Friday morning I set up on the line in 70` of water letting the wind blow us south down to 42* 28`N and troll back up staying between 70` and 95` of water. I had a family up from Georgia whose daughter was attending a seminar in Chicago, she appeared a little tired when she reached the boat. This was an advantage to us as it appeared whenever she nodded off we had another hit, and yes she slept a lot. The best baits were a black/pearl flie behind white 180` out on a # 1 wire dipsey with a banana rig on the other. Riggers` down 50`-70` were also taking hits with the Silver Streak "Smurf" leading the way, followed by a smoke/ lil` boy blue combo.We had to wake up the daughter so she could land a 17# Brown, and the dad had to go buy a bigger cooler so he could take home it and the 17 Kings we landed.
On the afternoon trip the winds were still blowing and I again set up on the line in 90` and pointed it South, the fish were very active and we had hits going as soon as the lines were in the water. After I telling everyone at the beginning of the trip about setting the hook, it didn`t take long to find out who wasn`t listening, however the King made it to the boat along with it`s lip he tried to rip off
. I went into the wind, waves, and action all the way down to 42* 25` N where I turned and it continued on our way up. I stayed between 90` and 110` with the lil` boy blue/smoke and banana rig still back 180` on a # 1 wire taking the bulk of the hits. The `riggers down 70`-90` with a Silver Streak "Kevorkian" and "Smurf" were working as well. The gump Striper on the lead also did it`s job as we ended up with 18 Kings (5 over 14#`s) and a Laker.
On Saturday morning we started off hot and heavy with a 5AM on the line in 70` loosing the first 2 out of 3 fish to break offs, both were brand new glow spoons. The king that managed to stay on took a glow flie behind a white hot spot flasher and turned out to be the big fish of the day tipping the scale at 25#`s. We went through some dry spells but managed to have decent action, we ended up with 16 kings and a brown, loosing around 10. I ran the same baits that were working for the two previous trips, staying between the line and 28` N in water between 50` and 90` adjusting the `riggers and dipsey's accordingly. Unfortunately I managed to bump the "Hill" with both my dipsey's and `riggers where it came up quickly to 40` of water, and had to check and clean my lines of those darn zebra mussels.
For the afternoon trip I again set up at 28` N and let the winds blow us up to the line as I pointed it East from 80`, this time we had rain and possible thunder storms to deal with. The wind was picking up making it tricky to control the boat. We had a slow start and once we reached 130` it was good. I had the smoke/ Lil` boy blue dipsey take 3 hits in a row as quickly as I could get it back out. The Silver Streak "Kevorkian" and "Smurf" were once again the ticket down 70` and 90` on the `riggers. We managed a Laker, a coho and 14 Kings, most in the 6-8 pound range with a few between 12 and 15.
On Saturday morning, with a 6 am start, I set up straight out in 90` and pointed it into the 15-20 mph Southeast winds, we managed one Laker when we reached 130` and had very few marks on the way out. No one seemed to be doing a whole lot as far as finding active fish and the water down deep was cold, so I pointed it West to the shallower water. As I returned to 80` we had our next hit, a 7 # steelhead hit a double orange crush spoon down 40` on a `rigger giving a 10 yr. old his first taste of Lake Michigan fishing. Checking the Fish Hawk the temp was 39*, 50` down. I continued to 60` and took a few more hits, landing some decent Kings, I turned the boat as the winds were now blowing 20 -25 mph from the West and managed to tangle my wire dipsey with the `riggers and my lead, I was watching the lines and tried to control the speed as best I could only to the see I was reaching "Mach 1", 5.9 mph
. Boat control was brutal to say the least, and the flies despite the winds were just as bad. I tried it again only to get more tangles , my `riggers were tangling with the underwater currents, and it just wasn`t any fun. We managed 8 kings, a Laker, and a steelie, despite only running four rods.
"Wet Nets"
Captain Jim
North Point 7/22-7/24
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