What a change in the fishing this week!!! Monday and Tuesday produced some of the best lake trout fishing we have had in years in 100 to 110 foot of water with up to 30 being caught in a trip, however 50% of them had to be returned due to being under the 20 in. limit. There were also some nice Chinook salmon mixed in the catch. Wednesday was like some one turned a switch and the salmon had disappeared and the we had to struggle to catch 6 legal lake trout. By the end of the week we fished we again were bouncing bottom in 90 to 100 foot of water similar to the previous week. We did fish a couple of hours each each trip on Friday and Saturday in 20 foot of water in front the piers and caught some nice steelhead and a couple of small salmon and many sheephead. There is solid bait in the 20 to 30 foot of water and a few silver fish are in there feeding, however there is not big concentration since the water is relatively warm. The boats that did fish the deeper water on Saturday and Sunday did come in with good catches, but almost all lake trout.
We did run a couple of perch charters on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning but the fishing was slow unless you wanted to catch golbies. There were some perch caught in 25 foot of water off the south pier, 40 foot of water off the ball and in 33 foot of water off of Pier Cove. The fish ran good size but the action was slow and you had to drift to get a consistent bite.
The best method for the steelhead in the shallow water was 3 color lead core line with orange crush, orange corey and craigs christmas Stingray lures. (The 10 to 15 pound sheephead liked these also.) In the deeper water we again ran the metal flashers on the bottom with Rapture frosted fern, wild fern and lakeshore green flies on the bottom. Occasional salmon were taken on the divers with silver green Hot Chip flashers with the Rapture lakeshore green fly and magnum green dolphin and yellow fin Stinger lures. The 300 copper with the frog Stinger flasher and any green fly also produced well in the deeper water.
Check back and see if the salmon show up this week or email me at captron@chartermichigan.com for information or charter reservations.