July 2001 results from

Capt. John's Log

This page contains the exact results from every charter with no embellishment.  This is a "tell it like it is" standard of honesty that Capt. John King is known for.  Proof can be found in the archived links to photos that accompany every charter.  While other charter operations might give you a bunch of "pie in the sky" unfounded promises, here you can see and read the precise verification of the whole story when it comes to fishing with King's Charter Service, we serve the reel facts!!!

7/31/01  The Cary, Dave, Buck and Bryon 3 day Fish-a-Thon ended today, and I'll be sorry to see this fine group of dedicated fishermen leave....FACT!  The team work, sharing and camaraderie displayed by "Team Smooth" is a seldom seen thing in today's world.  Now, here's something to pay attention too; they boated every fish and didn't miss one strike, reel incredible! 
 Click here for Team Smooth 7/31/01      Click here for Dave's large Steelhead
     The death toll of the fish population off Manistee on our boat today was 2 dandy chrome Steelhead, 1 small Brown, 2 Lakers and 4 Kings to past the 20 pound mark, for a total of 9 fish. In the 3 days "Team Smooth" graced my boat, we had 33 hits and landed 21 fish, which "ain't bad" for 7 days of east wind.  Plus, the group appreciated the fact they had a chance to met Miss July (First Mate of the Month), before she had to leave town for her reel job at Deja Vue downstate. 

7/30/01  Today's success doesn't show in the numbers of fish that we boated, but the first-rate time that was shared by all.  Cary, Bryan, Dave and Buck were once again my honored guests.  This team has it all!  They set lines, net fish and are probably the most experienced and helpful folks to ever set foot on my boat in the 14 seasons that I've owned this Cherokee.  It's reel easy to brag this group up, because I'm amazed at how fast they caught on to my program.  Oh, Yeah, we did end up boating 4 Kings to maybe 25 pounds and a handsome chromer Steelhead.   
                             Click here to see Bryan's whopper

7/29/01  Fishing was pretty decent on the Cary Bradshaw charter today.  Cary was accompanied by Buck, Brian and Dave.  Most of these fishermen are members of the Battle Creek Steelheaders and are avid and experienced fishermen.  The action right off the "get go" was HOT!  The first rigger down connected briefly with a large King.  Overall, we went 7 for 14 on bites or "hookups," and 6 were Kings to 25 pounds and a mint chrome, beautiful Steelhead in a great team effort on wild, nasty "Bad Boys" (Adult King Salmon). Click to see Buck's 25 pounder  
    Today was a tune-up day for the crew as they polished their already existing and accomplished skills.  Plus, I'll have the pleasure of their company for the next two days.   Click here to see their heavy dockside catch photo 

7/27/01  Today's charter guests were Elizabeth, Chris, Benton and Harold Rosenbaum.  Slow fishing continues and we only boated 3 Lake Trout, 2 Kings and a Brown Trout.  We lost 2 decent Kings, but overall there's just not that many fish to be had, plus this is our second day of east wind.  I need a easy day, because I'm reel tried of struggling to put a few fish in the boat.  The tournament boats that did well fished way north of Onekama.  
Click here for a photo of Benton and Harold

7/27/01  Pitiful fishing is what my charter guests endured today!  Dave, Tony, Steve and Brian all watched me cover the harbor, then out to 650 feet of water.  We missed 3 semi-decent fish and boated 2 micro-mini, tiny baby Kings.  The word "struggle" best describes what ever charter captain hates, a reel skimpy catch!!  Fishing for me and the rest of the fleet was just plain lousy, because the lake rolled over (lost temperature) and sent our fish to the Wisconsin shores or places unknown.  The guests deserved far better fishing, than what they witnessed.
    The boats that set up before daylight in the harbor faired better than the deep water fleet and caught a few adult Kings before the sun came up.  This report is in keeping with my policy of tell it like it is, with no B.S.

