Pentwater 7/4, 12-17

[Mega Byte]

I managed to leave the handy-dandy notebook in the truck, so I don't have all of the details, but we mainly fished 140 FOW to 170 FOW.  We did venture into 100 and out to 200.  Just about every boat fished shallower than us, but we were getting bit and were able to avoid boat traffic so we stayed where we were.  Our first bite was at 5:30 am (11# King) in 142 FOW on a rigger down 90 ft.  It was a 11" white, double-slick paddle with a pickled sunshine fly with a 42" leader.  

I clipped 2 oz tadpole divers in front of my 300 coppers to get them to run deeper.  One had a green flounder on and the other a green haze meat rig.  At 6:12, the 300 with the green flounder went.  It was a small king we decided to keep.  That bait went multiple times for us.  Our biggest king came at 6:54 on the 300 with the meat rig.  It was a 21# king.  While fighting that one, and on a West troll, we had another hit in 165 FOW, but I didn't note what pole that was on.  It was a 12# laker.  Then the 250s started going.  One at 8:11 on a green jeans and one at 8:28 on a green flounder.  Both got off.  One looked like a steelhead and the other ripped it like a nice king.

At 9:40 the 300 meat rig got hit again.  At this point my note taking dropped off because my daughter hijacked my phone for a movie.  But we continued to pick away at them at a pretty consistent basis, except when we went deeper than 170.  We got a nice 11# steelhead as we pulled lines at 2:00.  We probably would have limited out in another couple of hours, but I had kids that were tired and ready to head in.  We finished with 3 kings, 1 coho, 4 lakers and 4 steelhead.    

250s and 300s were good.  Riggers down 60 to 90 went three times.  Nothing on a 3 color, 100 or 200 copper.  Wire divers only went once (laker).  We didn't have high divers out.  Baits that worked well were all magnum spoons: green jeans, green flounder, hulk.  These got time in the water but didn't take fish: a-bomb, bloody nose, blue jeans.  I'm sure there were a few others that I didn't note.

We also had 3 flasher fly bites and 2 meat bites.

So, for us, 140 to 165 was best, 50 to 90 down.  Troll direction didn't seem to matter.  We'll be back out on Sunday.

[2MD]

what a great report!

[Jolly Time]

Great report. It sounds like a great time out on the water. Thank you for the report.

[zgrinder on Fin Warrior]

Many thanks for the report.  No action on Bloody Nose - that is mighty surprising.  Love the pic of the steelhead - must of been fun to bring it in.

[Salmonguy9]

Great report, ty! Tight lines…


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