Holland Evening 7/22

[zgrinder on Fin Warrior]

Put down straight out of the harbor in 140FOW and pointed North as there was a 2' wave push in that direction and dragged lures from 140 to 130FOW.  Ran with Tom so we got 5 rods out initially.  Not much happening with a rip or two until a laker hit the green paddle/green fly down 95 at the ball and wadded up in the 300 weighted steel.  I dumped the laker in disgust as it made a mess of the gear.  After that, I pulled the 16oz ball off the weighted steel as my gut was telling me I was running that to low (Brads Cut Plug and Paddle set up) and put it on a Off Shore board without the added weight.  Bang, that hit not soon after is was put down in 129FOW.  The rollers and the long line made for a really long finish to boating a 19lb (N) king.  Love those VMC 2/0 xtra strong hooks.  Took perhaps 10 min to unbutton the fish.  Put out a 400' copper with meat but it didn't get any interest.  Had another jumper bite a dipsey about 60' down with a blue dolphin in 130FOW but lost it during the fight.  Weird in that we got all the gear in the boat and we were about to drop the dipsey in the water and noticed it was not attached to anything.  The snap swivel was bent wide open.  How we got the gear in the back of the boat is still a mystery to us as we think it should have been lost when the fish came off.  Slid into 110-90FOW water after sun down but no takers for our offerings.

We were on the low volume end of the catches tonight per radio reports but happy to get a fish that can be steaked.  Think I heard Parker call in at one point with a good report.  One boat reported a cooler of 9.  We trolled north all evening.  Fin Warrior had to run back past Port Sheldon into the SW chop back to Holland and did a stout job at that.    

Courtesy of Tom (many thanks!), I finally got a fish pic on the water.