SWR down 55' was the hot rod. It started the day with a mag ras carbon RV while it was overcast and then we swapped in a mag RV sand burr as the sun came out. It took about 8 hits.

F/F and meat rigs were mostly quiet so we put another sand burr on the other DR down 50' in 95FOW while we were cleaning fish and it got smoked right away, 20LB king. 

350 copper got a couple too, I believe both SH.

The fish were jacked up today, lots of good jumps and runs.

King was over 3ft long with an empty stomach. 

We communicate a lot in latitude minutes and depth. I've attached an example of N58 74 FOW. Figured it was good to put in a little context.

Yesterday I started in N00 65 FOW heading NE. Setup an 8 rod spread, mostly spoons and a single 8 inch flasher/fly, and initially marked a small bait pod. Got a few scattered hits of coho's and landed a nice 12 lb king on a Kevorkian Mag spoon. Eventually headed out further to N03/04 100 FOW looking for a more consistent bite where we grabbed a few lakers. Similar slow bite. Crew was newer and waves started to pick up, so trolled inward. When the overcast skies came over, the Coho bite picked up fast and 8 inch flasher/4 inch flies started getting hit. Put out a few and kept getting hits every few minutes. Sadly the conditions started to worsen, so we had to pick up and head in.

Finished 8 for 16, 1 king, 4 cohos, and 3 lakers.

Still a good day of fishing. Coho's have been chunky 6-8 lbs with a few 10+ pounders. Good luck to anyone getting started, hope these help.

We fished 120-160fow trying for kings all morning without a bite. We decided to motor out to 280fow and fish to 300fow. Things started slow for us, but once we got the depth dialed in the fish started hitting the deck! Our best water depth was 290-300fow on a south troll with baits down 95-110ft. We landed 2 coho and a trout and missed the same amount all within about an hour before we had to pull lines. Our Michigan Stinger spoons did most of the damage on our riggers. It was a perfect day to be on the water even with a slow morning of fishing!

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We made a last minute decision on Sunday morning to head to Northpoint. We decided after reading the weather buoys that were still showing almost 4ft waves that we were better off launching out of Winthrop Harbor and making a shorter run. Our best water depth was 270-300 with 290 being the hottest. We used our fish hawk to find 50 degree water down 70ft and ran most of our spread in the 50-75ft range. We had most of our action on Michigan Stinger spoons on our Big Jon downriggers and Morgan's coppers pulled behind Church Tackle TX-44 boards. We ended up with our 3 man limit of nice chunky coho and steelhead we lost at least 10 or more than we boated, but that's why it's fishing and not catching! We are getting ready to fish our final big tournament of the season this weekend the Holland Big Red Classic and we can't wait!

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June 15:

We decided to go out deep until we found chilly water and target Chinooks. At 160 ft. of water depth directly East out of Zion we found a great pocket of icy water and a temperature break at 60 ft. down on the FishHawk. We deployed an all Chinook program of flashers/flies on the d-riggers, spoons on the dipsy’s, and spoons on the Cu (I did not have any bait to set out meat rigs). Three hours of working the cold water and the fringes turned up empty and we decided to switch over to Silvers and Steelhead to try and save the day. Lucky for us, the Coho did not disappoint! We found them deep and found them shallow with HUGE numbers of bait balls in the shallower (50 ft.) water.

Wind: Calm conditions early with SW winds @ 5 Kn the whole outing. Occasional rain squalls and wind kicked up till about 0930 hrs., then it cleared up nicely.

Water Temp (at the 160 ft deep contour): 46 deg F at the surface and 42 deg F down at 60 ft down (per my Fish Hawk device). At the 50-depth contour: warmed up to 52 deg F in the shallower water just north of the WI state line (45 deg on the bottom).

Program (with two aboard OPA): Two riggers. Two fixed Dipsy’s. Cu: 200 ft. with 30 ft. Pb trailer;  100 ft. Cu+60 ft. Pb; off of bigger fixed boards with slider clips. 

