Mega Byte

Yeah...but I think I owe my boss a few makeup hours...

It was 47 - 48 degrees 48 feet feet down, which is where I ran my rigger. Actually...it could have been a couple degrees warmer in 50 FOW. I spent most of my time in 54 - 65 FOW. I think I remember seeing 50 degrees on the probe when I was in 47 - 50 FOW.

Decided to move my remote office onto the boat for the day. I talked to a poor fella at the dock who hasn't had a bite in his last 5 trips to Ludington, including that AM when he fished North off the point. I saw a charter captain had an almost-skunk this morning so I wasn't really expecting to do much, but figured it was better than working indoors at a desk. Got lines set at 11:25 just in time for an 11:30 meeting. I started setting lines as soon as I cleared the pier heads. I had some nice marks in the upper 40s FOW so decided to work 50-ish FOW. I ran two braid slide divers and one rigger. I didn't run long lines because of the boat congestion. I started with a plug and spoon on the divers and a KGF spindoctor and meat rig on the rigger. I got lines set and put it on a S troll to work out of the boats. I took it all the way to the project and then spun it around and headed back North. During the trip South, I had several fish come up and inspect the rigger ball. It was down about 45 feet. Then they would slip back down and lay on bottom and disappear. I think there were a lot of fish we aren't marking that were just laying on bottom. I tried switching baits to see if I could turn those follows into biters. I tried different colors, sizes, flasher-flies, and a plug. I tried different colors and presentations on the divers too. Finally at 2:54 PM I had my first hit.. That 20.5 pound King made it into the box. It hit a blue and white spindoctor and Howie's double-aquafly. The diver was on a 3 setting 150 feet out which would have put it around 45 feet down. I had just put that bait on about 10 minutes prior so I was thinking Blue might be the way to go since it was the first time I had run Blue all day. I switched out the other high diver for a Blue J-plug. One the rigger I put an all white Ghostbuster paddle and meatrig. The Blue J-plug was the next to fire at about 4:35 PM. It was on a diver, #3 setting out 130 which should put it around 40 feet down. That was a 17# king. As that king was laying the next, the Blue/White spindoctor and fly went off again. (So, 4:45 PM-ish.) This one was set with 150' of line out to the slide-diver. This fish ended up getting off because my king that was in the net managed to get the J-plug hooks embedded in the fabric of the net and fish was hooked really with with both hooks. The fish I was fighting ended up getting off about 40' from the back of the boat. Because I was working to get the net available, i wasn't able to keep enough pressure on the fish. At 5:45 the rigger starts bouncing and then a big King gets airborne at the back of the boat. This one took a while to get it. There were many times I was sure it was going to get into one of the divers. I turned the boat to try to keep the fish centered in the back and that worked. I did a lot of circles, avoided other boats and managed to not tangle the other two lines. The 23# king made it into the boat. I also saw two more kings rolling on the surface when I was out there. I reset the lines and fished for another half hour without any more bites. It was starting to get really crowded out front and since I was by myself, so I decided to call it a day. I didn't want to get a fish on solo, get a tangle and manage that with so much boat traffic. All hits came in 54 to 62 FOW. Speed was 2.2 to 2.4. Enjoy the pictures. Here are the baits that took fish. The spin-doctor and fly took two hits. Rain started to move in to our North. I managed to stay dry the entire trip. 235# King: Not a bad box for a mid-day solo trip: Just beat this big boy back into port:

Nice trip! That is a busy morning all before 8:30. Well done.

This will help: http://www.educatedangler.com/magazine/from-the-field/1169-port-basics-ludington

When I have the kids on the boat, especially if I'm alone with them, trying to maintain a bottom bouncing setup as you navigate different depths with everything going on, it becomes a wasted line because I can't consistently keep it on bottom. Then you have the darn accidental releases where you have reset the whole rig or you get the small laker that doesn't trip the release that you drag around for a while. It's too much hassle for me on most of my trips. Maybe I need to train one of the girls to maintain the lake trout setup. They would probably enjoy that.

Yeah, I think I've had more one or two hit trips this year than I have ever had, but I also don't typically target lake trout.

