Pentwater 8/25 PM, 1 for 2

[Mega Byte]

Left the dock at 5:30 and headed out with my daughters.  I had report from someone who fished that morning that said the fish had moved out a bit and were between 120 and 180 out front and bit South of port.  So we started in 180 FOW out front.  On the run out, I had some fullspeed marks in 165 so I had a hunch that is where we would find them.  (My sonor sends back something if it marks a fish while we motor out.  Sometimes it's fish, sometimes is just noise.)  We stopped in 180 and got the kicker fired up and pointed the boat back to the SE and started setting lines.  We didn't mark a fish until we hit 170 FOW but it was a good mark.  We spent some time in the 160 to 170 range and marked some nice fish, but didn't have any takers, so we headed East.  There were a number of boats in the 110 - 130 range and we worked in there.  At 7:45 PM in 112 FOW the 250 Cu with a magnum Blue Jeans spoon took a hit.  We boated a nice, small king that made for a great picture.  We checked the 300 (Green Haze paddle and meat rig) to make sure there wasn't anything small on that and reset both lines.  About 20 minutes later the same setup to another hit in 97 FOW, but it quickly got off.

In the 160s, at 60 feet down the temp was in the low 50s.  In at 81 fow, down 60 was 45 degrees.  I think that colder down temp started around 115 FOW.  There was a lot of bait in close.  In total, we only spent about 45 minutes shallower than 120 feet and we took two hits.  We probably would have done better if we had spent more time in there.  But after that second hit, we started pulling lines to get the kids home.  It was a fun trip even though we didn't have a lot of action.  I did hear a report of a guy that got one in 150 FOW.  I talked to another boat that got 2 coho and king, but I didn't ask their depth.

 

Lots of bait in close:

 

 

[Reel-Deal]

Great report Jason - seems slow - we should be out as much as possible next week in Muskegon - hope to tag a few!

[Mega Byte]

Yeah, I think I've had more one or two hit trips this year than I have ever had, but I also don't typically target lake trout.  

[Reel-Deal]

Yea, me too, I never target Lakers but if they hit, I will keep them

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[Mega Byte]

When I have the kids on the boat, especially if I'm alone with them, trying to maintain a bottom bouncing setup as you navigate different depths with everything going on, it becomes a wasted line because I can't consistently keep it on bottom.  Then you have the darn accidental releases where you have reset the whole rig or you get the small laker that doesn't trip the release that you drag around for a while.  It's too much hassle for me on most of my trips.  Maybe I need to train one of the girls to maintain the lake trout setup.  They would probably enjoy that.

[Jmiron25]

I agree ,, and as much as ur girls catch those big fish they sure seem to love fishing !! My buddy who runs Hot Spit in Grand Gaven had to do the very same thing with his 2 daughters ( age.12 and 14 )and they went on to win most of the Women fishing tourneys On the west side !!! They don’t fish now due to Careers but those girls are well known around the fish Circuit ,, he know has some incredible first mates that all now have their Captain certs !! Fish on Mega Bite and thank you again for all these great posts !! Fish on Fish on !! Fin finders !! 

[FBD]

Tournament fishing lakers it's pretty much a full time gig at the stern on a calm day where you can maintain a constant depth. Throw in four foot waves, or a troll in / out where the depth changes...