mrhookup

Most likely the last trip of the season for us as I'll probably be focusing on fall steelhead in the rivers from here on out. Fished from 2-6pm, dropped lines at the pier heads pointed West into some choppy 2-4 footers. Trolled all the way out to 200FOW with our lines (all spoons) in the top 50ft without a bump. Water temp was 56deg from the surface down at least to where our baits were. Noticed some big bait balls on the bottom in the 160-170FOW range on the way out so sent down some flasher/flies on our riggers and a dipsy after we spun around. Water temp was 45-48deg in the bottom 15ft down there. Popped a 7lb laker on a white blade/crush glow/green slick 8" spinnie with pickled sunshine fly on a rigger on bottom while trolling through the bait. After that, we picked up and did a few passes in front of the pier heads looking for steel without a bump. At least we avoided the black and white kitty on our last trip of the year

Are you saying you keep your underwater lights on while trolling and its helping you get more rigger hits?

thanks KC!

bump

Hey guys, I'll be fishing out this port and on Lake Huron for the first time this weekend from Thursday evening through Sunday morning. I typically fish out of the Grand Haven and Port Sheldon areas on Lake Michigan and have been doing it for quite a while, but I have no familiarity with Lake Huron or the Rogers City area. Any advice on where to start and what to look for this weekend up there? What bait shops are good to stop into for info? Sounds like I'll primarily be targeting Steelhead and lakers, have there been any kings or cohos around recently? Thanks in advance for any help!

Just picked up a couple of spoon pads from Amish Outfitters to hang our spoons from under the gunnels. I'd like to have them snap into place but the pads dont have snaps and the foam for them is quit thick. Anyone have a good way to either add snaps to the pads or mount them under the gunnels in a fashion that I removable but wont bounce around when running through a good chop?

Welcome to the site! As the others said it's been a very tough year, there's half as many king salmon in Lake Michigan this year as there was just 3 years ago because of the cuts in stocking to save the bait fish population. The groups of fish this year are just much smaller than normal as a result which makes staying on the fish much more difficult. Even so, try watching these seminars from some of the better captains on the southern end of the lake. They have a wealth of good info that we've applied and had success with. Also, I have not read them yet (though I plan to this winter), but I'd pick up the Keating on Kings books and give them a read. Fuzzy Bear Charters (Michigan City and Pentwater) https://vimeo.com/60660270 https://vimeo.com/37716155 Best Chance Charters (Saugatuck) https://vimeo.com/62977029 https://vimeo.com/39522920 Ralph Steiger (Portage, IN to East Chicago) small boat guy which is a nice perspective to hear from https://vimeo.com/35607478 https://vimeo.com/20548265 Hit Man Charters (Grand Haven) talks about "fishing the mud" and he's one of the best around at it Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 -

Fished the mud with the crowd on Sunday morning with lines down from 6:15-10:15am and finished 4/6 with two cohos, a 12" king, and a pig of a sheepshead ot hand. Seemed fairly slow for most with the number of boats in there and our catch was about the average it seemed. More coho around than kings. Moonshine Happee Meal both mag and regular size was the only thing we could get them to go on. Couldn't buy a bite on a plug for some reason although others were doing well with them. Seemed to be a lot of junk in the water as most times we reeled in our lines the baits had grass on them, probably slowed our fishing down to some extent. Good luck out there!

I'll third filters...try running Seafoam through it and see if that helps. Also, check your fuel line. I just had this same problem and found out my fuel line was rotted out and starving the engine of fuel.

great job out of Grand Haven!

The 30lb has worked well for us but the wind does catch it and cause your boards to not run as well out to the side. We switched to 50lb power pro and get better performance out of our boards. I do splice in a 50ft section of 30lb mono between the copper and braid to put the board onto though.

Took 3 coworkers out after work for their first time on the big pond. Had lines down from 6:30-9pm and finish up 2/4 with a couple kings to the boat...one mature, one immature. Best water for us was 130-150 FOW, 80-100ft. down. Best report on the radio was someone with 9 fish I think out in 200-250FOW, sounded like a mixed bag for them and the fish were coming 80-120ft down out there. Here's what worked for us: 200cu with 4oz torpedo diver - Green lightning Ace High - 9lb king 100cu with 4oz torpedo diver - Dbl Glow Ace High - lost king Rigger @ 100ft - Big white paddle and UV Frosted Fern fly - lost lake trout (or at least it fought like one) Rigger @ 90 - fixed slider 10ft above ball with MS Mag Happee Meal - 4lb King

Fished from 4:30-9pm and ended 3/3 with a steelhead, chunky coho, and a decent laker. All hits were in 150-170 FOW south of port between 5-6pm on a NW troll, 2.5-2.7 speed at the ball. Started working in shallower after those hits hoping to find some kings toward sunset with no such luck. Sound like on the radio there were more kings up by Muskegon yesterday. We marked a ton of bait in the 120-130 FOW range but not takers. Here's what worked for us: High slide diver out 200ft - Live Wire Spindocter, mirage fly green glow beads - coho 100ft cu with 2oz dive bomb - Stingray UV Green Dolphin - steelhead Low Slide Diver out 200ft - Crush glow spin doctor and glow meat rig - laker

Good job Mike!

