Captain Gary Schaefer of Trout Scout Charters reports from Manistee:
CURRENT NEWS: The Big Ones are here. The annual migration of the Big Kings, are starting to stage off of Manistee as you read this. Fishing has been good and close to shore with big fish showing up every day now.. We have some new photos on the fishing report page and the photo’s page of our website. www.troutscout.com Call 1-877-731-4460

BREAKING NEWS: Our tournament fishing has been on a good track with two 1st place finishes a 2nd place and a 3rd place finish. We have a some select open dates left for August. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay current with the fishing or you check out the fishing report from the website. www.troutscout.com

FUTURE NEWS: We are currently booking trips for September on the lake and river. When the Big Kings move into the river it’s a awesome experiance that everyone should try. Don’t wait to book your charter for the rest of summer as dates are filling up fast.

Capt. Ken Deaton of J-Lyn Charters reports from Harbor Beach:

Bass and Pike are still being taken using spoons and body baits in close to shore or inside the harbor. Fish around the weed beds for best results.

A few Salmon are still being taken straight out and North of the harbor fishing 80 to100 foot of water areas. Work deeper as the sun comes up. Clean spoons off the lead lines, dipseys, and downriggers are all working. Fish 15 to 60 feet down.

Steelhead fishing is still good, fish the color lines for best results. Keep your lines up high. Put out some 2,3, and 5 color lead lines on the boards, bright colors of spoons small, regular and magnum sizes for best results, fishing straight out and North of the harbor, start in 80 feet of water and work out as the sun comes up to 120 to 160 feet of water.

Lake Trout fishing is fair with some still being taken North of the harbor using the dodgers with spin and glows close to the bottom. Any color still seems to be working when they decide to take them. Use clean spoons off the downriggers. Fish 50 foot down to the bottom for best results. Start fishing in 90 feet of water and work your way out to the deeper water till you find them.

Try for perch South by the cemetery or by Wagner Park using minnows.

Walleye fishing is getting better as the water warms up, try North of the harbor and north of Port Hope working in close to shore, 40 to 65 feet of water. Clean small spoons or crawler harnesses should work.

Every Saturday Harbor Beach Light House Tours will be available. The time is from 10am to 1 pm, weather permitting from the Harbor Beach City Marina. Call 989-479-9707 or 810-542-0426 for more information. We welcome you to come enjoy a wonderful tour of our great lakes lighthouse that will let you take a walk back in time. You will even see some of the original furniture used by the lighthouse keepers. So don’t forget your camera! The view from the top of the lighthouse is breath taking! Tennis shoes or soft soled shoes are recommended. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased on site or in advance. There is a reservation list so if you would like to reserve your spot in advance just give the marina a call and you can do so by phone.

Keep those lines tight!
Captains Ken & Janice Deaton
J-Lyn Charters

Captain Ed Stowe of Stowaway Charters reports from Ludington:

The fishing is still on the slow side with a few days of good catches. The weather is really raising havoc with the fishing lately. We got a North wind and it turned the water over on the point. The salmon are on again off again. The temperature at the point is 60 on the surface and 39 down 55ft. Moonshine spoons are the baits of choice, with spinnies and flies a close second. 100 and 150 coppers and low wire divers from 60′ back to 90′ are also producing. Best fishing is from the Project up to the three bears in from 60 ft out to the 3800 numbers. 5, 7, and 10 cores tipped with the standard steelie baits and Superslim Yellow Tails, Dolphins and Moonshine Carbon 14 on the riggers and divers are all working.

Good Fishin…..Capt Ed

Capt. Ron Westrate of First Call 2 Charters reports from Saugatuck:

If you like lake trout fishing, you would love the fishing this past
week. 80 to 90 percent of the creel consisted of lake trout with the
rest made up of chinook and steelhead. The best fishing continues to be
in 70 to 100 foot of water, however there were some boats that fished
all the way out to 300 foot of water for the silver fish.