7/26/01  Lumpy 4 foot seas from the north and distress call prevented getting in the Dave Bryan Charter as scheduled.  I did catch a 22 footer called the "Flaky Pierre," which I towed safely from 4 miles out, to the city boat launch.
     Dave's young sons Matthew and Derrick did not fair well and did not get out and out sea sick, but were not feeling well.  The idea was to reschedule for the evening which was flat calm, but Dave was impatient and cut a trail for home.

7/25/01 Super Hog Master Angler King Salmon is the reel headline for today's Nate Emery trip.  Nate was accompanied by his grandson Justin and his wife, Sharon who landed a whopper 31 pound plus, King Salmon on a lead core outfit.  The ensuing battle was a reel war.  Patience on Sharon's part won out, as we slid the net under her trophy.  Both Nate and Justin caught nice sized Kings, during a light and much needed morning drizzle. 
    The "Hog Tuna" hit a specially painted blue-yellow Mag Silver Streak.  Don't look for this one at your local tackle store, as it was a special order bait that's included in Capt. John Dirty Dozen, my 13 best Streaks to suit all occasions.   Click for a peek at a monster King
   Overall, we boated 6 fish including 4 Kings, 1 Steelhead and a small Lake Trout.  We pulled lines to go in around 10:30am to process the Master Angler paper work and get it ready for the taxidermist.  Today, kinda made up for yesterday's loositis.

7/24/01  Al Weir booked today's charter as a show of gratitude to his construction crew.  The crew was made up of Bill, Steve, "Big Vinnie" and Sam.  This was an extra ordinary group of good natured men out to have a good time and see what the what the fishing is like out of Manistee.  That's exactly what happened, they seen many more fish than we boated.             Click here for a fine group of fishermen.
   "Miss Fortune" was also a guest today and she caused me way too much grief!  The first hit didn't hook up, the second hit came off 85 feet down.  The third fish was stuck and almost made it to almost netting range and fell off.  The fourth fish flew the coop after a lengthy battle a 100 feet behind the boat, the fifth fish jumped off and so on, is how my morning was shaping up.  Hey, it's straight up noon and I'm setting on a reel skunk in the box, when "Miss Fortune" finally left us alone and Bill boated a 10 pound King along with a mini King.  I truly thought this was going to be the first, out and out skunk I suffered since August of 1988. 
     Today's fishermen were in no way responsible for the tragedies that befell us, and all preformed admirably on the rods, it was just our turn to be snake bit!  We ended up with 2 fish for 8 strikes and some good quality hardy laughs.

7/23/01  My guests today were Doris Colton and her father, Dan Wright.  While we didn't exactly "set the world on fire" with a super heavy box, we did manage to hook and land 5 respectable fish.  The catch consisted of 2 Kings to 20 pounds, a couple of decent Steelhead and a 8 pound Coho. Click for catch photo 
     Both Doris and Dan are experienced fisher-people, knowing when and how to gain line.  Plain and simple, these folks are on familiar terms with a fishing rod.
Plus, I believe Doris likes to fish more that me and has a constant alertness, meaning no missed fish!  5 fish today could be considered respectable, because the overall catch of the fleet was much worse, with many getting skunked.

7/22/01  We finished the third "on the water" Capt. John's Salmon School day in grand fashion by boating the largest King of the season, so far!  My team today consisted of Dave, Dan, Ed, Mike, John and Alf.  The high point of the day is when Mike landed a huge 25 pound, adult King.  While battling it out with the giant tuna, all men stepped in the lend a hand in moving rods and clearing lines.  These men are to be congratulated on the skilled manner they displayed.  
     I'd like to personally thank all the participants for being just plain great individuals, to be around and fish with.  Thanks to you all, because fishermen like you tend to make my job a sheer pleasure!   Click here for Mike's 25 pounder
     Fishing was not red hot and we struggled to boat 2 Browns to 10 pounds (one was a mini and released) and to King to 25 pounds.
            As Paul Harvey would say, "click here for the rest of the stories." 

