Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Kings are coming SOON

July  31  2013

Hi All

Fall is just around the corner. It has a early Fall feel these days. Cool mornings and evenings, some light rain, dew levels increased, and King Salmon moving up the rivers and staging up in front of the peirheads. Yep we have been out fishing the big lake and catching fish in 29' FOW a short distance from the light house. A 27 lb. fish was caught in the harbor just this week..

My friends John, Brad,Chuck, and I all fished the Ludington Offshore Classic..We didn't win any cash or prizes but we showed up and had a good time. My friend Sean Mc Donald won the Pro division with his crew on Katch Me and a $8000 check..WOW great job Sean and crew.. Sean has won quite a few tournaments but this is the biggest award. He is wearing the King Crown for Ludington Charter boats.. Pole Dancer( that's our crew) came in 40th. for big fish at 22 lbs out of 105 entries.. Big Fish was tied at 29.9 lbs 1st. and 2nd had to split the money. Really what is great is 39 fish weight in over 22 lb. HUGE FISH is the theme for this year. Other notable fish were 2, 31 and 31.7 lb. Kings out of Manistee a 27.25 lb. Lake Trout out of Manistee, also a 35 lb. King from lake Michigan up Garden Peninsula, Delta County UP. I'm sure there are others that I haven't herd about too.

I was out in my 165 FM Lowe we call The Minnow and I had 4 kings to the boat between 18-24 lbs yesterday a.m. and 3 skippers we were 7 for 7 with 6 rods out in 4 hours..Those are the largest fish I've boated in my small craft. The waves were nice 1-3 footers and I picked up my handyman/ electrician Jim and went for a boat ride and it turned out very well..

I had some Trout Trips the last couple weeks. The water has remained low and clear even though we have had some showers it really hasn't piled up in the rain gage. The fishing has been average with the low clear water for us day time fishermen.The Trout have been hitting hoppers, ants and stimulator's also a few on nymphs and streamers. The night time guys mousing have been doing well and that goes hand and hand with the high canoe traffic, low clear water and bright sunny days. That will change as soon as we get a good heavy rain. Then I'll be in business scouting the lower river for Kings and Pike with hardware and flies. I could go casting down there now but we need a little more stain and a bunch more fish to be worth sniffing around..

Went out dirt biking after our good showers and had a few puddles around and everything was still good wet and cool. Just the way I like it. Hot sweaty,dirty, dusty no thanks..I pick my days I'm going to hit the trails just like when I ride snowmobiles. My brother, Jeff and I had a great ride putting on 80 or so miles..





Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Summer Fun

July 16th. 2013

Hi All

Summer is here!! It's 90 + deg. today and feels much hotter with the sun and humidity..I have been Smallmouth fishing with a friend and client Pete Hodgman the last couple days. Pete had a new boat built very similar to my power drifter by Headwater Boats..The hull is the exact same the inside is set up a little diffrent..Pete specilizes in Smallmouth and Carp flyfishing and guides Grand Travers Bay and Huron River down state goldenbonefish.com..If you want to get into some great warm water fishing he's got them diled in. I tied on 2 of his streamer patterns and caught 2 smallies at a time. I noticed almost every Smallmouth had another smallie chasing it while hooked up. The fish behind was looking for scraps so I gave them a scrap..hehe..It was a roaster both days on the water 85 -90 deg and full sun. Thank god for sunblock..

I had some Trout trips last week I took out Steve and Pete E.. There trip was timed perfectly with the weather. We had a 1.5" of rain the day before and they like to throw streamers. The fish were very happy about the fresh water and they had a good bite and chase with a little color with the extra flow. They landed 7 Brown Trout 12"-16" and had a 24" and a 20" on and both came unbuttoned..2 days later the bite was lack lustered for clients Tim and Ryan we tried streamers for half the day and then switched to dries and nymphing for the rest of the day and boated a Largemouth Bass on a streamer lost another 20" Brown on a streamer and landed 4 or 5 Browns on dries. Both days the weather was great but on Pete and Steve's trip we had clouds 1/2 the day which helps a bunch..







The rest of this week will be spent scouting on the big lake for the upcomming tournaments. The Ludington Offshore Classic is this weekend. I fish aboard Pole Dancer. 2 other friends fish it as well Dew Crew and Katch Me..It will be fun. We caught a few fish on Saturday scouting with the Dew Crew but failed to find any real honey hole. Some decient fishing is setting up offshore in  400 foot of water. Fish up north around Manistee and Frankfort have been big big. Reports of a 27.25 lb. Laker was caught last week and a 31 lb. King this week..Lots of Kings in the 24-26 lb. catagory have been caught out of Ludington. Looks like a good year for big fish shaping up.

Thanks for reading
Tight Lines
Clint