I had an unexpected window to get out on the big lake for awhile. I had so much tackle in the boat for all sorts of activities. I had perch gear, walleye/pike gear, jigging gear, big lake trolling gear, and a shotgun with a few decoys. I planned to start the day in a spot hoping to pass shoot a couple mallards on their way to a safe zone. Unfortunately no shots presented themselves that I wanted to take and while mallard numbers were weak, it was encouraging to finally see a couple other duck species.

I was on Muskegon Lake because it just has so many options. There were a couple boats already jigging the channel mouth so I stopped at another nearby area hoping to jig up a walleye. No bites and nothing encouraging on MEGA Live 2. Unfortunately the rest of the channel was off limits to fish with treble hooks due to the new whitefish regulations. There were definitely some pods of whitefish in the channel area. They have a characteristic grouping and are usually somewhat suspended when they are staging to spawn. The big lake looked much calmer than I expected, so I went for it. There were some pretty good rollers still but they were so far apart it was no issue. I ran a thin fin up top, a 3 color, and a bandit way back to start. I was surprised to make it all the way out of the pierheads without a fish and that trend would continue. Something finally snatched the bandit but just for a brief moment. I was really curious if there were spawning lakers around and figuring that out was my primary objective. I switched things up for some deeper running stuff and moved offshore a bit further. It was still rolling too much for me to want to get way out in my small rig so I stuck within 45 feet.

I started getting a lot of marks in an area with no action trolling. They were weirdly spread out and I decided to switch up to casting. I pulled lines and dropped the MEGA Live 2 in. Instantly I knew they weren’t salmon or trout by their grouping and the fact that they were sitting still. I started casting and did find out what they were though, more staging whitefish. I will probably investigate that again on a different year with some different rigging. Back to trolling and I continued to struggle. I was going to switch it up and try and figure out some Muskegon Lake stuff that was purely experimental for me. As I headed in a board slammed back with Smithwick Perfect 10 and a nice steelhead came aboard. Dinner acquired! I made one more pass after that with no luck and went on my way to experiment and scout for ducks. I wanted to test out my trolling motor batteries and troll a long way with them. A long boring way! Because I could never get anything going on Muskegon but I did get my scouting done. I ran more stickbaits both shallow and deep hoping to see if I could dial in the pike trolling or maybe get a walleye. I was basing my areas mostly off duck scouting and I don’t think that helped. But I still should have been around some fish. Lastly I needed to catch a perch for some photos and that was it. A brutally frustrating day of trying and failing but it was fun to experiment at least. Usually I don’t have so much time to try silly stuff, so I did not feel guilty burning a day with trying too many things and I still had dinner.

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