7/21/01   Today, we started the first leg of our Salmon Seminars.  John, Dan, Bob, Jeff, Craig and Adam were my esteemed guests.  These anglers were on the job and never missed a downrigger hit.......fantastic!  We boat all 5 interested finny creatures that made the fatal mistake of chewing on our lures.  The only strike that was missed was on a high diver.  The body count was 3 chunky Lakers, an immature King and the nicest fish was a 10 to 12 pound cart wheeling Steelhead.
      The emphasis was not on how many fish that could be killed, but about instilling knowledge in a "hands on" matter of fact way.  Incidentally, the fishing this morning was reel slow for the entire fleet after 9:00am.  We did well considering we didn't drop our lures until almost 8:00am.  The zooplankton bloom is very heavy and is bonding itself to your fishing lines with a thick, heavy coating and it's almost impossible to remove without great difficulty.
     Adam crossed Lake Michigan from Wisconsin in his 31 footer to attend and only burned 60 gallons of gas.  Which in itself is an interesting side note.

7/20/01   Fished a very short evening on 7/19/01, by the time we finished boat maintenance and gassing up.  Dropped lines on the fish around 7pm and we pulled at 9:30pm to go in.   During the two and a half hours we had 10 to 12 hits and landed 5 Kings (a skipper was released) to about 20 pounds, small Laker and a dandy 10 to 12 pound Steelhead was expertly landed by Capt. Mark Pefley.  We had "reel decent" action for such a short period of time.  Also, boat traffic was light, which improved the catching.             Click here for Mark's beautiful Steelhead.
     The "reel story" is that I had a chance to meet up with both Chuck and Norm who fish out of their boat the "Skipjack."  Chuck is a regular viewer of this website and I thought I'd promote some good will by taking him along, hoping to sharpen his skills.  Norm his great brother in law, also was a welcome addition on the training session for my new deckhand, John Adams.        Click here for the photo of "Team Skipjack."
    Overall, the evenings have produced better for me than the mornings.  We fished towards the south again, and the best lures were the hammered glow in the dark, yellow-tail Streak.  The blue yellow dolphin DW and the white Bechholds rounded out our productive lures (which incidentally are all available in my lure packs).  The best depths were 60 to 80 feet of water, right tight to the shelf. 

7/18/01  Regular reports are resuming today, because the Michigan Sportsman is back online!  Under no means think, we're being attacked by huge amounts of adult Kings, so far.  We do have some fish, but the areas they're in can be a "hunt and peck" situation.  Yesterday's best action was south, in the 12's to 10's in 150 to 200 feet of water.  The lead core was dead and the divers were best with Bechhold Fishcatchers (flashers) and green metallic flies.  The temp break was down at 40 ft.
    I'm holding one more Salmon School on July 21st and 22nd, because of popular request. At this time all positions are filled, but we're accepting "standbys."  Capt. Bud Raskey is helping out as a second boat and the most respected Captain (as far as I'm concerned) on the Great Lakes.  Bud has 34 years to his credit as a fulltime licensed Captain.  Also, Capt. Bud pioneered many of the methods we'll be using.  Plans are for one day with me, one day with Capt. Bud (the most experienced captain in Manistee).
     In the 2 day, 6 hour, on the water seminars, we'll cover all aspects of big lake trolling. Knots, speeds, cut bait, electronics, spoons, dodgers, flashers, lead core, J-plugs, riggers and double divers will be the "hands on" target subjects.  Video cameras welcomed.  Rate is $150 per angler for the two day event.  Includes turkey fry and fish boil on Saturday the 21st of July. 

7/17/01   Today's guests were Russ Boomstra, Kyle and Dave Bradley.  We covered a lot of water and had about 10 to 12 strikes.  Only 4 of the fish stayed stuck and we boated 4 Kings from 3 to 16 pounds.  Bad luck plagued us with hooks being straightened out and a complete inability to stay over active fish.  The east wind to flat calm didn't help the situation either!                    Click here for Kyle's 16 pounder
    Last seasons success with Dave Bradley wasn't matched as I struggled to produce a few fish for a great group of fishermen.  Click here to see 2000 catch

7/16/01  We'll be fishing tomorrow with long time friend of Kings Charter, the Dave Bradley's group of outstanding fishermen.  
    Spent most of the day trying to move my domain, www.michigansportsman.com to a new server.  The only thing I can figure is that Big Picture Technology, my previous hosting company has joined the dead pool of the dot coms.  Hopefully by Wednesday, if all goes well it should be back online at it's new home.

