Racine Kings and Bows

This report is late (7 days), but I was excited to also try out the new website.

I got the boat all rigged up with the Penn downriggers and Penn rod/reels and headed out with four guys to Racine to fish the big pond. It has been nearly 20 years since my last trip to the pond when we used to go out three times a year with one trip always fishing a tournament.

I did quite a bit of research and found much has stayed the same, with some of the new lures changing from fishing j-plugs more flashers/dodgers and fly combos…which back in the day, weren’t really used much at all. Also, guys were using leadcore with about 5-7 colors and running more planer boards.

So, I rigged up two of my rods with 7 colors of lead – a 40′ piece of mono leader, 7 colors of lead, then back to the 12# mono backing. One rod I tied on the new Suffix 832…what a great lead line. It is thinner and harder to tie a Willis knot!

The four-day trip went pretty well with only one hairball created by a Big John flasher that picked up some mossy stuff and prevented the ball bearings to work…viciously twisting up the line. Other than one guys getting very sick the first day with 5-6′ swells, the rest of the trip was very foggy and mostly calm. We only saw three boats on the water even though the ramp was closed. I have to give a thanks to Randy Wieland for the conversations and tips both before and during the trip!

The water surface temps were far behind what they should be for this time of year, we found anything from 58 degrees in shallower and 52.9 degrees about 4 miles out. Our best fishing was out deep with the colder temps where we picked up two nice 16# kings and quite a few rainbows. The rainbows and their aerobatic fight was the best fishing. Back in the day, we used Yellow Birds, which I also used on this trip. But I also pulled out my walleye Offshore boards which outperformed the Yellow Birds overall. Seems they has much better, predictable tracking than the YBs, especially when running three planer boards on a side.

We also hooked up with the cohos in the 50fow using little peanut flies and flashers.
Overall…a good trip, hoping the fishing improves as i head back out for a five-day trip in a couple of weeks in the Milwaukee area and one to two more trips to Algoma later in August.

I liked the speed of the last website..but think that this one will be great once i get used to the new layout… happy fishin!

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Sorry about the duplicate photos…learning new upload method..

Good post: thanks for sharing. So most of your fish came on the flasher-fly combo? Any particular color?
I was taking a close look on how you have your ‘trolling-rigger’ board set up in your boat. Interesting use of the PVC. Also couldn’t help but notice the claw-hammer That’s a nice way to ‘dispatch’ those fish when you welcome them aboard

Did you try any spoons?

Again, thanks for sharing….

It reminds me of river fishing… conditions are always changing and the fish are always moving…maybe stay in one area for a while, but then they move.

Actually, quite a few guys were doing well with the flasher-fly combo, I didnt. Most all fish came on a cracked ice (mother pearl) or cracked blue ice spoons. Actually…the one pick shows all rods with spoons on them. The most productive spoon was a cracked-ice with a rasberry piece of tape going diagonlly from one end to the other. Wierd..but most all fish came on that one. So of course..the other spoons ended up getting a little piece of rasberry-colored tape on them as well.

The 2×8 and schedule-40 pvc, some screws, bolts and two turnbuckles is a cheap and very effective way to go…all for about $40. I wanted to go with a Traxtech system, but after looking at the $400+ price for the rod holder trees (per side) it was a price I couldnt swallow right now.

The persuader (hammer) works well….after a wild fish floppin on the floor with a treble hook flying..something is needed

Looking forward to another trip in a week…hopefully we can start getting into the 3-4yr old kings.

Nice report. Interesting that your FF combos didn’t produce. FF on a dipsey is my best producer. Spoons are just an occasional contributor on my boat. Just reinforces the old saying that what works on one boat doesn’t always work on somebody else’s.

Dipsys just have never been a good thing for me. I was running them back on 7 passes back (non-linecounter reel) which I think is about 84-95′. I hear a lot of guys running there dipsys 120′ back. i just think that the downrigger lines are covering the same water as the dipsy was anyway. The boat is packed and heading out for 6-day trip this time.

They are always difficult to bring in as the release doesnt seem to release with a lot of line out..too much line stretch. So I end up having to reel against all the pressure for quite some time before I can get the dipsy to release…never been a dipsy fan I guess.

Missippi River tomorrow morning..chasing some eyes.