Lake Michigan

Fished out of Mckinley on 7/4. 7:00-11AM. I repaired my motor so it was more of a testing trip then a fishing trip. After testing the motor we set up in 90' starting trolling NE. Around 100' our Braided dipsy around 30' down took off, i couldn't stop it for a while after adjusting the drag. Then after 150',100',80',50' runs we finally saw it. It took a while to land it as it was darting at the boat for while. #26 pound King! We ended up with 2 kings and a coho, it was a fun day on the water.

The deleted posts I believe were spam. There were a bunch of fishing threads that had the same poster with the same spam post

More deleting of posts?  I got two emails overnight that something was posted, but do not see either in here.  This is why these forums continue to decline.  It. Is. A. Forum.  Let the people speak!

Is the McKinley lot full in the morning during the week or just weekends??

Report from Saturday morning (07-01). Fished out of south shore (prefer McKinley), launched at 4:30 and went straight out to 100 FOW. First time out this year and didn't have much of an idea where to start and what to use. Started with 4 glow spoons on downriggers and two dipseys with small dodger and medium sized flies. i ran the dispeys shallow and was spread out from 15-90 feet down. Boated three fish by 5:30. Pretty much everything had a hit at some point. Best spoon was an orange with green stripe down 50 in 100-115 FOW. Three fish and another bite or two. Ended with seven fish and we lost several others.  Only ran the six lines and had two doublers, both at 9:30ish. Stayed between 95 and 120 FOW. Stayed cloudy most of the morning, off at 10:30ish.
 DR down 85 - White flasher, White and green squid...19 pound king
 DR down 50 - Orange spoon, green stripe (glow spoon) ...4 lb rainbow, 8 lb  king, 1 lb coho, plus two hookups
 DR down 35 - Homemade wine (glow spoon)...19 lb king, plus one hookup
 DR down 25 - Black spoon, pink Stripe... small king, replaced with watermelon spoon...one hookup
 Dipsey back 35 - Green dodger and medium green fly....4 lb rainbow and one hookup

Hope this helps.

Got out twice over the weekend. Not great numbers but quality of fish were good. Saturday morning got hooked up right away with a double then a Dead Sea for the next 3 hours. Ended up with a 14 and 17 # king out in 115 feet of water both coming on dipsy flasher/fly combo 150 loc on a 2 setting. Not sure which flashers but both were green with luminationn flys.The next day ended up with a king and 3 coho. Same program and depth of water. Nothing on riggers or boards. 

A couple of friends and I hit the water dark and early this morning, beginning at 2. We ran into an interesting fella showering with the cleaning station hose. He even tried to get us to take him on my boat or give him some fishing line. If you’re missing any coax cable from your slips at McKinley, we’re pretty certain we watched him cutting quite a bit at the round house. I would assume he couldn’t make it to the slips, but tweakers are a crafty people. After that little bit of entertainment, we set off.

We took a hit immediately on our first pass in 90 fow on a  7 color with a standard Black Pearl Moonshine spoon. It was a long wait after that until we had any more action. At 4:30 it really began to turn on. We went 5-8 overall this morning and caught everything by zig zagging in and out of 70-90 fow. Dipsys set at 121 loc, a rigger at 61, a rigger at 55, 7 color and 10 color all had hits. We ended our morning at 7:30 with a 17lb king, 12 lb king, 10lb king and a small king and Coho. 10 color was my best rod.  The crowds were nuts today, so we avoided them by fishing away from whoever we could avoid and most of the time had areas to ourselves.   Pictured below were the baits that took hits, minus the Black Pearl.

Let’s get back to fishing reports and quit complaining about a guy trying to get his business going. 

07/01 fished I started in 120fow and trolled east to 150 fow with nothing to show for it. I made a turn back west and went for 100fow. I started getting consistent marks in 105 so I made a turn north. My rigger fired with a white Megatron flasher and Novocain fly. After a lengthy battle that fish came off. Shortly after that, my port side braided dipsy (120 loc) fired with my pro king mello yellow flasher and dough boy fly, that fish comes off but this time I’m missing the entire flasher and fly. That’s a first. I started to figure 8 over this I was marking. Now my 7 color really starts peeling line, it’s a big fish but this one comes off too. (You are all probably starting to see the theme of my night here) I had a white illuminator flasher on that with a green-ish colored fly. After a short lull my starboard braided dipsy fires (169 loc) and this one almost immediately comes unbuttoned. This had a Megatron and Novocain fly on it. At this point my father-in-law and I are pretty frustrated, so we make a turn to head in for the night, as we’re pulling both riggers fire at 61 and 71, one pro king green and chrome flasher with a dough boy fly and the white Megatron again. We landed one of the two and came home with one 3 lb laker.

We definitely found fish, we just couldn’t keep anything on. 

Just would like to make a few comments / observations.
1) the lot is never full if i have alaunch pass i will park truck and trailer anywere it fits in a parking lot. Wether it is in the main boat parking area, or other lots in the marina complex. i paid for launch access and I will park and launch. if the county and contractor would have done this work in the winter  and get off their duffs and start to rwsally work instead of dragging theior butts it wouild have been done.
2)  For Sea Monkey. good luck with the Biz. although for that $425 for 4 hours or $5 some thing for 5 hours I can fins a fully equiped and maned charter boat . Maybe cut the proce in half you do a lot better.

Grey Beard,

Sorry depth of water. I had a mag dipsy on 3 setting 140 loc and a # 1 dipsy on 1 setting 170loc both dragon slayer flasher with illumination fly