Excellent fishing this past week with 10 to 20 fish caught per outing being the norm. Once again we fished the 60 to 90 foot depth with lake trout up to 15 pounds caught in the bottom 5 foot and Chinook salmon and Steelhead hitting in the top 35 foot of the water column. The water is still cold with 50 degrees on the surface and 41 degrees on the bottom in 75 foot. Sunday some very nice Chinook salmon and steelhead were caught in 165 to 175 foot of water from Holland to south of Saugatuck. I also heard that Grand Haven charter boats found some nice steelhead out in 200 foot of water.
The method for fishing the 60 to 90 foot depth is to run metal flashers and spin n glo's on the bottom for the Lake Trout and then 30 foot, 75 foot, 150 foot, 200 foot and 300 foot of copper line with magnum Stingers and Stingray lures. There are also some fish being caught on the Dipsy Divers with flashers and flies run with 150 and 100 foot of line out. The fish out in the deep water (164-200 foot of water) are hitting magnum spoons and Stingray spoons on 3 color lead core to 200 foot of copper line. Downriggers run at 30 to 55 foot down were producing some salmon on small Stinger spoons.
One good point is that we are starting to find alewife (bait fish) in the stomach of the Lake Trout and in the salmon, so there must be some bait schools near by. The lack of alewife is a concern for the fish biologists and fisherman alike, since very little bait has been seen all spring. If the bait shows up, and it usually does in the 80 to 100 foot depth, we should hold our salmon in this depth. Time will tell, however it looks promising.
For more information or for charter reservations email me at captron@chartermichigan.com
