Manistee Bud Pro/Am

[STEINFISHSKI]

The results are in for the Budweiser Pro/Am held in Manistee, MI on June 24-25th. Congrats to all the winners!

Pro

Pier Pressure 319.1
Hawg Tide II 309.05
Blue Runner 298.85
Free Style 267.0
Fishlander 265.55
BBJ III 259.2
First Class 254.7
Decoy 251.55
Purple Taco 250.45
Nibble 249.6Am

Fish N Machine 346.6
Billyjack 340.8
Stormchaser 324.75
I'm Gonna Miss Her 258.4
Reel Pressure 249.5
Legacy 247.5
Hamm Bone 244.8
Alibi 234.8
No Mercy 228.35
Dam Sam Inn 218.9

[beer and nuts]

Congrats Fish-n Machine, I believe back to back wins!!! Nice job Scott! Pier Pressure had a 100 pound box for Sunday-congrats.

[ted stehney]

Where can I find how the scoring is done. I assume that the winners are based on more than just total weight?

[beer and nuts]

2 man limts max to wiegh(10 fish). Each fish is worth 10 points and than total pounds-ie...Pier Pressure on Sunday at their 10 fish and they weighed 99.6 pounds so their Sunday score was 199.6 just for Sunday.

[STEINFISHSKI]

Congrats Fish-n Machine, I believe back to back wins!!! Nice job Scott! Pier Pressure had a 100 pound box for Sunday-congrats.

I agree, great job Scott! What was working for you guys?

[fishinmachine2]

Thanks guys!! We struggled on Sat only getting 8 fish 6 kings and 2 lake trout which put us in 4th place. We caught about 15 other lakers but they were all to small not meeting the 20in limit.

On Sun we went right back to the same place and set up in 90 fow with no hits for the first 15 min. I told my brother there was just to much bait in there and those fish were all full so we angled out and as soon as we hit 126 fow we hit a triple. We just kept working that water and by 9:00 we had 7 kings and 1 laker and missing 4 other fish. Then we went back to the area where we had fished for the lakers on Sat and pounded that water and we ended up getting 4 real nice lakers one being just under 10lbs. We ended up with over 95lbs on Sun which was enough to take over 1st.

Our best was our divers with Spin doctors and fishcatchers with meat and flies. Our lead core took a few fish with spoons also, Silver Streaks in Blue and green Dolphin were the best on a 10 color.

Scott

[pikedevil]

Congrats Fishin Machine on the win!!!

We struggled royally on saturday. For the first time in a long time TOO MUCH BAIT was a problem. It was constant bait balls on the graph and they were bouncing off the rigger cables as you'd troll through them. (the fish were fat and healthy as well) After not getting anything in 2 hours we hit 3 legal lake trout in about 30 minutes and proceeded to pound that water only to catch a bunch of 18 inch lakers and finnaly get 2 salmon. So saturday we had 5 fish for only 23 pounds.
I knew that if those fish actually decided to bite in there it would be crazy so we went back sunday and it was ON. We landed about 12 kings, 1 legal laker, and 4 baby lakers in 2 hours and watched Fishin Machine railing fish just to the outside of us. Our kings were just mostly small so after getting a 15 pounder on a diver/spindoctor/meat combo we decided we had our kicker king and went offshore to try for steelhead, it didnt pay off with only a laker to show for our efforts. We weighed 8 fish for 48 pounds and finished 15nth out of 78 for the tourny. I'd have liked to have done better but we had a good time and learned the water (it was my first time out of manistee).

As for what worked? We took some of our bigger lakers and best kings on wire divers with spin doctors and flies as well as the big king on a spin doctor and meat rig. We caught some lakers and a few kings on a SWR rig down near bottum on a rigger with a Stingray NBK. The hottest rods were long copper wires with lemon ice spoons. These rigs caught a few salmon and a ton of small lakers. 7-12 color leadcores with spoons caught a few kings as well.

I was impressed with the amount of baitfish as well as the size of the kings brought in by a lot of boats. A lot of 12-21 pound kings were caught, they were thick healthy fish as well. The lakers were fat with small heads, a sure sign of well fed, fast growing fish. This is all very good news for the health and future of the lake michigan salmon fishery.

[No Mas]

Pikedevil,

I could agree more on the amount of bait over the weekend. I don't know how many schools of bait we marked, but it seemed every time we went through them some one yelled fish. It was incredible seeing the riggers going through the balls of bait. Saturday was a tough king bite for us, too many lakers. Sunday was the complete opposite. Got into the kings, but couldn't get the lakers to go. :rant:

Finished a surprising seventh in the pro division. Was pretty surprised to see us in 11th place on Saturday. Most of the bigger kings we caught on Sunday were with stinger spoons off the riggers and a couple off the core. Lakers on Saturday were coming off everything! Trolls on wire and 1lb ball, riggers, core it didn't seem to matter.

Sunday we tried to get the laker program going, but to no avail. Tried bouncing bottom off the riggers, had the wire rod going again, but only managed one laker on the wire and then a steely on a eight color core.

Tom

[fishin'magician']

Congrads to all the MS fishermen that took part in the bud pro am.

[bluedevil]

I know I am a little late in this report but better late than never, right.http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

I fished aboard my Uncle's boat for this tourny and the 2 of us pre-fished Friday morning going 4/4. Went south into the 10's and worked the 60-80 FOW were we marked lots of fish a week earlier. Nothing there so we headed out and picked up our 4 fish in 140-180 FOW. Two shakers off a rigger 80 down on a Silver Streak green frog and the other 2 fish (8lb and 10lb'er) came on full leadcore with a white hotchie and white fly.

Saturday morning for the tourny we decided to work that same area but it turned out that it was a bad decision. Ended up going 2/6 in 8hrs of fishing. In all honesty, we only felt 3 of those fish. Other 3 fish were a quick rip and then gone. I cant recall the baits that worked Sat cause with slow fishing comes fast drinking.http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

Gathered some info from other boats that worked some different water and decided to go a little north and work some deep water Sunday morning. Very slow for us for the first few hours, 0/0. We ended up finding a few fish about a mile north around 280-300 FOW. Finished the day 5/6. Four king's with the biggest going just under 17lbs and one 7lb laker. All fish but the laker hit on the riggers 90-110 feet down with hotchies and meat. Laker came on a rigger 100 feet down on the SS green frog.

Ended up placing 43rd in the AM division out of some 70+ boats.http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif

Congrats to Fishin Machine on the Win.http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif
__________________

[double trouble]

had a fishing buddy fish on the boat that finished 9th in the pro division.
cut bait and jkrf were the deal. congrats curt and j.d.

[EdB]

Congratulations to the MS guys, great to hear the details of how the fishing went, thanks for the reports.