Muskegon 15 May - 13 for 16

[GLF]

I took today off work because we did not have a baby sitter. Since I took the day off work....I might as well go fishing. I decided I would keep Hunter out of school today, and my boys would go with me. :p We were joined by a Dan(coworker) and his son Blake.

We left the dock around 7:45 and motored out to 80FOW and I started setting lines. Before I had everything in the water, we were hooked up with a nice fish on a slider set 5' above the ball on a rigger set at 40'. After I handed the rod off to Dan, the slider broke. :( This was a Stinger stingray size Craigs x-mas.

Our next fish was on a full core with a Stinger mag size Green Wiggle. This fish came unbuttoned half way to the boat. 0 for 2 :(

We trolled around picked away for the next 1.5 hours. Around 11:30 I put the boat on a North troll in 130 FOW, and 15 minutes later the rods started popping. We had a triple going and a downrigger popped, but no one was home. We landed 2 out of the 3 fish in this triple.

We continued trolling North picking up a couple of more. Then I spun the boat back around to go back through the spot where we caught the triple. On our way through it again, we picked up and landed another double. :Thumb.

My son Hunter caught his biggest fish to date today. It weight 16 lbs 14 oz. This was on a half core with a Stinger stingray size Craigs X-Mas.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/1/chinook_799561.jpg

Here are the boys and our catch today.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/1/boys_519957.jpg

We caught 7 Kings(6 over 10 lbs)
1 Coho
2 Steelhead
3 Lake Trout

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/1/chinooks.jpg

We pulled lines at 1:30pm and went in.

What worked for us today.

Stinger stingray size Craigs X-Mas(went 4 times)
Stinger mag size Killer Dolphin
Stinger mag size Killer Blue Dolphin
Stinger stingray size Double Orange Crush
Stinger mag size Green Wiggler
Stinger stingray size NBK

2 color cores, 3 color cores, half cores, full cores, riggers set at 40' 50' and 60'.

We also caught 2 fish on a wire diver. This was set on 3 with 150' of line out. These were both taken on a Protroll prochip8 Double Pearl Fishscale with a Siggs Rigs Brushed Stainless trophy fly(This is a GREAT looking fly and will produce fish!)

Oh yeah.....After we netted one of the steelhead, I noticed some mono coming out of its mouth. I looked inside and there was a chartreuse spawn bag inside. :eek:

[Alessandro]

I wish I had a babysitter like you when I was a kid...;)
On a more serious note, how fast do you troll, 2-3 knots? What´s the watertemperature and do you change the trolling speed a lot during the season when the watertemperature change, do you have a temperature measuring device on you downrigger?

[GLF]

I wish I had a babysitter like you when I was a kid...;)
On a more serious note, how fast do you troll, 2-3 knots? What´s the watertemperature and do you change the trolling speed a lot during the season when the watertemperature change, do you have a temperature measuring device on you downrigger?

Generally, I am trolling around 2.7mph on the GPS. Because of underwater current, the speeds on the surface, and the speeds at your bait can be completely different.

I have a Fishhawk (http://www.fishhawkelectronics.com/) I use while fishing. This has a surface speed and temp, and an underwater speed and temp which comes from a probe that is attached to a downrigger cable.

I also judge my speed by the amount of bend in my diver rod. When I am sitting in the drivers seat and looking at the diver rod, the tip needs to line up between the reel and the first eye.

Chinook salmon prefer the the 42 - 48f degree water. We catch them all the way up to 54f. The key to doing well(here) on chinook salmon is finding the correct water temperatures.