Offshore Challenge 2016

NumenOn the Water

Date:  June 4, 5 and 6, 2016

Body of Water:  Lake Michigan, Grand Haven

Boat:  Dog Day

With: Dog Day Crew

Target:  Great Lakes Trout and Salmon

Time: About 6:30 AM to 2 PM each day

Conditions:  Various; but generally Spring transitioning into Summer.  From flat calm, building through each day to 5 footers; and perfectly clear through raining and fog.  Water conditions were generally high 50s on surface and gradually cooling to 43 degrees F.  No real thermocline, yet.

The Dog Day crew had not fished together since last September, and none of had yet targeted salmon on Lake Michigan this season.  These were not ideal factors for entering a tournament, but that did not dissuade us.  We had a favorable weather forecast and a day for practicing.  We thought the best opportunity for getting a number of bites would be in deeper water, offshore; especially with the dearth of Kings this season.

6 AM run from the Grand Haven piers on our single practice day; beautiful conditions to search out some fish!

Conditions were flat calm and the sky was high.  Our initial spread consisted of four boards with lead and copper of various lengths, a couple of wire dipseys and two down riggers.  We were covering the top down to 140 feet or so.  We had set up in about 160 feet of water and the shallower rigger, set 63 feet down with a white flasher/fly  got hit within the first half hour in about 180 feet of water.  The smallish salmon jumped off, but provided a starting point and buoyed our spirits.  And for the next couple of hours we enjoyed four more bites, landing two coho, a steely and a tiny king.  These all bit Super Slim spoons in "Mixed Veggie" or "Hot Pepper" colors.  They'd all hit between 180 and 200 feet of water, at faster, but not really hot trolling speeds; about 2.6 - 2.8 mph.  Short Coppers seemed best; the riggers and dipseys had gone silent.  We'd not caught a fish deeper than 200 feet of water.  The biggest fish might not have weighed five pounds, but I'd suffered much worse in days in other Grand Haven tournaments.    We had something of a starting point for the next day.

Doc M bags our first (coho) salmon of the day.

This Super Slim spoon took several hits during practice and earned a near-permanent place in our spread.

Doc M had fished with some other "Pro" boats during practice for the recent South Haven tournament, and he'd picked up some experience, pointers and gear for targeting deep lakers.  We ended our practice day with an attempt at dragging bottom for them in about 120 feet of water.  We made just about every possible mistake, didn't get bit and mostly fought tangles.  (Doc M had developed a taste for 50-foot leaders on the wire divers; until I see it make a positive difference, I'm not a fan.) But we did learn from this effort (set one rod at a time and communicate in the back the boat!), and it turned out to be time decently spent, because we fished much more cohesively during the tournament.   

This practice day had also been the Kids and Ladies Tournament, and post-fishing talk indicated that about 130 feet to 170 feet of water had produced the most bites.  Since we'd gotten our bites on the shallow side of our range during practice, this became our target for the tourney's start.  And Day 1 of the tournament started well!  125- and 150- Coppers produced a steelie and a 6-pound king from about 150 feet of water, but then things fizzled out.  We only got two more hits, both from the bottom, while targeting lakers.  We pulled our first laker by bouncing right off the bottom (rigger; yellow-spotted tin can dodger; Spin-n-Glo) and then finally caught  a dipsey fish by bouncing bottom; a spinnie/reversed fly/Spin-n-Glo combo trailed 50 feet behind.  Both of these lakers came from about 125 feet of water.

Our four fish weighed a total of just over 16 pounds; not a great catch, but not bad, either, as another two or three fish of any legal size would have put us in the top 3 "Amateur" boats.  What was truly evident from the weigh-in is that lakers would win it; there were virtually no kings weighed; and our lakers had to be abundant for us to make a move.

This steelie on Day 1 was bigger than anything we caught in practice.

Our first targeted laker.  They are beautiful fish!

Doc M is a gregarious guy, and he's gone "all in" with this fishing.  During the evening he developed some "intel" within the marina, from folks he trusted; and the advice was to target lakers in 130 to 170 feet of water. (But beware! The boat that had won the Kids and Ladies Tournament had crapped out on Day 1!)  We knew we weren't on winning fish, so, as we left the dock on Day 2 under looming clouds and rain, we changed gears and moved on to more new water, farther south.

There was a bit of SE wind this morning, and we struggled at first to find a trolling angle that the boat and trailing lines liked.  We pulled our first laker right off the bottom pretty quickly while pulling some tangled lines (about 120 feet of water; wire diver; spinnie; reversed fly over a Spin-n-Glo.)  This quick catch of the targeted species offered some promise.  During a slow turn to get back on the spot, the 125 Copper got ripped (orange and blue spoon in the darker conditions) and now we had a beautiful, bigger, 8-pound laker, too.  Once again, we were off to a good start!

Soon thereafter the 10-color lead core (now rigged with a copy-cat orange and blue spoon) got hammered, and our fish of the weekend (10.8-pound steelhead) came aboard; it was still only about 9:30 AM!  

But seas were building; boat control was a chore; and we lost touch with these fish.  In fact, we didn't get another bite all day.

Our Day 2 catch totaled about 21 pounds, and we broke the 100-point barrier for the event.  It wasn't good enough to win anything; but we'd done decently well.  We never got a sniff of the bigger lakers that were apparently so prevalent further south; faster and more motivated boats were running almost down to Saugatuck to get in on a more consistent trout bite.

Doc M might have phrased it best; we didn't win, but we were still only about 3 fish from cashing a check.  He was right; it was another tough Offshore Challenge.