7/15/01  The second "Capt. John's Salmon School" concluded today with another great morning on Lake Michigan.  Fishing was on the slow for us, as the lake rolled and temperature moved up to the 25 to 35 foot range.  We had about 7 hits and boated 6 Kings to say, 18 pounds, but 3 of the fish were tiny weenie little guys and were tossed back to grow up.           Click here to see Scott's King 
    I'd like to thank all of the great anglers I had onboard for the past 2 days.  While this mornings fishing wasn't nothing to write home about, the quality of the company was.  This group was simply magnificent to spent time with, and the entire am trip was punctuated by laughter at my poorly constructed, shabby excuses why fishing wasn't better than it was.   
            As Paul Harvey would say, "click here for the rest of the stories." 

7/15/01  Yesterday, we started another Salmon School  with Bob, Steve, John, Dave, Scott and Gary, soon to known as the "Salmon Assassins."  We fished north away from the main pack and had 9 hits and boated 4 Kings from 10 to 18 pounds and a Steelhead.  Our action was decent, considering we didn't drop lines until at least 7:45am.  The misses included 2 double headers!  Click for group photo
    The turkey fry and fish boil once again was a hit with the fishermen and we're going to hit the big pond at 5:00am, for the early morning bite .  
    MichSports website is still unavailable as my support personal at Big Pic. Tech. figuring out how to plug a computer in.  I'm extremely upset with Big Pic. Tech.

7/11/01  Yesterday, I photographed how rig a sewn minnow, requested by my visitors from Scotland.  Plug cut bait, herring fillets and rigging methods are posted on the E-mail list members private page.  I've yet to complete the exact text on how to rig fresh herring, but the photos will give you a clue as to what message I'm trying to relay.  The video tape from Jerry Bechhold was of immense help.  Cut bait is the big thing on Lake Ontario where 40 pound Kings are semi commonplace.  It should work miracles here in Michigan, once we get the proper speed figured out.

7/8/01  "Capt. John's Salmon School" concluded today with the unleashing of 6 Salmon Slayers, soon the wreck havoc on the Great Lakes Fish population!  Mark, Jeff, John, Leon, Joe & Jeff (see photo, top to bottom- left to right) were the group who presented me the wonderful opportunity to share my 33 years of  Salmon fishing experience with.  All of the participants were already accomplished anglers in their own right and this was proven by the fact, only 1 strike was missed, and every fish hooked up was brought to the net in a pro-caliber manner.
   A very foggy morning prevented meant a slow trip to the fishing grounds, just north of the Manistee Harbor in 170 to 300 feet of water.  During the limited time spent over the productive area (3 hours), we landed 5 Salmon to 18 pounds and 1 Laker on dodger-fly and Bechhold Flashers, as some in the group found newfound confidence in attractor style fishing.  The fish were coming at 70 to 80 feet down.
   All methods of trolling were covered including lead core, double divers, terminal tackle, drop weights, attractors, cut bait and downrigger techniques.  To borrow a quote from Joe Modelski who said while departing, "it was everything and more!"

7/6/01  Fished today with 2 Jeffs, Mark, Leon, John and Joe in "Capt. John's Salmon School."  I thought everything went amazingly well, considering we couldn't get off the dock until 6:30pm, because of rough seas and threatening thunderstorms.
   The cook-out was simply great as everyone ate their fill of deep fried turkey and the fish boil put on by Capt. Mark Pefley, was delicious .  Knowledge was shared and inside humor kept us busy until we put into practice some of the methods used to catch fish on Lake Michigan.                          Click for their group photo
   The fishing part started around 7:00pm as the red and green teams began setting lines.  My team, the red guys and we had our butt kicked royal by the green squad.  The green players were out for blood and boated 3 fish, while us red folks only managed 1.  I think overall, we landed 2 Lakers and 2 Kings in the 8 pound range.  Fun was emphasized and I was thrilled to have such a great group of anglers to spend the day with.  

