This past week was a week of opposites. Monday and Tuesday we had limit catches in 150 to 200 foot. Then we had three days of high winds and rough water with winds out of the south, then out of the west and then out of the northwest and back to the south again. Saturday when we got out to fish, we found a different situation with catches of 2 to 8 fish per boat and with a repeat on Sunday. The fish were caught in 130 foot of water and out in 190 foot of water from the surface down to 70 foot. The catch includes steelhead (in the upper 30 foot) and chinook and lake trout from 30 to 70 foot. Saturday and Sunday we saw very little bait and where ever the bait went--that is were the salmon will show up.
The best method was copper line (75 foot, 100 foot, 200 foot and 300 foot). The dipsy divers produced some fish with the high diver at 200 foot and the low diver at 100 foot while the downriggers produced very few fish and had very few hits. The best lures included a mix of stinger, stingray, raider, dreamweaaver lures (orange crush, smashmouth, coyote ugly, lemon ice, sunburst and blue and green dolphins). The hot chip flashers and green flies produced some fish early in the week but very few toward the end of the week.
Next week we should find out what happened to the bait and the salmon should show up in that same area. For more information feel free to contact me toll free 888-253-8372 or email me at captron@charterichigan.com.