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Onekama Marine Shakedown - May 22 - 25
Verdict 
 		  Port: Ludington, Michigan   05/27/2008 13:55
Coho
Posts: 200
 

The first of the Tournament Trail north division events was held over the weekend from the port of Onekama (with the option to fish from Manistee as well). This was the first time Team Verdict made the trip north to participate, and even though fishing can be very tough this time of year in Manistee and Onekama, I would recommend it to anyone. The event was efficiently run, and an overall good time. Now for the report...

We fished up to Manistee from Ludington on Thursday spending most of our time on the bank in Ludington. Fishing was overall very slow, so we had to work for every bite. We ended the day 7-11 (2 kings and 5 lake trout)with 10 of the bites coming right on or very near the point at the Big Sable lighthouse. Most fish came on spindoctors and flies in a variety of greens fished near bottom.

With the continued north wind on Friday, we decided to focus our fishing in the area of the bank off Manistee from the 13s to the 15s on Friday. We located a decent number of smaller salmon but enough that we thought we could catch a limit the following day so we ventured offshore looking for larger fish. We found a 6 degree temperature break that looked promising but turned out to have no fish on it. We also spent an hour fishing the river plume in front of the Manistee harbor that produced a couple fish. The fish came on a variety of presentations and lures including our the spinnies and flies that worked the day prior along with Yeck mixed veggies, Yeck green glows and Yeck wartfrogs.

We were met Saturday with significantly changed weather conditions. Instead of the overcast and wind from the two prior days we had sun and relatively flat water. The bite was tough early and picked up a bit as the day wore on. We fished the 14s to the 17s in 110-200' of water landing 9 of our 10 bites, 7 kings and 2 lake trout. Our best 5 fish weighed in at 48.35# good enough for 5th place after day one. We also weighed our three biggest kings for a 333 weight of 38.25#. Our best set up was a Yeck green glow on a 300' copper which took 5 of our 10 bites. Other productive setups included 10" chrome spindoctors with blue flies on divers and riggers, a 7 color with a Yeck mixed veggie and a 225' copper with a Yeck copperhead.

Fishing was much more difficult for most boats on Sunday as the clear, calm conditions persisted. We again fished the same waters between the 14s and 17s with little success. We only had 4 bites and caught all four fish. Our 300' copper with the green glow took two of our bites while a chrome spinnie with a blue fly took one and a set of bells with a spin-n-glo took our other fish. We were very disappointed by our performance, but fishing was so tough for the rest of the field that we held our position for a 5th place finish in both the overall tournament and the 333.
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Re:Onekama Marine Shakedown - May 22 - 25
ReelKing 
 		  Port: Manistee   05/29/2008 07:03
Brookie
Posts: 17
 

Tim very good report Wish more of the big teams would write as detailed account of of their tournament experiences as you did Reading it made me feel like I was on the boat with you. Congrats to you and the other winners
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