7/6/01  Boat preparation is what ate up most of my day, a thorough cleaning was in order along with some long neglected projects.  Tomorrow marks the start of "Capt. Johns Salmon School" where hands on methods will be explained in great detail.  Catching fish will not be emphasized, but gaining knowledge will be.  

7/5/01  I had the grand opportunity to take Dena, Mary, Henry and Kerry Van Dyke fishing today.  Lake Michigan was much to rough with maybe, 3 to 6 footers to contend with.  Driving from the Lansing area I wanted my guests to at least wet a few lines in the harbor, before we rescheduled Kerry's charter for August 30,2001.
    I decided to set a few lines and make a couple of laps around the harbor in hopes of nailing some Browns, summer run Steelhead or an early running King.        
    When we were just about ready to give up and call it a morning, the port diver went off with line screaming off the reel.  The rod buckled over in the holder severely and Kerry sprang to life and jumped on the rod with skill only a seasoned veteran could portray.  After a lengthy nip and tuck battle, Kerry's persistence won out and we boated an incredible behemoth from the depths of the Manistee Harbor that wouldn't fit into our fish box. 
                        Click here to see Kerry's surprise harbor trophy.
          Hint: We're getting it certified as a "New Manistee Record Fish."

7/3/01pm  The afternoon guests were "My 3 Sons" of Mark Rumpeki.  Tommy, Chad and Jayce had more than enough action on Salmon to make anyone, pleased! The boys boated 6 Large King Salmon and a Brown Trout pushing 14 pounds.  While pulling lines Mark landed a King exceeding the 20 pound mark after a long and exhausting battle.  Chad landed a couple of Kings in the high teens, while Jayce had the bragging rights to the lunker 14 pound Brown Trout.  Not to be left out, Tommy pulled his share of the load, landing a couple of hard fighting Kings.  A great time was had by all on a calm Lake Michigan. 
                              Click for Rumpeki Clan catch photo.

7/3/01am  I fished with 3 generations of the Ward Family this morning.  Dwayne, Kyler, Mike and Scott Ward were more than decent folks to fish with.  However, it was a tough go for me, because I couldn't either locate or stay over the fish.  We only were able to boat 3 fish and had 3 become unstuck, due to choppy seas.  All of the Wards either landed fish, or had one on the rod.  The heartbreaker was the giant Tuna that Dwayne had within yards of the net, before the hook pulled free.  These folks deserved far better fishing than I was able to show them.  If there is a redeeming story, it's the fact 2 Kings were monsters.
                                     Click for Ward Family photo 

7/2/01pm  I had the great opportunity to share an evening on Lake Michigan with Betty and Ray Hickman.  The fishing was not red hot, but we managed to bring 4 Lake Trout to 11 pounds and a 12 pound King to the net.  Ray's expert rod handling and alertness made all the difference in the world, by not missing hits or losing fish.  Betty was a sheer joy and light conversation made up for the lack of a heavy fish take.  All in all, it was a pleasure to fish with these folks. Click for Betty & Ray catch picture

7/2/01am  Fished morning the trip with Dennis and Dale Brown.  It was a slow go and not many fish wanted to hit.  Tried from 100 to 600 feet of water and was only able to muster a Coho, a micro small King, and 2 Lakers to 13 pounds.  While the catching was not earth shattering, but fun and laughter enjoyed aboard was immense.  
    I fished with the Browns last year and the catch in 2000 far exceeded what we did today.   Yesterday's blow has scattered what fish, we did have off Manistee.  Spotty best describes the action the fleet experienced.  Click for photo of Dale & Dennis Brown      

7/1/01  I was supposed to fish again this morning with the Whit Whitaker group.  However, a strong blow from the northwest prevented this from happening.  5 to 7 seas are not something to be comfortable in.  Hopefully, I'll see Whit again next year when he returns to Manistee from Florida.