Fish Report 10/15/2007 Milwaukee Fishing Lake Michigan
By Capt. Jim Hirt
Good numbers on Chinook, Browns and Lake Trout. The wind has kept the water cold near shore. The surface is 50 degrees with a break to 48 at 15 feet down. The fish have been high in the water column. Downriggers are working but leadcore and Slide Divers are producing better. All the action has been from 50 feet to the surface. The boat speed of 1.7 to 2.1 has been best. If you are not catching fish you are probably fishing too fast. The currents have been strong on some days and you will find very fast speeds when going south to north. When this happens reduce your boat speed. Watch the angle of your downrigger cables they should only show a five to ten degree blowback. On some days you must fish into the wind or put out trolling bags to reduce your speed. Regular or small spoons are producing most of our fish. Our best spoons have been the Reaper Silver Peacock and Big Joe Silver. You must know the temperature and speed at your lure to find consistent action. If you don't have a speed and temp gauge on your downrigger you should at least have a way to check the down temperature or call another boat on the lake for that info. I extend the invitation if you fish out of Milwaukee to call my boat the Blue Max, I would be pleased to help with that information. We have had good action when applying this basic principal.
Most recently we had fish from 10 to 50 down in 45 to 70 feet of water. The action has been steady with all species active. Baitfish in the four and two inch size is in the stomachs of the fish. Big four-year-old Chinooks have been slow in the gaps; however there are some two and three year old Chinooks being caught in all of the harbor gaps. We have been fishing in Whitefish Bay and off the water filtration plant. On the calmer days run leadcore in 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 colors. Choose the number of colors based on the depth of water temperature for your target species. If you don't have leadcore run 150 foot leads behind the ball on your downriggers. It is a continuous all day bite when you use this presentation. Slide Divers with regular size spoons, 60 foot leads set to #2 with 45 to 60 feet of line out. On overcast days run Reaper Magnum Fish N Chip, Peacock and Vulcan Magnum Silver Leaf, Silver Sky spoons on the downriggers. They are taking Chinooks and Lake Trout. The only place you will find Reaper and Vulcan spoons is on their web site at http://www.badgertackle.com Have a great fishing season. Let's go fishing!! Jim charters out of Milwaukee, WI. with Blue Max Charters. He can be reached at 414-828-1094 or visit his web site at http://www.bluemaxcharters.com