Grand Haven 8/16am (Pic Heavy)

[mrhookup]

Decided to hit Grand Haven Saturday morning with a couple of my good fishing buddies Alex and Jake. With the cold water in tight having warmed ten degress to 55F on the surface, we were hoping that despite the less than stellar reports throughout the week, the fish had finally found the bait in the mud. Having heard the bite in there has been short lived at first light, we decided to get there extra early and fish in the dark for a bit. Started setting lines at 4:30am with the place to ourselves in front of the pier heads. About 10min after getting our 6 rod spread in the water we had our first fish on. We were 2-4 with a couple smaller kings in the net by 5:30am before another boat had even broke the pier heads . As it started to lighten up a little bit and the parade of boats was exiting the channel, the bigger fish started to bite. Our next 3 passes across the mud line included a double of 18lb and 21lb kings, a 25lb king, and a double of two very large skamania steelhead that were both lost near the back of the boat after an amazing aerial display. To our surprise, most of the boats headed deep with only about 4 others staying in tight and a couple of those bailing after about an hour. Finished the day at 1pm going 9 for 15 (7-10 on kings, 1-4 on steelhead, and 1-1 on coho). North and South trolls in 25-35 FOW across the front of the pier heads accounted for almost all of our hits and we never went deeper than 45 FOW. A couple things we noticed throughout the morning: anytime we put a flasher/meat rig down it killed the king bite on our riggers and divers, and most of our hits came in the clear water just before or just after crossing the mud line, no hits trolling alongside the mud line on either side. It was an all spoon bite for us except for one small king early on a plug.

Here's what worked:

Stingray Nitro Twister - 175' back on board with 1oz dive bomb - 6lb king

Stingray Nitro Twister - 175' back on board with 1oz dive bomb - lost king

Stingray Nitro Twister - 175' back on board with 1oz dive bomb - lost king

Green Lightning Ace High - rigger @ 14'- 8lb king

Stingray Michael Jackson - rigger @ 24' - 18lb king

DW Carmel Icicle - Slide Diver on 4 out 30ft. - 21lb king

Stinger Gold Dbl Orange Crush - 125' back on board with 1oz dive bomb - lost steelhead

Stinger Jawbreaker - 125' back on board with 1oz dive bomb - lost steelhead

Stingray Carmel Dolphin - rigger @ 16' - lost steelhead

Stingray Michael Jackson - 24' down on rigger - 25lb king

Stingray Michael Jackson - 24' down on rigger - 8lb king

Stinger Steelie Stomper - 125' back on board with 1oz dive bomb - 9lb steelhead

Stinger Steelie Stomper - 125' back on board with 1oz dive bomb - 4lb coho

DW Carmel Icicle - Slide Diver on 4 out 60ft. - 23lb king

Stingray UV Green Dolphin - Magnum Slide Diver on 3 out 45ft. - lost king

Jake with our first fish of the morning

Alex with his first fish to the net

The result of our first double of the morning

[mrhookup]

more pics...

Jake with the big fish of the day and his biggest ever

the only steelhead we managed to get to the net

[mrhookup]

more pics...

each of us with our biggest fish on the day

the catch

[buster107]

Great job!!

[highpointdf]

We did very well deep on Friday, deep. Twelve in the boat friday morning. We were one of the boats that went out deep saturday, assuming. Bad move.

[gmfishon]

awesome job the plan paid off !! gotta love that, glad you spoke of the flasher meat rig result, i dont buy the best thing ever some guys talk with them.

[mrhookup]

awesome job the plan paid off !! gotta love that, glad you spoke of the flasher meat rig result, i dont buy the best thing ever some guys talk with them.

Thanks Grant. This is our first year running meat and it's been very hit or miss for us, although this isn't exactly a "normal" year for water temps out there right now. They've worked best for us on divers running 50ft down or deeper, nothing shallow on them so far.

[BenLubbs]

Nicely done Kevin! I'm surprised how clean those fish look for being so close. A couple of the ones we had yesterday were looking pretty brown.

[Martin1950]

Thank You for that detailed report and the "Fish Porn". Planning a couple of outings this week but out of South Haven. Send some of that cooler water toward the Southern Basin, Please.

Martin

[Wheres Joe]

Great Job Kevin

I went out of GH on Sunday Morn before dark and landed 2 kings and 1 steelie. Lost one at the back of the boat and lost a monster who snapped my leader from the dipsey. All fish on plugs except the brake off which was on a orange spoon:( All fish were full of spawn. 8:30 AM and the bite just died. I was doing the same program as all the charters around us. East and west troll between 90 and 125 FOW. For $10 you would think GH would have a fish cleaning station at the launch. Guess we are supporitng the Fountian.

[mrhookup]

Great Job Kevin

I went out of GH on Sunday Morn before dark and landed 2 kings and 1 steelie. Lost one at the back of the boat and lost a monster who snapped my leader from the dipsey. All fish on plugs except the brake off which was on a orange spoon:( All fish were full of spawn. 8:30 AM and the bite just died. I was doing the same program as all the charters around us. East and west troll between 90 and 125 FOW. For $10 you would think GH would have a fish cleaning station at the launch. Guess we are supporitng the Fountian.

Yeah I'm personally not a fan of the $10 fee or the 25-30min channel ride to the lake, both are reasons I fish Port Sheldon most of the time. I really only head to Grand Haven when there is the potential for fish in the mud (since Port Sheldon doesn't have that) or if it's late in the season and I think there are more mature kings staging closer to port. I do think you can get a yearly pass for $50, so your committing to fishing it more than five times if you want to save money. I believe I've fished it 4 times now and I didn't get the season pass so I've reached my limit for saving money there ....I do wish they had a cleaning station as well though.