Mega Byte

She got her personal best today, which was a 16-pound King. She turns 7 in August and loves to fish with me on the big lake.

There were a lot of boats fishing Pentwater today. We ended up motoring out near the front of the pack, but setting up outside of them in 140 FOW. Most of the boats where in 80 to 100 FOW. We had a busy half hour where we took 5 hits and boated 4. I wanted to spin around and go back through that area but there were a ton of boats behind us and we were running a lot of lines and decided to keep heading S. We tried a few different angles and depths but couldn't get anything else to fire to the South. With the boats scattering, we spun it around and picked up our last fish which was a Coho. We started setting lines at 6:30 and pulled them at noon. Based on the radio chatter and some people I talked to at the dock, it was a slow day. Many boats had 1 or no hits. I did reach out to a charter buddy and he got 11, but he excels at getting lakers for his clients. I didn't ask what kind of fish he got but I'm pretty sure he could pull 11 lakers off the moon. Knowing him though, he probably got a mixed bag. We ended up going as deep as 215 and as shallow as 135. We only marked a single fish all day. Time FOW Toll Fish Bait Pole 7:10 AM 165 SW King Bloody Nose RV spoon (mag) Rigger stack, down about 40' 7:20 AM 169 SW Steelhead Orange micro spin doctor & green/gold fly 100 Cu 7:23 AM 170 SW Miss Bad Toad RV spoon (mag) Heavy Slide Diver, #2 setting, out 100' 7:28 AM 170 S King White Spin Doctor w/ Pickled Sunshine fly 300 Cu 7:39 AM 167 S King Green Jeans (normal size) Rigger down 80' 10:29 AM 173 NW Coho Orange micro spin doctor & green/gold fly 3 Color The table above won't show up in the app very well so here's and image:

Nice trip! Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Nice job! No kings in 5 trips out of St. Joseph for me. Mainly coho and lakers. Smart Troll is on my wish list. I think they would be awesome on the diver rods. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

One laker shy of a grand slam! Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Great looking fish! I think I'll be out next week sometime for the first trip of the year. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Beautiful fish! Nice job. Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

What a massive laker! Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Time to get a bigger cooler! Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Two skunk trips...that sucks. How was Holland's king run last year? Sent from my SM-G991U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

No. I have an OR16 clip on the back of my boards. I think that does the trick for me. I haven't had an issue with the boards slipping on the braid. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

There are some fish that look smaller they they weigh. The 24 pounder is a tank and looks like it should weigh more. Great fish! Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

And the pictures. This was a trip with my brother and his family.

There was finally a couple of adults in the boat with me which allowed me to take better notes on my trip. We fished from 6 am - 1 pm, but didn't have a hit after 9:03. We started in 80 FOW and slowly worked southwest. The fish were deep...80+ feet down. We worked out to 180, back into 130 and back out to 160 again. We saw some good suspended marks about 100 down in 150 to 170 FOW but didn't have any takers. Most of our hits came north of the sand dunes. One was off the dunes. We fished south to the point. Here's what worked: Time FOW Toll Fish Bait Pole 6:28 AM 109 SESW 10# King Green/Glow spin doctor & meat Wire heavy slide diver, #2 setting out 190 6:35 AM 114 SW 14# King Big green glow plug w/ black ladderback SWR Rigger down 80' 7:23 AM 134 S 12# King Green/Glow spid doctor & meat Wire heavy slide diver, #2 setting out 190 8:05 AM 134 SW 20# King Double glow plug (plain) Rigger down 110 9:03 AM 148 S 19# King Green haze paddle & meat 300 Cu + 6 oz Dive Bomb For those of you viewing on a phone, the above table looks horrible so this might look better: Time FOW Toll Fish Bait Pole 6:28 AM 109 SESW 10# King Green/Glow spid doctor & meat Wire heavy slide diver w/ring, #2 setting out 190 6:35 AM 114 SW 14# King Big green glow plug w/ black ladderback SWR Rigger down 80' 7:23 AM 134 S 12# King Green/Glow spid doctor & meat Wire heavy slide diver w/ring, #2 setting out 190 8:05 AM 134 SW 20# King Double glow plug (plain) Rigger down 110 9:03 AM 148 S 19# King Green haze paddle & meat 300 Cu + 6 oz Dive Bomb The 300 Cu is the longest rod I have in my boat and I know I needed to get deeper so I added a 6 oz Dive bomb about 25 feet in front of the copper. I put about 40' of line out between the board and the dive bomb. (So Pole --> Board --> 40' of Braid --> Dive Bomb --> 25' of braid --> 300 Cu --> Fluorocarbon --> Meat rig.) This particular copper setup doesn't have 2 color colors of lead after the copper. This setup is working for those deeper fish and has taken 1 fish each of my last 3 trips. We just couldn't find them after 9:03. Maybe they were deeper than 180 or shallower than 130. We didn't target trout. Here's what didn't work: 200 Cu: Carbon 14 and a magnum orange and green Moonshine spoon 250 Cu: Green Jeans, Yeck Wart Frog, NBK, 5 Eyes 300 Cu + 4 oz dive bomb: Green & Chrome spin doctor & meat High Braid Slide Divers out 300, 220, 150 and 140 with Green Knight and Wonder bread spoons Low wire heavy slide divers out 190 and 210 with a slightly darker green and glow spin doctor and meat Various paddles and flies on the chute rigger. Most hits were between 1.9 and 2.2 mph at the ball with one coming at 2.4. Did try speeds up to 2.7. The water was so warm that we didn't run anything above a 200 Cu. Pictures to follow in the comments.

I am spoiled with the days I fish. My job gives me that flexibility. I wait for the forecast to be waves less than a foot and then I go. I get enough fishing in that way and I'm not thrown around. Nice fish!