2MD

was in Grand Haven with boat yesterday evening took the opportunity to troll the channel and out in front of the pier heads after the sun went down... was a lot of fun certainly plenty of chaos and activity lost one on a dipset plug in the channel by the back of the boat scored on another just outside pierheads 30min after sunset on 5 color plug the ride back into Holland late in the moon light was beautiful

PUG has never been skunked but he came real close last night!

nice job tonight and thanks for the report we struggled amongst the pack of boats in tight off Saugatuck this evening not positive what changed... maybe a big group of kings already moved up river OR more likely they were just frightened by all the boat traffic which unfortunately is only going to get worse over the next 3-4 days... for whatever it is worth we seen more of them jumping all over tonight than we had seen all week we ended up just 1 for 2 on salmon and caught a sheephead andncatfish had buddies on three other boats doing the same and these guys are real good at it and I think one managed 4 and another 2 and the just 1 like me

one more video... 20230831_073331.mp4

Essentially same program as Monday when we were 24for51 Much bigger fish today though which made it all the more exciting! Photos and some funny videos ATTACHED here Check out the video of us finally landing the 30lber after about 40min – humbling how I fumbled the net job and nearly lost him in the end! PUG and the crew were sure excited to get another Chinook Master Angler award 20230831_094233.mp4 20230831_101636.mp4

fantastic job! what beautiful fish

thanks guys cleaned a lot of fish today and from the looks of their bellies they were eating shad... gobs of shad is what I was seeing on graph too i bet

correction 8 for 20 tonight lost track apparently

decided to head out again with a different group of kids tonight... having 7 kids is a real bonus when it comes to trolling returned to the sacred waters off Saugatuck but this time fished slightly deeper same type of program as morning though and while it started off a little slow we managed to go 7 for 19 highlight was after the sunset in the dark when we had 6 on all at the same time and following that two doubles... chaos but what a blast! we started glowing up baits and they just kept biting til about 60min after sunset so tallying it up in the end Parker went 23 for 50 today

After all the reports of them getting an early/on-time run in Grand Haven this year, decided it was high-time we see if Saugatuck would equally produce. Ran down in the darkness and setup in 40fow directly off Saugatuck channel at around 6am. First fish came at around 7.15am. We nailed a couple coho in that 40-43fow but weren’t breaking records or anything so we slid in a bit more. For the next 4hrs it was just one bite after another all really right there in that 31-34fow just inside the kzoo river mud. Pretty much all combinations produced. 3 colors, 5 colors, 7 colors, dipseys, riggers… Plugs caught the most fish. Spoons got maybe 3-4 fish. Large white paddles must have gone a half a dozen times too. We had three quadruples and lots of laughs in the midst of all the chaos. Hats off to PUG, the kids, and a very determined crew! Ended up going 16 for 31 this morning, which has to be one of our best if not our best trip on Parker and definitely an exciting start to the fall season. 20230828_105229.mp4 20230828_105905.mp4

beautiful fish!

high diver out 190 meat rig 92fow NW troll fun morning though!

zGrinder - wow good job finding the bite on Saturday night - out deeper than I had been looking - how frustrating to have that many break offs... the current this past weekend was intense and that caused us all sorts of fun trouble/tangles so know that misery loves company FBD - that pic and story of you and your daughter braving the howling east wind gusts and landing that behemoth is legendary! We were fishing bass by big red til about 8pm last night and then snuck out as the weather improved for a bit and tried to find em. Took a double on Coho in 90 fow while setting lines. Then crickets kinda. We could not find marks even which surprised us. Figured with the lake turning over they had pushed in closer but they just weren't there really. Zig zagged in that 65-90 fow. Got a big laker on a dipsey in FOW after sunset. Go figure when pulling lines in 50 fow at the end then we started marking what was maybe the kings? All I can tell you is that when we anchored in the cove by big red the water temp on the shore was low low-50s last night! brrh

Went 4 for 5 with some of the kids & PUG A couple real nice hardy kings came on Copp200 scaley green size4 jplug - both in 93fow on a SW troll – the first at 5.30AM and the second at 8.20AM when we were pulling lines High Dipsey went on both sides too with spindoctors on em – out 180 and 200 Lost a beast of a steelhead on a slider frozen toad spoon down about 50 as well Spent the bulk of the morning unknowingly running the copp200 and copp300 on the starboard side tangled so that was unfortunate …the current and East wind was relentless so all things considered we were pretty pleased with how we turned out…

haha - thanks guys!

