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Incredible storms and thank you Phil for checking in on me when we didn't show at Portage. Given where we were at and the direction of the storm Michigan City was the best option. Coming into the lighthouse with the wind blowing the rain and waves sideways was like a scene out of Deadliest Catch! Sat at B&E Marine for 2 hours hoping we could get back out or at least to Portage but the storm kept right between the two. Gave up and went to Bridges for lunch and once clear the lake was calm for the ride back. My unofficial catch was 3 steelies, 6.8lbs, 5.6lb, and 4,9th on my digital scale. No expectations for being "on the board" just passing it along. Thanks again! Hopefully be out Monday.

Glad you made it back safe Jeff.

Glad everyone made it back with no problems. Here is what took place with us. We set up up in close, figured to try to rake in a king or 2. After a few passes it was time to pick up and run northwest towards Chi Town. Set up north of most boats and possibly a little more west. Nothing for awhile, and wham got a steelie on a downrigger. One jump and he was gone. Had another almost instantly, he was gone to. Watching a big squall to the north of us, we turned to the east/ southeast and stated to troll in. The storm we had been watching all of a sudden turned and was on us before we could grab a line to get in. Instant 4-6's and building very quickly. Tried to pull a few lines and then. the rain hit. Sideways rain, hitting so hard it felt like bees. So now another down rod takes off with a screamer king. I grabbed the rod and about that time we are getting pounded by 1/4 size hail. Rain is sideways with so much wind you cannot see, hail stones beating us up, and the waves are now 6-8 easily. Looked like the USS Minnow getting tossed around. We needed to get out of there and quickly. So rods that were still out with no way to get them in were cut. Clouds going over were so close you could see spinning vortexes in them. So as we are making way coming in, we see that more storms are coming now from the south. As we are working in I start to feel hypothermic and start to rattle the teeth out of my head. First time for my wife and son to be in a storm like that.

Glad you made it in safely Split,we packed it in when we saw it getting close we went one for one on a small king by number 4 light on a downrigger 30 foot down off of a free slider. Now that the tournament is over anyone else have reports? Rudey

I forgot to add my post, did anyone else have a problem with the fleas or was it just the area near the mouth that is a problem? When should they be over with? Rudey

Rudey,
fished a week ago around the ditcharea a very few fleas. Did notice that they were worse when we pulled yesterday morning to run northwest.

Crazy story Ed. Did you land the King? What size boat were you in?

Glad you survived, Ed. you were in "no place to be waters, for sure!" A guy your age should know better.

Haven't had any fleas out at the Flemish Cap for a month or so. I was surprised with the fleas close to shore. They weren't hideous, but they were troublesome enough I just got in from spooling 50 feet of 30 pound, anti flea line on my downrigger reels.

So what were the tournament results?

We had consistent action from the time we set rods until we pulled them to avoid the storm Ed was caught up in. The best pattern the evolved was a mag moonshine on a dipsy. We ended up 6 for 11, with 2 steelies, 2 lakers, 1 coho, and a small king. We fished 80-95 FOW.

We finally pulled rods once we saw the storms was just building out of nowhere. We were east and to avoide the worst parts of the incoming storm we ended up off the dunes once we made it to shore. We made it to Burns Harbor and took safe harbor there until the lightning stopped.

Tim,
was in a 27ft. searay. King was cut loose. Wind was like being in a tornado. Thought at one time the canvas was going to get torn off the boat. I have been in some very bad stuff over the years. Wave size isn't to much to worry about usually, but when you have wind hitting you from 3 different ways at one time, and you can't see to far cause fog closed in on us. Thank You Lord for making GPS. When we were is the 6-8's heading into them, you would see waves that came in rows of around 10 that would be much much bigger and the wind was tearing off the tops of the water water. Had to play throttle jockey more than I like to do.
Not sure if my wife will fish for some time.

Mike you are correct, I should of known better and I am to old for that stuff anymore. I am very proud of the way my son handled things. He took good commands, responded to a tee perfectly. He was very very helpful. Thanks Jim!!!!!!!