Frankfort 7-17 AM

[jatc]

Well my friends made it up from Kansas and we headed out of town about midnight on Saturday. Based on the reports I'd had heard I wasn't expecting a banner day, but this was the only day my friends could go and they were super pumped having never been on big water before.

Launched the boat around 4:00 AM on Sunday and motored out to 80' straight out and put it on a North troll at about 2.2. First issue was apparent when I put the probe down and realized it wasn't working. Changed batteries and still nothing. Don't think it would have mattered much anyway. Took me a little while to get the spread out being the first trip out this year and we commenced to rod watching. We were marking some fish and bait in the top 50' so I kept most everything high.

5:15 we were in 150' up by the lighthouse and the wire diver back 50' with a white slick fishcatcher and a bloody nose fly started jumping. One of the Kansas guys grabbed the rod and pretty soon we had a 12# king in the boat. Cool, my goal was to get at least a couple for these guys to tangle with. On a hunch, I put a standard size wonderbread spoon down 48' on a rigger and as soon as I turned away it popped. The other guy from KS got that rod, and soon we had another 10# fish. Put that spoon back down and within 20 minutes it took two 6# kings. Mission accomplished for me and everyone was happy on the boat. 4 for 4 at that point all within 45 minutes of the first hit.

By 6:30 we were north of the point in 180' still headed north. I was looking at the spread when the corner rigger down 32' with a glow grey ghost J-plug double over and started screaming. I grabbed the rod and handed it off. This fish was a 16# king that put on a clinic for us. Jumped a few times and went on a couple of 350' runs before charging the boat. I knew we were in trouble when the fish went straight sideways about 20' behind the boat. Somehow we were able to weave the rod under the downrigger boom and around the wire diver before the fish took my buddy all the way around the boat. Good thing we have a walk around center console. After circling completely around the boat he managed to wrap himself around the rigger cable and I got lucky and was able to stab him with the net just as the line broke. That is one fish those guys I don't think will ever forget.

After that I was just a boat ride for the rest of the morning. Had one drive by steelie on a seven color with a lemon ice spoon in 350' that gave us a couple of jumps before getting unhooked. Other than that, nothing. We really didn't care though. Last fish was a skipper that we had dragged on the seven color that we found when we were bringing in the rods at the end of the day. He wasn't in good shape so we boxed him too. Counting the skipper we ended up 6 for 7. Not bad compared to the reports I've been getting.

All in all areally nice day on the water with quite a bit of excitement early. If this lake ever sets up nice, I think the fishing will get good. Right now it appears you have to cover water and find an active school because we marked several fish later in the morning but they just wouldn't go for us.

Here's a shot of the fish and the newly hooked salmon fisherman from Kansas.

[In The Net]

yea it is true that you just have to cover alot of water and hope to find some schools.... Its the same way in ludington right now

[Hotdog71]

Nice job getting into some fish!