This past week produced some very good fishing between fronts that came in
mid week and on the weekend. The creel consisted of mainly lake trout with
a couple of steelhead and/or salmon thrown in each day with creel numbers
of 10 to 20 fish per trip. On one of our multi boat charters, a boat boated
a lake trout that pushed 30 pounds and there were also chinook salmon taken
that pushed 25 pounds. Not a lot of salmon being caught, however there are
some very good sized salmon out there. The lake trout are also very nice
size, with the catches averaging about 10 pounds each.
We are fishing from 85 foot of water to 110 foot of water. The steelhead
are hitting any spoons that are orange and silver and orange and red that
are pulled on 5 color lead core and/or 100 foot of copper. There are also
some steelhead taken on 3 color lead core with orange and red thin fins.
The best rigs for the salmon continue to be the super slim coyote ugly and
the bloody nose pulled on 200 and 250 foot of copper. The lake trout
continue to hit the metal dodgers and spin n glos (white/pink, double
trouble glow) and silver flashers with oceana flies. We are pulling them on
low and high wire divers and on the downriggers on the bottom.
Boats that fished for perch reported very little success out of Saugatuck
and Holland.
Pier fishing for steelhead has slowed now that the water has warmed back
into the 60’s.
The fishing should continue to improve as the lake’s thermo layers set up.
There have been very little bait found in the stomachs of the fish, however
we are seeing more bait showing up in the 90 to 100 foot of water so as the
bait shows up the salmon should follow. Check back next week and off and on
during the week for updates. For more information or to book a fishing
charter, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.