TOPIC:

Wow you talk about some amazing Kings. Guys that knew exactly where to go really raked. It was amazing to see the boxes brought in.

Our crew consisted of myself, Tim (tmik34), Tony (cruise), Tim (northwoods) and his son. The kid is going to be a great LM fisherman - he runs all the rods great and did a fantastic job and playing some kings.

We started the fishing friday for the Hartman Memorial. The winds were gusting up to 40 MPH and the Lake was angry. A number of boats went off east to check the King status, we decided to go west and try to somewhat enjoy the poor conditions a little bit. We ran to the port and just trolled back to MI City and troll with the 4 footers. Not much special going on. We ended up with a King, two steelhead and two small lake trout.

For the Classic on Saturday we went east, setup by Warren Dunes and worked north. got a few early with a double while setting lines, then lost a few and our bite seemed to die. With the blue jay skies and flat lake, we decided to head to deep water and find some big lake trout. Not knowing exactly where to go was a big mistake - lesson learned. We went to the dead sea apparently. Managed to pick up two small lakers and thats it. We should have never left the Kings - it was a doh! moment.

For Sunday we started in the same area - got bit in a first 10 minutes and the fight was on with a bruiser off a 200 copper. 10 minutes later he popped off 20 feet from the boat. We didnt have another bite in the area and saw boats picking up. Clearly a number of the fished had moved. We ended up going on the south end of St. Joe and worked 75-110 FOW. Went 3 for 9 on Kings out there with three snapped lines......my experiment with P-Line Fluoroclear is over. Garbage. Back to Big game mono. We also picked up 5 or 6 coho's on sliders.

For us working baits in the 10-45 feet in the water column was most effective. Blues and greens worked best. Anything on a flasher did not take a sniff whatsoever. Must have been doing something wrong - not sure.

We had a blast, learned a ton and met some great people. I will get a ton of pictures up on the HCC site sometime within the next two days.

Excellent report. Sounds like tough conditions but you got some licks on them anyway. Sometimes it's fishing and not catching.

Good report. Funny how easy it is to overthink things on tourney day. Been there!!

Nice job and thanks for the report!

Baron2150 wrote:

Good report. Funny how easy it is to overthink things on tourney day. Been there!!

haha no doubt craig. If only we all only overthought only the right things

Hey Jeff......... I beat you again we may have gotten beat up a bit outside of our home waters but this was the smile of double up kings when I knew you could not catch up to me. For anyone who does not know me and jeff almost always have side beats within our tournaments about beating each other makes for great competition and fun between buds. You know you never ran the pride flag on your antenna after I beat you last year. But I guess we are even since you didn’t make me lick a lake trout when you beat me then lmao

For my report on the classic we really struggled on Saturday we caught 5 fish total. 3 kings laker and a coho. We were dragging the 14.5 inch coho a while off a copper line which made my 5th fish at the end of the day which was huge bc its 10 points per fish. Sunday was much better we found some big kings in 115 fow west of st joe but I was late to the party. The the top am and pro boats were there destroying kings. I got there for the last hot hour before the kings stopped feeding and dropped down in the water column. I had a great time fishing the classic I learned a ton about King fishing too. I recommend everyone to give it a shot next year if the weather is safe for your vessel. The atmosphere is electric even if you don’t think you can keep up with those guys do it for the experience. Get your feet wet with tournaments before hand and come out to our more low key tournaments as well. I’m looking forward to next year already I’m just hoping I can get out and do some pre fishing so I am better prepared. After day one I felt a little beat down but at the end of it I was only actually out of the top 5 by two good kings I had lost an easy 6 between the two days. You might surprise yourself, I did any way.

Angry wrote:

Hey Jeff......... I beat you again we may have gotten beat up a bit outside of our home waters but this was the smile of double up kings when I knew you could not catch up to me. For anyone who does not know me and jeff almost always have side beats within our tournaments about beating each other makes for great competition and fun between buds. You know you never ran the pride flag on your antenna after I beat you last year. But I guess we are even since you didn’t make me lick a lake trout when you beat me then lmao

LOL I am getting sick of losing to you lately Billy boy! I am coming after you!! haha

I will definitely be prepared better next year. Hopefully the kings will be as cooperative. I think I had like a 30% landing rate over the weekend - pretty yucky.

That’s some nice chit talking right there! Maybe some small “net report only” tourneys are in order soon. Scouts honor rules best top 3 fish weights for a particular day. Lol

Baron2150 wrote:

That’s some nice chit talking right there! Maybe some small “net report only” tourneys are in order soon. Scouts honor rules best top 3 fish weights for a particular day. Lol

Lol me and Jeff always have a good time when we fish together or when we are both on the water at the same time. When we catch some good ones there’s always pictures sent to rub it in a bit.