John's Tuition

Slipknot charters, Captain Lenny.

I used to run into this a LOT before I had the money to invest in reels with better drags. I was constantly bending hooks or snapping off leads. Couple of things that will help is to switch to longer mono leads as they give you more stretch. I've done double snubbers in the past but it doesn't help as much as you would think. The biggest thing is to loosen the drag as soon as the fish hits and before you attempt to take it out of the rod holder. Sounds like all other variables have been thoroughly discussed here.

@R3Fishing You don't need to invest in 2 more wire divers. Most people, myself included, use braided line on what's commonly referred to as your high divers. You just need a 10 foot rod if you are running a 9 foot for your wire divers. Run both rod holders parallel to the water or as low as you can, because the biggest issue I've encountered with them is getting your planer boards into them when bringing those in because the angle of the line with the dipsy on a 3 setting is pretty flat and extends quite a ways behind your boat above the water line. The other issue is that they can, and do, get tangled with your longer coppers. Typically they don't bother the shorter coppers if you are using mag divers on them because they sink deeper with the extra weight and size. I generally don't run them unless I have an experienced crew on board with me or I'm fishing solo and running an aggressive 3 rod spread (rigger, low and high). They can also come in handy for combat fishing when running planers is not practical due to all the boat traffic. You just have to be very carful about how sharp you turn and the rip currents around the piers can cause problems. Hope that helps.

Awesome! Glad they finally showed you some love. I've been struggling as of late, also. However, Friday night we were 7 for 11 out of Holland and all of our big fish (4 bites) came on meat rigs 220 back on wire diver. Our other hot rig was a mag UV Green Dolphin 120 down on rigger.

@Seahunt210 Water temps are TOTALLY different now compared to Thursday, so depths probably don't mean anything now. Hopefully, now that the GHOC tourney is done there will be more reports. I'd like to find a 28lb king, myself 🙂 Nice work @Bobr!

Seems unusual for this time of the year. 😔

Usually, only when fishing by myself or with an experienced person. Also, water current plays a bigger factor on my small boat as to whether I run them. High divers account for most of the tangles as you know but as long as you are careful about how you deploy it really shouldn't matter the length of rod. The charter I work with on occasion use the same length Talora roller guide rods for both highs and lows and generally bounce bottom with both.

Arrived at the Holland launch at 5:00 am. Motored down to just past sliders and started a salmon program (pre-dawn) on a S troll. Had decent marks and bait in 60 FOW but only got one rip on a Big Weenie Tribal Green meat rig that didn't hook up. After the sun was up for about an hour we slid out to 80 FOW and changed a few rods over for trout. Picked up a decent sized Laker straight out of Saugy on a wire diver with a Mt. Dew Spindoctor and Spin-n-glow. My buddies didn't care to catch any more trout and I didn't want to kill more then I had to so I pulled lines and ran to the mouth of the Kzoo and made several passes (different speeds/directions). Marked a lot of fish in the mud but only got 1 rip on a 1.5 leadcore w/ a stinger Blue Veggies. Only stayed hooked up for a minute. Surface temp was around 60-65 and down temp was in the low 50's. Ran back up toward Holland and attempted to work the top 40 one more time in 95 FOW. Marked a lot of bait balls down about 30 foot with good marks on them but no takers. Back to the launch by 12:00 pm. Wasn't for lack of time/effort.

It's because nobody has been lighting it up over the past couple of weeks. To make matters worse the recent up-welling has the fish scattered. I'm going out of Holland in the morning in search of anything that will bite and will post a report regardless of the outcome.