St. Joe, 4/22

[Steve Arend]

Fishdog (Dave) had a small tourney on Saturday with the Mid Michigan Steelheaders and had asked me to fish with him and RCH (Larry). It was a best DNR limit weigh-in so we had a plan to hit the beach first thing in the morning and troll for browns hoping to pick up a few of those 10+ lb browns. Well as most know plans never go like you hope they will when fishing. We started at the pumping station and trolled down to the Shoreham estates with out a bump. At that time we just looked at each other and decided to head out to deep waters looking for kings. We just got on the outside of the second sand bar when a fish come flying out of the water and it took a few second to figure out what rod he was on. A nice 4 lb 4 oz. brown came on a Long “A†Bomber back 100’. We continued out to about 70 fow change our set up to a king program with (4) rigger, (2) half cores, (1) full core, (1) wire dip and (1) highline looking for a staggering steely. It was not to long after hitting 70’ and we headed on a northwest troll that a half core goes with a nice 4 lb Coho on a Mag. Purple Alewife. Then we set in for a dry spell, had a rigger go twice with no one home and a full core get hit but could not stick him. I brought the wire dipsy up to 20’ set on 3 and started to inch it back with another coho hit it at 40’ back with a chrome dodger and blue fly. We seen the boats out deep but never made it there.

[GLF]

Thanks for the report Steve. How many fish were weighed in at weigh in?

[Steve Arend]

Thanks for the report Steve. How many fish were weighed in at weigh in?

Let's just say "We took 1st place with our (3) fish.":eek:

I ran over to the DNR launch after the Weigh-in and the Flint Steelheeders had their weigh-in there and the report that I got from a few of the guys was that they had 7+ fish that went over 15 lbs. that where taken out in that 90-120 fow.

[huntingfool43]

. Then we set in for a dry spell, had a rigger go twice with no one home and a full core get hit but could not stick him. .

Steve

No one home or did you let farmer Larry grab the rod? :D Fished St Joe with Wayne 9Midway) and his buddy Harv from work along with Justin(I think that was his name) who was also fishing the tourney. We only boated 1 fish, a 2.2 lb brown not long after setting lines and never had another bump. We didnot head to deeper water, stayed inside of 55 ft. We threw everthing but the sink and couldn't get anything to go. The one we got came off the rigger with a green meany, thats what Wayne called it, don't know the depth or how far back so Wayne will have to fill in the details.

[Midway97]

As Steve stated above, we took one brown on a rigger back 30 down 15 in 38 FOW on a raider Green Spook. Marked alot of fish out from the pier heads in the 40-50 FOW range but couldn't buy a bump. Heard tell of a boat taking a couple in 192 FOW, but didn't feel like running out that far with what time we had left.

On the other hand, once the rain stopped and teh clouds cleared up it was a beautiful day on the water.

[EdB]

100-120 feet of water a little ways south was the spot on Sat. We trolled around out front and took 3 quick ones and it died there. Picked another around 9:30 that kept me hanging there longer than I should have,mostly in 40-50 of water. A buddy calls about 11:30 after a long west troll and lit it up at 100 feet. We ran out, hit 4 and boxed 2 in a hour but had to be at the docks at 1:30, I couldn't convince my crew to hang there longer as they had a committment on land. My buddy boxed 17 and he got out deeper late with only 3 in the box to start there. All in the top 50 feet of water, free birds, 1/2 cores, full cores, divers from 60 to 90 and riggers 40-50 did the damage, mostly spoons, dolphins were best, but double jointed orange and gold rapalas were good on the birds. I couldn't get back Sunday but friends picked away at some good boxes in the same water, not quite as fast but a steady bite.

[SalmonSlayer]

Wow, sounds like the fish have moved out already! Isn't this a bit early in the year for them to be out that far???

btw...MY FIRST POST !!!!!