South Haven
South Haven 7/25/04
Cut bait?..... you better be running it behind one of Capt. Johns flashers.
Week ago last Sat. I fished the S. Haven ladies tournement with my wife
who can fish and two other ladies who have never been on the big lake
before. 5 for 11. Second place overall and second biggest fish. With more
experiance on my boat we could have had first. First 6 hits were on
bait behind a black mamba flasher. It was a fun day.
Three charters last week and cut bait out produced all others on my boat 3 to 1. I gave a flasher and bait rig to a friend who went 3 for 3 Sun., going out late and in at 1:00. 19, 22, and 24 pound Kings. A Captain I loaned one of Johns
flashers to did not have any herring strips, so he used a piece of
flannel cut like the strips and caught fish. He took that flasher to the
Manistee tournement.
I have not heard back from him yet. O.K., South Haven, 60 to 120 fow. straight out and north. obviously flashers and cut bait work. Green flies behind fish catchers were good also. Black and white spoons were holding there own also. Last week you had to be deep, Sat. the lake flipped and cold water was every where and so were the fish. Fishing right now is picking up, so go get 'em.
Tight lines and smokin drags,
Capt. Gary
South Haven 7/10/04
South haven on 7/10 was slowwwwwwww... After setting lines at 0700, we
didn't hit a fish until 0800. 1st fish was a 17# king that hit a
slider on a downrigger set at 75' in 80 FOW. Green dolphin was his undoing. A
couple of hours later, 2 steelhead within the space of a 1/2 hour fell victim
to a home made fly behind a 8" green Bechold run off a wire diver, 95' back
on a setting of 1 1/2 in 112 FOW. We had one hookup on a slide diver but it
came unbuttoned early on. Total take was 3 for 4 aboard the Skipjack...
Charlie K - Skipjack
6/13/04
The fishing at S. Haven right now sucks. I know of six charter boats
that went out Sat. morning . Two were skunked and the other four each
caught one. Yes, one per boat. Mine came on an all red, no tape, silver
back, hammered mag. spoon on lead core in 90 fow. In front of the power
plant. Most private boats had "o" with a couple that had one. I heard a rumer
that one boat caught two, but can not confirm this. Saw lots of bait
fish in 50 to 75 fow. Maybe the fish are all full. Next week end, we try
again.
Calm seas and fish in the box,
Capt. Gary...
5/30/04
Wind, rain, more wind, more rain, more wind from different direction, OK, you get the picture.
Sat. actually was not to bad for a boat ride, but you needed to be past 150 fow, and even then six was the most I heard being caught, with most averaging one to three fish. Spoons that were red and silver were doing best according to the few that I talked to that caught any. This next weekend will be better, I have these new flashers that I am really eager to try out and this tough fishing will show how good they
are.
Tight lines and smooth seas,
Capt. Gary
4/19/04
Put in at south haven this morning around 7:30 am and should have slept
in a little longer. We caught all of our fish after 10:00 am which has
been the norm for the past week with the early bite being dead. We fished
towards the power plant and went 4 for 5 with 3 browns all over 10lbs
and one 3lb coho. The four fish came on an orange dodger and white fly
bouncing the bottom approx 60' directly behind the boat. We owned the lake this
morning which is the nice thing about working 2nd shift.
Capt. Jason
===============================================================
4/9/04
Greetings all:
after having everything sorted out and ready to go last weekend out of
Holland, we ended up trolling 20 minutes before the thermostat stuck
and we ended up having to get towed in.
So this week I resigned myself to fish the piers, only to hear a
forecast of calm water for Saturday morning. Thank God for Nextels, I was able
to contact my buddy, at the Griffins game, and rearrange the plans on the
fly Friday night. We would fish my favorite brown and coho lures in tight
at South Haven, my favorite spring port, and we would make up for last
week's embarrassment. The 14' duck and river boat would be my fallback, as
the lake would allow it, and Todd would get to land his first big lake
brown.
And we did exactly that.
We got set up about 8:15 just south Of South Haven in 6-10' of water.
Set up with silver rapalas on the outside boards, deep divers 3-wayed with
spoons on the inside boards, a mongoose silver streak 100' out with a
1/8 oz. rubber core 6' up on a flat line and an orange dodger thumping 15'
back in the wash behind a 1 oz snap weight for those boat charging coho. No
more than got everything set up and the inside board got ripped.
Turned out we had hung up the Wiggle Wart on the bottom, ended up getting that
loose and set back up.
That done, we stood back and listened to the 15 horse gargle along, and
watched the birds fly past, wondering why they don't fly like that
during duck season, and watched the sun work over the dunes and shine on the
yellowbirds as they carved their paths along the boat, and you could
just sense that something memorable was going to happen.
The mongoose soon went with a 13" brown, a handsome little fellow, who
got released unharmed. About a mile south of there, off Lake Bluff Hotel,
we were changing lures when the outside board, barely 50' off the beach,
started digging in and acting funny. As I pointed that out Todd jumped
on the rod since the water 50' behind the board erupted and boiled and a
large tail could be seen flailing in the air. Toadman did a great job
working the stubborn fish in on a 10# leader and a 10' Browning noodle rod.
After about 25 minutes, with the last 15 within 20' of the boat, a 10#
brown found its way into the net, the second largest brown landed under
my command. Dad never dropped his boat until Memorial Day so this spring
fishing is something I've had to learn since I got my own ride a few
years back.
Pulling lines I got a 3# eater coho on the same mongoose as the first
brown.
3/3 in 4 hours, making gas money by towing in a 19' Starcraft with my
little 15 horse. Irony - I get towed in last week, then I tow in
someone this week. Pass it forward.
Far Beyond Driven, un-repressed, Holland-ish, MI
==============================================================
4/10/04
Fished out of S. Haven on 4/9 and 4/10. We fished in approx. 6' to
10' FOW south of the pier heads to the power plant. I went 6 for 7 on 4/9
with 4 browns to 10lbs and 2 cohos to 12lbs. I went 3 for 7 on 4/10 with 2
browns to 10lbs and a small coho. The hottest setup was an orange
dodger with a horse fly and a 3oz egg sinker bouncing on the bottom with 30'
of line out right behind the boat. This produced the 3 biggest browns and
the others came on husky jerks. Black and silver seemed to work best for
me.
Jason
==============================================================
4-2-04
FISHED 3 HRS. MID AFTERNOON ( FIRST OF THE YEAR SHAKE DOWN CRUISE ) SOUTH OF THE PIER HEAD 8-10 FOW. 1 FOR 2, SMALL KING
ON RED/GOLD RAPALA OFF INLINE, LOST NICE BROWN ON PERCH
RAPALA OFF SLIDE DIVER. 3 HRS. RIDING SIDE SADDLE IN 3-5 FOOTERS WAS ALL I COULD TAKE. WORD ON THE WATER IS SLOW AND NOT MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM. STILL WAITING FOR THE HOOSIER FISH TO SHOW-UP.
I WILL BE BACK OUT THERE 4-10 AND THE WHOLE WEEK OF 4-12
JERRY D.
" JAIME LYN "
