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

The water temperature dropped into the mid 40’s this week and the salmon
moved into the shallow water at the piers and fishing was excellent. Big
chinook salmon and large coho produced some limit and near limit catches
with some lake trout and steelhead mixed in. By Saturday the word had
gotten out and combat fishing took place in front the Saugatuck piers.
By noon on Saturday the fog moved in and we noticed a increase in the
water temperature from 46 degrees to 50 degrees and by Sunday morning
the water temperature was 67 degrees and the fishing slowed. There were
still some salmon in front the piers, however they were not as active in
the warmer water and we moved out to 200 foot and caught some 2 and 3
year old salmon and steelhead.

The most productive lures were the Ace Hi plugs in pearl/black dot and
silver/red head pulled on downriggers, dipsy divers and 2 and 3 color
lead core. We also ran some Hot n Tots on flat lines (gold and white
black dot), however the Ace Hi plugs out performed any other lure.
Sunday we found the cold water in 200 foot of water and used small
stingers (blue green dolphin, green dolphin and orange crush) on 50 foot
of copper and 5 color lead core. On the dipsy divers the best lure was
the blue mixed veggie Stingray which was hit multiple times. A couple of
hits on the downriggers at 40 and 50 foot down with small stingers
(orange corey and mixed veggie) on the add-a-lines.

With a south wind and current for the next few days, I think that the
shallow water will continue to warm and other than early morning and
late evening, the most productive fishing will be off shore. For charter
information or for fishing information, email me at
captron@chartermichigan.com.

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

Another excellent week of fishing. Bites ranged from 17-37 with 13-24 fish caught per trip. Not as many 4-year old kings (12-23lbs.) available towards the end of the week, but still a very nice mix of 3-year old kings (8-12 lbs.), coho (7-11lbs.), steelhead (7-15lbs.) & lake trout (7-10lbs.). Best depths were 80 to 160 FOW at first light, then 170 to 250 later in the day. Some days we were only able to run 6-8 rods due to the rough waves. Still, many doubles & triples kept us pretty busy. Once again, baits didn’t seem to matter as almost anything put out caught fish. Small green, white, & mountain dew/white glow Spin Doctors with a green glow fly continued to work best in the morning, while a variety of Moonshine & Stinger Stingrays spoons did well any time of the day. Most productive morning setups were downriggers set at 50’, 75’ & 90’ and divers set at 1 1/2, back 80’-140.’ Spoons on full copper & lead core did best later in the deep water. Also, 5 color lead core set at 30’ & 40’ on the downriggers in the middle of the day did very well. Fixed sliders set 10’ above the main line worked well in the morning, while free sliders did better later in the day.

Still no good news on the perch fishing. I can be contacted at cyndiesuecharters@comcast.net or 616 450-4921 for more information or to inquire about reserving a fishing trip.

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

Another good week of fishing in Saugatuck. Catches of 15 to 30 fish per
trip was very common last week. What really determined how many fish you
caught was what they hit that day. If they hit more copper at 300 and
450 foot, it took longer to land the fish and when you slowed down to
fight the fish, you really “stopped fishing” until you got your speed
back. If the majority of the fish hit the downriggers and dipsy divers,
you spent less time fishing the fish and got the lures back in action
faster. The creel consisted of 2, 3 and 4 year old chinook salmon, coho
salmon, lake trout, steelhead with an occasional brown trout.

Although some boats reported some success with stingray lures, the best
method for us were flashers and flies which were run on copper, dipsy
divers and downriggers. 200 foot, 300 foot and 450 foot copper with
flashers and rapture flies produced very well. The dipsy divers at 200
and 300 foot and downriggers at 80, 90 and 100 foot produced very well.
We had very good success with Singer E chip flashers (mixed veggie,
chrome UV, super frog, white UV/glow, silver UV green) and Rapture flies
(no see um with green beads, no see um with yellow beads, sour apple,
green hypnotist and green dude). On certain days we had very good
success with the 11 in echip (white glow UV, silver mountain dew and
white double glow) on the downriggers, however they might work one day
and not the next.

Next week might prove to be interesting. With strong winds and high
waves the next two days, we may find cold water moving in and with that
the salmon should move into the river. Yesterday when we ran a mid day
charter, we marked what looked like salmon in 55 foot of water and saw a
couple of salmon jump in front of the boat. For fishing information or
charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.

Capt. Dan Tebo, of D’Ann Marie Charters in Grand Haven, reports:

Fishing here in Grand Haven continues to be excellent! We are seeing some very full boxes of fish come into our dock – several fish in the 25 – 30 lb. range this last week. We are catching Kings and Coho Salmon.

Some fish are taken right near the pier, but we are typically fishing from 80 ft. out
to 120 ft.
We are fishing from 50 ft. down to 70 ft.

We are using paddles and flies on our riggers and spinnies & flies on coppers and lead cores.
Using 10 color lead cores, 225 coppers, & 300 coppers.

Our best colors have been: UV Paddles with UV flies, White Paddles with white flies.
Dark Green spinnies with green flies and Blue Spinnies with blue flies.

This has been a very good August for Grand Haven fishermen and we anticipate it to continue for several more weeks.

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

Not much changed this past week. Excellent salmon fishing produced 21-29 bites with 14-19 fish caught per trip. There were still lots of BIG 4-year old kings (10-24lbs.) available with a mix of coho (7-12lbs.), steelhead (7-16lbs.) & lake trout (7-12lbs.). Best depths were 80 to 120 FOW at first light, then 170 to 200 later in the day. We only needed to run 6 rods in the morning as it was difficult to keep them in the water. Many doubles, triples and an occasional quad kept us pretty busy. Baits didn’t seem to matter as every thing put out caught fish. Small green, white, & mountain dew/white glow Spin Doctors with a green glow fly worked best in the morning, while a variety of Moonshine & Stinger Stingrays spoons did well later in the day. Most productive morning setups were downriggers set at 50, 75 & 90 and divers set at 1 1/2, back 120.’ Spoons on full copper & lead core did best later in the deep water. Fixed sliders set 10’ above the main line worked well all day.

Did not do any perch fishing last week, however it appears to have been poor most days as we did not see any boats out fishing for perch all week. I can be contacted at cyndiesuecharters@comcast.net or 616 450-4921 for more information or to inquire about reserving a fishing trip.

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

Salmon fishing off Saugatuck was as good as it could get this past week.
Catches of 12-20 fish everyday, a limit catch of 30 on Saturday. The
creel was dominated by kings 8-26 pounds with some adult coho (up to
14#), lake trout, steelhead, and even a brown trout in the mix. Best
fishing was from 130 FOW to 175 FOW. During the week fish ranged from
40-110 feet down, and came on downriggers, copper, and wire divers. The
vast majority of fish came on Stinger Echip flasher/Rapture fly
combinations. The best combo were: 8” mixed veggies w/ a sour apple, 8”
chrome w/ a hypnotist, 8” superfrog w/ a wild fern, 8” green glow w/ a
wild fern, 8” chrome mt. dew/UV w/ a speed weed or no-see-um, 8” Davey
Jones glow w/ a speed weed or green-no-see-um. In addition we had
success with Pro Troll 11” white double crushed glow w/ a hypnotist, Pro
Troll 11” green UV frog w/ a first wish, and a Pro Troll 11” chrome mt.
dew w/ a hypnotist.

Tremendous amounts of bait fish promise that fishing should continue to
be excellent. Some of the adult kings are beginning to darken for the
spawning run. It should be a great end of summer fishery. For charter
reservations or fishing information, email me at
captron@chartermichigan.com.