Frosted fern UV fly with green or green and yellow beads has been good too. And they rotate, the old school metal dodgers are the ones that sway back and forth

Newbs on the wheel going into a 2-3ft chop but with the current Mike, throttle control was not my crews strong suit this weekend . Thanks!

They do somewhat but not terrible, I think the Stinger dive bombs pull harder because they are designed to use water pressure to get more depth whereas the torpedos cut through the water very well.

the smaller end is the front and where you should clip the line from your rod to. Run the meat rig off the "fatter" end.

We were clipping the dive bomb on the backer (40lb braid) after the copper and letting it out an additional 125'. Our trolling speed was 2.5-2.8 at the ball so per the dive bomb charts it should have been adding an additional 40' or so. I'm guessing it was down around 80-90' since that's where most of our hits were coming and the break was in that zone. The 100'cu with the weight was probably 70'-80' since we were letting the weight out an extra 175'.

Friday Evening - Finished 2/3: Spent Friday afternoon trying to put a crew together for a short notice after work trip with only my buddy Matt able to join, but had a coworker and another friend that could go Saturday morning. Matt said he could do the morning as well but we had nothing going on Friday night so we decided to give it a shot as a scouting trip for the morning. Was a bit bumpy so we headed South a ways out to 120FOW and setup on a North troll with the waves to make it easier on boat control for a two man crew. Got the probe down and found both the break down about 90ft or so and a pretty wicked current coming out of the north which worked out very well for trolling with the waves. Put out our 6 rod spread by 7pm and fished until 9:30pm going 2/3with a couple of mid-teens kings in the 120-130FOW range. All hits on a North troll, nothing headed South, and all fish below 80ft down. First fish of the night Last fish of the night Saturday Morning - Finished 7/11 Saturday morning headed south with a solid game plan to pretty much repeat the same program as the night before. Setup in 120 FOW on a north troll, got 4 lines in the water and a rigger with a plug goes off, hand the rod to my buddy Jack and we put his first lake Michigan king in the boat. This fish came in hot and dove around the other rigger line at the back of the boat and I scooped him immediately after with the fish, jplug, and net still wrapped around the other rigger line. While untangling that mess the rigger line, which is still in the water at this point, starts peeling line through my hands. My coworker Rob grabbed the rod while I finished untangling the line, within seconds after I got his line free, our 200cu rig goes with the plug that was hot from the night before, Matt grabs the rod, and we're doubled up. 3/3 to start the morning and at this point we only had one line in the water so we got reorganized and finished putting the spread out. Had a bit of a lull at that point until 8pm when a diver with a plug went off and we put another king in the boat. Nothing until 9:45am then we hooked 7 more by 11:30am in the 140-150FOW range all but one being on plugs, either green glow or green and chrome. Had a bunch of tangles, the most ever on a trip for me during this late morning flurry. At one point we had slowed way down going with the current, so I decided to check the lines for mussels and tangles since they were all set very deep. As I went to check the rigger with the big paddle on it, two seconds after I popped it off the release it's starts bouncing with the rod still in my hand. A king whacked it just as it started to float up. First time we've ever had that happen and brought in a surprise king. Called it a day at noon shortly there after. 3/3 in the first 15min to start the morning Doubled up Late morning king that hit after popping the rigger line They were loving the plugs for us Here's what worked for the two trips: - (HOT) 200ft. copper with 4oz diver bomb - Luck Charms Ace High Plug - (4/5) - 200ft. copper with 4oz diver bomb - Green Lightning Ace High Plug - (0/1) - Rigger at 110ft - Pearl Fish Scale White 11" paddle with Frosted Fern UV fly (1/2) - Rigger at 110ft - Pearl Fish Scale White 11" paddle with Oceana UV fly (1/1) - Rigger at 70ft - Double Glow Ace High Plug (1/1) - Magnum low wire diver (clear with UV tape) out 180ft with 8ft leader to bait- Green Splatter Back Ace High plug (1/1) - Magnum low wire slide diver out 160ft with 30ft lead to bait - #4 Green Back Chrome J-plug (1/1) - 100ft. copper with 4oz diver bomb - #4 Green Back Chrome J-plug (0/1) - High wire slide diver out 230ft with 50ft leader to bait - 8" Chrome UV Crush Yellow Dot Spin Doctor and Mirage Chartreuse Bead fly (0/1) Breakdown by bait type: 0/0 on meat, 7/10 on plugs, 2/4 on flasher flies