The Chinook salmon are showing up from Saugatuck to Port Sheldon. This past week has produced some very good catches of Chinook salmon with occasional coho and steelhead thrown in. The water along the shore is very discolored and most of the fish are found outside in the clearer water. On Friday the fish were found in 40 to 80 foot of water and then on Sunday they were in 60 to 90 foot of water. Today most of the fish came from 90 to 180 foot of water with 120 foot being the best.
The deeper the water the lower we are fishing. In the 40 to 80 foot range we were fishing from the surface to 40 foot down with stickbaits on the surface and then orange crush and orange and green Stingray lures behind 75 foot, 150 ft. and green and blue Killer Stingrays behind 200 ft. of copper. In the 60 to 90 foot depth the best method was 300 copper with Singrays behind and ProTroll Flashers and Rapture trolling flies. Out side of 100 foot the downriggers went as deep as 90 foot down with 300 copper and wire slide divers with the flashers and flies. Many of the salmon are running in the mid teens and a couple were pushing 20 pounds.
More good news is that limit perch catches have been reported from Saugatuck to Port Sheldon. Limit catches were reported in 60 to 65 foot of water from Port Sheldon north to the Bil Mar Resturant. Today there were a couple of limit catches in 40 foot of water just south of the Saugatuck pier. Another good report is the walleye fishing in the Kalamazoo river. Walleye are being caught by drifting down from the Blue Star bridge into Kalamazoo Lake while jigging off the bottom with jigging spoons or night crawler harness.
The only negative report is the Steelhead fishing in the river. With the muddy and high water in the Kalamazoo River the fishing has been very slow, however as the water receeds, the fishing should improve. For more information or for reservations for a charter, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.