The water has warmed up and the fish are starting to go deeper. This past week produced some very good fishing early (10 to 15 fish per trip) and then the catch rate slowed (4 to 8 fish per trip) by the end of the week. The catch consisted of Chinook and Lake Trout from 1 pound to 13 pounds. The best area was 200 to 240 foot of water and 40 to 100 foot down, however fish were marked and caught all the way down to 180 foot. There are a few fish out in 270 foot of water and in as far as 70 foot of water, however they are scattered.
The best presentation was 100 foot, 200 foot and 300 foot of copper with stingers and stingray lures (dolphin --green and blue and the coyote ugly pattern). A few fish were caught on the downriggers with green hot chip flasher and the last supper Rapture fly being the most consistent. There have been some reports of good salmon being caught 150 to 200 foot down on cut bait, however we did not catch any that deep. The dipsy divers were inconsistent, however when they produced it was at 125-150 foot of line on the low divers and 200-250 foot of line on the high divers. The lures on the divers changed from day to day and from hour to hour.
We need some stratification to the water to concentrate the fish so we do not need to fish the total water column. We did find some good schools of bait fish in the 70-80 foot of water and this may be the next area that the fish will stage, once they find the bait. Feel free to contact me for fishing updates and/or reservations at toll free 888-253-8372 or email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.