Grand Haven, 5/31 AM, 6 for 9

[Mega Byte]

The ramp is still flooded but useable.  After hitting Lake MI I pointed the bow north and ran about 5 miles.  We started setting lines in 40 FOW on a NW troll.  My new favorite setup - the slide diver - took a nice king in 51 fow.  It was on a Moonshine Dancing Anchovy spoon.  I had a 30' lead behind the #1 slide diver with the o-ring and it was set to a #3 setting.  I let out 150' of line between the diver and the rod, so 180 ft total.  Going from memory here, but I think that gets the bait around 35' down.  We got that bait reset and the low diver fires in 55 FOW.  It was mag dipsy diver with the o-ring on a 1.5 setting out 70'.  The wire got stuck between the pullies and this king was just thumbing against it.  We managed to get the big king in the net.  He had bent one of the hooks before we could get the wire unstuck but was hooked with both of the other treble hooks.  While we posed for pictures with that fish, the Dancing Anchovy slide diver went again (still in 55 fow).  Boated another nice king.  We spun around at 70 fow and headed SE to run over our other marks.  In 68 fow on a SSE troll the other slide dive went.  Same size, same settings, just with a Blue Flounder Pounder spoon.  (all mag sizes by the way).  We lost that fish due to poor coaching my part and a rooking on the rod who didn't know how the steer the fish.  It kept going on one side of the outboard, then the other, and back, and forth, and back...it ended up shaking its head violently and throwing the hook about 5' from the net.  It was a small king.

No other hits as we trolled through our prior marks.  We turned and headed west.  In 90 FOW the SWR rigger fires with another Rachet Jaw Moonshine mag spoon.  The ball was down 25' and the bait around 30' - 35'.  Still working through some rookie mistakes here and he steered it right into the downrigger cable.  Got it out of that and he kept reeling fast and I couldn't get the net down in time.  He swam right under the net and the swim platform and got a hook caught in the net, started shaking and popped off.  First time I've lost a fish due to poor netting in 5 years.  It was another small king.  Not really what we were looking for so we head West.  Continued seeing some good marks, but these were deeper so we dropped the baits down more in the 50 to 70 foot range.  We put out a 250 copper with a mag Blue Flounder Pounder and it took a nice hit in 135 FOW.  Then the Rachet Jaw on the rigger went again.  We had set it down to 70' but with blowback was probably closer to 65 or 60.  So we had a doubleheader going.  Boated the nice king from the rigger and he's in the net the high slide diver goes off again in 137 fow.  (I can't recall if it was the blue flounder pounder or the dancing anchovy, but I'm leaning towards the blue flounder pounder.)  If the fish is still in the net, and two are on the line, is that a triple?  The fish on the high diver made some blistering fast runs.  We got the king on the 250 copper netted and focused on the dipsy and he had run out 700+ feet of line.  At 850 feet of line we pulled all of the lines on one side of the boat and started to circle him.  He managed to 1025 feet of braid off at his max distance.  Didn't want to set the drag any tighter for fear of bending a hook.  Will all of the lines off one side, and we pulled the 250 Cu off the other side, we were able to more quickly gain line.  The runs stopped, but it felt like we were pulling a parachute through the water.  When we finally got him to the boat he was basically dead and literally being pulled sideways.  We got him netted and noticed that the hook started out in the mouth, and there was a tear by where the jaws meet and after he threw the hook from his mouth, two trebles caught him in the side, right in the center of his body.  (I'm a bit picky about having sharp hooks.)  So a lot of that drag getting pulled was the boat driving away with a parachute fish behind it.  We looked at the DNR regs on this one and they say you can't retain a fish if it wasn't hooked in the mouth.  Well, this one was hooked in the mouth, then it was hooked in the side and the fish was basically dead so we decided to keep it.

So, after just finding the fish my guys inform me that we have to get back to the dock so they can do farm work.  So we pulled the rest of the lines and headed in.  We tried to keep the SOG around 2.5 - 2.9.  I lost a probe on the prior night's trip so I don't know the speed at the ball.  Here are pictures of our four bigger kings.  I couldn't find my digital scale and the cheapo, backup dial scale from Walmart wasn't working so I have no idea on the weight.  We had one other miss in there somewhere, but I can't remember what it was on but I think the depth range was between 90 and 130 fow.

Other interesting notes, we fished the prior evening right out front in 50 - 110 fow with nothing to show for but 2 for 4 in the steelhead department.  (that's what drove us to head north in the morning)  Also, Whitehall has some insane reports (20 - 30 hits) and there was a lady's tournament out of Grand Haven the morning of this report and a lot of boats motored north and I'm assuming they were heading to Whitehall.  Overall, it was a great trip.   

[ZachEno]

Great report! Nice work on the fish and all of the details in your report.


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[Cadilac Grills]

You got things Dialed brother. Awesome report bye the way. You gotta love them moonshine spoons, they hands down put fish in the coffin!!!



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[Hooked Up]

Great report!  I appreciate the details!  The fish seem to have scattered some.  The storms this weekend will probably add to that.  Was there still a lot of debris as there was last week Monday when I was out?

Great pic's too!

 

 

 

[Mega Byte]

Was there still a lot of debris as there was last week Monday when I was out?  

Some debris, but I think it was less than last week.

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