Grand Haven 8/21pm and 8/22am

[mrhookup]

Friday Evening - Finished 2/3:

Spent Friday afternoon trying to put a crew together for a short notice after work trip with only my buddy Matt able to join, but had a coworker and another friend that could go Saturday morning. Matt said he could do the morning as well but we had nothing going on Friday night so we decided to give it a shot as a scouting trip for the morning. Was a bit bumpy so we headed South a ways out to 120FOW and setup on a North troll with the waves to make it easier on boat control for a two man crew. Got the probe down and found both the break down about 90ft or so and a pretty wicked current coming out of the north which worked out very well for trolling with the waves. Put out our 6 rod spread by 7pm and fished until 9:30pm going 2/3with a couple of mid-teens kings in the 120-130FOW range. All hits on a North troll, nothing headed South, and all fish below 80ft down.

First fish of the night

Last fish of the night

Saturday Morning - Finished 7/11

Saturday morning headed south with a solid game plan to pretty much repeat the same program as the night before. Setup in 120 FOW on a north troll, got 4 lines in the water and a rigger with a plug goes off, hand the rod to my buddy Jack and we put his first lake Michigan king in the boat. This fish came in hot and dove around the other rigger line at the back of the boat and I scooped him immediately after with the fish, jplug, and net still wrapped around the other rigger line. While untangling that mess the rigger line, which is still in the water at this point, starts peeling line through my hands. My coworker Rob grabbed the rod while I finished untangling the line, within seconds after I got his line free, our 200cu rig goes with the plug that was hot from the night before, Matt grabs the rod, and we're doubled up. 3/3 to start the morning and at this point we only had one line in the water so we got reorganized and finished putting the spread out. Had a bit of a lull at that point until 8pm when a diver with a plug went off and we put another king in the boat. Nothing until 9:45am then we hooked 7 more by 11:30am in the 140-150FOW range all but one being on plugs, either green glow or green and chrome. Had a bunch of tangles, the most ever on a trip for me during this late morning flurry. At one point we had slowed way down going with the current, so I decided to check the lines for mussels and tangles since they were all set very deep. As I went to check the rigger with the big paddle on it, two seconds after I popped it off the release it's starts bouncing with the rod still in my hand. A king whacked it just as it started to float up. First time we've ever had that happen and brought in a surprise king. Called it a day at noon shortly there after.

3/3 in the first 15min to start the morning

Doubled up

Late morning king that hit after popping the rigger line

They were loving the plugs for us

Here's what worked for the two trips:

- (HOT) 200ft. copper with 4oz diver bomb - Luck Charms Ace High Plug - (4/5)

- 200ft. copper with 4oz diver bomb - Green Lightning Ace High Plug - (0/1)

- Rigger at 110ft - Pearl Fish Scale White 11" paddle with Frosted Fern UV fly (1/2)

- Rigger at 110ft - Pearl Fish Scale White 11" paddle with Oceana UV fly (1/1)

- Rigger at 70ft - Double Glow Ace High Plug (1/1)

- Magnum low wire diver (clear with UV tape) out 180ft with 8ft leader to bait- Green Splatter Back Ace High plug (1/1)

- Magnum low wire slide diver out 160ft with 30ft lead to bait - #4 Green Back Chrome J-plug (1/1)

- 100ft. copper with 4oz diver bomb - #4 Green Back Chrome J-plug (0/1)

- High wire slide diver out 230ft with 50ft leader to bait - 8" Chrome UV Crush Yellow Dot Spin Doctor and Mirage Chartreuse Bead fly (0/1)

Breakdown by bait type: 0/0 on meat, 7/10 on plugs, 2/4 on flasher flies

[sparky30]

great report! how deep do you think those 200's with the dive bombs are getting?

[mrhookup]

great report! how deep do you think those 200's with the dive bombs are getting?

We were clipping the dive bomb on the backer (40lb braid) after the copper and letting it out an additional 125'. Our trolling speed was 2.5-2.8 at the ball so per the dive bomb charts it should have been adding an additional 40' or so. I'm guessing it was down around 80-90' since that's where most of our hits were coming and the break was in that zone. The 100'cu with the weight was probably 70'-80' since we were letting the weight out an extra 175'.

[Nailer]

Sweet. Great shots, and report.

[sparky30]

Thanks, i might have to try a few of those for when they get that deep. Do they pull on the boards much more? I dont have riggers so might be a good way for me to get deeper without having to get 450 and 500 cu's.

[mrhookup]

They do somewhat but not terrible, I think the Stinger dive bombs pull harder because they are designed to use water pressure to get more depth whereas the torpedos cut through the water very well.

[KICK'R]

Nice work!

[SUPERTRAMP]

Nice job Kevin. Not sure why you are having the tangles, but well done on the Kings Saturday.

[mrhookup]

Nice job Kevin. Not sure why you are having the tangles, but well done on the Kings Saturday.

Newbs on the wheel going into a 2-3ft chop but with the current Mike, throttle control was not my crews strong suit this weekend . Thanks!