Best speed: 2.7 mph SOG. We kept the deeper gear going at about 2.2 to 2.4 mph SOG and bumped it up once in a while by turning on the zig zag function on the Lowrance auto pilot. The best hits came when the gear was slowing down.

Best lures:

1.      Crushed Fluorescent Orange Glow (CFO-G; 3.75”) Lexan plastic spoon made by Capt. John King over in Manistee, MI.  The spoon was set on 200 Cu/Pb and 100 Cu/Pb. This rock-solid rig accounted for three nice Coho, with two nice hits that got off. One small Coho was also brought to the boat and was “shook off” (released). The fish really attacked this spoon as we found the hooks all the way down into their gill rakers.  Loved using my big planer boards and clips to fish the Cu/Pb. It was so nice to work the fish without having to worry about battling the damn planer board back to the boat.

2.       Alewife SUV Lexan plastic spoon (3.75”) made by Capt. King. Deployed as a slider approx. 35 ft. down (Est) on the d-rigger. This spoon has a sticker on both sides that looks exactly like an Alewife. The base spoon has a nice UV glow when it hits the water. Two Coho ate this.

3.      00 red 6” dodger with homemade aqua blue/copper peanut fly (12” of 50 lb. leader). Always a nice feeling when your home brew’s take fish. This fly was an inspiration after seeing a number of insects I found with bluish bodies inside some late season (2016) Coho. The wrapping was red thread.  This dodger/fly combo off dipsy’s set at thirty feet deep accounted for two very large Coho. Lost one more that hit this combo off the dipsy but got off early in the struggle.

4.      00 silver 6” dodger with silver/green/blue peanut fly (12” of 50 lb. leader). This fly was borrowed from one of fishing buddy “Gary’s” neighbor as a proven producer. I was surprised at the extra-long 18” light mono leader. But it works great for others who fish the lake every few days, and I can’t argue with that. On this day, this dodger/fly combo off dipsy’s set at 30 ft. deep accounted for one very large Coho. Two more fish also hit this combo but got off before we could bring them to net.

5.      XG Mean Green (4.65”) Lexan plastic spoon made by Capt. King.  The spoon was set down 50 ft. on a d-rigger that had a hard take down and accounted for one Coho.  First time I deployed this spoon. It glows blue and green and has some very cool UV properties as well.

6.      Hey babe spoon (3.5”) made by Michigan Stinger. This spoon looks like a blue dolphin, but has a zig zag tape slash on the front instead of a scalloped slash. One Coho hit this lure 40 ft. deep on the d-rigger off a two color Pb “secret weapon” rig.

Total harvest: 10 Coho.  Seven of the ten fish were loaded with multiple class Alewife from two to seven inches long. Even the fish with nothing in their stomachs had plenty of digested food in their intestines.

Best fishing location: 60 to 75 ft. depth directly East of Northpoint and into WI waters (yes, we took the sliders off in WI waters). This is approximately 7 to 8 miles out. The 160-ft. contour we started off at accounted for three Coho.

Best direction: Both N and S.  Underwater current was flowing S.

Best Depth: 35 to 40 ft.

June 16

               Woke up to a very windy morning. Launched at Northpoint and tried to work our way out to the 120-ft. depth as we heard reports of lots of bait in that area. Five-foot wind waves made it impossible to set gear so we worked in closer to try and find some bait and fish. We found a HUGE bunch of bait strung out over a one mile area directly north of the de-commissioned nuke plant in the area. Along with the bait balls we saw a lot of fish arch symbols on the sonar unit associated with the bait. Some of the bait balls were 20 ft. high. Unfortunately, we got no hits on any spoons, peanut fly’s, or regular sized flasher/fly rigs. At this point, we were fishless after working the area for hours and we were both scratching our heads wondering if we knew how to fish. The radio chatter confirmed our situation with few fish being caught by those that were talking. We finally picked up a fish on a dodger/peanut fly and the fish began to cooperate late in the morning.

