Muskegon 8/31 & 9/1

[SeaCatMich]

Saturday, 8/31

Finally hit the water at about 7 am. Headed out west and took a look where the pack was at in 80 to 100 FOW but didn't see much on the graph (actually real close to nothing) so headed further out. Started seeing marks down 65-90' in 130 FOW and setup the spread.

Ended up 10 for 11 with a mix of Kings (2), Lakers (2), Coho (2), and Steelhead (4). All nice fish but nothing real big. Had:

3 off a 300 copper with a Green Dolphin spoon,

2 on rigger down 92' with a white glow crush Spin Doctor with a green seaweed KRW fly,

2 on wire diver out 240 with BW purple UV flasher/bait head & cut bait,

2 on rigger down 70' w/ Mixed Veggie UV Stinger Stingray

1 on rigger down 85 w/ Wonder Bread double glow Ace High plug

Sunday, 9/1

Got out a little earlier at about 6 am. Got an early warning about how the day was going to go when while lowering on of the outboards a rod/reel got caught on it and went in the water off the back of the boat. Ramp only about 4' deep though so managed to get it back with the boat hook.Checked the shallow water again but still nothing on the graph so headed out to the same area as Saturday. Didn't mark a whole lot out there either but did manage to get 4 fish before running into problems and going in (later on that in a minute)..

One steelhead (11# on a 300 copper w/ green dolphin), one 9# Coho (PP diver out 200 on 2 w/ BW Black Mamba flasher/cut bait rig, 1 6# on the copper, and one little Coho on rigger down 70 w/ blue dolphin (released).

Cut the day short after finding one of the nets the hard way. We had done a pretty good job of seeing them and avoiding getting into them for a day and a half. The crew (and captain) didn't get much sleep for two nights and while i was rigging lines someone says hey there's a net buoy. Ends up it is directly out the port stern quarter of the boat and unfortunately is the outside flag. We quickly see the other four flags and realize we are right over the top of the net. Managed to quickly raise 2 of the riggers up quickly and keep them out of the net but did loose one Ace High plug.One other rigger gets hung but apparently I got there to raise it just in time and didn't loose the cannon ball (lure gone though). The other rigger got hung solid though and lost the ball and unfortunately that was the FishHawk probe rigger so it is gone too (X4 probe). The wire diver got hung so lost a full BW meat rig setup and a Deeper Diver on it -- plus lots of wire so it will need to be re-spooled.

That happened at about noon. After trying to get reorganized and doing calculations of the cost of the losses at about $350-400, and seeing very little on the graph my enthusiasm for more trolling was pretty much gone. We decided to call it a day at about 1:30.

When we got in found that the fish cleaning facility at Fisherman's Landing closed at 3 pm....grrrr. Decided to drive a few miles north an used the facility at Whitehall -- didn't feel like having to clean them at home. The drive back to DeWitt was uneventful (yeah!!).

Almost forgot, on Satyurday also lost a nice Frabil net too when the rubber hand grip slides off while rinsing the net after landing a fish. Went right down the chute between the riggers. Since I have been out of commission all summer with my foot surgery and unable to fish, I guess the boat was ticked off that it sat on the trailer all summer and managed to rack up a season's worth of lost gear in a single trip.

[melsell]

Them darn things are everywhere in Muskegon. They hold fish close to them but man there is alot of them:(

[Far Beyond Driven]

Lost a net, found a net, somehow it didn't balance things out....

[sslopok]

Lost my net last night on way home from Port Sanilac. Either somehow blew out on 46 or someone decided they wanted it when we stopped for grub at port san. pub.

[JWheeler]

Nice job on the fish.

Sorry to hear about your gear:o

[Broadcast]

Great job & report Ry. Welcome back to the big pond!

[Jason Grimm]

My net broke clean off of the handle on Sun. trying to get a 24 pounder in the boat. Didn't have a spare so we were screwed and had to hand grab the others. A friend that is fishing in Manistee also broke his net on a 30 lb Salmon on the same day. (Yesterday)

[EdB]

Nice job on the fish and sorry to hear of the 2 net problems. That's a real bummer on the probe rigger. You had some great fishing action!

It is to bad there isn't a law requiring all netting operations, tribal or commercial, to post their net coordinates on the internet the same day as setting or moving them.

Found this boat hook floating off Ludington a week ago. Gave it to my buddy who who thought it would be nice when coming to the docks fishing solo. He's the grandfather of one our members here. If it had a name or number on it, I would have returned it to the owner.

Got one unnamed board this year too. I filled my net net handle with foam so it would float but never put my name on it. I'll be correcting that next time I grab it with a marker in my pocket.

[tom]

Wow Ryan, I don't think I'll ever complain about a couple of lost lures again. I think you did come out ahead with the fish count though.

[IRon]

Same here, I took a swim noodle cut it lengthwise with a utility knife to the proper size to slide into my net handle and now it floats. I really like the boat hook. Might have to modify mine like that.

Ps good job on the fish but sorry about your misfortunes with the nets.

[SeaCatMich]

My net broke clean off of the handle on Sun. trying to get a 24 pounder in the boat. Didn't have a spare so we were screwed and had to hand grab the others. A friend that is fishing in Manistee also broke his net on a 30 lb Salmon on the same day. (Yesterday)

I always have two nets onboard so we were fine with landing the fish. The other net was my really big one though that hadn't been on the boat in quite a few years. Brought it along just in case we ran into any of the big Kings others have been catching. Unfortunately we didn't need the big net but better to have a landing net that's too big than the other way around.

[DiverDennis]

Cut the day short after finding one of the nets the hard way. We had done a pretty good job of seeing them and avoiding getting into them for a day and a half. The crew (and captain) didn't get much sleep for two nights and while i was rigging lines someone says hey there's a net buoy. Ends up it is directly out the port stern quarter of the boat and unfortunately is the outside flag. We quickly see the other four flags and realize we are right over the top of the net. Managed to quickly raise 2 of the riggers up quickly and keep them out of the net but did loose one Ace High plug.One other rigger gets hung but apparently I got there to raise it just in time and didn't loose the cannon ball (lure gone though). The other rigger got hung solid though and lost the ball and unfortunately that was the FishHawk probe rigger so it is gone too (X4 probe). The wire diver got hung so lost a full BW meat rig setup and a Deeper Diver on it -- plus lots of wire so it will need to be re-spooled.

What a frickin nightmare. Hopefully the net situation will get better.