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So after the skunk yesterday and the report from Tmik on St. Joe I figured it was time for me to finally go try it out. My day started with a line breaking and sending a spoon, protroll and Dipsy to the depths. After resetting that pole and getting a couple more setup the pole that the line broke on had the alumacraft mount basically explode and send the entire outfit to the depths. Great start to St. Joe and I was about ready to just say screw it and head in but since I already lost all that tackle just power through it and get fishing. Had issues with rigger releases (although I think I was underestimating how much blow back was on the balls and was causing the issues myself). So got a smaller Coho early on (smaller for this time a year but still a nice fish). Then as I was setting a rigger up we had a screamer - I missed hearing it since my head was next to the kicker but my cousin got my attention and the fight was on. It was king and put on a good king shaker fight. Got him in the boat and weighed in at 11.89 lbs so I was happy and at this point I figured my sacrifice to the fish gods must be paying off. Then the bite just died. We started out with about 14 other boats around us fishing and after about an hour of no bites we were down to us and 2 others. We wanted one more fish before heading in and about 20 minutes later the reel started to go again. It was a good fight and was not sure if it was a king or not but it was giving a good fight. Ended up it was a Coho and weighed in at just shy of 7 lbs. stayed out another 30 minutes then packed up and called it a day. Other than the lost tackle at the start of the day it was a great day for first time hitting up the area. The king came on a blue dolphin magnum behind a protroll on a dipsy set at 3 and out 120 to 130 feet (I think it was 130 but not 100%sure). The two coho came on a Monkey Puke Magnum with no flasher on a wire diver set at 0 and out 180 Ft. We were in the 140 to 160 FoW range and trolling about 3.5 on the GPS (Tmik I did not get your response before we left so just took a shot at speed). Also a Thank you to Tmik for the St Joe post and info - it got us out there and a place to start.

Nice Job! Thanks for the report.

Great job sticking with it Ed! The currents in st joe can be nasty sometimes and is usually my biggest challenge daily. Good to see my posts going to good use, with all the portage guys around I was starting to wonder if it was just a bragging board lol. I responded to your question in my report unless I missed a private message.

Tmik34 wrote:

Great job sticking with it Ed! The currents in st joe can be nasty sometimes and is usually my biggest challenge daily. Good to see my posts going to good use, with all the portage guys around I was starting to wonder if it was just a bragging board lol. I responded to your question in my report unless I missed a private message.

I posted the question then got dragged away last night and forgot to check it again before I went to bed so I did not see it until tonight. I was actually starting to try to look it up on the boat when we got the first coho so figured we must be ok. LOL. Thanks for the info and yes your info was very helpful and am thinking I may have to start getting the Michigan license now. If they would just finish the construction on 80/94 so it is not a nightmare getting back to Hammond!!!

Nice job Ed! The currents are much different up there. Speeds are much more tricky.

Nice job Ed. Glad you got into them with a nice king to add.

Way to go Ed. Nice job!

Hey ed where did you launch out of and how many miles is it to get to 120-130 fow

Way to stick with it Ed. Hate seeing all that equipment at the bottom of the lake!

Noah wrote:

Hey ed where did you launch out of and how many miles is it to get to 120-130 fow

2 ramps. DNR ramp and st joe public ramp both good. 100 fow on a 270 heading is 5 miles and 200 is about 10 miles give or take a little.