Priority1

Brandon GL tomorrow with the girls. Quality time on the water with dad will always be remembered.

Not our best day on the Bay but we did manage to get 10. 60-61F out front of the pier heads in Au Gres. It was about the same one trip last week. Find some warmer water and find the fish. Who would have thought that we'd be searching for warm water the middle of July? A different year for sure.

Mike, GJ on the Bay.

We had 61F on the surface one day last week right out front. I posted that in one of my reports. It's a result of the cold Winter and the Cool weather we are still experiencing. The Bay is chucked full of Walleye. All you have to do is find active fish and it's game on. Friday and Saturday we did ok. How deep were you?? It's a changing game. Last week we were fishing as shallow as 15. We were also fishing deeper. There is a lot of cold water coming down from Superior into Huron. With the right winds the Outer Bay gets cold fast. We fished the Inner Bay Fri and couldn't keep lines in the water. I'm sure the temp S of Pt Au Gres were warmer. I haven't fished since Sat. but will try and get out Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun. Look at the big moon. The fish are feeding all night. Sorry you didn't catch any. If you ran SE you were probably in real deep water. I sent you a PM with my phone #

I run mine off the sides also just slightly back of the trees. I like to play all my fish off the sides and not the back. The only time fish get netted off the back of mine is if the fish is involved in a tangle or other extreme circumstances. On the boat I was on the only fish we could play off the sides was the down rods. There was a four pack of rod holders on both back corners for the board rods. The planer masts were back from mid ship and you could reach the tow line with your hands.

It's been awhile since I fished BIG boards. I brought along 3 noodles full of harnesses and some 3 oz bouncers at the request of my host. When he tried to buy some 3 oz bouncers the place was out of them. He had never incorporated the down rods in his spread before but saw them in action on P1. The 3 oz bouncers on some down rods took 9 out of the first 11 fish and continued to perform beyond that. Considering there were two down rods and 8 board rods I'd say they impressed. Ya know I like my yeller Offshore boards with flag kits. We ended the day with 22 our biggest 5# and change. Hammered dirty copper and glow tiger were our best. 1.5 MPH and slower. 25-32 FOW. A nice day on the water in a better boat than mine.

Get on over here Godfather. We need your nod.

Kevin, Nice work on the Bay. Isn't it truly amazing?

Awesome fishing Capt. Rich.

Thank you Mike for joining us and also for the crawlers and salmon. That had to be a record fast trip for us. Too bad Caleb or Cam man weren't along. I hope Bruce enjoyed the fast action. The bay has never been as good as it is right now. Shoot em Elizabeth.

I had the pleasure of fishing with Tom T aka Tall Tails, Mike R aka Sea Mac, and Bruce. We took a quick limit of walleye with little time for anything except reeling and netting. Total fishing time an hour or less. The no wake in the river and the runs out and back in took longer than the actual fishing. Everyone knew what to do and as fast as the fish were coming they just handled it. We never did get out full spread of 12 lines out. The fish just wouldn't stop interrupting us. Antifreeze was good as well as copper. 1.5 MPH 3 oz BB and harnesses off the down rods and 2 oz off the Offshore OR12 boards with tattle flags. Ya have to love dat bay. Thanks Tom, Mike, and Bruce for joining me. We had another slight confrontation at the cleaning station. About 2 more minutes and we would have been out of there incident free.

Ryan, Under the right conditions we do some drifting also. When we do drift I'll have 6-8 boards out and two down rods. I use the out-drive like a rudder and kick it out of gear. Drifting is a great presentation. I hope you're out there now slaying them.

GJ Mike and crew.

That's your call on the Charities, but I wouldn't make that long run with a lot of good fish closer. This year is behind normal years. There are a lot of fish off the bars in the weeds 8-17 FOW, and also in the 25-35 FOW S. The inner bay is stacked full of walleye. Sometimes they're fussy but most of the time not. If I had a small good crew I'd target the shallow water and if it didn't pan out quickly, I'd move it on out.

That seems to do no good at all in our area. BTW these are not tribal nets and it seems that the DNR would be able to regulate them better than the tribal nets. In 2' or better seas they are real tough to see.

I get paid well but not with money. Money ruins any sport. Think about it.

John, GJ man. It was just a little over 5 weeks ago that you were iced in. It will be a different Summer all over the GLs.

Terry, Tell your boss where to go and I think you remember the way here. Ya know you'd be welcome.

Kevin, Thanks. I gave my 5 fish to Chuck and Jeannie B. from Battle Creek. They came in with one fish.

I fished with Capt. Bob M, Mike H, Tom B, and Jim M. There is a big learning curve fishing 12 lines but towards the end of the trip things started to come together. We ran our usual 2 oz BB off the boards and 3 oz off the down rods. The surface water temps were a cool 61F off Au Gres. We fished the inner bay and the temps were near 70. 16-29 FOW. We pulled a 5 man limit 25 fish box with a lot of high fish. Copper, Purple smile, some UV pinks, and some glows were our best colors. We marked a lot of fish on the bottom and picked some of them up but the real game was up higher.

Good report Mike. We started shallow and finished where we saw you Friday.

I will NOT turn the helm over to anyone when I'm running uphill in those conditions. I know just when to turn before the wave hits the bow and that's what makes the difference. Auto Pilots react after the fact as do most people trying to dive into them. Anticipation is the key. It takes a lot of helm time to get it down. My crew was top notch. I told all three I wish I had met them all 5 or 6 years ago. Uphill with it's surges was by far our best troll. Constant slowing and going. Pulling lines and running and resetting wastes a lot of time but if it's necessary for the sake of boat control it has to be.

If he'd only ask I'd show him more tricks with some 2 and 3 oz bouncers than a monkey could show him on 12 foot of grape vine. It made my day when I got to stay.

I fished with Joe S, Bob S, and Dean N, in tough conditions. We never saw another boat anywhere until we were pulling lines. We were limited to what we could do and where we could go. There were 3-4 footers to start and we took 14 eyes. The fish were coming faster at the end of our trip but we had to pull lines to get some second shift workers back on the clock @ 2 different GM plants. We fished 26-37 FOW. We couldn't run our usual spread so we started with 6 OR12 Offshore boards with flag kits and 2 down rods. Crawler harnesses and Bouncers. Later we were able to get an additional 2 boards out. I just met Joe and Bob a couple of weeks a go and Dean is a Korean War Vet I fished with in the WFW event. Good friends, Great Times, and some fish to boot. Our first 7 fish all went in the box without measuring. Then we must have threw back about 10 fish missing by a 1/4" or less. Our future is bright. Anyone else fish the bay this AM? I love the time I can spend out there. I'm still trying to recoup the $11 the doggone fishing license set me back. Maybe if I take the Governor out fishing he'd pay for my license.

Not at all. The guy pitching the B!tch is a charter captain and has his shorts in a knot about me fishing a few times a week with 3 or 4 other folks onboard. He thinks I'm chartering and anyone that has ever fished with me knows different. His initial gripe was that I didn't belong at the PRIVATE cleaning station. When I proved otherwise it p!$$ed him off even more and it sent him into a rant about me chartering with out credentials. I thought I was the grumpiest guy around Au Gres but I take a back seat to him.