Went 2 for 3. Both were four year old males. Almost all the fish I have caught in the last week since the water cooled and they came in have been males which seems odd since in other years we always get about 5 days of mainly hens first. Anyways, rigger 7 feet down 60 back on ball in channel right in front of big red trolling east on j-plug ladder back. Next was mono-dipsey 35 feet out trolling east coming into channel just off south pier on glow frog spin-doctor. Had another hit it was a big pig and it just ripped our green ladder rigger in this exact same spot but it unfortunately let go a ways into the fight. This was where we were catching last night just tucked into the channel behind the south pier. We seen em jumping all over there tonight. The bite overall this fall is disappointing I would say. The fish we caught tonight were extremely dark. Seems like this could be over sooner than later. Regarding the walleye. I am no walleye fisherman and the only time I have ever caught walleye has been when I troll the Holland Harbor. They are notorious for hitting the inside downrigger on a turn when it slows down. All we run is j-plugs and they seem to like those. Last fall we ended up with probably a half a dozen walleye ranging from 8-12 pounds. My kids love the variety and novelty of reeling em in and saying they caught a walleye. My inlaws and everyone else I talk to love the meat even much better than salmon meat.

went 2 for 2 on kings last night - both on dipseys with spindoctors - one inside piers and other outside in 35 fow off north pier - also lost just a monster of a walleye at the back of the boat. water spout that came up out of nowhere sure had us freakin for a bit - picture below

went a humiliating 0 for 4 no hits inside the channel - the water in the channel itself had warmed some all hits were just outside the channel on a south troll it was bumpy and ever ything that could go wrong did go wrong

kids and i bagged a 18 pount 34.5 inch lake trout of all things on dipsey mtn doo flasher in 23 fow just off the south pier yesterday. then we missed a couple dings in channel. in general we have struggled a little with the pier and channel bite. buddy of mine crushed em in saugatuck pier this morning. anyone else feel like reporting or is it all a secret this time of year? kevin tell us the scoop man

The kids and I trolled Holland starting late morning today and through the afternoon on our 18 foot jon boat. Went 10 for 14 on all mature 4 year old kings. Everything worked really it was just spotty as to when the bite would appear and then disappear again. All fish taken came from between the entrance to the channel on the Macatawa side and the pierheads. Absolutely nothing biting beyond the pierheads today and nothing shaking in Mac yet. Water was 47 degrees outside the pier. Best bait was size 5 chrome redhead J-plug on orange board with drop weight about 100 back. Riggers also smoked em being set about 8 feet down. Dipsey bite only came once but when it did it was a double on both dipseys we had in and we managed to land both. Dipseys run with mono dialed to 3 running back 44 feet. Observations: not too many other guys getting em too well out there and everyone yelling to us asking what we are using and how we are manage to get em so well and my conclusion is most folks are trolling way too slow in the channel. It was brutal because we'd caught up waiting behind these guys going 1.8-2.0 when every single release we took required us to go 2.8.-3.2. This is fall fishing. I guess unless you are running body-baits crank up the speed guys these kings are aggressive and J-plugs troll great at faster speeds. INCLUDED is a photo of the kings my kids & I managed to land today. 20 real nice fillets going in my neighbors smoker tomorrow...

can you paste in a link to the surface temp map you use? http://www.coastwatch.msu.edu/michigan/m42.html = the one I use and the thing is worthless on days and nights like this because it picks up on the clouds instead of the water temps. Hey all it is 40.7 degrees along the shore in Holland right now - yah right - anyways, it is going to be cold come morning and if it isn't the steady and more mild N and NE we have this weekend will eventually get her there.

went for about an hour - sleeting sideways rain - north waves busting over top the north pier - kids were complaining and rightfully so - conditions resembled those the Fitz went down in - ran a couple riggers and a few orange but the current in the channel was something fierce and water temps were still too high - they were 70 degrees way back in the channel when we setup and by the time we left they had dropped to 68 degrees - it is gonna take another 6-12 hours for things to get right with the bite in the channel - will go late tonight or tomorrow morning i guess - good luck all - this is the cool off we have been waiting for!

wind and waves already half the size they were this morning - going to go troll the inside part of the channel and the west side of macatawa in a couple hours - might be premature - hopefully cold water and currents are pushing down the shore and into holland harbor