Wind: 15 Kn winds early, then sustained winds of 25+ for a couple of hours. Then it calmed down to 10 Kn the rest of the morning.

Water Temp: 55 deg on the surface, with 45 deg water down 50 ft. Found occasional pockets of colder water near the WI state line at about 70 ft. deep.  

Program (with two aboard OPA): Two riggers. Two fixed Dipsy’s. Two large planer boards and release clips with Cu and Pb (Cu: 200, 100 ft Cu+60 ft Pb, and 5 color Pb alternated throughout the morning).

Best speed: 2.5 mph SOG. The zig zag function on the autopilot kept the baits moving at various speeds, and I reckoned that the most hits occurred when we were slowing down.

Best lures:

1.      00 red 6” dodger with homemade green/blue/copper peanut fly (12” of 50 lb. leader). Again, nice feeling when your home brew ends up the stud rig for the day. This fly pattern was an inspiration from the colors of insects that I found inside the Coho we harvested last year in late August (except that I added the copper tinsel for visibility). This fly pattern was wrapped onto red #2 hooks with black thread. This dodger/fly combo off dipsy’s set at only 70 ft. on the line counter (Est at 25 feet deep) accounted for four fish (and several that got off): three chunky Coho, and a ten lb. Chinook! Surprise, surprise. We’ve been chasing Chinooks for two days and end up catching a respectable one on a peanut fly? Really? I Shoulda known the final fish was a Chinook when it ripped off 100 feet of line at the hit and made some major runs before coming to net. Kinda forgot what even a small Chinook can do when it’s pissed off. The fish “ate” this fly meaning the hooks were deeply stuck into its gill rakers. 

2.       Crushed Fluorescent Orange Glow (CFO-G; 3.75”) Lexan plastic spoon made by Capt. King set on 200 Cu/Pb. Two fish. One Coho and one small 22” Chinook. Lost one more fish off this spoon.

3.      “Alewife SUV” (3.75”) spoon off dipsy 35 ft. deep. One Coho. I guess ya’ll are tired of reading that this is my favorite spoon. Yep, it is.

Total harvest: 5 Coho and 2 Chinooks.  We pulled 32 - 1.5” to 6” long alewife out of the stomachs of these seven fish. Some of the Coho were also stuffed with many black beetles as well. The larger Chinook had seven alewives in his stomach alone. As with yesterday’s trip, even the fish with nothing in their stomachs had plenty of digested food in their intestines.

Best fishing location: 50 to 60 ft. depth very near (but not in) WI waters.   

Best direction: N. Very little underwater current detected on the FishHawk.

Best depth: 35’

               I am so thankful for my new local (Zion, IL) fishing partner in “Gary” and appreciate his great outdoor skills. I continue to be even more thankful (as we all should be) to the DNR’s throughout the great lakes for using our license fees in a way that helps us to enjoy one of the top fisheries in the USA.

After a couple of weeks of struggling to get back out on L. Michigan, I was finally blessed with a good fishing partner and a good outdoors-man in Thomas Hurley and we made the trip from Springfield, IL for a couple of days of R&R. Weeks of great reports and heavy fish boxes on the West side of the lake from Chicago North have been a joy to read, but at some point ya gotta get out and drop rigs for yourself.

June 1:

We decided to go out deep until we found cold water and target Chinooks. Fisherman on the East side ports have been doing well on Chinooks, and we decided to try and join the party. At 200 ft, we found a nice pocket of 46 deg surface water. A quick check with the Fish Hawk device found water temp of 42 deg down 60 ft so we deployed the gear and went to work. We targeted Chinooks for five hours with all the regular gear like meat rigs, flasher/fly, and typical Chinook spoons with NO success. Eventually, we turned to a shallow Coho program to try and salvage a couple of limits. The two Lakers caught on shallow Coho gear were a pleasant surprise.  Here’s how it went for us fishing out of Northpoint in both WI and IL waters:

Wind: Calm conditions early with SW winds @ 5-10 Kn subsiding to 2 kn by the afternoon.

