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

Lake Trout fishing is slow to fair. Try straight out, and North of the harbor using the dodgers with spin and glows or flys close to the bottom or 120 feet down in the deeper areas. Try clean spoons off the downriggers. Fishing 50 feet down to 120 feet for best results. It will take a few days for them to start feeding with all of the rough water we have had and are going to be getting.

Steelhead fishing has slowed with the fronts and rough water. When it calms down try straight out or North of the harbor, fish the color lines for best results. Be there early for a good bite. Put out some long lines on the boards, bright colors of spoons, small, and regular sizes for best results. Start in 70 feet of water and work out to as far as 160 to 200 feet of water as the sun comes up. Fish from 20 to 60 feet down.

A few Salmon are still being taken but it is on the slow side. Try straight out, South and North of the harbor fishing the 70 to 190 foot of water areas. Working deeper as the sun comes up, using clean spoons off the lead lines, dipseys, and downriggers, fish the top 50 to 80 feet of water using bright colors for best results.

Walleye fishing is still very slow, try North of the harbor and North of Port Hope working in the 40 to 90 feet of water areas. They will be scattered so keep looking. Clean small spoons, hot n tots, and crawler harnesses will be your best chance.

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

Keep those lines tight!
Captains Ken & Janice Deaton
J-Lyn Charters
Harbor Beach MI
www.jlyncharters.com

Captain Ed Stowe of Stowaway Charters reports from Ludington:

Fishing is good in Ludington right now. From the project up to the three bears the bite is on. The offshore fishery from the 3500#s out to the 4500#s is very productive right now. 2 and 3 year old kings, Steelhead and cohos are all out there. Best baits are Reds and Oranges, standard steelhead baits. Best fishing is in the top 40 ft. 3 cores, 4 cores and 5 cores are all producing. On the point it is ice water where the water temp is 50 on the surface and 40 degrees down 50 ft. The pierheads are best from early morning and then again just before dark at night. PM lake is doing very good with some nice catches on J-plugs, especially in the back half. The Pere Marquette River has salmon in it all the way up to Baldwin, with a lot of fish at Scottville. Best times to fish the river are early AM and just before dark at night. Flatfish, Ping a Ts, and Storm Fire Tigers are top producers in the river.

Good Fishin…..Capt Ed

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

Steelhead fishing has slowed with the fronts and rough water. When it calms down try straight out or North of the harbor, fish the color lines for best results. Be there early for a good bite. Put out some long lines on the boards, bright colors of spoons, small, and regular sizes for best results. Start in 70 feet of water and work out to as far as 160 to 200 feet of water as the sun comes up. Fish the top 60 feet of water first thing, then as the sun comes up, fish the top 40 feet of water.

A few Salmon are still being taken but it has also been on the slow side. Try straight out, South and North of the harbor fishing the 70 to 190 foot of water areas. Working deeper as the sun comes up, using clean spoons off the lead lines, dipseys, and downriggers, fish the top 50 to 80 feet of water using bright colors for best results.

Lake Trout fishing is slow to fair. Try straight out, South and North of the harbor using the dodgers with spin and glows or flys close to the bottom or 100 feet down in the deeper areas. Try clean spoons off the downriggers. Fishing 50 feet down to the bottom for best results. Start fishing in 70 feet of water and work your way out to the deeper water till you find them.

Walleye fishing is still very slow, try North of the harbor and North of Port Hope working in close to shore, 25 to 60 feet of water. They will be scattered so keep looking. Clean small spoons, hot n tots, and crawler harnesses will be your best chance.

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

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

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

Steelhead fishing is still fair to good straight out, fish the color lines for best results. Be there early for a good bite. Put out some long lines on the boards, bright colors of spoons, small, and regular sizes for best results, fishing straight out, South and North of the harbor, start in 70 feet of water and work out to as far as 190 feet of water as the sun comes up. Fish the top 60 feet of water first thing, then as the sun comes up, fish the top 40 feet of water.

A few Salmon are still being taken straight out, South and North of the harbor fishing the 70 to 190 foot of water areas. Working deeper as the sun comes up, using clean spoons off the lead lines, dipseys, and downriggers, fish the top 50 to 80 feet of water using bright colors for best results.

Lake Trout fishing is still fair. Try straight out, South and North of the harbor using the dodgers with spin and glows or flys close to the bottom or 100 feet down in the deeper areas. Try clean spoons off the downriggers. Fishing 50 feet down to the bottom for best results. Start fishing in 70 feet of water and work your way out to the deeper water till you find them.

Bass and Pike are still being taken casting or trolling spoons and body baits in close to shore or inside the harbor. Fishing around the weed beds is still giving the best results.

Walleye fishing is still very slow, try North of the harbor and North of Port Hope working in close to shore, 25 to 60 feet of water. Clean small spoons, hot n tots, and crawler harnesses will be your best chance.

Try for perch South by the cemetery using minnows.

Have a safe holiday week end.

Every Saturday Harbor Beach Light