Fishing Report

Rough water stops fishing most of the week. (Sep-24-2012)

Five days of high winds and high waves limited fishing to two days this past week. With gale force winds and wind out of the west one day, north the next, south the next, and then repeated the lake has had the waters mixed with no real temperature break. Friday we fished the morning and found surface water was 65 degrees and the water 120 foot down was 61 degrees out in 150 foot of water. We started fishing in 100 foot of water and tolled out to 225 foot of water. We did catch 8 fish ( 3 two year old chinook, 2 three year old chinook, 1 four year old chinook and 1 lake trout) out in 180 to 190 foot of water, however every fish hit below 100 foot with two caught on the bottom in 185 foot. There are some fish up at the Allegan dam, and there are a few fish being caught in front the piers, however fishing here is very slow with water temperature in the high 60´s. The fish we caught hit flashers and flies on the downriggers 100 to 180 foot down, dipsy divers at 350 foot out and 240 foot out and on 450 feet of copper. The best combination was the 11 in Pro Troll white fishscale flasher and the 8 in white fishscale flasher with the Oceana fly (these two had 6 hits). The Stinger frog flasher and the Pro Troll silver fishscale flasher with a green hypnotist fly each produced 2 hits. For fishing information and charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com

Warm water delays the run (Sep-17-2012)

68 degree water has slowed the salmon run. There are still salmon out in 100 to 160 foot of water with the best being 130 to 140 foot and there are a few salmon being caught infront the piers. We have caught a few salmon in 12 foot of water on Hot n Tots (gold) and Ace Hi plugs (white black dots and green splatter back). Fishing out in the deeper water produced fish from 60 to 120 foot deep. The most consistent lures have been the Pro Troll super frog flasher and green hypnotist fly on the low diver at 160 foot, silver fish scale Pro Troll with a wild fern fly on one high diver and all silver Pro Troll flasher and wild fern fly at 280 and 300 foot. On the downriggers the best combination have been a Pro Troll silver UV green side with a green hypnotist fly and a white mountain dew with a purple No See Um. With the cold front due to come in tonight, maybe we will have some cold water in by the weekend. For more information and/or charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.,

Pulling Ace Hi plugs for big salmon (Sep-03-2012)

The salmon are still staged in the 80 to 100 foot depth, however there are a few salmon being caught from 40 to 60 foot of water. With the strong east winds last weekend, we were limited to trolling east and west which limits the time you can fish in the staging area. Boats took any where from 8 to 20 fish with the majority of the creel make up of salmon. In that 80 foot depth, the temperature broke at about 50 foot and dropped from 57 to 47 degrees and then 41 degrees on the bottom. The 150, 200 and 300 copper produced very well with Ace Hi plugs (green glow, green glow black ladder back, green splatterback, pear black dot and pearl pink dot) on all of them. On the downriggers and dipsy divers we ran the following Pro Troll flashers (11 in white fishscale, 8 in. chrome, 8 in. white mnt. dew, 8 in white dble glow) with Rapture flies (oceana UV, wild fern, green no see um and white pine) pulled behind them respectively. Downriggers were run from 50 to 80 foot and the dipsy divers had 100 and 150 foot of wire line out. For more information or charter reservations email me at captron@chartermichigan.com

Warm water slows the salmon fishing (Aug-28-2012)

The water is warm all the way to the bottom and most of the salmon are being caught in the bottom 15 to 20 foot of water from 80 to 130 foot of water. As the water warmed, the fishing slowed and we went from taking 12 to 20 fish per trip to 6 to 12 fish per trip. The last couple of days we caught some nice salmon in 80 to 95 foot of water 70 foot to the bottom and today we found that the water had cooled a little with the temperature change at 60 foot instead of 75 foot. Dipsy divers at 300 and 200 foot with Pro Troll and Stinger flashers (white fishscale, super frog, white mountain dew and silver fishscale) with Rapture trolling flies ( green no see um, hypnotist, green glow no see um and second wish) was the most consistent producer. We also ran the 11 in white glow Pro Troll with the hypnotist fly every day on the middle downrigger near the bottom. 300 copper and 400 copper in the shallower water (100-80 foot) and 400 and 450 foot of copper in the deeper water with a variety of flasher and fly combinations. Yesterday and today we did have some action on 300 and 200 copper with green glow and green splatter back Ace Hi plugs. For more information or for charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.

Salmon moves to deeper water (Aug-20-2012)

Our fishing continues to very good with catches of 9 to 20 fish per trip, however, you will have to move out to deeper water to get a consistent catch. After the big blow the weekend of the 11th, the lake turned over and we had water temperatures in the 40´s. With the drop in temperature, the bait moved into the river water and out to deep water and the salmon and trout followed. There were steelhead caught off the Saugatuck piers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but trolling there produced very little action. Most of the fish were caught off the piers with shrimp under a cork. The best trolling success occurred out in 200 and 220 foot of water from the surface down to 100 foot. As the water began to warm, the bait started to collect in 150 to 170 foot of water and the salmon and trout followed and by this past weekend we were catching fish from 60 down to 160 foot. The catch consists of mostly chinook salmon (3 and 4 year olds) with a few lake trout, coho and steelhead in the catch. The best method continues to be flashers and flies, however we did catch a few salmon and steelhead on the silver red head and green splatter back Ace Hi plug and on the mixed veggie stingray. The best combination of flashers and flies were: 11 in white glow Pro Troll with either the Illusion or Green Hypnotist fly 8 in silver fish scale Pro Troll with Green No See Um 8 in Super Frog with Green Hypnotist 8 in Green Wiggle with the Illusion 8 in Blue Wiggle white blade with Blue Bubble Rapture fly 8 in Glow Frog with Green Glow Hypnotist For information and/or charter reservations email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.