Michigan Fishing Reports

07-27-2010 Lake Erie

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:59:42 +0000

Capt. Bruce Bronner from Kathys Boyz 3 Charters reports from Bolles Harbor: Fishing the week of July 18 thru 24. Fished the Sister Islands and the intake with just a hand full of walleyes. Walleyes are on there way out! Going perch fishing starting this week. The report I've been getting is perch are scattered. Hopefully with more Charters going into perch I will have better information. Capt. Bruce Bronner from Kathys Boyz 3 Charters reports from Bolles Harbor: Fishing the week of July 18 thru 24. Fished the Sister Islands and the intake with just a hand full of walleyes. Walleyes are on there way out! Going perch fishing starting this week. The report I've been getting is perch are scattered. Hopefully with more Charters going into perch I will have better information. Capt. Bruce Bronner from Kathys Boyz 3 Charters reports from Bolles Harbor: Fishing the week of July 18 thru 24. Fished the Sister Islands and the intake with just a hand full of walleyes. Walleyes are on there way out! Going perch fishing starting this week. The report I've been getting is perch are scattered. Hopefully with more Charters going into perch I will have better information.

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!

07-26-2010 Southern Lake Michigan

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:56:16 +0000

Captain Ron Westrate of CoHooker Charters reports from Saugatuck: We had another good week of fishing even with the rough water and storms that moved through during the week. With the exception of today, we have been taking 8 to 20 fish every trip. Today we fished from 9 to 2 and had a total of one fish on a 400 foot copper. I hope this is due to the fact that we fished in the middle of the day since as a rule the fishing is better in the early hours of the morning and slows as the light increases. This week we caught a number of chinook salmon in the 16 to 20 pound range, a 14 pound steelhead, a 13 pound lake trout and a fantastic 18 pound brown trout. Flashers and flies continue to produce very well when pulled on downriggers, dipsy divers and 300 and 400 copper. The best flashers are the Pro Troll (silver/green, silver mountain dew, white blue wiggle, white glow and silver blue) with Rapture flies (no see um green, oceana, blue bird, wild fern, green hypnotist and purple no see um). We also had some good luck with Ace Hi plugs (silver red head, green lightning and blue lightning) and Stingray blue dolphin and Nitro lures producing some nice steelhead on 200 and 300 copper. Perch fishing continues to be spotty with some reports of decent catches in 40 to 50 foot of water out of Holland and 60 to 70 foot of water out of South Haven and 40 foot of water off of Glenn. Again, it has been spotty with the perch being caught at one depth one day but gone the next. There are a few perch being caught in the rocks off the Douglas point, however it is hard to get the bait past the golbies. The bait is still in the 40 to 60 foot depth and out in 140 to 160 foot depth, so I hope this will hold the salmon and trout in the area. For information or charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com .

07-26-2010 Southern Lake Huron

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:52:01 +0000

Capt. Ken Deaton of J-Lyn Charters reports from Harbor Beach: Lake Trout are being taken in 70 to 100 feet of water North and straight out from the harbor. Try using plain spoons off the downriggers and boards. Best colors have been green and red, chartreuse and white, silvers, and black. Walleye are being taken North of the harbor with some limits being taken on crawler harnesses, small spoons and small body baits. Try Gold, perch, and green with red colors. I would suggest using spoons and body baits trolled fast to cover more ground till you find where they are setting. Steelhead are being taken in 70 to 120 feet of water using 2, 3, and 5 color lead lines off the boards, or try some spoons off the monofilament line with the Offshore tadpoles and put them off the boards. Bright colors of orange, pink or green are working best. Salmon fishing is slow but a few pinks and coho are still being taken mixed in while fishing for the Lake Trout and Steelhead. Perch fishing is slow, you might try South of the harbor by the cemetery in 25 to 50 feet of water with minnows. Bass and Pike are still being taken inside the harbor and close to shore casting small body baits and spoons. Keep those lines tight,

07-23-2010 Southern Lake Michigan

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:10:14 +0000

Capt. Dan Tebo of D'Ann Marie Charters in Grand Haven reports: Fishing is excellent in Grand Haven right now - when we can get out. The storms this past week made it difficult to fish. Either we were fighting waves and rain or we had to sit out the storms and go out after they passed. Today, we had to cancel our trips. Hopefully, we are done with the rain and wind for awhile. We are still fishing in 95 ft. to 115 - 120 ft. of water. We are fishing from 65 ft. down to 90 ft. We are using assorted paddles & flies and spinnies & flies. An assortment of J-Plugs have been good for us, too Blues and greens are still the color or choice. We are catching King Salmon up to 20 lbs., steelhead, a few lake trout, and some browns. This past week I got the "Grand Slam" on one of my charters. A grand slam is catching all five species of fish on one trip. It consists of: brown trout, steelhead, lake trout, coho salmon and king salmon. Nice catch, good day! Happy fishing to you all! Capt. Dan

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

07-19-2010 Southern Lake Huron

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:04:05 +0000

Capt. Ken Deaton of J-Lyn Charters reports from Harbor Beach: With the storms and cold front that just went through the fishing will be on the slow side for a couple of days but here is what was happening just before they came. Steelhead were being taken out on the color lines in 120 to 160 feet of water, don’t forget to try the new Offshore Tadpoles on with your monofilament lines to get them down deeper when using your Offshore Boards. Use the bright colors for best results Lake Trout fishing was starting to pick back up again, try out in 70 to 120 feet of water on the Dodgers and Spin and glows, and medium and large size spoons off the downriggers. Try green with white, purple and green, and glow colors. Try fishing straight out, and North of the harbor. Walleye fishing was picking up with some limits being taken North of the harbor with crawler harnesses, small spoons and small body baits. Try Gold and green and white colors. You might try off the North wall early morning and late evenings casting body baits or small spoons. I would suggest using spoons and body baits trolled fast to cover more ground till you find where they are setting after these storms. Perch fishing is slow, you might try South of the harbor by the cemetery in 25 to 50 feet of water with minnows. Bass and Pike are still being taken inside the harbor and close to shore casting small body baits and spoons.

07-16-2010 Northern Lake Huron

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:04:00 +0000

Captain Ron Beyer reports from Harrisville: The fishing around Harrisville has fair to good, start fishing in 75 ft out to 140 ft most of the fish are coming between75 ft and 40 ft orange and black are working well. Some are doing well blue and green all fish taken have been on spoons running clean, this year we are catching some Atlantic Salmon and Chinook are on the rebound. Lake are being caught at all depths Pinks also are near the surface. Capt. Ron Beyers Charter Service .com

07-17-2010 Central Lake Michigan

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:00:56 +0000

Captain Ed Stowe of Stowaway Charters reports from Ludington: The fish are on the bank from the 00's to the 0800's. 80' to 110' to start out and then out to 140' to 200' as the day progresses. Moonshine and spindoctors early and then switch to meat after the morning bite. My best lately has been white spindoctor with a pickeled sunshine 100' down on the shute rigger, DODEKAY 80 down on the outdown. I have been running meat on the wire divers starting at 125 on one and 150 on the other. Green splatterplugs and Grey Ghost on the 300 copper and on the full cores have been taking fish. There are also some Coho and steelhead straight out from 70' to 125'. Good Luck to all in the tournament Good Fishin.....Capt Ed