We are fishing the downriggers on the bottom with Silver Horde Gold Star
Flashers and green Rapture Flies (wild fern and green hypnotist) and
yellow and green spin n glows. The dipsy divers were run at 180 foot on
the high divers and 160 foot or more on the low divers with silver Pro
Troll flashers (silver UV, Davey Jones and silver prism) and Rapture
flies (no see um with yellow beads). The 150 foot and 200 foot copper
produced some silver fish with stingray lures (NBK, carmel dolphin and
blue veggie) while the 300 copper produced some chinook with silver and
silver mountain dew flashers and no see um yellow beaded flies.

There was some good reports on the perch, however you may have to run to
get there. The last part of the week produced some limit catches 9 miles
south of the Saugatuck piers in 20 to 30 foot of water. Morning fishing
is much more productive than mid day. Today the boat J Bird caught their
limit of 70 fish that ranged from 8 to 14 in. I did talk to one boat
that caught some perch north of the piers off the state park in 40 foot,
but boats that fished there today did not fare well.

For fishing information or to book a charter, email me at
captron@chartermichigan.com.

Capt. Ken Deaton of J-Lyn Charters reports from Harbor Beach:

Lake Trout fishing is fair with some still being taken North of the harbor using the dodgers with spin and glows close to the bottom. Any color seems to be working when they decide to take them. Try clean spoons off the downriggers. Fish 50 foot down to the bottom for best results. Start fishing in 120 feet of water and work your way out to the deeper water till you find them.

Steelhead fishing is fair, fish the color lines for best results. Keep your lines up high as they are feeding on the bug hatchings right now. Put out some 2,3,5, and 10 color lead lines on the boards, bright colors of spoons regular and magnum sizes for best results, fishing North of the harbor in 120 to 160 feet of water.

A few Salmon are still being taken North of the harbor fishing the 145 foot of water areas North of the harbor. Clean spoons of the lead lines, dipseys, and downriggers are all working. Fish 15 to 60 feet down.

Bass and Pike are being taken using spoons and body baits in close to shore or inside the harbor. Fish around the weed beds for best results.

Try for perch South by the cemetery or inside the harbor along the channel using minnows.

Walleye fishing is starting to get better try North of the harbor and north of Port Hope working in close to shore, 30 to 65 feet of water. Clean small spoons or crawler harnesses should work.

Captain Ron Westrate of CoHooker Charters reports from Saugatuck:

A good week of fishing that started out in 250 foot of water and ended
in 15 foot of water. The first part of the week found us 9 miles out in
250 foot of water fishing Coho, Chinook Salmon and Steelhead. Creel
numbers varied from 8 to 15 fish per trip however strong north, north
east and north west wind during the week produced some rough conditions
and ultimately cooler water. By Friday the surface temperature had
dropped into the low 50 degrees and bait and steelhead had collected at
the pier heads. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we fished 10 to 20 foot
of water and caught 8 to 13 steelhead per trip with an occasional
Chinook salmon thrown in.

Out deep the pattern was flashers and flies on 200, 300 and 450 foot of
copper, dipsy divers and downriggers. The best combinations included Hot
Chip flashers (silver and silver and mountain dew) with Rapture flies
(green mirage and oceana). Once we move inshore, the pattern was all
spoons on 2 color and 3 color lead core, and dipsy divers and
downriggers. Any spoon would work as long as it had silver and orange on
it and was the size of the stinger lures. The best lures for us were the
stinger fruit cocktail, double orange crush and jaw breaker. On Friday
we were 11 for 35, on Saturday we were 6 for 24 and today we were 13 for
26. On Saturday, fishermen were walking off the South Saugatuck pier
with stingers full of steelhead.

New report on the perch fishing: Limit catches of perch were reported
Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The problem is that the location is
9 miles south of the Saugatuck piers off of Glenn. I talked to boats
that caught 75+ perch last night and got their limit again today and the
perch were running 7 to 12 in. in length.