Captain Ron Westrate of CoHooker Charters reports from Saugatuck:

Fishing off of Saugatuck was good to excellent over the weekend. Very
nice catches 15+ fish on Friday with a lot of action, then a little
slower on Saturday. Early in the week the fish averaged 12 pounds,
however by the weekend the fish ran a 7 to 10 pounds average. Same
place, same depth, same lures, just a different age class of fish.

Fish were in 110-180 FOW, and were caught 20-60 feet down. 100, 200, and
300 copper lines were the best with stinger and sting ray spoons.
Stingers and sting rays were also producing on the downriggers 30-60
feet down, and on the divers 150 and 100 feet with wire. Best spoons:
mixed veggies, jager bomb, blue modified dolphin, green dolphin, caramel
dolphin, orange crush (on silver or gold), and the lemon-ice. Very
little action on flashers and flies.

We’re hoping for a little west wind to stack the warm water back up on
the beach. This will concentrate the temperature break and the fish. For
fishing information or charter reservations, contact me by email at
captron@chartermichigan.com.

Capt. Dave Myers of Cyndie Sue Charters reports from Holland:

The fishing finally picked back up this weekend. Sunday was especially good with an average of 3-4 hits/hour. We caught mostly steelhead with a nice mix of salmon and a few lake trout. The biggest salmon was 22.5lbs with one steelhead topping 13 lbs. We had our best luck in 170 feet of water with the steelhead coming in the top 20 feet and the other fish 80 to 100 feet down. A variety of regular size orange Dream Weaver spoons run off board lines caught most of the steelhead while the blue and green magnum size DW spoons were effective on the deep fish. Also, the coyote flasher with a green glow fly worked well on the deep downrigger. We didn’t need to run copper or leadcore. Also, heard reports from other boats of salmon being caught in 30 – 90 feet of water.

Excellent fishing should remain into June as long as the weather cooperates. What makes it so nice now is having all the different species of fish together. It is common to have a steelhead, salmon & lake trout on at the same time! As we head into June, the steelhead typically head out into deeper water while the lake trout move in but go deeper, and the salmon tend to scatter. How fast the water warms up seems to determine when the fish breakup.

Captain Ed Stowe of Stowaway Charters reports from Ludington:

The browns and steelhead are in the nearshore waters, and at the pierheads and in front of the state park. There are some kings south of the project but be careful of the Indian nets there. Rapala stick baits and Dreamweaver Super Slims painted in the Rapala colors are all working right now. Green Dolphins and Blue Dolphins are good bets for the spring kings either on the riggers or behind the three color or 5 color leadcores. The water in the Lake is super clear so we have to get the baits far behind the boards. Black and silver, Gold and silver, Chartreuse, and Red are all working.

Good Fishin…..Capt Ed

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

A little review of last year brought some good fishing to Glen Arbor.

The early Lake Trout season was good, lots of fish. The King’s started slow, but when they showed up it was the best fishing in the State of Michigan, South Manitou was on fire. Salmon fishing was great until the third week of August and the wind started to blow and blow very hard. It churned Lake Michigan up like a blender. The fall fishing was a wash all the way down the west coast. It killed charter fishing from Chicago to Mackinaw. What this means is that there are a lot of fish still out there waiting to be caught.

I’ve attended many meetings on the fishery over the winter. As many of you know I’m on the Lake Michigan Fishery Advisory Committee, I’m on the Michigan Charter Boat Association Board of Directors, and an active Member of the Grand Traverse Area Sports Fishing Association. My main goal was to get the Lake Trout size limits changed along with all these organizations we’ve finally achieved that goal. We can keep big Lake Trout this year!!!!!! This will make our spring fishery excellent. No more dragging these big fish in, to throw back to die.

I’ve spoken with many Captains down the West Coast of Lake Michigan they were very envious of the Salmon fishing we had on South Manitou. The big King’s showed up around the second week of July and stayed there until late August. It was sure a lot of fun. Every year the fish return to the Manitou Islands with the fall fishing so poor due to the winds, fishing should be real good this year.

Let’s go fishing!!
It will be another fun season.
Captain Bill

Captain Ron Westrate of CoHooker Charters reports from Saugatuck:

Last week we did not fish when the weather was warm, clear and the winds
were light, instead we waited until we had 25 mph winds, 2 to 5 foot
seas and constant rain. With 3 out of 4 people chumming, the fishing was
good with a good catch of salmon and lake trout. We kept 4 salmon and 4
lake trout and returned some under size lake trout and lost some other
nice sized salmon. The best depth was 70 to 75 foot of water, fishing 30
to 60 foot down.

The best methods were downriggers at 35 foot, 50 foot and on the bottom
with regular stingers (green glow, green/blue dolphin on the 35 and 50
footers and a tin can flasher and spin and glow on the rigger on the
bottom. The dipsy divers were run at 90 and 150 foot out with the Hot
Chip flasher (frog/glow and silver mountain dew) and Rapture flies (wild
fern and green hypnotist) on the low diver and green dolphin stinger on
the high diver. The copper did not produce very well, however we had a
couple of hits on the 200 and 300 foot copper with the glow frog stinger
and yellow tail stingers.

This week Tuesday, 20 charter and private boats will be taking out 70
Saugatuck seventh grade students as a reward for participating in the
Salmon in the Classroom Project. We will leave the dock at 7 AM and
return at 12 noon. After pictures and cleaning of the catch, Ducks
Unlimited will treat the students to a fish fry for lunch at Tower
Marina in Douglas. Check back next week and I will update everyone on
the student fishing excursion and the fishing results during the week.

If you would like fishing and or charter reservation information, email
me at captron@chartermichigan.com.

Captain Ed Stowe of Stowaway Charters reports from Ludington:

Ahoy there. The boat is out of storage and back in the water at the Ludington Municipal Marina. We are in slip #16 on dock F. I will be putting a fishing report at least once a week until the action picks up and then at least twice a week during the best part of the season. The browns and steelhead are in the nearshore waters but with all the East wind the fishing has been on the slow side. Rapala stick baits and Dreamweaver Super Slims painted in the Rapala colors are my best performers right now. The water in the Lake is super clear so we have to get the baits far behind the boards. Black and silver, Gold and silver, Chartreuse, and Red are all working. Lake trout season opened early for us but they are very elusive so far this spring. Good Fishin…..Capt Ed