Grand Haven Offshore Challenge 2025 – Day 2
Day 2 brought much nicer conditions which meant a run was coming for us. Other than the boat wakes making it somewhat challenging it wasn’t too bad. We were all under the impression that we would have a fish on before the rest of the spread got out. We all kind of looked around surprised when everything got out and we still hadn’t had a bite. We waited a lot longer than I would have expected when the 100 copper and the 300 copper went at the same time. Just a quick note on the “copper lines”, the longer the copper line is the greater depth it fishes. A very valuable steelhead on the 100 and one of the real kings. It was going to be a good one for the 333 where you weigh your 3 biggest fish over the weekend. After some intense acrobatics with the steelhead behind the boat and around the downrigger and diver lines we had it in the net. The big bite just came off halfway through the battle.
Our next 4 fish came rather quickly, 3 kings and another steelhead. One more steelhead and we would have our trout goal for the day and a good possibility for a full limit. Then we hit a lull and started exploring, still out in 200 plus feet of water. We hit one more pocket of action with another steelhead on a 100 copper with a Dreamweaver SS magic man and a nice king on a wire diver with a Mr. Chrome spoon. Getting that last steelhead was a huge relief and we just needed to fill our 3 kings for a great day. We had a lot of time to do it too, but it was a lot of just washing lures. Changing things out didn’t work, different areas didn’t work, different driving/trolls didn’t work. It was just dead but we had one last ditch effort in us in the mud. So the shallow/dirty water setups came back out and we had a half an hour left to make something happen. The goal was just 3 small kings over 10 inches. But while getting the spread set up a braid diver went and it was obvious we did not have a small king on.
All was going well right up to the back of the boat. Things got a little squirrely in the propwash and the fish made one last ditch effort. I watched the spoon in the magnum steelhead separate and our dreams fade. Big steelhead from the previous day was only 6 pounds and change. This one definitely eclipsed that but I’m not sure it would have beaten the 8.7 pounds it took to be big steelhead of the event. But if it was then it definitely cost us a bunch of money.
It was still a solid comeback and we moved up to 19th place. A lot of fun for the day but I know we were still all disappointed. Things weren’t going to get any better on the way home either. While we were heading to my house Hutch got attacked by 2 dogs while on a walk. Luckily other than a lot of blood from his ears at the time he seems ok. Then Cameron’s truck wouldn’t start for a couple hours. We did finally get it figured out and him on the way home. But it was definitely a day to remember. Time to get going on the bass tournaments tonight and turn my focus to that.
I’ll be looking forward to the next Grand Haven Offshore Challenge though. It is very well run and a lot of fun. There was a lot of work put into making it happen and all the fisherman appreciate that!