Holland 7/1 Evening, 3 for 5

[zgrinder on Fin Warrior]

Fished 5:30pm to 9:30pm with Janet tonight.  Set down in 125 FOW about 1/2 way between Holland and Port Sheldon.  Ran a deep program so only 4 lines to avoid tangles, 2 downriggers and 2 wire divers with mag dipseys.  SB rigger started with an 11" blue-silver paddle & blue fly.  Port SWR tipped with a silver blue J-plug.  Started running both around 85-95' deep.  Spoons on the wire divers set between 70-80' down on the Smart Troll probe.  Pushed out with no action until 170 FOW.  Had two quick strikes on each of the dipseys but did not land a fish.  Continued out to about 190FOW and nothing.  Decided since nothing else was happening to make a big loop to get on the same west troll over 170 FOW and swap out the blue paddle fly combo with a white paddle fly combo and move to a Wonderbread J-plug.  Just as we were reaching the hit depth, the port dipsey got smacked good, while I was changing into long pants, and Janet skillfully got the bent over mag wire dipsey out of the holder, over the SWR and into position at the back of the boat.  She couldn't gain any ground on the fish so she passed the rod over to me.  The fight ended with a 13.5lb king in the back of the boat on a mag gold & green UV spoon I picked up at the Outdoors Show in GR this year.  Janet is very good with the net, I would have struggled mightily netting the fish alone with the long lead on the dispey set-up.  We did another loop and the starboard dipsey got bit in 166FOW heading west again.  We landed a laker and released it.  Another loop across 170FOW produced nothing so we decided to head into skinny water for the dusk bite.  Right at sunset (not visible on the horizon) in 102 FOW the port dipsey got hit again with the same lure.  We landed a small king, got the hook out quickly and let it swim off to grow big.  

Final thoughts:  Fish were not interested in the deep lures on the downriggers.  Dipseys in the 52 degree range out to the side of the boat saw all the action  Fish were coming up for these spoons.  We marked no bait the entire trip.  Visibility was poor due to the Canadian wildfire smoke drifting into MI.  For most the evening it was between 1/4 and 1/2 mile.  I had the Furuno radar running the entire trip.  Nats on the other hand were robust - Sunday will be a repeat boat cleaning day.  Water fleas are starting to show up on the lines.  Enjoyed a fair amount of banter on 68 this evening.  Fishing chatter has been hard to come by so I enjoyed this much.  Kings and SH were being picked up in 90-110FOW by other boats - not sure how big.  My probe data indicated I had to get down below 90' to find temps <50 degrees which is why I ventured out deeper and ran a King only program, no high lines for Steelhead this trip.  Data below.

 

[WRENCHED 4 IT]

Wild fire smoke has been a real issue. Glad you were able to get out and catch a few. Thanks for the post Rich.