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Ok since all the perch have been caught I went out trolling for steel. (LOL).
Launched Portage with my nephew Luke who's off to second year med school tomorrow. Study hard.
We turned straight north out of mouth set our lines around 630am. No perch boats anywhere in sight of the mouth. Two planner boards with orange J11 and J13's, copper line with blood nose black dots and two dipsy's - one at "O" 40ft with blue dolphin and second at "2.5L" 80ft with caramel dolphin. Reach 45-50fow turned east. 10 minutes go by dipsy with caramel ripped off. Mr. Luke reeled in unfortunately a large drum great fight, released. 10 minutes later same dipsy ripped off again. I reeled in, another drum. Not as big as the first one but fun fight. Reset dipsy and about 30 minutes went by and the caramel dipsy ripped off again. Mr. Luke grabbed it and fight was on, crazy. Got about half way in  - fish off. Reeled in to reset dipsy discovered 17lb fluoro leader after snubber snapped. Retied a new 17lb fluoro leader with another caramel. 20 minutes later caramel ripped off then stopped. Reeled in to reset dipsy and what ever hit it snapped the fluoro leader again. Two caramels gone, crazy but fun. Didn't even think we would get this much action in a short time.

Pulled lines and went to donut checking for perch. Few boats in the area. Spoke to a percher and nothing marked and no bites. We graphed the area and thought we saw a school of something(perch). Spot locked and no bites. Boated back to Portage mouth no perch boats anywhere still. Graphed around tried a few spots no bites. Went to mouth by green/white light on break wall. Mr. Luke caught a small smallmouth I didn't get a bite. We called it and went to breakfast.
Lake was awesome (wave wise). I'll take the action we had. Wish we would of seen and or netted what snapped our lines. Only our caramel dolphin hit. 

Hope catching picks up soon, lol.

Be safe

Very nice report!  What kind of line is the 17lb fluoro that snapped twice?  Just curious more than anything.  

thank you,

craig

Thank you for a detailed report! I do a lot of trolling on Lake Michigan and have experimented with fluorocarbon line. After 2 years of trying it my conclusion is, I get just as many hits with Trilene Big Game. With the Fluoro, if I did not tie the perfect knot the line would break. My best advise would be switch to 20 lb Big game. 

The advice about switching to mono is correct. We also used to run fluoro leaders and had a big fish break off when the wire line caught a small snag at the side of the spool with 400' out. This stalled the spool and broke the line instantly. This was with a rubber snubber (the snubber was completely blown out). 

The next year, the exact same thing happened, but with 75' of 20lb big game for a leader and no snubber. I wish I could post the video - with 400'+ out, the line stalled in the spool for a full second while the leader streeeeettchhhed, and the snag let loose. We landed that 26lb king.

No more fluoro for us. You have to tie the perfect knot, and even then it's not a guarantee. The stretch of big game line is insane. 

I bet all those broken lines came at the strike, not just when the fish was being reeled. Nothing like the strike of a steelhead.  
First, I learned long ago -when fishing for steelhead - that 17 pound line - of any kind is too light behind a Dipsey.  
If you are running mono as your main line (which has some stretch) 20 is okay, when I'm using braid or wire as the main line, I use 25 pound fluoro. 
None of the fluoro has the shock strength of mono, so always use a snubber when using braid or wire - always - and I always use the surgical tubing style - not the weed-eater mono style.  

Millions of salmon/steelhead have been caught on mono line. They aren't the brightest fish in the lake. However, I've had dozens of experiences over the years when fluorocarbon line outfished mono in side by side tests. It's not an everyday occurrence, it might not even be a 50% of the time occurrence, but some days - one of three - one of ten - who knows? Who wants to take the chance of being out there on one of the days when the fish are persnickity? Not me, so I learned to use fluoro and one of the things I learned was to use good knots.  The one I use is called the three tag knot and there are plenty of YouTube vids showing how to use it. Takes a bit of practice, but it works well.  

When I'm running a dodger or flasher on a Diver, I use a mono leader - 20 to 30#.  There's nothing subtle about fishing with a Dipsey Diver and there's nothing fun about losing a dodger or flasher.   But when I'm running a plug or spoon, it's fluoro for me - everytime - all the time. 





 

Guess I'm going back to mono! I've used it for 63 years without a problem. It was my understanding that fluorocarbon is less visible? Any truth to that?

It's absolutely less visible than mono.  But as I said, sometimes it makes no difference, Sometimes it makes a great deal of difference. How much....?  A couple of stories.  
Back in the late 90s I read an article about fluorocarbon lines. Seaguar was the only brand available and it had just been introduced. Had I not been in the outdoor writer industry, I couldn't have gotten any but I did. Went on a saltwater party boat trip with three friends - 24 anglers total. There was a big fish pool - paid 1st, 2nd 3rd. Everyone on the boat caught some fish - no skunks.  My group used FC leaders - no one else had them. Our group caught 27 of 82 fish boated that day. Do the math - my "team" caught twice the average amount and we took 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the pool.  

Went back a year later. Word was getting out about FC line. Probably 10 of the anglers had FC leaders.  Us FC users outfished the others more than 2 to 1. 
Went back the next year and just about everyone was using FC line, the tackle shop at the dock sold it and even the "loaner" rods available on the boat had FC leaders attached. 

Another time I went to Lake Tanicomo to fly fish for trout..  My fishing partner used his "expensive" tapered leaders - mono.  I put on a leader of 6 pound FC. This was in the catch and release section below the Table Rock Dam. After I was up 8 to zero on him. He reluctantly tied on some of my FC.  (I was up to 10 by the time he had the knots tied.)  After that we stayed pretty much equal.  

Nearshore in the spring, when the water is generally cloudy - probably doesn't make a difference. Summer fishing?  I'm certain it makes a big difference other than on the days when the fish are super active or at the time of day they are really active.  Numerous examples over the years where I think FC made the difference and (other than knot failures before I learned the three-tag knot) using FC NEVER hurt anything.   

You think there's a reason nearly every trolling fly brand and walleye harness maker now uses FC?  I do....