Holland 8/14-17

[BenLubbs]

Well its been a while since I posted a report, mostly because fishing has been so hit or miss (a lot of miss for me) with a lot of 1-4 fish trips and even 2 skunks (hasn't happened in 3 years until now). However, fishing has really picked up and I had the entire week off work so did a lot of fishing and a lot of it was great.

8/12-13

Bad weather so didn't try. Hard north wind flipped the lake Tuesday night.

8/14

Went out with 3 guys from work with plans to spend most of the day on the water. Left the launch at 5:30 with intention to fish the piers if there were fish there with the cold water. Well motored around the piers for a bit and it didn't look very promising. Ran a little north to 50fow and slowed down to see if there were some fish and we started marking them so I started setting lines headed south west. Well didn't take any fish until 130FOW where we hooked up with one. Went a little farther with nothing so turned around and headed for the way point again. Hooked up on a double as soon as we hit the way point so made a couple more passes but couldn't get anything to go again. Talked to Coralee on the phone and he was doing really good in 200 FOW so we started heading out that way mid morning. Had a very long dry spell but the had a triple in 160 fow. The rest of the day we got fish on an hourly basis working our way between 130 and 160 and then into 85 toward the end of the day. Ended up 16 for 26 pulling lines at 7:00pm. Most of the fish were 8-12lbs with one bigger around 18 a couple steel head and coho but mostly kings in the box. Fish were anywhere top to bottom throughout the day. Tangles with the strong currents and some newbies on the boat didn't help our hook up to land ratio.

8/15am

Took the morning off because I was sore from Wednesday

8/15pm

Took my brother, sister, sister's boy friend, and boy friends brother out. Set up in about 100 FOW north of Holland and trolled on at 240 heading. Got all of the lines set and then started taking fish. Got out to about 150 and turned around and followed the same line back north east. Most of the hits were coming in the top 40 foot with a few deeper. Ended up 5 for 9 with 3 identical 17lb kings and two smaller ones.

8/16am

Fish with Dave Ash on his new boat. Ended up 4 for 6 with one king hitting 22lbs and two nice steelhead.

8/16pm

Fish with 3 college buddies. Started in the same spot as the night before and followed the same patter but had some East-West trolls mixed in. Ran mostly the same program as Thursday night and with similar results. Ended up 9 for 15 with one newbie losing 4 fish on his own 1 king was close to 20, 3 mid teens, and the rest were smaller.

8/17am

Very frustrating morning after the night before with a very full graph top to bottom. Fished in the same water with a very similar spread other than using some more glow right away in the morning. Caught one very small king within 5 minutes of setting lines and then had nothing for a very long time. Finally had another hit at 9:30 which ended up being a 19lb king. We had one more hit on a meat rig on a deep dipsey and then ended with a double as we were pulling lines at 11:00. It was however, a beautiful day on the lake.

8/17pm

Well, with the weather being so nice and a theory that I have a better evening program than a morning program, invited 3 of my high school friends out. We fished the same water as the last two days. Didn't get to many hits right away but from an hour before sun set to an hour after it was just on fire. We ended up 7 for 19 losing a lot of fish inexplicably and some because of tangles and straitened hooks. Even lost a whole meat rig on the 300 copper with out knowing it until we pulled it at the end of the night. Ended the night with a bang, breaking the old boat big fish record with a 24lb 1oz monster that hit a 5 color with a J-plug of all things.

Some stuff that worked:

Rigger with big white paddle, big blue bubble paddle, or big Mtn. Dew paddle 100-130 ft down. (lots of hits, 1 fish landed, think I need to tighten the release to make sure they are hooked better)

Rigger with Double Trouble 23ft down

Rigger with Moldy Muffin 45ft down

Rigger with Flounder Pounder 39ft down

Low diver (mag on 1.5 setting) with blue bubble SD and Blue Bubble fly 160-250 out (HOT)

Low diver with blue bubble SD and Blue Moo Moo meat rig 150 to 200 out (HOT) (lost two monsters at the back of the boat because the hooks straitened out trying to get their heads up)

Low diver with green glow SD and green glow fly 90-160 out

Hi diver (regular on 3 setting) with NBK/crome SD and Mas Taquila fly 140 to 170 out (Very HOT)

Hi diver with Mag Moldy Muffin 120 to 140 out

300 copper with white/UV SD and UV mirage meat rig (stolen)

300 copper with green glow SD and Green glow fly

200 copper with blue/black ladder back ACE Hi

200 copper with Carmel Dolphin

150 copper with Green Slushy

150 copper with Carmel Dolphin

3 color leadcore with Wonder bread Ace Hi

5 color with glow Lucky Charms Ace Hi

5 color with Chrome Lucky Charms Ace Hi (Big fish)

7 color with Green Slushy

7 color with Carmel Dolphin

10 color with Double trouble (HOT)

10 color with Green/Black Ladder back Ace Hi

I'll get some pictures posted once I figure out why I'm not able to upload them right now.

[tunglnguyen]

Nice report Ben and congrats on the on the monster fish.

[Hooked Up]

Thanks for the report! Sounds like a great week of fishing!

[coralee]

Nice week Ben and nice big fish. I haven't been able to land any over 20 yet as I seem to lose them even one right out of the net when the fly line broke as I was hand lining him into the net. Couple weeks to keep trying I guess. Good job

[Just Hook'n]

Nice work Ben...24lbs is a monster...what great week - VERY nice report.

[fishsniffer]

nicely done ben:thumb: