Report from 4-10-21

 From Z-Dock: We were a steelhead away from the grand slam. 

-There are lake trout throughout the water depths of 40 feet to 200 ft and normal size spoons are best on downriggers and divers. -There are coho shallow from 5 feet of water to 20 feet. Mini streak spoons on 1 color of lead or size 5 flicker shads on flat lines are best. 

-brown trout are also mixed in with the coho on the same baits.

-small king came on a 3 color lead on a thin fish. 

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So, In hopes of being able to cook Salmon for our annual picnic, we went out fishing last night, despite all the bad reports.   Unfortunately, this report is that good either...   Craig, Kent, Ryan and I fished from 6:30 to 9 pm in 80 to 120 FOW and ended 1 for 3 and did catch a nice 8 lb King.  It was 80 down in 90 FOW on a Mag Glow Flounder Pounder. 

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Sunday July 29^th:  Cleared the pier heads just before 6:30am to hunt fish till lines up at 1:00pm.  Steelhead – could not find one.  Downrigger bite was happening and the kings were back.  Didn’t bother with 300’ copper since the water was so warm.  Worked my way outside of the fleet to about 155 FOW.  Pick up a young king on downrigger 60’ down with a fish flash / spoon combination at about 7:30am.  Took another hour before getting bit again in 145 FOW on SWR down 80’ with a holographic spoon on the business end.  Waited until 12:30pm for the next bite.  On a SW troll in 135 FOW passed a boat going North dragging a yard sale but fighting a fish on one of the lines.  Wishing that was my boat, I bumped SWR off the bottom and boom, tip up and at the end of the battle, I was rewarded with a 20lb king, hook out in the net no less.  Belly was full of bait fish.  Dipseys were silent and not a factor in the hunt and the water was warm on top.  Everyone is running long lines, some managed well and others not so well.  Need to have patience and avoid running over lines this time of year – unless of course, you must.

Capt Dick
Fin Warrior

I committed to fish at sun up rain or shine and the weather & waves were perfect.  Not hot, no flies but lots of nats.  I also was reminded why I like fishing the low traffic evening bite.  Sun up is akin to government cheese being handed out at the trailer park.  Boats roaring by throwing out wakes as your setting lines, vessels not understanding who is stand on and who is give way in a crossing situation, 360 loops to get the boat running <150' off your gunnel out of harms way.  But that's OK, I will be back out tomorrow.  The bait fish are sparse and bite has slowed down.  My last three trips produced fish with empty bellies.  Went 2-for-3 this morning.  Banged a steelhead as I was setting lines in 100 FOW on 3-set dipsey 130' out with a evil alewife on the business end.  Then nothing for hours till the other 3-set 125' out dipsey roared to life with a 13.5lb king.  Black spinny with a black/gold fly did the deed.  That same rod got spanked about 20 minutes later however, the fish broke off the fight very quickly.  As I was pulling lines, double orange crush on a 2-color copper, 10' down on a rigger, the last rod in the water popped but it likewise was gone as I picked up the rod.  Coming in, there were still small pods of bait fish inside 100 FOW at about 20' down.  Likely why the steelhead are still in the skinny water.  Need to pick up ice for tomorrow morning :)

Capt Dick
Fin Warrior

Dropped lines at 4:00pm for a few hours of pre-Fourth of July fishing.  Worked the 120-180 FOW north of the harbor with the action coming in 135-155 FOW.  Landed 3 steelhead, one last year adult at 12+lbs and one modest coho.  No kings on this trip.  Steelhead appear to be be big and abundant this summer.  All the action was on riggers, 65-80' down.  Proctologist fly on a 8" chartreuse spinny  and magnum holographic spoons continue to work well.  Just one drive by on an orange crush dipsey and no action on the full copper line.  Top water is beginning to warm up.  Water flies are back but not too bad - get the flea flicker line out.  And of course the biting flies are always around when its hot and flat.

Capt Dick
Fin Warrior

Got out Wednesday evening with Tom and Jeff.  Went 5 for 7.  Initially set up out the the harbor mouth in 120 FOW on a north troll.  For the evening, worked 140-115 FOW both north and south half way to Port Sheldon and short of the sliders.  Boated two 12.5+ kings, steelhead 11.6lb and 8.6lbs and one small laker.  Proctologist fly on a 9.5" chartreuse spinny 55' down on the SB aft rigger got hit 3X.  The tail gunner holographic spoon set up the SB side rigger with light line, 65' down and  70' out got hit 3X.  And one runner, likely a steely hit a double orange crush spoon on a dipsey about 40' down - we did not boat that one.  Surprisingly, port side SWR was untouched all night.  And no action on 100' and 200' of copper.  The only action on 300' of copper was a massive tangle (thank you Mr. Steelhead) that decommissioned the set-up.  Figure the spinny was doing the heavy lifting most of the night.  Chatter seamed to be slow.  Believe we had a lucky night coming in better than most boats.

Capt Dick

Friday was a beautiful night to be on the water. Got 5 of the 6 rods to go. Wonderbread J-Plug on 300' of copper, SWR 70' down w/ green dolphin hologram, down rigger 80' down with a watermelon hologram spoon took a 10lb steely, and both dipseys fired at 50-55' down on a 2 set with a UV green dolphin and a mag black fin tuna that took a 10-12lb king. Little to no chatter on channel 68 other than a few comments on washing lures.

Capt Dick

I've heard the fishing continues to be good for Kings.  My boat is having engine work, so I won't be out fishing for a while. 

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I've talked with a few customers and the fish are biting.  Big Kings are being caught west of Holland   Good Lake Trout and Coho reports too from Holland to South of Saugatuck.  Get out there for some good may fishing!

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 Craig and I gave fishing a shot last night.  Beautiful night on the Water!  The fishing was slow and we went 1 for 1 fishing from 80 to 140 FOW.  We caught a 15 lb Lake Trout on a meet rig down 100 in 128 FOW.


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I had heard that fishing was pretty good this past week and saw that Bending Limits had a dozen on Friday Morning.  Craig and I went out from 6:30 to 9:30 Friday evening, but only had one hit and nothing to show for it.  We fished from 100 to 175 and didn't see much on the screen either.

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I finally made it out fishing!  Last night Capt. Jim and I took the Rhino out for the first trip of the year.  Jim grabbed a bunch of his gear as I hadn't even been on the boat yet to take inventory.  We didn't know where to go or what to use, but between 7-9:15 we went 7 for 10 (we missed the first 3).  There were 6 nice kings, with the biggest at 15 pounds, and 1 coho.  100 to 140 FOW, mostly around 50 down.  Lead, Copper, Downriggers and dypsys all went.

It was a really great trip and I hope the fishing continues!


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Wow, I can't believe a whole month went by without making it out fishing!  Craig, Marc and I made it out last night, but with little luck.  We ended 1 for 3 with just a small king taken on a Flounder Pounder.  The Lake has turned over and boats were fishing the piers and all the way out to 200'.  We were mostly in 95 to 145 FOW.

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Team Rhino had a great time fishing in the Big Red Classic last weekend.  We were pretty disappointed that we didn't catch more fish, but we all had a great time and we didn't get skunked either.  Tony, Paul, Mark, Marc, Craig and I only caught 2 on the first day and 3 on the third day.   We mainly fished the 80 to 110 FOW and were straight out of Holland on day one, then went out front of Port Sheldon on day 2.   It was pretty slow, however we missed a few on day 2 that we wished were in the box.  We took hits on a little everything so there wasn't anything hot.  I do remember tjhat we took a 6 lb Steelhead on 4 color with a Red Thin Fin.    A 6 lb laker came on a Green and Gold Magnum on a 12 color.  7 lb Laker on Meat and down rigger and we had a 9 lb laker on a green fly and dypsy back 180 on 2.

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I went out with Jim and Jim last night on Jim's boat.  We fished from 6:30 to 10 pm and all of our action came after 8 pm, with most between 9 and 10pm.  We ended 5 of 6 with 4 big kings and a 10 lb lake trout.  The biggest king was 21.5 lbs, and was the biggest fish I've caught in a couple of years. Meat Rigs and a White Green and Black Magnum Spoon got all the action and the best fishing was 80 - 100.

There seem to be a lot of big Kings being caught the past week.  I hope you signed up for the Big Red Tournament as these big fish should make the standings pretty interesting.  Good Luck!

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Chuck, Mark, Shane, and I fished Friday evening (June 17th) from 6 to 9:30 and ended the night 2 of 3 with an 8 lb Laker and an 8 lb steelhead.  All of our action came from 6 to 7 pm and then nothing after that.  We fished 85 to 115 FOW and took are fish in 88 and 100.  The Laker came on a 12 color  on Lemon Berry Magnum and the Steelhead on a 3 color lead on an orange and yellow spoon.  On the radio, 1 or 2 fish seemed to be the average catch.

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Chuck, Mark, Shane, and I fished Friday evening (June 17th) from 6 to 9:30 and ended the night 2 of 3 with an 8 lb Laker and an 8 lb steelhead.  All of our action came from 6 to 7 pm and then nothing after that.  We fished 85 to 115 FOW and took are fish in 88 and 100.  The Laker came on a 12 color  on Lemon Berry Magnum and the Steelhead on a 3 color lead on an orange and yellow spoon.  On the radio, 1 or 2 fish seemed to be the average catch.

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I fished the mud off the pier-heads in Saugatuck from 4:30 to 8:30pm yesterday with TJ and Jeff.   The fish have been in close as the water is cold and the bait are also in.  We ended 2 for 5.  It seemed like the boats around us were catching more fish as we saw a few nets out there that were more active than ours.   We ended up with a 14 lb Laker and a 3 lb Brown.  With the busy Holiday weekend, I probably wouldn't recommend fishing the pier-heads off Saugatuck, at least not too close or you will be missing some of your gear...  Have a Great Holiday Weekend and 4th of July!  For any of you staying at Eldean Shipyard, I will be cooking a complimentary lunch from 12-3 on Monday with Brats, Chili-dogs, and Grilled Fish.  Thank you to Black Pearl Charters for large donation of Salmon that I will be grilling!



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Kris and I had a nice dinner cruise last night rather than a great fishing trip.  We fished from 5:30 to 8:30pm and didn't have any bites.  We went west from 100 to 205, then back East to 150 before calling it a night.  There were really no marks on the graph.  On the way in, we did see a cluster of boats in 70 to 90 FOW.  I'm going to give that a try on Friday.

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Chuck, Kyle, Mark & I fished last night from 6 to 9pm in 180 to 255.  We ended 2 for 3 catching fish in the 240-250 area.  One coho on a green dolphin 70 down and a steelhead on 4 color with the golden carrot (carrot looking gold spoon pictured on last report.  We missed a 2nd steelhead on the same set up as we watch it jump, jump, jump off the hook.  So, we had more guys, more poles, but less fish.  I keep forgetting the net, but I haven't lost one yet at the platform.

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