Well figured I’d give a report
my uncle Doug and I decided we’d fish the small boat tournament out of Manistee last Saturday… we pre fished it for a couple of hours on Friday afternoon. This is solely a big fish tournament where each boat weighs a single fish so we were all about finding one special King…
On Friday we trolled from the Pierheads SW out to 40 FOW. We picked up a master angler 21” Cisco on a rigger down 27 with a stinger stingray Size Gold Jelly Belly in 35 FOW. After riding a while without any bites. We decided to bounce bottom for Trout with our starboard size High Wire. We took about a 9 lb trout on that with an 8” Atomik White Chrome Killer spin doctor/light green spin n glow ticking bottom. As soon as we boated that fish, we took about a 7 lb trout on a 7 color core with a stinger Stingray Modified Coyote. I fish that spoon a lot as it is very consistent for me, particularly in the Spring…
Reports of Kings at the Pierheads from a contact on Friday night made it clear that we needed to King fish on Saturday
we found a pocket of 48 degree water just North of the Harbor in 35 feet. My 3 color with a stinger stingray size UV freakin blue veggie took off with a nice 10 pound king. As soon as we boated that fish, our slide diver on 3 setting set 57 feet in front of the bait and then 30 out took a nice rip but he was gone before I could grab the rod. This was with the aforementioned Coyote spoon. Then, our 2 color with a standard stinger size uv mixed veggie took off with our big fish of the day, a 14.35 pound king. I talked with a buddy who at that point, only had one bite and he switched his program up to ours and got consistently but throughout the morning. They ended up catching a 17+ pound king that got them 5th place….
as for us, we couldn’t get another silver bite and thus, we spent the last hour and a half or so of the Tournament trout fishing, managing two bites but losing them both
we ended in 14th place out of 27 boats. Dead in the middle of the pack. The winning boat caught a 20.50 pound king….
this morning a buddy and myself decided to go out of Ludington for a quick three hour trip before work. We, like on Saturday, found a warmer pocket of water and hit two kings. A 20 pound (give or take a pound or so) king that wrecked a 2 color with a stinger spoon my buddy had (unsure of what it’s called) and a DreamWeaver SS silver spoon with a fire tiger orangish red herringbone sticker, caught us a 6 pound king on the diver back 35.
we didn’t get an official weight on the big king but my buddy’s scale put it right at twenty pounds which looks about right
with the hot reports coming out of Muskegon and whitehall, and the good weather forecasted over the next couple of days, I’m hoping the silver fish fishing is really good by the time I’m back on the water again on Friday and Saturday
tight lines
I hope this report helps someone
my uncle Doug and I decided we’d fish the small boat tournament out of Manistee last Saturday… we pre fished it for a couple of hours on Friday afternoon. This is solely a big fish tournament where each boat weighs a single fish so we were all about finding one special King…
On Friday we trolled from the Pierheads SW out to 40 FOW. We picked up a master angler 21” Cisco on a rigger down 27 with a stinger stingray Size Gold Jelly Belly in 35 FOW. After riding a while without any bites. We decided to bounce bottom for Trout with our starboard size High Wire. We took about a 9 lb trout on that with an 8” Atomik White Chrome Killer spin doctor/light green spin n glow ticking bottom. As soon as we boated that fish, we took about a 7 lb trout on a 7 color core with a stinger Stingray Modified Coyote. I fish that spoon a lot as it is very consistent for me, particularly in the Spring…
Reports of Kings at the Pierheads from a contact on Friday night made it clear that we needed to King fish on Saturday
we found a pocket of 48 degree water just North of the Harbor in 35 feet. My 3 color with a stinger stingray size UV freakin blue veggie took off with a nice 10 pound king. As soon as we boated that fish, our slide diver on 3 setting set 57 feet in front of the bait and then 30 out took a nice rip but he was gone before I could grab the rod. This was with the aforementioned Coyote spoon. Then, our 2 color with a standard stinger size uv mixed veggie took off with our big fish of the day, a 14.35 pound king. I talked with a buddy who at that point, only had one bite and he switched his program up to ours and got consistently but throughout the morning. They ended up catching a 17+ pound king that got them 5th place….
as for us, we couldn’t get another silver bite and thus, we spent the last hour and a half or so of the Tournament trout fishing, managing two bites but losing them both
we ended in 14th place out of 27 boats. Dead in the middle of the pack. The winning boat caught a 20.50 pound king….
this morning a buddy and myself decided to go out of Ludington for a quick three hour trip before work. We, like on Saturday, found a warmer pocket of water and hit two kings. A 20 pound (give or take a pound or so) king that wrecked a 2 color with a stinger spoon my buddy had (unsure of what it’s called) and a DreamWeaver SS silver spoon with a fire tiger orangish red herringbone sticker, caught us a 6 pound king on the diver back 35.
we didn’t get an official weight on the big king but my buddy’s scale put it right at twenty pounds which looks about right
with the hot reports coming out of Muskegon and whitehall, and the good weather forecasted over the next couple of days, I’m hoping the silver fish fishing is really good by the time I’m back on the water again on Friday and Saturday
tight lines
I hope this report helps someone
