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After reading reports that folks were hitting kings to the east of Portage, I decided to head over that way. My goal this year was to finally put a king on my boat. I’ve caught plenty with charters and with friends on their boats. Just never while on my boat. It was my first time out on the big pond this year with my Lund, and I accomplished that goal.

We started a little farther west than I wanted, but my friend was anxious to get lines in. Radio chatter indicated a slow bite, so I obliged. We picked up two small coho out in front of the port then went dry for awhile. Then just as we approached the dunes, we hooked up on a double, both on sliders. One coho went 4lb 8oz and the other was 3-12. We marked the spot then circled a number of times. Long dry spells then fire drills.

We were starting to consider how much longer to stay then a rigger popped. I had just changed up from a Flounder Pounder to a Kevorkian. The rod went straight up, I grabbed the rod, cranked it down then the drag started singing. I knew what was up. After a couple decent runs then a swim straight at the boat, we netted a nice, chunky 15-8 king. Not a bad way to break my rig in.

We had two more king hits on that Kevorkian but lost them both. I picked up a bonus coho pulling in lines to finish our day 12-for-17. Coho size was a mixed bag but some nice ones in there. My buddy kept a 7 pound laker for the smoker. We had three throwbacks to go one shy of a two-man ticket.

The Kevorkian was the hot deep spoon with the downrigger set i35 down, fishing in 40-53 fow. The hot slider was Blue Killer. Red-black Thin Fins did work as did the Orange J11. We even picked up a coho on a black dipsy set down to 30’ running a Mountain Dew Spin Doctor with green/gold fly. A mini dipsy with small orange Spin Doctor and green peanut fly was just out for a swim, apparently.

Got a little intel from Steele Don, KelliAnn (sorry if I spelled wrong) and a couple others on the radio. Thanks guys. We also had a “less than masterful” net job while another boat just happened to be about a hundred feet away. Why does crazy the stuff always happen when there’s somebody close enough to see it? My buddy had the fish flop out of the net, but one hook took hold while the other two were in the fish’s jaw. It wasn’t pretty, but that fish made it in the box. Had a nice comment come at us over the radio. Gave us a good chuckle. Anyway, I can’t wait to get back over there.

Glad we were able to help out a little. Thanks for the report.

Funny you had a botched net job. Lives would have been lost watching Bob and me netting the first king because of people dying from laughter. I don’t want to discuss it more as the situation has been corrected. LOL!!

My sons king ripped the rod outa his hand luckily it got stuck by the reel then I hit it in the head with the net and finally rapped around the trolling motor by sheer luck we landed it, but it was worth it!!

Heard something about a net job out there... I messed around with one of my buddies for years because he knocked a big walleye off with the net over on erie(10lb range). Then of course we hooked a nice king and went to net it. Hit it short and hooked the net the, fish rolled back in the lake.. 15lb range king....talk about feeling dumb!

Boomer wrote:

Heard something about a net job out there... I messed around with one of my buddies for years because he knocked a big walleye off with the net over on erie(10lb range). Then of course we hooked a nice king and went to net it. Hit it short and hooked the net the, fish rolled back in the lake.. 15lb range king....talk about feeling dumb!

It's amazing how many things happen at the net. Lol

I think we have all done that with the net at one time or another. Its really easy to be anxious to get that big king in before shes ready.

Also great report - sounds like a good day

My brother and I went out last week and he hasn’t been fishing in 30 years. I had a big laker on and he knocked the spoon right out of the fishes mouth. On the same day he was netting a fish for me hit the steering wheel and he dropped my net in the lake as he was trying to straighten the boat.... lol . He was 2-2

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a 6’ x 4” fish landing gaff. When fishing in the ocean that’s all they use. So Friday when fishing I didn’t use it for 9 out of the 10 fish we caught as they were doing what they were supposed to in terms of cooperating at the net. One big king wasn’t so cooperative and got into my 8 color then the 8 color got into my diver. The fish tried to pass the boat on port and was in front of the rigger and diver. Kind of a mess. Anyway I decided this one was a gaff job and man it worked great. It would have been real tough to net that fish but the gaff got it done quick and easy. I’m glad I made the decision to have one on board.

After the ordeal we had at the net on Friday I'm definitely getting one.