Lake O Sept 13th and 19th

[ch312]

Sept 13th

Hit the water around 7 am and fished until 11 am in some rough waters which made fishing a bit of a PITA, but we still managed a couple fish and lost one. We didn't mark any bait or fish in 50-80 fow like my previous solo trip and surface temps were 15+ degrees cooler than a few days before, but the bigger king hit an orange monkey puke down 40 in 75 fow. The smaller one came on a 3 1/2" NBK cheater line in 190 fow with the ball at 190 ft as we were marking tons of big fish on bottom and were hoping for a laker.

Sept 19th

Hit the water around 1 pm and fished until 630 pm. Tried 60-90 fow out of Bronte for a couple hours where the michigan stinger orange monkey puke took one small king at 45 ft in 70 fow, the other took a chrome/green matrix spoon off a dipsy on a #3 setting 90ft back, and I lost a hard fighting fish that nailed the same dipsy setup about 40 ft back as I was letting line out.

Since it was so nice (websites were calling for 8-9 knot winds...WRONG!) and the action was slow I decided to make my first trip to deep water. Setup in 360 ft where the small bow took a watermelon knockout spoon off the dipsy 180 ft back on #3 setting. Lost another fish on the same setup not long after. I was marking a bunch around the thermocline 120ft down in 380 fow so I lowered the michigan stinger kevorkian (purple) down to 140 ft which I assume put it right around the 120 ft mark with the blowback taken into consideration. 5 minutes later it fires and the reel was just screaming. 5-6 minutes later I had this beauty in the boat.

All fish were released except for the small bow which was bleeding pretty bad.

Any guesses on the weight? I later measured where the fish was laying in the boat and it was 35-36" long.

A couple random shots...

Blue zone

Fisherman's pier / Burlington skyway

[BillM]

I'd guess maybe 13-15lbs for that chinook? Odd rod holder setup as well, lol.

[Richie Razor]

You flatlining in the blue zone?

[ch312]

I'd guess maybe 13-15lbs for that chinook? Odd rod holder setup as well, lol.

 

You could be right, but this fish was longer and felt quite a bit heavier than the one I got last week which was 14.5 lbs on the scale.

 

As for the rod setup, the boat came with those dinky little big jon riggers with single rod holders so I made up this rod holder so I can run 4 rods when someone goes fishing with me. Simply remove the seat from the pipe and plop the rod holder in place using the rigger holders for the divers and the middle two for the riggers. Works very well and I was testing it's strength running two dipseys off it at 3.5 mph while I took the pic.

 

Trust me, bigger riggers with dual rod holders and a track system with ratcheting rod holders are on the wish list.

 

 

I'm glad I pulled the dipseys and switched to riggers or I would have missed the king out there.

[davey buoy]

Looks good to me ,especially when your adding more rods.Gives you a lot more real estate..I like it!

[SlowPoke]

You could be right, but this fish was longer and felt quite a bit heavier than the one I got last week which was 14.5 lbs on the scale.

 

As for the rod setup, the boat came with those dinky little big jon riggers with single rod holders so I made up this rod holder so I can run 4 rods when someone goes fishing with me. Simply remove the seat from the pipe and plop the rod holder in place using the rigger holders for the divers and the middle two for the riggers. Works very well and I was testing it's strength running two dipseys off it at 3.5 mph while I took the pic.

 

Trust me, bigger riggers with dual rod holders and a track system with ratcheting rod holders are on the wish list.

 

 

I'm glad I pulled the dipseys and switched to riggers or I would have missed the king out there.

You might consider doing what I did. I replaced my downrigger rod holders with Bert's ratcheting rod holders... really slick setup! I mounted a custom plate on top of the Bert's swivel base and then a 17" track to support the rod holders and the downrigger in between them. You get the benefit of the ratcheting rod holders and the ability to swivel them as if the were part of the rigger like the factory rod holders.

Hope that made sense? lol