NumenOn the Water
Date: 9-20-15
Date: 9-20-15
Body of Water: Lake Michigan, Grand Haven
Boat: Dr. M's 37-Footer, Dog Day
With: Dr. M, M and SB; Team Dog Day
Target: King Salmon; or one big salmonid
Time: 6:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Conditions: Generally clear and bright conditions; 64 F surface water;
air warming to 70 or so; SSW winds with calm seas building to about 2 feet.
Before we had separated the day before, I had predicted
tough fishing on Sunday. The previous
day’s blow from the north was over, and it had changed the salmon’s world (conditions had been pretty steady for the
week preceding the blow), but had not really set up conditions for them to
totally commit to rushing the pier. The water was changed, but the wind had not provided
unfettered access through cold water to the Grand River. Still, though, there were reports of salmon
porpoising in the channel, and the sonar was filled with marks. Our
quest for the day centered on catching one big fish; and the fish with the
spawning urge should be (for the most
part), the biggest, oldest fish.
There were 44 boats in the tournament and many purely recreational
fishermen were out; but there was a decent opening in front of the piers, so
why not start right here?
We had prepared and quickly deployed a 4-rod Combat Fishing
Spread in the darkness. This simple
spread consisted of riggers and divers equipped with J-Plugs and Spin Doctor/fly
combinations in glow, black and green combinations. As boats spread out a bit more we added short
coppers and leads off boards to the side.
As we gained depth we added additional, longer, deeper lines off
boards. The water temperatures throughout
were unfavorable (too warm for the salmon's comfort), but I’ve caught plenty of staging and
committed salmon in these conditions.
But I also know that these fish can be very temperamental, and we didn’t
want to live or die with these fish.
 |
| Switching from our Combat Spread to a more open water program; I'm working the rods. |
In 60 feet or so we were finally finding some cooler water
(48 degrees F), and so I concentrated on keeping at least a few baits in this
thin layer of cool water near the bottom.
As actual sunrise approached, our marks thinned out and so we turned to
a more westerly troll. As we crossed 70
feet, our spread was nearing completion with more long coppers. Just at sunrise, in about 75 feet of water,
the 225-copper pulled back. Dr. M took
the rod, noted the heavy resistance and carefully played in a dogged
salmon. She was starting to get a bit dark,
and she fell to a Glow-Froggie spinnie/fly combo. She was out of temp, for sure, but she was
exactly what we were looking for; a fish to weigh in. She was clearly a teenager, and it only took
15 pounds or so to place in 2014; so we felt pretty good at this early point in
the day!
Just after I had prepared her final resting place (a submersing ice-water slurry), I
started working the rods a bit more. We
had deeper water, more options, growing sunlight and a little data; I replaced
my Tuxedo spinnie on the wire diver with
a blue-and-white spinnie with a sparse green fly and set it to run at
the same approximate depth as the 225-copper (setting of 1, 100 feet back). I saw it pop a few minutes later in about 95
feet of water, and I grabbed the rod. The
fish felt substantial and was shaking its head like crazy! You feel everything through the wire and you
can’t really rush fish with it; but the longer the fish is fought, the more
likely you are to lose it (I’ve seen this
many times.) About the only good
thing I can say about this outcome is that I lost her pretty quickly and didn’t
waste everybody’s time in doing so. I
was enjoying my time on Dog Day, but
I was a bit snake-bit; I was now just 1-for-my-5-chances on this boat. She deserves better than that! I’m better than that!
 |
| This day's effective spinnie/fly combos |
At this point it was maybe 8 AM; we’d gotten a couple of
quick hits and it looked like we were putting a program together. We maintained our heading and worked the
spread (now with a couple of 400-coppers
out there, too, to complete an 11-rod presentation), but nothing
happened. We circled in shallow (to about 75 feet) once during Second
Breakfast/Big Fish Time (until about 8:45
AM), but when “nothingness” persisted, we again set a more westerly
troll. Boats were really spreading out
at this point, and it just seemed like we had to find some biting fish. Those off-shore nomads are more willing to
bite during the day (in my experience),
and they’re likely to be less affected by crazy weather events. I like finding fish out west!
We also decided to commit to a Meat Program at about this
time, so our five deepest presentations were converted to our flasher/meat
combos. We used the Depth Raider down
probe to monitor and track favorable temperatures and adjusted things accordingly. We had several fish investigate our
riggers. We knew we were in good shape
with our single fish, and we still had nowhere to go but up! But an hour-and-a-half later we were in 180
feet of water or so, still having not gotten hit again.
We calculated a 2-hour troll back to the piers, and that’s
about how much fishing time we had left, so we headed east and kept the
faith. We encountered most of the marks
in about 125 feet of water now, but they still wouldn’t go. The mood on the boat vacillated between doubting,
desperate and discouraged to downright silly with creeping thoughts of victory;
on-board measurements had indicated an encouraging 14.9 pounds for our
fish. I worked the rods and willed them
to go, but they refused. We started
pulling lines at about 12:15 PM and were on plane for the short remaining ride
in at 12:31 PM.
With Dog Day
parked in her slip, we hauled our cooler to the stadium. A few spectators viewed our fish and offered
encouraging news along the way; this seemed to be a contending fish. As we approached the weigh station, we could
see that only about half of the field had bothered to weigh in a fish; it had
been a tough day! At an official 15.05
pounds, Dog Day’s fish took second
place, good for a $550 check. Not bad
for a first effort!
 |
| Team Dog Day in their Initial Glory |
What do I have to say about this?
It’s just difficult to find numbers of biting fish after a
big weather event, and the sonar and Depth Raider seemed to indicate blocks of
water with varying amounts of life and attractiveness. We never had cause to continue working a
patch of water (except, perhaps that
initial 70-100 feet segment where we had some action) since we weren’t
getting bit. We were also hedging our
bets a bit by being variously heavy with meat, flasher/fly and J-Plug
presentations. And, fortunately, nobody
seemed to want to just stay in the channel or mud and cross our fingers for a
shot at a big one; I certainly don’t ever want to do that if conditions provide
the opportunity to get out.
Currents and speed control were issues throughout the day,
but they seemed manageable. These are,
after all, important aspects to Great Lakes fishing and difficulties with these
are part of the deal. We didn’t have any
tangles or lost time to small hitch-hikers.
I worked the rods hard* and I feel pretty good about our effort. In fact, I doubt that there were too many
amateur teams out there that worked as hard or remained as focused as us.
Simple Luck always plays a part in a single-fish contest,
and so I have to acknowledge that we were lucky on this day. But it wasn’t a mistake or surprise that we
placed. Just ask the Saturday morning
waitress at the nearby Pine Street Café; she knows we had plans to
win. We’ll just have to wait a year or
so before we can cash in on that specific plan.
General Eisenhower is purported to have said, “Plans are
worthless, but Planning is indispensable.”
OK, a successfully executed D-Day invasion is more important than Dog Day’s fishing exploits; but I
certainly agree with his philosophy, at least with respect to salmon fishing.
*I worked the riggers and divers hard, the boards less
so. Without positive feedback of some
sort from some presentation or depth, it’s difficult for me to change out
boards. I think it’s exponentially more
difficult with each board we add to a side.
I hate lost time to tangles, and each time I retrieve or deploy a board
over another that’s a possibility. It’s
easy for me to handle two boards a side on Numenon;
in time I will get used to 3 or 4 boards per side on Dog Day. After all, we’ve
not had issues yet.