Left the dock at 5:30 and headed out with my daughters. I had report from someone who fished that morning that said the fish had moved out a bit and were between 120 and 180 out front and bit South of port. So we started in 180 FOW out front. On the run out, I had some fullspeed marks in 165 so I had a hunch that is where we would find them. (My sonor sends back something if it marks a fish while we motor out. Sometimes it's fish, sometimes is just noise.) We stopped in 180 and got the kicker fired up and pointed the boat back to the SE and started setting lines. We didn't mark a fish until we hit 170 FOW but it was a good mark. We spent some time in the 160 to 170 range and marked some nice fish, but didn't have any takers, so we headed East. There were a number of boats in the 110 - 130 range and we worked in there. At 7:45 PM in 112 FOW the 250 Cu with a magnum Blue Jeans spoon took a hit. We boated a nice, small king that made for a great picture. We checked the 300 (Green Haze paddle and meat rig) to make sure there wasn't anything small on that and reset both lines. About 20 minutes later the same setup to another hit in 97 FOW, but it quickly got off. In the 160s, at 60 feet down the temp was in the low 50s. In at 81 fow, down 60 was 45 degrees. I think that colder down temp started around 115 FOW. There was a lot of bait in close. In total, we only spent about 45 minutes shallower than 120 feet and we took two hits. We probably would have done better if we had spent more time in there. But after that second hit, we started pulling lines to get the kids home. It was a fun trip even though we didn't have a lot of action. I did hear a report of a guy that got one in 150 FOW. I talked to another boat that got 2 coho and king, but I didn't ask their depth. Lots of bait in close:

The "60, 74,77,84" is that line out or FOW? On a 3 setting, if that's line out, that's pretty high in the water column. Were they out of temp or did you find some colder water?

Quick post from the app because it is late. 21 # king in 167 FOW on a Kevin's Girl Friend spin doctor and meat rig. 2.5 at the ball 24 # king at dark on a green and black paddle and meat rig on a 300 Cu in 127 FOW. Had good marks in the 165ish area earlier. But also found them in the 150s to 130s. My kicker wouldn't start and we struggled with speed controll tonight. Talked to two others at tbe fish cleaning tonight. One was 1 for 1 (28 pounder) and the other was 3 for 4, including 2 mature kings one of which was 26 pounds. This AM it was just me and the girls. Lots of tangles but those are stories for another time. My daughter did manage to put another 25 pounder in the boat. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

She fishes, trailers and loads well. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

1996 Pro-line 251 Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Here are water temps if anyone is headed this way. Temps were taken in 200 FOW. DOWN - TEMP 65 - 53.1 75 - 51.6 87 - 47.3 95 - 44.2 105 - 44.6 119 - 43.2 131 - 42.8 The down temps were warmer as we got shallower. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

I started deep figuring the thermocline would be deep. I was shooting for 200 FOW figuring I'd head in from there. When we got out to 180 FOW we were in line with a couple of charter boats and they were pointed West so we kept going to 212 FOW. We worked in to 180 FOW and saw 6 or 7 large, suspended arches. On the way in we had a Kevin's Girlfriend spin doctor and meat rig fire on a low wire slide diver. I'm estimating the bait to have been about 70' down. We were in 191 FOW. I think it was a coho hit. It tripped the release and pounded the pole hard, but not enough to pull the drag and the drag wasn't set very tight. It was off before I could grab the rod. At 180 FOW we spun back around to see if a W troll would work on the prior marks. We didn't mark anything going W and spun back E in 205 FOW. In 197 FOW the high braid slide diver went. It was out 240' which should put the bait down around 70'. It was a Green and silver slide spin doctor and meat rig. As we were fighting that one, the free slider on a rigger down 100 started bouncing. The girls were doubled up and managed to land both fish. The slider picked up a small steelhead and the meat rig picked up a 25 pound king which is a PR for my daughter. As it was getting dark we worked a bit shallower. We had a big rip on a 300 Cu with a green haze paddle and meat rig in 184 FOW. This was a large king bite. It peeled line for a few minutes and kept the board under for about 5 minutes before it came off. It wasn't a clean hook set as there were scales on the hook when it came in. No other bites. We had lines set at 6:45 and started pulling them at 9:05. We were the only boat out that deep. I was texting with another fisherman who was in closer - 150 FOW range. They didn't mark much, but did manage a coho and small king in there. (If you're viewing this on the app, this table will look messy so reference the image below.) Time FOW Toll Fish Bait Pole 7:05 PM 191 SE Miss (Coho) Kevin's GF Spin Doc & Meat Wire heavy slide diver, 1.5 setting out 190 8:13 PM 197 E 25# King Green & Silver Spin Doc & Meat Braid Slide Diver, #3 setting out 240 8:15 PM 196 E Steelhead Blue sliver coyote spoon Rigger down 100', free slider bite 9:03 PM 184 N Miss (King) Green Haze paddle and Meat 300 Cu We'll be out again in the morning.

