FBD

So neither of us wailed on the heavies out front yesterday. Met 2MD in the channel as we set lines, two passes out front yielded an 8# sheep. 72 degree bath water. We chatted and agreed that any hope of salvaging the trip would require going out deep, he left to plow north into a nasty building chop as he'd launched from Holland. We spiraled our way out going 1.7 into them and 3.6 with them due to some really nasty currents. In 50' we had lots of marks and bait balls, but the cannonball on the bottom was still warm to the touch. Fortunately found a pair of hungry 2-3# little kings out there that wanted a magnum flounder pounder 120' back on a slide diver. Pulling lines at dark on our way back in the regular flounder pounder SWR starts pumping. Fish swims right to the boat, it's dark, the fish is dark, and with it 2' from the net is turns and burns off about 200' of line. OK time to get serious. Pull the divers out of the way, get the cannonballs out of the water, and then put it in N. Fish is now in front of and under the boat. Oops. Find a flash light clamp that in my teeth figure out where the line is and then put it in gear and motor around the fish to get it back off the stern. Fish comes up and hangs about 3' down, tell the crew all or nothing pick it up, he pulls the fish up to the top and I scoop it more or less holding the end of the 8' handle. Get the fish but have no leverage to lift it so have to pull the net in and then slide it up the side of the boat. 19# hen. Forecast looks like harbor patrol is gonna be on pause for a while. Anyone headed out soon be warned with the now S wind those currents are gonna be a mess. Pleasure sharing info with you and we'll cross paths again soon I hope.

It's on. See you tonight!

Currents come from winds pushing the lake around and it trying to get back where it was. It's been dead calm for about a week now, freakishly calm. So I was hoping not to have to deal with them this weekend. Appreciate the honest report.

We catch sheep in Lake Mac trolling high 2's in 75 degree water on just about any presentation you can think of trying for walleye. If those were sheep up high and you were throwing spoons at them, you'd get some eventually.

Any reason you fished the riggers so close to each other?

Ran out to about 100', started pounding the bottom 10' with a mature king staging fish program. About 7 we'd slipped out to 135 and were turning back in when a rigger with a big white paddle down 120' just buried. Big laker I guessed until the reel started singing. Got it up into the bath water and figured it would tire out, nope, a couple more runs and still was green behind the boat. I called it as a 20, at shore later it weighed 20.01#. That was close. While messing with that we ended up all the way out in 160', so we eat back into them and at 140' the other rigger started thumping with a slider hit. Flounder pounder pegged 10' up with the main line down 115'. That was a 5# king that should have gotten away as the slider slid down to the main lure, a J plug, which I got in the net on my first try. Finally grabbed the leader and just slung him into the boat. We went back into 100' and then had time for one more lap. Turning back around in 135' the port diver started thrashing. Big white spinny yellow BW fly. 7# laker 350' back. That was fun. At that point we were up against a time limit and with the wind being less east than it had been, it was a long, bumpy, wet ride back in.

All that and: different rivers have different strains of salmon, some known for their early run times, some for their food quality, some for their size. Our brood stock were not from a river known for large fish. More salmon stay out in the ocean 5-7 years. Ours are usually done in 2-3. Rare is the four year fish any more. Out lake gets very cold in the winter, and the fish slow down because of it. In the ocean they can always find 50-55 degrees somewhere. If that fish was keyed on 1-2# prey, why did it hit a 5" spoon?

Beach towel. On a half core. In a tournament. I was already spending the big fish side pot while some poor crew member was winching it it. Really expensive bra in the Grand River trolling for steelhead. Just happened to be my wife's size. She still has it. Chunk of denim on the hooks after fighting a plug free from a snag on the Kalamazoo. Nothing to see here...

After having Sixshooter beat me regularly in the WMFL tournaments that started at 5am, he was kind enough to share with me that when fishing that early, don't be afraid to fish shallow and high, for fish out of temperature.

After three trips offshore looking for kings only to lose one laker, my preferred Saturday routine is: Drink a lot Friday night. Sleep in. Cut firewood in a mosquito and poison ivy filled swamp. Put money from firewood in Roth IRA. Day trade IRA money. Used to be my side gig money was my fun money, but I'm not inspired to put it into fishing gear lately. These are sad and troubling times, then I'm up 17% ytd. Not nearly as exciting as listening to a drag sing.

Got beaten up in 1-3' chop Saturday AM, fished out front (junk) up the beach (more junk) ran out to 70' (rough) trolled out to 130' (rougher) back to 70' (not bad) back to 130' (taking them over the bow) and then trolled back into 80' and pulled them. One 4# laker off the bottom in 117'. Ran stuff from flat lines as it was low 60's on the top, all the way down to 130'. Took one last shot out front as we came in and tripled on sheep, all master anglers from 11-13#. Had a 14 year old newbie out for the first time on Lake Michigan and he thought it was fascinating.

I don't think you can find something they won't hit. I took one on a paddle / fly trolling for kings out front in September. Anything you'd troll 2.2-2.5 mph for walleye (plugs, spoons) will work, the uglier the color the better. Hot and tots and flicker shads (hooks are sharp but not durable) for sure. I kindly informed him I can fish wherever the @#@#$ I want and he should learn how to drive. The cops could have had a field day last night with people running up to Big Red before coming off plane, huge wakes in the no wake zone, opening it up 100' before the buoys, running at plane well within 100' of other vessels. And apparently people trolling in the channel too, what @$$holes...

49-54 degrees out in front of Holland, nice river plume. Two hours out there caught one alewife. Should have been at least one steel around. Counted 18 rods between both piers never saw anyone run for one either. Not even sure why I bother any more. At least a couple consolidation sheep in the channel were fun until one of the blow boat racers yelled at me as I'm not allowed to fish in there.

Saturday was hit or miss, Sunday was mostly miss from what I heard. Sometimes coho and even browns don't mind a brisk troll, but usually after the water warms up.

1-2 colors. Then I spend a lot of time in shallow. But you'd be amazed how many out of temp fish there are up high year round.