Early season programs

[Mark]

Just wondered what your general plan of attack is when headed out early season for kings. I boated three 10-12 pounders at the end of April last year in Manistee. Two were on 2 colors of lead at the pierheads and one was a rigger 75 down in 150 feet of water...all on mag spoons.

The early fish around Frankfort are pretty scattered too, with cold temps around 40 and I usually like to target the upper third of the water column in 100 plus depths. Most times I'll get one or two, but that's about it. Any suggestions?

[silver one]

Sounds like your program is working. If your fishing 2 color or swr rig that tells me the fish like distance from the boat. Try running spoons further back on the rigger. also run a Dipsey rig with a flasher and a fly out each side. Ive found that these work better as attractors for early kings and will get your riggers producing more and even take one or two on the dipsey. Run more on the surface as well. get some inline mono riggs on the surface with thin fins and j11 and j13 rapalas as I have taken quite a few nice 10 to 15 lb spring kings on this program. You will just have to figure out what works best on your rig.

[HitMan]

Early spring King fishing usually depends on your location. The majority of the better fishing begins further South and slowly moves North. For example, Grand Haven and St. Joe are good examples of places to fish near the harbor and channel because of muddy, warmer water, which attracts alewives. But, this type of fishing can be hit or miss and is not extremely reliable this time of year. Usually, shallow downriggers, 2-5 color cores, and shallow divers are used.

Usually, the depths from 50-120 feet are good for spring Kings from St. Joe to wherever. Our spread usually consists of 3 downriggers, shallower cores (3-13 colors, but more 3-10 colors), shallow divers, deeper wire divers for the deeper fish, and surface planer boards. The biggest problem with late April to May King fishing is the water temperatures are usually similar from the surface to 120 feet down. This allows for the Kings to be anywhere they want and you have to have a variety of techniques to get them at different levels. It is very common to catch a large king on a 3 color core on a spoon and 100 feet down on a flasher and fly combination at the same time. Early King fishing is very diverse and you have to adapt to the conditions.