mrhookup Posted July 27, 2015 Posted July 27, 2015 Was able to make it out of Grand Haven a couple times this weekend without having to fish the bumpy seas on Saturday morning. 7/24pm Had a late crew and we got stuck in rush hour traffic on our way out to GH so got a bit latter start. Crew consisted of my roommates, a good fishing buddy, and his close friend for his first time on the big lake. Had lines down around 7pm or so and fish until 11:30pm. Finished 4/5 with 3 lake trout, a 10-12lb king, and a nice trash bag (thought that one was a lake trout for a while). The lake trout came in 115-125 FOW and the king hit on the way into the pier heads in 82 FOW at 11pm. Here's what worked: 200cu - Chartruese custom DW Captain's Choice plug - laker High Slide Diver out 130ft - BW Spotted Dick meat rig - laker 75cu with 2oz dive bomb - some spoon - 5ft long plastic bag Low Diver out 100ft - Green Splatter Back Ace High - lost king 100cu with 2oz Dive Bomb - MS Happee Meal Mag - king We had just been joking about how Lakers often fight like a plastic bag then we ironically had a planer board drag back.... Beautiful night on the water... 7/26am Just my dad and I headed out on Sunday morning and were greeted with a flat lake and another great lake Michigan sunrise... Felt weird running only a 6 rod spread after having graduated up to 12 rods lately with the bigger boat, but we were still able to have a good morning. Had lines down at 6am in 85 FOW on a NW troll and headed out to 140 FOW. Stayed in the 120-150 range the rest of the morning pulling lines at 11am. Finished 4/5 with a 15lb king, 2lb king, shaker king, and about a 6lb steelhead. There were some nice slicks out in the 140-150 range, north and south trolls were best. Here's what worked: 200cu - MS Happee Meal mag - king High Slide Diver out 150ft - Pearly/blue Spinnie and Blue bubble fly - lost king 100cu - Stinger Shanster - 2lb king Downrigger at 50ft - Stinger Stingray UV Green Dolphin - shaker king Downrigger at 70ft - Mtn. Dew Spinnie with UV fly - steelhead
bowbender Posted July 27, 2015 Posted July 27, 2015 Nice fish great pic's, I always look forward to your posts, doesn't get much better enjoying a beautiful sunrise on the lake with your dad.
Hooked Up Posted July 27, 2015 Posted July 27, 2015 Was able to make it out of Grand Haven a couple times this weekend without having to fish the bumpy seas on Saturday morning.7/24pm Had a late crew and we got stuck in rush hour traffic on our way out to GH so got a bit latter start. Crew consisted of my roommates, a good fishing buddy, and his close friend for his first time on the big lake. Had lines down around 7pm or so and fish until 11:30pm. Finished 4/5 with 3 lake trout, a 10-12lb king, and a nice trash bag (thought that one was a lake trout for a while). The lake trout came in 115-125 FOW and the king hit on the way into the pier heads in 82 FOW at 11pm. Here's what worked: 200cu - Chartruese custom DW Captain's Choice plug - laker High Slide Diver out 130ft - BW Spotted Dick meat rig - laker 75cu with 2oz dive bomb - some spoon - 5ft long plastic bag Low Diver out 100ft - Green Splatter Back Ace High - lost king 100cu with 2oz Dive Bomb - MS Happee Meal Mag - king We had just been joking about how Lakers often fight like a plastic bag then we ironically had a planer board drag back.... Beautiful night on the water... 7/26am Just my dad and I headed out on Sunday morning and were greeted with a flat lake and another great lake Michigan sunrise... Felt weird running only a 6 rod spread after having graduated up to 12 rods lately with the bigger boat, but we were still able to have a good morning. Had lines down at 6am in 85 FOW on a NW troll and headed out to 140 FOW. Stayed in the 120-150 range the rest of the morning pulling lines at 11am. Finished 4/5 with a 15lb king, 2lb king, shaker king, and about a 6lb steelhead. There were some nice slicks out in the 140-150 range, north and south trolls were best. Here's what worked: 200cu - MS Happee Meal mag - king High Slide Diver out 150ft - Pearly/blue Spinnie and Blue bubble fly - lost king 100cu - Stinger Shanster - 2lb king Downrigger at 50ft - Stinger Stingray UV Green Dolphin - shaker king Downrigger at 70ft - Mtn. Dew Spinnie with UV fly - steelhead Great report and pic's! Healthy looking fish What boat do you fish from? I fish out of GH too, looks similar to mine? Scott
mrhookup Posted July 27, 2015 Author Posted July 27, 2015 Scott, here's what she looks like with the gear taken off for a day of beaching
Hooked Up Posted July 27, 2015 Posted July 27, 2015 Nice rig Kevin! I think I've seen it in GH. What size kicker is do you have? I've got the same Yamaha 200 ~ great engine, but also considered adding a kicker 4-stroke to my 23' CC Hydra Sports. Scott
mrhookup Posted July 27, 2015 Author Posted July 27, 2015 Kicker is a 1999 9.9hp Yamaha 4 stroke with the alternator in it so it charges the electronics when trolling, haven't had any issues with the batteries staying charged even when night fishing with the spreader lights, etc on. Works like a charm and saves me a ton of gas and keeps the hours off the main.
