Fishing Report

Deep water producing some excellent fishing. (Aug-19-2013)

This past week produced some very good fishing with creel numbers fromm 8 to 18 fish per trip consisting of Chinook salmon that pushed 30 pounds in weight. One Chinook was reported to weigh 34 pounds and there was a report of a 39 pounder weighed in. The fish are found from 90 out to 230 foot of water but in the top 50 foot. During the week, the water cooled down due to some strong north winds and the fish scattered. You could catch some nice four year old salmon in the 90 to 100 foot level but the fishing was inconsistent. In the 140 to 170 foot level you could find some 2, 3 and some 4 year old salmon and addition to some lake trout. In the 180 to 230 foot depth we found more coho and steelhead, with some big Chinook salmon mixed in. We found that the deeper depth levels produced the most consistent catches of steelhead, coho, and 3 year old and some 20 + pound 4 year old Chinook salmon.

In the 180 to 230 foot depth we ran 100, 200 and 300 foot copper with spoons (mixed veggie, green jeans, fruit cocktail and orange crush stingers) on the 100 and 200 copper and flashers and flies (live wire and mixed veggie Pro Troll and mirage Rapture flies) on the 300 copper. Wire dipsy divers were run at 200 foot and 100 foot out with flashers (live wire, white silver/glow, silver mixed vcggie and white glow/mountain dew) and Rapture (no see um, illusion, wild fern and hypnotist) flies. The down riggers worked best with stinger lures run on the base bait and on the add-a-lines amt 60 foot, 50 foot and 40 foot down.

I think that in the next week we will find the Chinook salmon will begin to stage in the 90 foot level and if we get some any cold water, they will move toward the piers. For more information and/or charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.

Up and down week of fishing (Aug-11-2013)

A roller coaster of a week of fishing – The week started with good catches of adult kings and lake trout in 100-150 FOW. Mid-week catches were comprised of almost only lake trout and then fishing slowed at the end of the week as the trout moved out. Good news is that Sunday morning we once again found a good grouping of fish in 180 - 200 FOW. The lake trout were biting metal Goldstar dodges (white, trash can, and chrome dimples) with spin and glows behind them bounced on bottom. This week’s big kings came 40-80 feet down on Protroll hotwired flashers with illusion or wild fern flies, and white glow Protroll flashers with wild fern or Oceana flies. We caught kings on pearl black dot and green splatter back AceHi plugs pulled on 300 coppers. On Sunday we found coho and steelhead with some kings and lake trout in deeper water. These fish were very active and bit on the same flasher flies combos and plugs that were run in shallower water. We had good action on Stinger spoons: blue dolphin, green dolphin, mixed veggies, blue freaking veggies, and tangerine. These spoons were run on 200 feet of copper and 40 – 70 feet down on the riggers.

For mor information or charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.

Big salmon showing up in the catch (Aug-04-2013)

A very good week of fishing with creel numbers ranging from 8 to 20 fish per trip. The creel consists of coho salmon, Chinook salmon, lake trout and an occasional steelhead. We fished in 100 to 140 foot of water and caught lake trout, Chinook salmon and some coho. When we fished in 160 to 200 foot of water we caught mainly Chinook salmon and an occasional steelhead. Out in the 225 to 250 foot of water we found coho salmon, Chinook salmon and some steelhead. The four year old Chinook salmon are running from the mid teens to the high 20 pounds with one 34 pounder caught today. Multiple 20 pound salmon are not uncommon in the catches.

We are fishing differently in the different water depths, however there are some combinations that are working at all depths. The Pro Troll live wire with the Rapture illusion fly has been working on the dipsy divers and on the 300 copper. White blade with Silver/Glow and double glow Pro Troll flasher (8 in and 11 in) and purple beaded Rapture mirage fly worked well on the downriggers and on the dipsy divers. On the 300 ft and 400 ft coppers the chrome and mixed veggie UV Pro Troll flashers with hypnotist and wild fern flies produced well.

Fishing should continue to improve as the salmon stage for the fall run. For information or for charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.

Rough water but good fishing (Jul-28-2013)

It was a crazy week of rough water and good fishing. The week started catching lake trout on bottom in 100 feet of water, or coho in 240 feet of water. The trout were biting white and chrome Goldstar dodges with white and green spin n glows behind them. The coho in the deeper water were living 25-50 feet down bit on Double B orange flashers with mini-Rapture flies, and on Stingers. The best Stingers were the freakin mixed blue or green veggies, the coyote, and double orange crush. This week produced coho, steelhead and some Chinook throughout the week. Later in the week we fished 130-170 FOW. We found a mix of species and sizes. Friday morning produced one of the best early bites of the year. We took 8 fish, 2 kings over 20#, in the first hour and a half. These fish bit the same spoons as the fish in 240 earlier in the week, and white fishscale and white blue bubble Protroll flashers with wildfern and no-see-um Rapture flies. Unfortunately, the wind blew too hard to fish on Saturday or Sunday. We are looking forward to getting back out this week. We expect that the fish are going to continue to move into the120-160 FOW area. Follow us at @CaptCHcharters on Twitter for day by day fishing reports.

Salmon in deep water (Jul-21-2013)

Another week of waiting for the salmon to show up. This week we again fished that 90 to 120 foot of water and caught from 6 to 14 fish per trip, however the lake trout still made up the majority of the creel. There are some steelhead, coho and some 4 year old salmon mixed in but most of the fish are lake trout. Saturday we fished in 105 foot of water in the morning and caught six fish-two lake trout three steelhead and one 4 year old Chinook and lost or missed another 12. The sea flea is so bad in this 100 foot range that you needed to constantly clean your lines so, with the afternoon charter, we decided to do some looking and ran out to 220 foot of water and trolled out to 265 foot and back in to 220 foot. We boated eight fish-four 4 year old Chinook and four coho and lost or had another 10 hits.

In the 100 foot of water depth, we fished metal Gold Star silver and white metal flashers with green and white Spin n Glows on the bottom and Ace Hi green splatter back and green glow ladder back plugs on 200 copper. A variety of flasher and fly combinations produced on the dipsy divers and downriggers, but nothing consistent. In the 240 foot of water it was 300 copper with silver bladed Pro Troll flashers and Rapture No See Um flies and small stingers (orange and green and orange and blue) on the 200 coppers. The Downriggers were run 45 and 50 foot down with stingers as the base lure and on add a lines 10 foot up. Dipsy Divers were run at 100 and 200 foot out with silver bladed (mountain dew, mixed veggie, all silver, green) Pro Troll flashers and mirage and oceana flies.

Some good news on the perch. There were reports of limit catches of perch in 20 to 30 foot of water, however this was 9 miles south off the clay banks of Glenn. One boat caught 150 perch in 2 hours. Perch fishing off of Saugatuck and Holland was spotty with some decent catches one day and then nothing the next.

There are a lot of salmon out in the deeper water and a tremendous amount of 3 year classes of bait. Because there is so much bait in this water, it may be some time before the salmon stage in the 100 foot range and we will have to run out to deep water to fish. For more information or for charter reservations contact me at captron@chartermichigan.com.