Port Sheldon 5-22 WMFL 1/5

[Far Beyond Driven]

Wow. Got Andrea home from her birthday party at 11 and the alarm went off at 3:30. Kid got up before me. She took a nap on the way to the launch and did great getting on board, and the boat fired, which is always a plus when I fish the WMFL.

We motored out to 80' in no fog really but it closed in really fast at about 4:58. My non-boating coworker third crew member did a great job driving a straight line so I could set up. Got all the lines in and trolled like drunken sailors as until 6 we had no point of reference.

6:15 rigger fires, coworker grabs it and reels like mad. Just when he says it's gone, the rod slams down and a king goes nuts in the prop wash. After some tense moments we netted a nice 8.5# king.

And then we trolled out as far as 160' without another bump. Finally at 8:30 we called BS on this and pulled them to go to plan B. As we were down to one line in the water a fish swam by just under the surface towing a glow spinny.

Ran, well in the fog it was more like a jog, to Holland. Just south of Holland the water was gin clear, so we pulled up and ran farther and found some nice green water on the beach. Put out a brown program. Soon caught an alewife. Trolled way too long and had pretty much given up hope when a one color fired and we landed a sweet 5# buck brown. Cool.

Kept chugging down the beach and was changing over a line when I heard a splash. Outer board on the other side is headed back to Port Sheldon. 4# brown. About half an hour later at 11:20 we doubled with a white bass and another brown. Brown snagged on the swim platform, I got him in the net, line broke, and in lifting him over the helm the lure pulled out and went flying somewhere, fish fell out of the net and landed on the floor. That was close. Our math said 84 points or so by eye, and we felt good about that, but knew there was some steel around out deep at 15 points and a high likelihood of fin clips could cause an issue.

We made a half hearted attempt to sort out the big hooks on the bottom in 30-40' but gave up on that and banged a "goto" for Port Sheldon - 17.7 miles. In the fog. So we pulled them at 11:45 and got her just up on plane and then were so ultra paranoid that I still have a head ache. Only thing we saw that freaked us out was a big log in 25' about 3 miles south of Port Sheldon.

The 20 points for browns turned out to be a very good call. Even with 4 weigh fish, the box could not be challenged.

[Paulywood]

We fished this morning also. Launched and headed into Pigeon Lake only to find out that all of my waypoints and tracks were deleted when I changed to the new chip in my GPs this year. Plus no depth readings for Pigeon Lake. So after running into the muck once we finally got out to Lake Michigan to find 10' visibility. Called on the radio and found out it was foggy out deep. Set up just south of the pier head in 30' and headed northwest, or so. After a few boats did circles around us in the fog on plane and I gave my horn a good workout we finally got 6 rods set in 100' and had a hit on a Polish Blue Dolphin 60' on a rigger that the 31 year old rookie on board promptly released. Looked like a nice fish jumping behind the boat. After that he settled down and landed a nice king on a dipsey with a Moonshine Shelley Snack out 125' on 3. Steve landed a small king on a Northern King Purple Thunder 40' down on a rigger. And I think we caught one on the PBD. Then the other rookie got up and 7 year old Hunter showed us all how it's done. After a failed attempt off the rigger with the Purple Thunder he faught and landed his first king, a nice 5# scrapper off a dipsey out 150' on 3 with a Frog/Chrome Spinny and blue fly. A while later Brian landed a monster 13"er that rounded out our box. We had to head in early for a bathroom break but had a great time with a great crew. Thanks for going along Steve, Hunter and Brian. Best depth for us was 115-140'. Sounded like there was cooler water out past 200'.

[Nailer]

We just could not get much going. Finished the event with 1 small Steel and a small King:(

A shot of Kevin and the winning teem.

[Moosky31]

thanks for the Report.

[Just Hook'n]

Nice work guys.

Wish I could join this year, but with the new child here I am on the sidelines for the better part of the season. I'll get out, but it will be limited for sure. Nice to see some familiar faces doing well.

[Priority1]

GJ Guys, I wish I could have been there.

[sjk984]

I would like to thank Nick (Paulywood) again for letting us fish on his ride. We both had an awsome time. My 7 year old talked for 2 1/2 hours on the way home about his first king.

Thanks Again Steve and Hunter

[GLF]

Nice job Kevin! Congratulations on the win!

[N II Deep]

Late Report -

left PS dock 5am

Had a 4 man crew, Al Vandyne, his son Trent, My son Blake (1st Time every out - under pressure from dad;)).

Heavy fog, ran into muck:eek:, did a circle in the bay following someone else:eek: - ok time to just follow the GPS.

did not run in heavy fog. so we putted out to 80 feet SW of pier setup, keep a SW troll, @ 130 fow Dispy took a rip 140 back mag set on 2, Mt Dew Spin Doctor - Green fly. so we wake Blake up to reel it in. it gets off, Blakes not impressed, but has started to smile. Second rip on same dispy. nice 13.3# King. Same time Rigger goes off, 60 down, blake is reeling away, the fish comes up dances on the water and says good - bye to the poor kid. we turnned and headed st. south in the 140-150 range. Dipsy starts on the other side, yellow Spin Doctor with Red spots, gold fly. nice 9lb king Blake gets his first fish - and a full smile.

the rest of the day was between the MT dew spin doctor and a half core running a dirty white boy spoon, 4 lbs to dinks,

releases dinks that were still alive. ended up 9 for 11 to the boat.

here is a pic of the box.

[j1musser]

I would like to thank Nick (Paulywood) again for letting us fish on his ride. We both had an awsome time. My 7 year old talked for 2 1/2 hours on the way home about his first king.

Thanks Again Steve and Hunter

It was nice meeting you any many others out there. Your son was very excited and it was great to see a future fisherman for sure!! Congrats to FBD for the win. Thanks for the pics Nailer. Saw N II Deep on the road too. Hopefully see ya guys again soon.