Water Temp (at the 200 ft deep contour): 46 deg F at the surface and 42 deg F down at 60 ft depth (per my Fish Hawk device) warmed up to 48 deg F late in the morning, but still 42 deg down at 60 ft when we left about 1400 hrs.

Program (with two aboard): Two riggers. Two Dipsy’s (slide divers). Three Cu and Pb off 2 planer boards (Cu: 200 ft;  100 ft Cu+60 ft Pb; 5 color Pb).

Best speed: 2.7 mph SOG. We kept the deeper gear going at about 2.2 to 2.4 mph SOG.

Best lures:

1.      “Super Gold Bullet” (4.65”) spoon made by John King set on down riggers (DRG) and sliders. Sliders accounting for two nice Coho and one on the DRG. We had an epic hit on this spoon being run behind the 200 Cu that turned the planer board into a bobber for a very long time. Lost this fish. Hate it when the big ones get off.

2.       “Jager Bomb” (4.65”) spoon made by Michigan Stinger. One Coho on a slider and one 9 lb. Laker on the slide diver set at 30 ft deep with lure 45 ft behind the diver.

3.      “Purple Frog” spoon (3.5”). I couldn’t find the real spoon anywhere in my spoon boxes so I had to modify a Michigan Stinger ‘purple raspberry’ spoon with green UV marker. Spoon looked like crap, but it got crushed by one very nice 11 lb. Laker off the 200 Cu and one Coho off same.

4.      “Alewife SUV” spoon (4.65”) made by John King. Deployed off DRG at 60 ft deep. One Coho. Had three more hook ups on the Alewife spoon that got off.  The SUV properties of this spoon are not to be believed until you see it in the water. It is quickly becoming my favorite spoon.

5.      “Copper no name” prototype spoon (4.65”) made by John King. This spoon has pinkish crinkle UV tape on the front side and a plain copper back. This spoon was being run on the DRG off a two color Pb 60 feet down when it was crushed by one chunky Coho.

6.      “00 red Dodger with a blue and gold peanut fly”. Set on a hybrid rig of 100 ft Cu and 60 ft of Pb. One Coho.

Four of the ten fish were loaded with multiple class Alewife from two to seven inches long. Even the fish with nothing in their stomachs had plenty of digested food in their system.

Best fishing location: 200 ft depth on a southbound troll directly East of Northpoint and into WI waters. This is approximately 7 to 8 miles out. We played out to 220 ft and as close as 185 ft depth with no success.

Best direction: S.  Underwater current was flowing N.

Best Depth: 30’. According to my bathymetry maps, there is very little topography in this area.

June 2:

Woke up to a calm morning. We were tempted to go out to the 300 ft depth to continue the chase for Chinooks, but a change with my fishing partner’s work schedule forced us to stay in close and go for some Coho fun. Dropped lines at 160 ft when we hit some 48 deg water with numerous fish showing up on the sonar unit. Started on a south troll, and all HELL broke loose after the first Cu hit the water. These Coho are I N S A N E. Every lure we put out got hits. But I gotta give my fishing partner all the credit for opening my eyes to the value of these silly Alderton Action spoons and pinkish/tinsel flies. He had the whole dodger/fly program dialed in on a day when I was clueless.   

Wind: Calm conditions early with SE winds @ <3 Kn subsiding to NO wind by noon.

Water Temp: 49 deg on the surface. Didn’t check the depth before setting gear, but the fish Hawk showed 44 deg at 60 ft.

Program (with two aboard): Two riggers. Two Dipsy’s (slide divers). Two planer boards with Cu and Pb (Cu: 200, 100 ft Cu+60 ft Pb, and 5 color Pb alternated throughout the morning).

Best speed: 2.7 mph SOG.

