tawood

For anyone thinking of hitting the bay this week, my advice: don't waste your time. I got my first time ever Saginaw Bay skunk today...I should have known, when we pulled into the river mouth boat launch at 6am, and WE WERE THE ONLY ONES THERE (now that is also a first)!!! Fishing in the bay was worse than fishing in thick chocolate milk...I've never seen water that murkey. Not to mention, we had to be very vigalent when heading out and back, because there were floating logs, stumps, railroad ties, etc, every hundred yards or so. We were literally the only boat on the bay! Oh well, at least it was a beautifull day weather wise (just wish I had gone salmon fishing instead).

One last question... When using braid (that may have lower drag than my 20 lbs test), how do I know how deep my dipseys are running? Won't the lower drag also change their depth?

I assume to switch to wire I would need to change rods...what about braid, can I use my normal mono/line counter rod/reels?

Great job...what depth, speed, etc? Tim

I'm a long time walleye fisherman, but I'm new to the trout thing...I don't use downriggers, and so far I've done pretty good with just deep diving lures, jet divers, and dipseys. I have a question/problems on the dipseys though. I don't seem to be able to get them to run out at an angle. I see guys that talk about setting them on "1" or "2" on the discussion boards here....I run mine on "3", and yet they still seem to track directly straight back (and down of course). Is it just the nature of dipseys, that they don't really track off to the side, or am I doing something wrong? As a test, my last time out I ran 2 dipseys, side by side on 2 rods. The rod tips were just a foot apart in the rod holders. One dipsey was set on "3" full port, the other on "3" full starboard. The 2 lines looked exactly parallel (and straight back/down). Also, a minor note...I never seem to get a dipsey to "release" when it is suppose to either. It seems that if I loosen the release at all, it will release with just the lure, and if I tighten it even an 1/8 of a turn, I can catch big fish and still fight the dipsey. This weekend we caught a 6 lbs coho, and the dipsey didn't release. BTW, I run my dipseys on line counter level winds, with 20 lbs mono test, and run them at 2.5 mph (gps). No snubbers. I've used magnums, #0, and #1 dipseys too. I've used them with spoons and body baits. Thanks for any help, Tim

It wasn't rough at all, even though it was windy with an ENE wind...water was VERY cloudy...infact the most cloudy I've ever seen there! Temp was 38 degrees or so.

Pics:

Took the kids out for the shake down out of Lexington this morning and tried something new: I usually get them up at 4am or so, drive the almost 2 hours to Lexington, and fish...usually with the kids up front in the boat sleeping! So this time I towed the boat with the motor home last night, slept nearby, then we all slept in a little and put in...MUCH better! Anyway, seems like everything wasn't working, new gps won't use old maps, radio didn't want to work, boat main battery doesn't hold a "good" charge, etc...but we managed 2 coho anyway, in 15 feet of water, on silver long rapala minnow types trolled at 2.2 mph. Seems like everyone on the water caught at least 2 coho. Oh, and there was some kind of "incident" going on, but I don't know what...several Coast Guard boats, border patrol on shore with binocs, sheriff boats, dnr...there were about 4x more law enforcement boats than fisherman, but none of them would tell us what was up other than "something big". We were boarded by the Coast Guard...TWICE! I'm in law enforcement myself, but that was just a pain. Maybe we are about to be invaded by Canada.

Looked at harbor beach on the marina cam...docks are not in yet (there is still ice in the harbor).

It was my first year for trout, so I have nothing to compare to, but I did catch a couple steelhead, a few lake trout, and a coho...fished out of Sanilac and Port Austin. I've fished a few years for walleye on Saginaw bay, but last year was a down year for me.

Went camping at Port Cresent for the week and took the boat. The only day we could get out was on Tuesday, and even that was a bit rough for me and my 19' bowrider with the 3 footers---in fact, both my kids got sick! We managed to fish for an hour or two anyway. We headed out at 6am and 45 degrees from Grindstone City until we hit 100' of water, then trolled back in to about 50'. I'm not sure if it is because of the warm bay, or what, but some of the fish and their depths seemed almost inverted. We almost immediately caught an 8lbs steelhead on a rapala near the surface, maybe just 10' down on an inline board. Not long after, we caught a nice laker (i'm not sure of the weight, but over 30 inches) on a dipsey and spoon just off the bottom. With each kid landing a fish, it was now my turn to man the rods, and I caught my fish: a HUGE drum, down 65' in 85' of water on a dipsey again! Oh well. The last fish of the day was an even bigger shock: my son landed an absolutely huge smallmouth...caught on a dipsey, just off the bottom in 60' of water! Blew my mind! Not long after he started reeling, and I can see this green fish jumping out of the water, and he kept asking, "What is it?" I couldn't answer, and I'm glad I didn't try! I'll try to post some pics later after we have unpacked from the camping trip. Tim

Just got back, and with high winds all week we stuck to Lake Michigamme...and did well with the walleye.

I'm heading up to the U.P. this Monday...how's the fishing up there? Haven't seen a report in awhile. We're gonna stay at Van Riper, and fish Michagamme....but I'd also like to try Superior if the weather is good. Tim

That catfish may be a garbage fish, but catching one that big sounds like fun. Instead of trying to get a hot-n-tot down that deep, I use Rapala Shad Raps or Tail Dancers....you can get these for different depths down to at least 30' (I think I even have a couple that will reach 40'). On those warm sunny days I'll hit 25' and cover the water column with a 10', 15', 20', and one draggin the bottom catchin clams. Works good for me.

Is the boat launch open?