Kings to coho, lake perspective from the Zilian tournament: Riding & remembering with Capt. Bob Poteshman

The rush of a double, including a big steelhead fighting on the surface directly behind the boat, being landed on the Massive Confusion Monday during the Gary Zilian Memorial Tournament.

Murmurs came from the anglers clumped on the Diversey Harbor Yacht Club patio as Zamboati weighed a huge fish on the portable scale hanging from the awning.

The Chinook weighed 23 pounds, 9.5 ounces, biggest fish of the Chicago Sportfishing Association’s Gary Zilian Memorial Tournament. Eric Haskell, Dave Fournier’s first mate on Zamboati, landed that king.

Dave Fournier’s first mate on the Zamboati, Eric Haskell, landed the big fish, a 23-pound, 9.5-ounce Chinook, caught Monday during the Gary Zilian Memorial Tournament.

The Zilian emphasizes catching the common salmon/trout in Lake Michigan: Chinook, coho, lake trout, brown trout and steelhead. Scoring is one point for each ounce, plus 10 points for one species, 25 for two, 75 for three, 150 for four and 250 for five.

The Zilian is a snapshot of the lake.

Early in 2019, it is lots of coho with some big Chinook.

``This is one time the government did something right,’’ Capt. Kevin Bachner of King Fisher said.

He meant the reduced Chinook stockings in recent years because of less preyfish.

King Fisher had five kings, including a 17- and 16-pounder.

Capt. Ian Stewart, whose King Salukis won by weighing the only four species of the day (Chinook, laker, coho, steelhead), said, ``That is what makes this tournament. And you have to fish different than on a charter.

``Last week, the rainbow trout were here. Kings are here for a while, three to six a trip last week. For Chicago, that is great.

``We had our four species in the first hour. We were fishing in 85-135 feet outside of The Wreck.’’

No browns were boated, but King Salukis almost pulled that off.

``We spent four hours fishing downtown [near Navy Pier] for browns and I had one on,’’ Stewart said.

* * * *

I rode with Capt. Bob Poteshman on the Massive Confusion out of Montrose.

Poteshman had along a relative, Mike Jacoby, Capt. Frank Novelli and his brother Tony, first mate Gregg Peters, Capt. Tim Frey and Capt. Jeff Grapenthien.

Frey, in a sort of Captain America getup, and Novelli supervised grilling dozens of cheeseburgers, brats, Italian sausages, Polish and hot dogs at 5 a.m.

Poteshman planned to fish the interior off Highland Park for coho and kings, then go deep to Julian’s Reef for ``giant lakers and steelhead.’’

As we motored north, I talked life with Poteshman.

* * * *

As kid, his granddad took him to Montrose to fish and Poteshman later spent many nights smelting.

``At camp, everybody loved sports, I liked fishing,’’ he said.

By 17, he had his first boat, a 16-foot Lund.

``I always said I did not want to fish Lake Michigan,’’ Poteshman said.

That changed.

``One day at the Rosemont Show, Glen Shirley [of the former Ed Shirley Sports] talked me into buying some rods, reels and tackle,’’ Poteshman said.

Poteshman went out of Waukegan the first time and caught two kings, trolling in front of the power plant.

``Came back to the dock and nobody else had s---.’ That hooked me,’’ Poteshman said.

At home, he would lay the fish on their lawn, then clean them in his mother’s sink.

``You had to peel the alewives off the trailer so it won’t stink up the driveway,’’ he said.

One day Poteshman and a friend had a wild idea, as young men will.

``We launched out of Highland Park, we wanted to run to Rocky’s for some shrimp,’’ Poteshman said.

Rocky’s was the fabled fish house by Navy Pier.

``We got there, looked up and a big squall line was coming at us,’’ Poteshman said. ``We made it as far as Diversey, but the radios and antennas were falling off. We took a taxi from Diversey to Highland Park to get our trailer.

``Next day, I went to Milwaukee and bought a center-console 30-foot Scarab with two V-6 225 outboards. I fished a lot of years on it. It was a really cool, really fast boat.’’

It became history.

Capt. Bob Poteshman motoring north on the Massive Confusion during the Gary Zilian Memorial Tournament.

``Between the late 1970s and early ‘90s I played a lot at Diversey,’’ Poteshman said.

He mentored under two captains, the late Bob White and Jerry Pabst. Poteshman began chartering in 1990.

``First charter was on that Scarab and I blew an engine,’’ Poteshman said.

He bought another boat, which once had been Capt. Herman Kunz’s Salmonark, a 30-foot Sea Ray. Poteshman kept Confusion at Diversey until 1996, when he moved to North Point. Now he has multiple boats at Montrose and North Point.

* * * *

Bait balls showed around Tower Road, our fishing began near Highland Park and started slow, but at Julian’s Reef, it was on. We had doubles, including while Jacoby battled an acrobatic steelhead.

Mike Jacoby with the big lake trout of the Gary Zlian Memorial Tournament, caught on the Massive Confusion.

Poteshamn’s final strategy was to pull lines and Novelli ran us to the R4 for 15 minutes of fishing, enough for Jacoby to land the biggest laker (15-6.5).

Zamboati had the big Chinook, King Salukis the big steelhead (17-2.5), King Fisher the big coho (6-5.5) and Massive Confusion the big laker.

For Confusion Charters, check confusioncharters.com. For Chicago Sportfishing Association, check great-lakes.org/il/fish-chicago/.

Group shot of the Massive Confusion crew (Capt. Bob Poteshman is missing as he took the photo) at the end of fishing in the Gary Zilian Memorial Tournament.