Michigan Fishing Reports » Northern Lake Michigan

08-13-2010 Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:54:21 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee. Fishing is awesome in Manistee right now, nice catches of Salmon everyday. Straight out and North, 80 to 120 feet first thing and then move out to 200 ft. or more after the first bite. Downriggers: 45 to 75 Copper 350 ft Divers: 125 to 150 Salmon ranging 18 to 25 pounds! Use plugs first thing then move over to meat and paddles. Silver Horde Ace Hi: Double Pearl Glow, Green with Black Latter back, Green Spatter, and glow with black latte back Meat rigs and big Paddles: UV paddles and white slick/crushed pearl and black slick. Big Weenie Black Moongoose. KRW flys and meat rigs: riverside, aqua gold glow, witch doctor uv. Moonshine: Carbon 14, Raz Carbon and Flounder Pounder. Anything that glows and has UV on it!!!

08-05-2010 Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:01:03 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee. Fishing continues to be awesome in Manistee. Some days are better than others and have had quite bit of wind but still able to go out each day. Still good both morning and evening, we have just been going straight out and some days a little to the north of the piers. 200 to 400 feet of water. Downriggers are 45 to 75 feet and divers 250 to 350 back and meat rigs are the trick. We have been using KRW meat rigs (Strike Zone and Holo Red) with the Big Weeenie attractor: Black Moongoose. Anything UV too! DW paddles with UV tape both white and black paddles. Silver Horde Ace Hi plugs first thing in the morning: Blue and Green Spatter and Double white glow and Double glow with a black latter back and Green glow with a black latter back. Glow, meat and and UV! Good fishing to you!

07-27-2010 Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:08:08 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee.

Fishing continues to be good, from Manistee straight out and north to
Onekama.
Fishing tournaments all last week, lots of boats in Manistee and lots of
nice fish caught, Kings in the 17 lb. to over 20 lb. plus weight range.
125 to 145 feet of water and later even out to over 400 feet. Everything
working, downriggers, divers, copper and lead core. Fish are up a little
higher now.
Meat rigs and attractors still the ticket and the Ace hi green spatter and
ace hi double white glow with black latter back. We are using the herring
strips in the meat rigs now.
UV seems to be the ticket, the tape on the paddles and the UV tinsel in the
flys. If you have not tried KRW Witch Doctor, you should give it a try!

07-20-2010 Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:33:42 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee.

Fishing in Manistee is great right now. Both evening and day time trips.
Going straight out and then to the 13’s-200 to 300 ft of water first thing
in the morning. Lots of nice catches with big Salmon!
Downriggers 65 to 75 ft down, lead core 10 to 18 colors and copper wire 250
to 300 ft.
Our best baits have been the meat rigs and atractors and the Moonshine lures
Yellow tail and Raz Carbon. Green/black glow spoons and the Silver Horde Ace
HI Green spackle.
Good Fishing!

07-19-2010 Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:16:25 +0000

Captain Bill Winowiecki of Watta Bite Charters reports from Glen Arbor:

The Salmon have arrived at the Mantiou Islands!!!!!!
Good catches of kings are being caught on both North and South Manitou.
The last couple of days it seems that anything you put in the water is
working. Orange crush spoons, glow spoons, and paddle fly
combinations are working well.

For those of you who don’t know, the Manitou Islands are the best kep
secret in Michigan. Very ligh boat trafffic, and a beautiful setting
around the Sleeping Bear National Lake Shore. Glen Arbor is the
closest port, to access South Manitou Island.

July and August are the best fishing months because the big kings are
gorging themselves on alewives to prepare for spawning.

Captain Bill Winowiecki
Watta Bite Charter Fishing
Glen Arbor Michigan
Port Captain Michigan Charter Boat

07-15-2010 Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:19:37 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee.

Fishing has been very good-both day and evening trips. As of today the fish
have moved up some and we do not have to fish as deep. Going straight out of
Manistee and some boats going a little south and some going a short distance
north. Both areas are good fishing right now!
Water depth 75 to 200 feet. Lead core 10 colors and short copper wire. Down
riggers are 45 to 70 down. Moonshine lures worked good, Hot lips, Carbon 14
and Raz carbon. Lots of meat rigs, this has been the best, with attractors.
Large DW Paddles and spin doctors. Spin doctor: Froggie and Dk green and
Hootchies: white cruch pearl and black.
The DW Paddles are the UV with tape on white or black and White crush tape
on white or black. KRW flys are the Witch Doctor, UV. and Riverside and Aqua
Glod Glow. Also a silver streak spoon black with different colored spots.
Try the Walker deep divers in black or kelly green.
Good Fishing to you!

06-30-2010-Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:34:06 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee. Fishing improved today, 06/29/10. Rough seas but got some nice Salmon and Lake Trout. The current was much better and we went straight out, a little South in 100 to 200 ft. Our best lure today was the Moonshine Wonderbread. Hopefully good weather this week end and no wind and lots of fish!

06-29-2010- Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:31:51 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee. Fishing is still decent, fished all last week and had some nice Kings, Lake Trout and some Steelhead. Some boats are going South, all the way to the point and others up North by Arcadia. We have fished both places and also straight out in front of Manistee. Boats straight out are starting on the shelf in about 65 ft. of water and out to over 300 ft. Have had alot of current the last 2 days, hard to get a good troll. Using Spin doctors and DW big paddles. KRW green glow flys and Auqa gold glow and Riverside. Spoons are still the Yeck Double Mint, DW Super Slim: Hello Darlin and Thriller. Also heard good reports of the modified Carmel Dolphin, a Stinger Lure. Also meat rigs have been the top bait. Good Fishing!

06-15-2010 Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:07:55 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee. Fishing has been decent, fish are still scattered. Boats going straight out and trolling to the 9's. Boats making the trip to the point are getting good numbers of fish. Straight out the best depths have been 125 to 300 feet. Hi divers 200 back, riggers 40 to 60 feet and lead core 3 to 12 colors. Salmon,Steelhead and some Lake Trout. Yeck "doublemint lure and the white prism. White DW spin doctors with a new KRW fly: the witch doctor. Also green glo fly. DW Riverside SS and a new big paddle DW white with UV tape.

06-10-2010 Northern Lake Michigan

admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:49:03 +0000

Captain Steve Hamilton of First Class Charters reports from Manistee. FLASH-FLASH-FLASH Don't know how long this will last but nice catches of Kings being caught in the harbor in Manistee. Anything green glo, both spoons and flys. Green dolphins and NBK's. Divers back 25 to 35 feet, with white DW paddles and Spin Doctors. Natural fish not planted. 10 to 15 fish a trip, moving through to the river.