Nice fish Andy.

Fun trip! Nice report. Thanks. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

One thing I thought was interesting was the mid-day bite was very good. Even though it was sunny and the lake was totally flat. Things didn't shut off at 9 am like they often do. It looks like this week will offer some very favorable wave conditions. Hopefully you guys will be able to make it out. @EdB, that pod of big kings should be making their way north to Ludington this week. Get after them!

Epic solo trip! Great job. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

That's a lot of meat there. Nice job! Great report. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

It's a 1996 Pro-line 251. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

What an epic morning Friday was. We started in 100 FOW and worked out to 170. We had some good marks in the 140s and 150s so we slid back inside and that's where we picked up our first two hits. After that, it was all about location, location, location as most of our other hits came in about a 10 acre area. There was a spot I had heard good reports about from the prior day when I got a message from a fellow GLF member who already had 6 kings in the box from that exact location. We decided to not waste and time and headed that way. What was interesting about his location is it seemed like there was a convergence of currents in this one location. Trying to maintain speed here was very difficult. It require constant adjustments to the kicker motor. We got most of our hits on the stable water side of these currents. Other than location, the key to the day was white baits. Meat took 5 of the 11 bites. Spoons took 5 and a paddle and and paddle and fly took the other one. In defense of the paddle and fly, we didn't run many of them. We did have a white spin doctor and mirage fly out for a bit, but after not getting hit we switched it our with another Ghostbuster meat setup. Since there was only two of us, we ran a 6 rod spread. We had one double and one triple and we got all of the fish in the box. This was an aggressive bite. Many fish had both upper and lower jaws hooked as they inhaled the bait. I talked to a few other guys that got a few fish and did well, but this one location was really good for us. The biggest kings were 22.5, 20.5 and 19.5 pounds. The evening was very different. We got out a bit late and started setting lines around 6:30 and fished until 8:50. We trolled through our same honey hole area and didn't pick up any hits so we started looking elsewhere. There were a few other boats in that area and they quickly left as well. We got an 8# king and a laker in 181 FOW. My daughter is pictured with that below. It hit on a 250 copper ghostbuster meat rig. At the dock I talked to a group that just got done with a charter and they described their night as "horrible" with "no fish". So the evening seemed very different from the morning. (If you're viewing this on the GLF app, this table looks horrible so use the image of it below.) The table below is for the AM trip. Time FOW Toll Fish Bait Pole 7:23 AM 162 SW Coho Mag Rosta Goose 100 Cu 7:48 AM 153 SE Miss Blue Flounder Braid SlideDiver, #3 setting out 130 9:43 AM 165 SW King Bloody Nose Braid SlideDiver, #3 setting out 175 9:45 AM 165 SW King Ghostbuster paddle & meat Braid SlideDiver, #3 setting out 160 10:13 AM 176 S Coho Blue Haze paddle & meat 300 Cu 10:50 AM 161 S King Ghostbuster paddle & meat Braid SlideDiver, #3 setting out 160 11:24 AM 161 S King White paddle & fly Rigger down 50 1:06 PM 170 NW King Ghostbuster paddle & meat 250 Cu 1:07 PM 170 NW King Green Jeans 200 Cu 1:09 PM 172 NW King Ghostbuster paddle & meat Braid SlideDiver, #3 setting out 160 3:03 PM 175 E King Green Jeans 200 Cu Does it get any better than this? This guy is 6' 5" tall: 2 Coho and 8 kings: Here's my daughter's king from the evening trip: And finally an image of the table for those using the GLF app:

My 100 coppers may have been in that range. The other baits would have been in 47 to 49ish. Sent from my SM-G970U using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App