Fishing Report

July 15, Fishing Report (Jul-15-2013)

Another good week of fishing off of Saugatuck. This week was much like the previous week. The fish and bait have set up in 85-130 FOW. Lake trout of all sizes can be caught near the bottom on metal Goldstar dodgers (chrome w/ dimples and chrome w/ crushed UV) with green spin-n-glows. Coho, steelhead and a few kings are biting 25-60 feet down. Spoons outfished the flashers this week. The best spoons were the coyote, orange crush, orange crush on gold, mixed veggies and freakin blue veggies. There is a lot of bait up and down the coast. We expect to see greater numbers of kings arrive anytime. Stable weather promised to keep fishing strong in the upcoming weeks. Follow us on twitter @CaptCHcharters.

Silver Fish Showing Up (Jul-08-2013)

We are beginning to see some silver fish (salmon and steelhead) show up in the creel; however the majority of the fish are still lake trout. This past Friday we caught 14 fish, 5 were silver fish and 9 were lake trout. Today we boated 13 fish, 5 were salmon and steelhead and the rest were lake trout. The fish were found in the 110 to 120 foot range with the lake trout coming on the bottom and the silver fish coming in the top 40 foot.

The lake trout were taken on the downriggers by bouncing bottom with metal Gold Star dodgers and green spin n glows. The salmon and steelhead were taken on 75, 100, 150 and 200 foot of copper line with small 6 in orange dodgers and Rapture green twinkle flies and orange stingers and fuzzy bear lures. We also ran the inside wire dipsy divers on the bottom with the metal dodgers we used on the downriggers and the outside dipsy divers at 100 and 150 foot out with silver green pro troll flashers and Rapture hypnotist flies.

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

Fishing picks up (Jun-30-2013)

Fishing really picked up off of Saugatuck this week with catches in the double figures and 14 fish boated on Sunday. The bait continues to set up in 100-130 FOW. The lake trout are feeding near the bottom with coho and steelhead near the surface. A few kings were taken usually 50-80 feet down. Best baits for the lake trout were Goldstar dodgers with spin and glows or Rapture flies bounced along the bottom. Our best combinations were chrome/glow with a no-see-um, chrome/lazer with a Oceana, hammered chrome with a green spin and glow, and white with a pearl spin and glow. We had action on coho and steelhead on high divers with small orange dodgers and mini-Rapture flies (wild fern and hyptnotist). On the coppers we caught steelhead on 50-150 coppers with jarger bomb, dbl. orange crush, and coyote Stinger spoons. We expect the kings to move in the bait as it continues to stabilize. Follow the action on twitter @CaptCHcharters.

Cotton still flying and fish are still scattered (Jun-23-2013)

Another week of “June” fishing; however there was some indication of some changes may be taking place. The old saying that “Fishing slows when the cotton flies” certainly holds true this year. Early in the week we started with cold water from top to bottom but by Saturday we were seeing water temperature pushing 60 degrees with a little more thermal stratification taking place. Wednesday there were some steelhead taken in 150 foot of water and in front the Holland piers but by Saturday, when we fished again, they were gone. Saturday we fished from 120 to 180 foot of water and most of our fish came in the 120 to 130 foot range. We did try the water out to 240 foot and hooked and lost one lake trout but it came 140 foot down.

Down riggers with green/glow Pro Troll and Rapture Last Supper fly got hit 2 or 3 times at 100 foot and at 60 and 70 foot with magnum Stinger green dolphins and blue dolphins. Wire dipsy divers with white/glow mountain dew Pro Troll and a Rapture mirage fly produced again at 120 foot out. 200 foot of copper with Stingray green/blue dolphin and the 300 foot and 400 foot of copper with silver flashers and green hypnotist flies each got hit once in the 130 foot of water.

For fishing information, and/or charter reservations email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.

Scattered Fish in Saugatuck (Jun-16-2013)

Fishing has been slow this last week with creel numbers of 2 to 5 fish. The water has turned cold with 49 degree water on top and 40 degree water on the bottom in 100 foot. We caught fish in 75 foot out to 200 foot, however there was no concentration and we caught fish on 100 copper to 160 foot down on the downrigger, so once again you had to fish whole water column. You can catch lake trout by pounding bottom in 75 to 100 foot of water; however a lot of these were small fish under 22 in. The salmon were caught from 100 to 200 foot of water and were found throughout the water column.

To point to one lure and one set up that worked consistently is hard to do, however the only combination that we pulled every day and produced everyday was the white/glow mountain dew Pro Troll with a Rapture mirage fly on the high wire diver at 200 foot. Thursday we ran downriggers at 50 to 60 foot with free sliders (small green dolphin and blue dolphin) and they went multiple times, however on Friday they never produced a hit. Friday we had hour best success with 200 and 300 copper and silver flashers and green flies but then on Saturday we only had one hit on a copper and that was on a 150 with a blue green dolphin stingray.

Next week the report is south winds and warmer weather so possibly we may get some stratification of the lake temperature and as a result concentrate the fish and bait in a smaller water column. For more information and or fishing charter reservations email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.