July 20, 2008
Chinook salmon fishing has been very good this past week with catches of 8 to 15 fish per trip. The fish are in 90 to 120 foot of water and are 50 to 90 foot down. There is a large amount of bait in 85 foot and the salmon appear to be just outside of the bait. Twice during the week, we caught chinook salmon that exceeded 20 pounds and many weighed in from 14 to 18 pounds. In addition to the salmon, some very good perch catches were being reported in 60 to 70 foot of water just south of the Saugatuck piers.
The best method this week has been flashers and flies on the wire divers and on the downriggers. The best flashers were Hot Chip and Pro Chip mountain dew, all silver, green glow and blue bubble. The flies we are pulling are the Rapture blue noseeum, last supper, green dude and wild fern. The copper line (300 and 400 foot) produced with Stingray wonderbread, gator and NBK. We are also using the Stinger 4 oz. dive bomb on the 300 copper to get us down to where the 400 or 450 copper would run. This allows us to run the lures at depths of 70 foot with only 300 foot of copper line. About 100 foot of copper is let out and then the dive bomb is attached and then the rest of the copper is let out. I figure that the 4 oz dive bomb will increase the depth by about 1/3 so if 300 foot of copper runs at 50 to 60 foot, the dive bomb will put it close to 75 foot down.
The chinook salmon seem to have set up in the 100 foot depth and should stay here if the bait remains in that depth. Check back and see what next week produces. For information or charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.