Meat Me in Manistee: The Bi-Chromatic Program

Adapted from Capt. John King's article "Meat Me in Manistee," completed September 15, 2006 on MichiganSportsman.com. Read the original.

On August 23, 2006, Capt. John tested prototype whole-herring heads (the Super Magnum heads released in 2007) aboard his former first mate John J's 23' Four Winns. He fished smaller boats on purpose: "it far better reflects what most of the readers of this website fish from." His 10" BTI flashers and shorter 2-fly meat rigs came from seeing how hard it is to land fish on 10' diver rods in an 8' wide boat.

The bi-chromatic program

John's idea was simple: run just two colors, and match each side of the boat.

  • Port side: a 12" Green Bubble flasher with a matching 3-fly meat rig on the rigger, and a Green Bubble 10" BTI with a matching 2-fly meat rig on the diver.
  • Starboard side: the same setup in Blue Bubble.
  • If a fish follows a bait off the rigger, it gets a second look at the same color on the diver. If a color works on a diver, it will work on a rigger.
  • Both colors produced equally.

The details ("S.W.A.T.: Salmon Weapons And Tactics")

  1. Spread: 2 riggers and 2 divers.
  2. Speed: 1.5–2.2 mph.
  3. Depth: started 50–60' down, then moved to 70–80'.
  4. Water depth: started in 50–60'; best action in 80–140'.
  5. Light: partly cloudy, hazy.
  6. Trolling direction: south, into a head sea, was better by about 40%.
  7. Catch: 8 fish from 8 to 10am; kept 6 Kings and a jack Coho.
  8. Divers: regular Dipsys on wire, setting 2, 5' leader from the diver to the flasher.
  9. Bait: whole Green and Red Label herring in 3 prototype Super Mag heads and 1 Magnum head for comparison.

Lessons from the trip

  • Know your structure. Off Manistee, the best part of the drop-off (45' to 250'+) lies straight out and south of port. North of the harbor there's a long, sloping plateau before deep water.
  • Process of elimination. "If I'm gonna make another mistake, let's make a brand new one!" Don't keep repeating the same speed, depth or area.
  • Trust your sonar. John called a good graph the single most important piece of electronics on the boat.
  • Late-August Kings are harder to hook. Maturing fish get tougher hides, harder mouths and hooked jaws. Keep hooks sticky sharp and releases set right.

Shop the setup: Flasher + meat rig combos · Super Mag meat heads · Diver supplies

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