Sea Eagle

Well it turns out those balls might actually be bait fish after all. My neighbor went out this morning and fished the same area, same depth as we did yesterday and went 7-8. One of his comments was "Lots of bait, all of the fish were full of alewives. On the way out there were alewives all over in the river. Saw 2 people catch steelhead off the piers." To make it even more interesting we had the same moonshine spoon on a 300 Cu that took 3 fish for them and several other same or similar presentations. So what's different? We got our lines in between 7:30 - 8:00 and lost a nice fish almost immediately. He set lines just before 6:00 and had slow but steady fishing until 8:30 and never had a hit after that. To be fair they had to pull lines at 9:15 due to other commitments, so who know how well they could have done if they could have stayed out longer. I guess my point is that if those marks are all baitfish, then the salmon could just be full early and the old adage of the early bird gets the worm might be appropriate. Years ago we always had our lines in at least 30 mins before sun rise. My old fishing partner always wanted to make sure we were off the water and getting a burger and beer someplace around lunchtime. I think I just got lazy when the fishing was easy but, getting out early always put another 3-4 fish in our box. Might be the difference.

Nothing to be sorry about. This is exactly why I'm asking the question. Just like you we assumed that those were baitfish and stayed in the areas where we marked the "baitfish" to no avail. Now I'm wondering if that was the wrong move. I'm not sure what the salmon think of it if there are heavy concentrations of bugs in the water. Does it irritate their gills and they move out of the area like when a big blow puts a bunch of stirred up sand in the water? Logic tells me that even if those were bugs, would something small be eating them at some level in the food chain that ultimately leads to something salmon like to eat? Good discussion.

98% of our bugs on Friday were the same midges you experienced and sounds like they may be the same thing Darrin had up in Grand Haven.

I have not seen balls of bait like that in years. Kind of why I was wondering if you could see swarms of bugs hatching up off the bottom on the sonar. There were a lot of bugs in the boat and dead on the surface of the water.

We hit SoHa today. Disappointing to say the least. Lost nice fish first thing then dragged around a very small king for a while. Trolled in and out of 90' to 120' all morning southwest of the pier head. Riggers with sliders, 1/2 core, fully core, 200 and 300 Cu. Marked a bunch of? On the sonar. What do you all think, baitfish or bugs?

Thanks for the report. Nice to see some big kings finally make their way up to South Haven.

Good job Dan. We had an off day. Only went 1-3. Tried to go back to the areas NW of the pier where I found fish on Monday and Saturday going 23 - 27 between the two days. Set lines in 95' and went out to 130' and back in as shallow as 60'. Took our lone fish in around 92' of water on the way back in. Considered trolling over to where you were, but decided to just head in due to the bumpy ride and I had grass to cut at home. Talked to a couple of boats at the boat launch who did well in as shallow 60'. Seems like the fish are scattered and yesterday, at least for us, up to the NW was not the place to be. If you find them and stay on them you will do well. Just like in real estate, it's all about location, location, location.

Good job. We had a very similar experience to yours in St Joe on Saturday. Fished in 90-115 early with only 3 fish to show for our efforts, then slid out to 120-160 around lunch for our next nine fish. We pulled lines at 2:30, but could have kept catching fish as we were taking fish even as we were pulling lines. Like you everything was getting hit from 14' down to 75'. Green was definitely the preferred color.

Great job. Think I'll be heading that way as soon as the king bite dies off between St. Joe and South Haven.

A good day of fishing always beats working, oh yea, that's right, neither of us work any more. Going to have to find someone to give fish to. The wife is already complaining about how full the secondary freezer is with fish.

You might want to save your self some gas. I've seen some decent Facebook catches from further south on your side of the lake. Unfortunately like most things on Facebook, all you get are photos, no details. I figure if you don't say where and how you got the fish your just bragging. Feel free to come on over. New Buffalo and St Joe are on fire right now.

Weather permitting, I plan on going back on Saturday.

Went 12-15 in St. Joe today. 9 kings including one 22 lb and two 20 lb fish, two Coho including a nice 10 lb fish and one laker. Best depth was 95' to 115' mostly NW of pier. Everything took fish. 5 color, 10 color, 200' and 300' of Copper and down riggers set anywhere between 55' to 75' down. Hot lures were Moonshine RV Flounder Pounder, Moonshine RV Craig's Flounder, Green Dolphin, Jager Bomb and a couple of UV lures doctored up with a pink paint stick as shown in the photo. Green and something with pink on it were the best colors. I don't have photos of the spoons my buddy was running, but here are mine.

Thanks for the report. Heading out there on Tuesday.

John's Tuition - nice set up. Trees make so much difference.

John's Tuition- my boat is a 2050 Commander. Too bad about the narrow gunnels. Plenty of room on my Commander to mount everything, but your boat is still a very fishable boat. When I wanted to get something more multi species than my Trophy (shown above) my decision to go with Crestliner was based on many years of fishing on my buddy's 1650 Fish Hawk. We put that boat through the ringer. At least 4 of the great lakes and more inland lakes than you can shake a stick at. Salmon, walleye and almost anything else that swims. PS: Here is the track and down riggers set up on my boat. My buddy's gunnels were narrow, but we were able to squeeze tracks on his fish hawk

Thanks. You must be a man of impeccable taste You either like the lime green on the Challenger and the Mad Fish Graphics on our boats or not. My wife does not like either. I would think she has no taste, but that can't be true because she married me How do you like your Super Hawk?

It cost me almost as much to add a 15X30 extension on as it did to build the original 30X30. It's also more expensive to go with wood and vinyl siding (I wanted to exactly match the house). My neighbor built a 30X45 with metal siding for $10,000 less than my original pole barn not even including the add on. His looks fine. They matched his house color, the siding just goes up and down vs sideways.

Good choice. I love my pole barn. I spend a lot of time out there. My wife threatens to move my bed out there. One suggestion. Go big. Mine was originally just a two stall and I had to add on when when I got another toy. Would have been cheaper to build the correct size to begin with.

Thanks for the report. Unable to get out this weekend, so going to try on Monday.