decided to troll again tonight didn't run out and setup until about 7.15PM radio was dead quiet & a couple guys fishing in that 130-160fow eventually we found em after zip-zag trolling south towards Saugatuck (off the sliders is where our fish came) went 4 for 4 (all at around 9.00PM with 3 of them coming in the form of a triple just like last night) all hits in that same 126-130fow as last night - SE troll was best 1 Laker about 10# on deep diver out 180 with meat rig white paddle 1 King about 9# from the looks on high diver out 200 with meat rig purple fish scale yellow UV 1 King about 17# from the looks of it on copper350 racket jaw spoon 1 King about 15# from the looks of it on low out 145 with meat rig green jeans PUG delivered again!

My son got em real good in that 72-95fow off Holland this morning with Randy from Wave Dancer (they went 5 for 8 with 4 salmon weighing 15# plus) so we instinctly returned to those waters but as it turned out the wind had flipped the lake and brought in warm water and nothing was really marking or biting in tight so eventually we slid out. Ended up going 3 for 4 Missed one on high diver out 180 with spotted Richard meat rig in 130fow southwest troll …then we got a TRIPLE at around 9pm… Got one on the rigger down 74 with green flounder spoon in 125fow west troll – 16# king (natural) Got one on high diver out 200 with green jeans meat right in 127fow southwest troll – 21# king (natural) Got one on high diver out 180 with spotted Richard meat rig in 128fow south troll – 12# king (plant) Hats of to the crew and especially PUG for all the hard work out there in the wind & waves tonight! PUG was getting nervous as the sunset because if we would’ve gotten skunked he was gonna have to swim home…

what a great night! way to go!

thanks! and let me check with PUG and see what he thinks... a fishing weapon he is

thanks guys and yes Kevin the cat went to live somewhere else bout 2-3 years ago

Went 7 for 12 out of Holland tonight on Parker – took the PUG as a good luck charm – if you rub his ears it is like a rabbits foot and just overall he serves as a good luck charm Got a slow start mistakenly trying to find em in tight based on some info we had gotten out of GH (for the first 2hrs we only had one hit) but eventually come 8pm had em dialed in real good right in that 115-119fow Starting at 8pm for about the next 90 min we ran a south troll starting at around Tunnel Park and ending up down off Castle Park and in that time period we had 13 hits and managed to capitalize on 7 of them All Salmon… no Lakers Had a couple two or three “biggies” in that 10-15# range that got us real excited & were a blast to fight! Then though after sunset we connected on copper300 with an insane bite that dwarfed these other guys… fought it for a full 50 minutes jumping all over and constantly emptying the reel and eventually netted in the darkness a 27pound 38.75inch king – our biggest in a while at least for this time of year (we usually get our pigs in the fall for whatever reason) The crazy thing is that well after 10pm once we netted the big monster that we had slowed the boat down and were taking photos and cleaning blood off the deck and all a sudden the rigger slider goes off (makes sense because there was bait everywhere) so that one was a late night bonus fish to add to the hopper I guess… Here is what worked for us tonight: #1 - rigger down 50: dancing anchovy/Mongolian beef combo - miss #2 - high diver back 160: spotted Richard meat rig - 7 lbs king #3 - rigger down 66: blue flounder/green flounder combo - 9lbs king #4 - rigger down 66: blue flounder/green flounder combo - 13lbs king #5 - high diver back 160: spotted Richard meat rig - miss #6 rigger down 66: blue flounder/green flounder combo - big king hit slider, came off, and did backflip by outboard in a matter of seconds. #7 high diver back 160: spotted Richard meat rig - 15lbs king #8 rigger down 66: blue flounder/green flounder combo - miss #9 rigger down 66: blue flounder/green flounder combo - miss #10 low diver back 130: purple fish scale spinny with yellow uv meat rig - 14lbs king #11 Copper 300: standard moonshine happy meal - 27LBS King #12 Cleaning deck in dark at 10:30 after landing big fish when rigger down 66 took a 10 lbs king 20230709_201328.mp4 20230709_205248.mp4

yes for sure and wow I cannot imagine running north in that solo - impressive man!

what trolling direction(s) worked this morning?

very nice! may give it a go tonight so what you just shared is super helpful...