Best lures

1.      “00 Alderton Action orange dodger with a pearl/shrimp or silver tinsel/pink fly”. Leads were very long at 20” to 24”, which is what the fish wanted. I was not happy with the little or no action that the fly was getting from the dodger. But, did I say it’s what the fish wanted???? They did. This simple rig accounted for seven of the 10 fish. The most exciting hit of the day came on this rig off the 100 ft Cu/60 ft Pb line deployed off a planer. We saw this fish jump WAAAAAY behind the boat and then saw the rod dip and scream line.  After several epic runs and a steady retrieval, we finally manage to net a fabulous 10 lb. steelhead 20 minutes later. WOW what a great fish. This fish had done battle before as one side of its jaw had been completely torn off (but had healed). Another fish hit on the sliver tinsel version of the fly (behind the 5 color Pb on a planer) and pulled a big TX44 back like a bobber, wrapping the leader around two of the lines before kissing us goodbye.

2.      “Super Gold Bullet” (4.65”) spoon on a DRG slider at 25 ft deep (estimated). One Coho and two hits that came unbuttoned. We had one large (unidentified) fish crush this spoon but lost it right at the boat.  

3.      “Jager Bomb”off a slide diver at 25 ft deep with a 45 ft lead. One Coho.

4.      “Alewife SUV” spoon in 4.65” size off DRG run behind a 2 color Pb. One Coho. Did I say this was my favorite spoon?

Best fishing location: 160 ft depth SE of Northpoint.  

Best direction: N and S. Didn’t matter.

Best depth: 15’ to 40’

Left the water at 1000 with a couple of nice limits of and all Coho box with the one great Steelhead. We should all thank the DNR’s throughout the great lakes for continuing to use our license fees in a way that helps us to enjoy one of the top salmonid and char fisheries in the USA.

Disclaimer: I am not supported by any manufacturer mentioned in this report. I am merely passing on information that has worked for me in order to help others catch more fish.

We made the trip up to Northpoint Marina after hearing of great coho action. That was no lie the coho where on fire. We headed up Friday afternoon after work we set lines at 5:30pm and pulled at 8:30pm and ended up with 8 coho and 1 laker and a ton of lost fish. On Saturday morning we had a 3 man crew and ended up going 14 for about 18 with 13 coho and a nice 17lb lake trout on a Big Weenie blue balls meat rig on a wire slide diver back 170 on counter. We took fish on usual spring coho set ups. Musselhead Tackle naked blue flash meat rig on a 8 color was hot in the late morning and a Michigan Stinger jagerbomb on a 200 was good Friday. We fished anywhere from 60-140 fow and caught fish mainly in the top 50ft. We had some good fishing even though our trip got cut short due to me catching the flu bug.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pesXNHzXrms

Set up in 90 fow straight out as the wind was out of the northwest with lake around 1 to two foot witch was not bad but had a real strong sw current . Temp was 52 on the surface. From there we trolled w sw to 200 fow water, Marked no fish. kept going all the way to the stick temp dropped to 50 at 200. marked no fish. from the stick headed back in to 80 fow and finally marked a single fish. know hit. trolled back north off of the dunes marked another fish. no hit. also marked NO bait fish. at 4:00 pm my family was hungry so we started pulling lines and my daughter hooked up on a 5 lb laker while reeling in full core with ss easter egg. So we ended up 1 for 1. on the way back in on Pentwater lake we marked a lot of big schools on bottom. schools being Perch. looked like the guys fishing them were doing well.

Was a beautiful day for the most part. Just no fish. Charters were going out to 300 fow water to catch steelhead and doing ok. not great, but getting a few for there clients. wanted to add we ran a 12 rod set up. 1 color,2 color, half core, full core, 300 copper, wire divers and 2 rigger. ran flashers/fly, spoons, plugs even threw a few oldies out, Grizzly spoon and needle fish along with fast trolling a few old KC spoons. in other words everything that has caught fish the last 30 years.