What do I have to say about this?

Lake Michigan without King Salmon simply offers a diminished experience.  While we caught a couple, they were largely absent from our weekend and generally AWOL from the tournament as a whole.  While I saw piles of big lakers, more and bigger than I'd ever seen at a tournament, I saw only a few teenager kings to 17 pounds, and only a few smaller ones as well.

The biggest fishing lesson from the weekend is, Don't fish for others' fish!  By which I mean, we spent each day or a portion of each day reacting to the information of others; and the value of that is doubtful unless the info is complete.   That includes more than depths and baits; speeds and especially location are critical.  Moreover, these reactions had us trying to laker fish together as a new crew from a new boat with new gear and techniques; and tournament time is not the time to be doing such things.  Tournament fish to your strengths!

But good attitudes and a realistic emphasis on fun fishing kept the mood light.  We still learned a bunch and had fun; and even though we struggled, we also know that we were only three fish of any size from cashing a check.  Meanwhile, a winning strategy for the tournament would have entailed a huge gas bill; to implement such strategy would have said more about our egos, as opposed to our sensibilities.

2015 Grand Haven Salmon Derby

NumenOn the Water

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.

Back to Great Lakes Fishing

NumenOn the Water

Date:  9-2-15

Body of Water: Lake Michigan, Grand Haven

Boat: Dr. M's 37-footer

With: Dr. M, SB

Target: Salmon

Time: 6 PM - 9 PM

Conditions:  2-footers but calming; uniform warm temperatures (71 F +/-) on the surface and down to 80+ feet; lots of biting flies; hazy from humidity and western fires

This was our first time fishing together, and I was anticipating pretty tough conditions with the unseasonable heat, antsy 4-year old pre-spawn salmon and tons of warm water blocking their spawning journeys; and it’s reportedly been a pretty slow summer on Lake Michigan.  Salmon numbers are down, and a cold winter, delayed spring, cool summer and wind have all conspired against the development of steady, prime summer conditions.  I’ve spent my fishing time elsewhere, but I was pleased to hook up with Dr. M and S, if only to cement budding friendships and share a comfortable night on the water.

Dr. M’s intel indicated 120+ fow with plugs and large paddles.  As we cruised west, the few visible fishing boats were yet deeper, so we set a NW course while we set the lines.  The down-probe indicated about 57 degrees F at about 80 feet down, and so I knew we had our work cut out for us.  We lowered that probe and eventually found 42-44 F water at 115 down or so; and the theme of the night was to stay with that cold water.  We sent paddles and flies down on both riggers, and an assortment of plugs, flashers with flies, and spoons on the remaining lines.  My wire diver dipsey made its seasonal debut, and we flooded the boards with our deepest presentations to the extent possible with 300-400 foot copper lines; and scouted for strays or steelhead with spoons off shallower lines (half cores and shorter coppers.)

The cold water was down deep!

We moved the riggers and divers a bit while adjusting course and speed, but mostly searched west.  After an hour or so I removed the shallower rigger paddle and replaced it with a favored magnum green dolphin spoon.  Placed at 103 feet down, it didn’t take long for the rod to bounce, and we soon netted a beautifully bright coho.  At this point we were going generally south in about 225 fow and at a speed of about 2.7mph; By the next hour we were feeling good at 3 for 4 with a couple of kings to 12 pounds or so in the box, too.  These had eaten the same spoon and the blue/white spinnie with green fly on the wire diver that I had adjusted to 200 feet back to get into our “strike” zone.  I missed the other strike, which was a very sizable fish that buried the board on a 300-foot copper line.  We saw it jumping in the far distance as it threw the Moon-glow magnum spoon.  Oh well, a 75% landing rate is my long-term average, and perfection is only sought and never attained.  I would be reminded of these thoughts for the remainder of the trip by my two new “friends.”

Fish On!  Corner rigger, 103 down, magnum green dolphin spoon.

It turned out to be a bright coho salmon.  Watch that wire dispey in the background! 

The lines went quiet for a bit, but we did pick off another 8-pound king and a twin to our original coho.  Each of these came on the dark green spinnie with UV fly that replaced our other, deep paddle.  Working the gear was paying off, but it was now prime time.  The graph was lighting up with plankton, bait and arches; and we expected more good things as we continued to work 200-225 fow.

BOOM!  The wire diver went off and I was connected to a nice fish.  About half-way in, I could feel it shaking its head; and the fly dropped out.

We kept at it and it was now completely dark.  I saw the silhouette of the deep rigger rod starting to twitch, and I was on that fish before it knew it had eaten.  I wound down and felt some weight; and then felt the hook slip out.

At this point we were collectively 5 for 8; but my box score said 1 for 4.  Ouch!  On the other hand, 7 of the 8 bites were on my baits, per my adjustments, and I had endorsed the change to the bait that got hit on the copper.  So I was falling short, but I was also contributing, and we were all having fun.

What do I have to say about this?

You know you're in Grand Haven when you pass the World's Largest Musical Fountain!

We cleared lines and were in the harbor in time to glide past the Lighted Musical Fountain show.  The boat got cleaned, things got put away, I sacrificed a rod tip to the SUV door in the dark, and we went to go clean fish at the municipal dock.  That went well enough, but the night was sealed when a Chinook Pier captain came around to investigate our catch and share info.  Indeed, the charters were scratching out a few fish (2 or 3 per boat) with paddles and plugs in the recommended water; but they weren’t fishing spoons further out.

 Perhaps they are, now.