Report 11/29

[Esox masquinongigantis]

I was out with my roommate from 7am-4pm yesterday. I was praying that there were still a few fish shallow...so I decided to stick to casting all day...turned out to be a mistake. We threw everything at them and never saw a fish. We fished tight to weeds as well as backing off and fishing deep breaks. We concentrated on the main lake. There was very little bait marked, (I could make a decent guess that most of the shad are suspended over deep water) and we did not see ANY surface activity. I heard of 1 fish caught all day, 38"er. Chad's truck was the only one left in the lot when I was tying up my boat...hopefully he found a few hungry fish.

[LarryO]

I went Saturday which was a very nice and warm day. I trolled all day and lucked into three fish....all down very deep. The lures that caught fish were running down at 25' in 40' of water and the trolling speed was very slow. As slow as my boat would go which is about 2.6 mph to 2.8 mph. I did hear about 3 or 4 other fish caught by guys casting shallow, so it goes to show that on a given day there is usually more than one way to catch fish.

[Esox masquinongigantis]

Nice job Larry... I am definetly going to have to put some time in trolling.
I had to head out to my boat at the marina and put some gas in the little tank so I fished from 3-4:30 this afternoon. Got 1 small fish ~30" casting.
Larry 0...How was the quaility of the fish? I have only broke 40" on 2 out of my last 6 fish...maybe its just bad luck?....Or maybe the bigger fish are starting to move out over open water?

[LarryO]

No big fish this time....35" 40" and 36" but usually these late fall trolling fish tend to be larger on average.

2 fish over 40" out of 6 total is about right. I keep the fishing records for the local MI Chapter, Shawnee Muskie Hunters. The average Kinkaid fish turned in is 37" to 38" long.

[Chad Cain]

I fished on Saturday with clients, and we made a game time decision to cast all day as well. 99% of the boats we saw out there were trolling, but we wanted to see if we could get fish off the break casting. Well, we did pretty well. We ended up having six fish hit, and landed 3 of them. All on mag bulldawgs. My client had a brand new mag dawg absolutely shredded, more than I have ever seen a bait get demolished, and didn't hook the fish. It had teeth gashes in it almost to the center of the bait. It amazes me how that can happen. I just wonder how big that fish was. The three we landed were 34", 35", and 43".

[Chad Cain]

Hey Larry,

Not trying to be nosy or anything, but what baits were you able to get down 25 feet going that slow. It seems like it would be hard to get them down that deep at such a slow speed. I am curious because I want to take my wife and daughter out there for some trolling.

[LarryO]

Chad

Two of the fish came on a very large Slammer Deep Minnow, which is about 12" long, 15" if you include the plastic bill. Those lures are kind of hard to find but I bought one at the Chicago show last winter. I think Thorne Bros also sells them.

The other fish hit a 13" Believer. I also tried one of the large Hooker crankbaits but no takers on it.

I'm pretty sure about the running depth of the lures as the lures would start grinding bottom when I got into 25' deep water. I was letting out about 100' of line, which is a lot more than I usually like to do.

My GPS unit was showing 2.8 mph or so but that could be off a little bit.

[AFchris]

Thanks for the trolling tips Larry O. Musky Matt "Esox masquinongigantis" and I have started putting some time in to this art, and and art it is!

Chad, Larry, anyone out there in internet land..when do you guys stop trolling? I know up north they troll till ice up. Have any of you had luck with the water temps being in the low forties/high thirties?

The fall was great, boated the most fish in one season ever on kinkaid. I continue to learn and aweful lot. Kinkiad was hot in late september and october!!! I have had a little less succses in Nov, partly due to the amount of time I have spent on the lake. But I'm still looking for a monster. I'll be out there this weekend,

see ya on the waters!

Chris

[LarryO]

Last year I fished one time in the week between Christmas and New Years and that day thin sheets were starting to form in the Johnson Creek area. That is as late as I have tried it.

I think the fall trolling will never be a numbers thing. Saturday was the first time I can remember having a multiple fish day trolling in the late season. Usually it is more like two trips to catch one fish, at least for me but the average size tends to be a little larger.

I enjoy getting out though, better than sitting in the house all day.

[jim schuld]

I normally start trolling on kincaid thanksgiving weekend this year was no different fri-sun 5 fish this is the first time I saw small fish 30-33 trolling. normally we see 3-6 larger fish (2007 6 fish 38-43 2008 4fish 40-48.5) we will now continue to troll untill the spring probably 4 more trips untill we start casting again in march i have trolled in the winter down on kincaid since 1995 and only remember 2 or 3 times when there was thick ice on the main lake

[jim schuld]

Oh by the way this new M.A. glove i got this weekend appears to be used

[Chad Cain]

Hey Jim,

We found that cooler lid after we talked with you guys. It was right where you said it was. That means it blew off the instant we took off out of the no wake zone!! Thanks, my client was happy to get it back.

I hope you get some use out of the glove. Was it right there as well?