dward

Hi Kyle,

I want to thank you for your Sturgeon Bay updates too. Up until this year I hadn't been Salmon fishing for a number of years and this year I rigged my boat up with riggers and rods and we were in SB twice in July. I think we ended up with 47 fish in the two trips (first was 2 1/2 days second was 1 1/2 days) so I felt pretty good about the results given the time away. We always fished up around Washington Island back when, and on the second trip we went up there for a day out of the 1 1/2. But reading your reports from the areas we fish is great, and honestly tempts me to endure another weekend of sleep deprivation.

On our first trip I started with a bunch of colors and variety, but in the end we did the best on 8" double crush glow SDs with double aqua howie flies. I ran the 8" glow and chrome hot spots side by side with the SDs, but whether it was speed or preference, we caught more fish on the SDs so that's what we ran exclusively at the end. So I would concur with your flasher fly program and resulting success.

Thanks again for the reports and I'll look for you on our next trip, which unfortunately probably won't be until next year. We take an elk hunting trip to Idaho every year in early-mid September, so now my weekends get pretty full getting ready for that.

Good Luck - Dan Ward

I'd be interested in the sub troll....PM me at [email protected]

Just curious what fishing is like from midnight through dawn. We drive over from Mpls and usually roll in at 1-2 AM. We waited/slept and went out at 4 last trip, but thinking about going out a bit earlier when we roll in this weekend. I got to think with all the glow stuff the gear should work well at night.

Thanks - Dan

First I want to thank everyone for their suggestions on tackle. I used to fish salmon a lot about 15+ years ago, but basically had to buy all the gear new to get out this time.

We went to Sturgeon bay and fished 7/9, 7/10 and one hour the morning of 7/11 before heading back to Mpls. We caught about 30 fish and had one over 20 lbs, with quite a few in the 15-20lb range, so we had a cooler full of fillets. I now remember why salmon fishing is also called sleep deprivation!!!!!!! We ran 4 downriggers, 2 magnum dipsies and 2 full cores (when traffic allowed). Fishing was good but according to a few charters it had dropped abit from earlier in the week, as charters were staying out til quitting time.

If I were setting up for the trip again here is what I would have done:

For tackle I would have gotten 4 - 8 inch double crush glow SDs and attached a double aqua Howie fly on all downriggers, and I would have run the dreamweaver blue dolpin glow spoons on the dipsies and cores. Blue with some green was definitely the color.

As I used to fish Washington Island where we always fished 60+ feet or deeper on the downriggers I think we were fishing a bit deeper than most boats, but I also think our average fish might have been bigger.

The new Big Jons worked good except that the auto stop bead would always get stuck on some green junk on the cable and stop early, so I ended up re-rigging each with a crimp stop on both sides of the bead and it then worked great.

We lost a couple of really big fish to knot tying/rigging errors that I wouldn't let happen again. When the 50 lb leader to the fly is what breaks.......well that shoudn't happen, and I think they were tied on wrong.

I also have read that guys prefer the in line planers, and that's what we used (church). But next time I'd like to try our big boards as I was watching the charter across the dock and he preferrd his big boards with clip releases. I've done a lot of big board fishing and like the idea.

So all in all I'm pretty pleased with the results given our first trip back to salmon land........and I'd again like to thank everyone for their help.

Good luck - Dan

Wow - You guys are really helpful........thanks a million.

An interesting side note.....back in 1980 I went out to the northwest coast logging and fell in love with salmon fishing. When I came back to Minnesota in about 82 I took my Salmon skills to Lake Michigan and we caught more fish than we ever dreamed of out on the coast (although the fish on the coast could get up to 70 lbs). I was taught by a traditional salmon guy who only mooched with cut herring, so I never got into downrigger fishing in the ocean. But back then the downrigger guys used flashers and I always wondered why we used dodgers instead of flashers on Lake Michigan back in the 80s.

Well I guess it comes full circle with flashers now the thing to use.

Thanks again - Dan

I think I've kept the UPS guy in business the past week delivering lures. As it's been about 15 years since I was dodger and squid fishing Lake Michigan I will say that the 11 inch flashers are HUGE and the spoons look very similar to the Northport Nailers we used to fish with. Now that I have my gear I've got a few questions:

1)In reading the posts it appears most use the 8 inch SDs but quite a few use the 11 inch flashers. Whether it's 8versus10 SDs or 8versus11paddles/flashers, what do you guys use the most of......8s or 11s?

2)I see the SDs come with the swivel attached to the less aggressive hookup in the back, which do you guys use the most?

3)It appears that about a 24 inch lead to the 8inch and 31-34 inch lead to the 11 inch flashers, is that the norm?

4)With the Big Jon Pro Tournaments I've had one individual say I shouldn't run the side riggers (pointed out not behind) the full 4 feet but take a section out and run them at 3......any thoughts?

5)I'm new the the braided and lead core rods. I think I've read where the braided is used on the outsides with the dipsys to take them out and back.....but excuse my ignorance but how is the lead core most commonly used??

Thanks for your patience with me - Dan

Nailer - Looks like the Okuma's come well recommended.......I see they come in different line capacity. I was thinking the 30 or 45 model. Any preference...I was leaning towards the biggest as I may take them to Florida in the winter. Any preference on which Okuma rod?

Sorry for all the questions......but this really helps!!

Thanks - Dan

Thanks for the welcome! I filled out the profile but I'm from the Minneapolis area and drive over to Lake Michigan on the Wisconsin side. I'll probably be fishing from about the Two Rivers area and north as far as Washington Island.

Thanks again - Dan

Thanks for all the replys...........I'm glad to see Big Jon is a sponsor as I just bought 4 Pro Tournament riggers.

As you guys are so helpful.......I'm going to get 6 rod/reel combos and would like to get something decent without breaking the bank...any suggestions?

I used to run 17lb Stren as I thought it was the most resistant to all the nicks and abuse rigger fishing would provide. We used to average 15-20 lb fish and it appears they might be a bit smaller on average now.......I'm going to buy a large spool of line to feed all rods.........what do you guys like to use?

Is there an online store that supports this site where I can get all this stuff?? And if not any suggestions?

Sorry for all the questions.......but you guys will/have saved me a bunch of running around. And I know I'll have a lot more of everything, but I do agree with Nailer that once you find what works keep at it. Back in the day, we knew we had what worked and had the condidence to let it work........which usually led to catching more fish than most.

Thanks again for helping me out - Dan

PS - Keep the lure ideas coming if you still have any.

I used to do a lot of salmon fishing back in the 80s and early 90s, and we fished a lot around Washington Island (Door County, Lake Michigan). Boy did we fill our boats with big salmon. My son has me outfitting our boat to go back to Lake Michigan for salmon and I'm going to have to get all new tackle. We used to do real well on chrome dodgers and blue and green squids, but it sounds like things have moved towards flashers and flies.

This is a loaded question, but as I will have to buy all new tackle, if you could only fish with 3 flasher fly combinations and three spoons, which would they be? I'm going to probably buy about 20 flasher fly combos and a couple dozen spoons, so I'll accumulate a list from recommendations.

Many thanks - Dan

I haven't been salmon fishing since the early nineties but my son has got me outfitting our boat to get back in. We used to do really well fishing around Rock Island off of Washington Island (Door County). The last time I went the fishing off of the Island, the fishing wasn't as good as it was. What is the fishing around the island like now a days compared to farther south near Sturgeon Bay?

I really enjoyed fishing off of the steep bluffs, which was quite a bit more scenic than out on the open seas. We used to do pretty well on chrome dodgers with silver blue and green squids.

Thanks - Dan