This past week was one of wind and rough water. We lost 3 tips due to rough water during the week, however when we could get out, the fishing was decent with some nice lake trout and 4 year old chinook salmon taken. The salmon and trout were caught in 80 to 120 foot of water early in the week and then moved out to the 160 to 180 foot depth. The other good report is that this was the first week that very good numbers of perch were caught out of the Port of Saugatuck and the perch were very good size. Some of the boats caught up to 250 perch in 2 days of fishing. The perch are being caught in 35 foot of water north of the piers and in 40 foot of water between the "ball" and the Douglas point.
At this time of the year, the best method was flashers and flies on slide divers, down riggers and on copper line. We have been running Pro and Hot Chip flashers (silver, green/glow, blue bubble, glow mountain dew) with Rapture Trolling flies (oceana, last supper, green hypnotist, wild fern, green dude) and have had very good success. The Stingray mixed veggie and NBK also produced some fish on the high diver and on the 300 foot copper. The boats that fished for perch had good luck drifting (when the wind was calm) with minnows and shrimp on the bottom. If the wind was blowing too hard, the boats had to anchor in order to keep the bait on the bottom.
There are some 4 year old salmon that are running close to 20 pounds already and this should lead to some very nice fish by August. Check back next week and find out what is happening out of the Port of Saugatuck. For information, feel free to contact me at captron@chartermichigan.com.