sparky30 Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 That doesnt look like a king your dad is holding, looks like a big coho. Nice job on the fish
mrhookup Posted July 28, 2015 Author Posted July 28, 2015 That doesnt look like a king your dad is holding, looks like a big coho. Nice job on the fishThe second pic with it vertical is a bit misleading I think as I see what you're saying, it does have that pronounce lateral line. It's the same fish as the first pic with it horizontal, had a black mouth, and was a female full of eggs a bit too big for immature coho eggs, definitely a king I believe.
fishy1 Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 Its a king you can also see the cartilage in the tail.
sparky30 Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 Yea first pic looks for sure king, that second pic screamed coho with the coloring. Nice job
SUPERTRAMP Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 Nice job on the fish Kevin, tell your Dad I said hi, that looks a lot like about a 10# Coho not a King. ? BTW Ken Neidlinger passed away this April, just though you would like to know. I see you are using the center pin's he liked so much.
CSmalligan Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 Mr Hook Up. It appears in your pictures that you are using mooching rod and reels. Can give us some info on your set up and how you like the mooching rig?
mrhookup Posted July 29, 2015 Author Posted July 29, 2015 Yea first pic looks for sure king, that second pic screamed coho with the coloring. Nice job It had been in the cooler for several hours at that point so I'm sure that had something to do with it
mrhookup Posted July 29, 2015 Author Posted July 29, 2015 Nice job on the fish Kevin, tell your Dad I said hi, that looks a lot like about a 10# Coho not a King. ? BTW Ken Neidlinger passed away this April, just though you would like to know. I see you are using the center pin's he liked so much.Will do Mike and I remember you posting this spring about Ken passing, very said as I still have his VHS tapes on big lake and river fishing and we got the idea for using the mooching reels from him.
mrhookup Posted July 29, 2015 Author Posted July 29, 2015 Mr Hook Up. It appears in your pictures that you are using mooching rod and reels. Can give us some info on your set up and how you like the mooching rig?Chad, you are correct. We use mooching reels on our downrigger and planer board rods and love the 1:1 fight you get with them. Having grown up more of a fly fisherman than anything else, I missed that aspect with the traditional level wind reels when I dove back into the big lake thing a couple summers ago. I'm just not a big fan of not gaining line when you turn the handle on a level wind if there's too much pressure for that particular drag setting, I feel much more in control with the direct drive functionality of the mooching reels. Now we do still stick with the traditional level winds with counters for dipsy rods because we run wire line and like the counters for letting the dipsies creep out and still know how far out they were when they get hit. I will say I've yet to have a passenger say they enjoyed the fight on the dipsy reels more than our moochers.The specific reels we are using are the Diawa M1 Mooching reels, they are an entry level reel at $60-70 a piece depending where you find them; Shimano makes a very comparable model as well for $10-20 more. They are "alright" quality and get the job done for us; at least we are yet to lose a fish due to a reel failure. On our downrigger rods, we load them up with 20lb mono, Trilene Big Game is what we use but everyone has their favorites. For the reels on our planer rods, we started last year with a base of 25-30lb hi-vis mono topped with 250' of 30lb Power Pro Depth Hunter and finished with 50' of 20lb fluorocarbon. The Depth Hunter line is color coded so you know exactly how much line you've let out without needing a counter on the reel. At the time, to get depth on our boards we just used torpedo weights, no lead core or copper line at all. The depth charts that come with the topedos were created using 30lb braided line, and with the metered Depth Hunter Power Pro, we could dial in exactly where our baits were running. This worked very well for us last year, but we had a small boat at the time and never ran more than two planer boards to a side so the steep dive angle the torpedos have wasn't an issue for resetting boards. Since moving up to the bigger boat in June and somewhat due to the tougher fishing this year, I've started to mess around with super copper line and it's worked very well so far. This allows us to run 3-4 boards per side without any issues getting tangles while resetting them. We'll still add torpedos to get some extra depth, but we don't need to let them out as far, just enough to get an extra 15-30' of depth, so there's no issues. Since the reels don't have level winds on them, I don't fill them up completely so that if a beginner reels all the copper in on one side it doesn't go over the edge of the spool. You'd be surprised how much this is NOT a problem though, the tension from the fish tends to force the line to the lowest part of the spool when reeling them in so it almost goes on level on it's own. Just make sure anyone reeling in these setups without a fish on the end keeps tension on the line so that it goes on tight and even.
CSmalligan Posted July 29, 2015 Posted July 29, 2015 Great info! Have you tried a mooching rig with a cut plug?
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