Holland 7/20

[SeaCatMich]

Little bit of a late start as boyj of my fishing buddies were late getting to the house. While waiting I started spooling up a pair of half cores and finished them up after they arrived. We finally hit the road about an hour late. First decision of the day was between fishing out of Holland or Muskegon. Had to decide before we got to Grand Rapids on I96 coming over from Lansing. Since the launch has a fish cleaning station and there are no nets off Holland we decided to go there. 4 of us on the boat -- me, my two fishing buddies Tim and Pat plus Tim's 6 year old boy Jamie (his first Great Lakes fishing trip). Jamie really isn't big enough to hold and reel a trolling outfit himself but he did a great job reeling in 3 of the fish while the grown-ups held the rod.

Headed out to 160 FOW to start on a southwest course. Worked back and forth from 160 to 240 FOQ with most fish coming in the 180 to 210 area. Marked fish from 25 down to 90 deep but most were 50 to 79 down. Not a lot of marks though. Ended up 7 for 8 with 2 lake trout, 2 kings, and 3 steelhead. Lost one steelhead. Spread was 4 riggers, 2 wire divers, 1 PP diver, 2 full cores, 2 300 copper, 1 half core -- lots of rods but with 4 of us we could do it! Kind of nice to be able to cover all the depths at the same time. Downriggers never took a hit

1/1: As I was setting downriggers and divers, Pat started deploying the cores and coppers. First king hit an orange Pro King on a full core. Great part was that it hit right after Pat had put the board on the line -- the board didn't even hit the water out the back of the boat -- that was a first 7# King.

2/2: 300 copper with a Moonshine RV Wonder Bread spoon. 6# Lake Trout

3/3: Next fish hit a wire diver out 120' on 1. UV Big Weenie flasher and meat rig with a premium strip. 6# Steelhead.

4/4: Full core with the orange ProKing. 8# Steelhead

5/5: Wire diver with the UV BW meat rig but a whole herring. 13 # King

6/6: Half core with Dreamweaver Get'er Done spoon. 7# Steelhead

7/7: 300 copper with Moonshine RV Wonder Bread. 9# Lake Trout

7/8: Half core, Get'er Done spoon -- thinking it was a Steelhead but since it got off right after we took off the board. Fish hit as we decided to call it a day -- right after I announced "let's pull'm -- usually it is just fish filling up the graph with marks, nice of one to actually hit!

We actually ended up almost due west of Saugatuck in 179' when we pulled lines at about 5 pm. The 9 mile run back to Holland was easy with the light 1' chop. From the breakwall in though it was a zoo. Every type of boat you could imagine and the breakwall and beaches were filled with people -- never scene it so busy in Holland, but I don't think I've ever been there in late July. The DNR launch ramp was VERY busy with a line of 12+ boats waiting to get out and other boats launching. 3 ramps for in and 3 for out really isn't enough for summer weekends.

[buster107]

Great job!!