Sea Eagle

Great day to be back on the water. Was going to fish the St Joe river, but it was so calm on the big lake we decided to take he little boat out. Went 4-6, 3 Coho and a Brown Trout.  Took two missed fish to shake the rust off. 15' - 25' south of pier early, then running the mud line out front later. Hot color was anything gold. Wiggle wart took two and the two missed fish. Deep diving and shallow diving thunder stick took one each.

Thanks for the report. I have not been out since July and looking to get out Monday. Glad the hear there are some nice silver fish around. Great job getting them all in solo.

Back home in West Michigan from four days of Lake Erie walleye fishing off of Ashtabula with old fishing buddy, Bill Schmiege. We learned a lot about Central Basin fishing. It has more in common with Lake Michigan salmon fishing than the Western Basin walleye fishing I'm familiar with. Still wound up with 10 quarts of walleye filets and a couple quarts of steelhead. I sure was impressed with the size of the fish over there. Here are a couple of photos.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=8057&catid=newimages

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=8056&catid=newimages

Thanks for the report.

Good luck over on Erie. I grew up fishing that area and usually get over there at least once a year. I launch out of Fenwick Marina. I will be over on Erie the week of the 20th fishing in the central basin out of Geneva on the Lake.

Let us know how you do. Not too many posts in the walleye fishing section here. It would be nice to see a few.

2 for 2. Laker and steelhead - and that is two more fish than last weekend.

Set lines @ 7:00AM straight west of pier. Trolled both north and south out to 110 and in to 70. Both fish hit in 110 ft of water. Both fish on the DR/SWR with UV blue dolphin spoon down 70 ft.

That is it for me for a while. I might try for some perch some time in the next two weeks, but I'm heading over to Erie (east of Cleveland) to chase some walleye the week of the 20th and heading up to Canada Aug 7th for a week of walleye catching (you can't really call it fishing up there).

Good luck to everyone. Keep your lines tight and I will see you in August.

Great report. Very detailed. You guys did better than us. Got skunked for the first time in the last five years last Saturday. I hope the fishing picks up. Thanks

Good job on the silver fish. Nothing tastier than coho - OK walleye.

7-7 out of SH this morning 7:30 to noon. 90 - 100 ft of water south of pier. Took all fish on west or south troll.

Coho on 1/2 core with UV jäger bomb spoon. Lake trout on DR SWR down 70 ft with UV blue dolphin spoon. Three kings - on DR SWR same UV blue dolphin spoon at either 60 or 70 ft down. One king on 300 copper with pink alewife spoon. One more king on UV mt dew spin doctor meat rig on 200 copper.

Fished in SH on Sunday. Just me an Denny (Sea Hawk). Went 3-4 all Kings. 14lb, 13.5lb and 8lb. Fished 85- 110 feet of water well north of pier. Northwest troll in 100 - 110 was best. Pickle seeds UV spoon on a full core took one and the lost fish - that one almost spooled us. 200 copper with moonshine flounder pounder spoon took one and the other fish came on a DR with a SWR 60 ft down with a UV blue dolphin spoon.

Had all 6 of our lines in around 7:30 in 34 ft of water south of pier. First fish hit 5 min later. Wound up 8-9. 4 lakers and 4 coho. 32-38 ft south to the dunes was best.

Deeper diving orange/black stick bait (I have no idea what it is - I picked it up at the swap meet in St Joe this winter) down 15 ft took three. Small Jäger bomb spoon on 2 colors leadcore and small SBO spoon on 1/2 core took 1 each and the missed fish. Small orange dodger/fly combo on 1/2 core took 2. Small red dodger/red-green fly combo on 2 colors leadcore took 1.

Here is a great article. It talks about when it's time to remove the old paint and several methods if you need to do it. You might want to check with a few of the marinas to see how much they want to blast the old stuff off.

http://www.pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/antifouling-everything-need-know-17104

Sea Hawk is the screen name of a GLF member and is not the charter out of St Joe.

Here he is

Sea Hawk is the screen name of a GLF member and is not the charter out of St Joe.

Fished the morning bite today with Sea Hawk. Went 3-4. King, Coho and Lake Trout.

Fished West and South of the pier 80 - 125 ft of water. 90 +/- was best.

Moonshine Flounder Pounder on SWR/DR down 65 ft took the King early. UV Blue Dolphin on the same set up took the Laker late morning. UV Green Dolphin on a full core took the Coho mid morning. Lost one mid morning on a UV Mt Dew SD/UV Gasoline Meat Rig combo on 200 copper. Took a rip and buried the board, but gone shortly thereafter.

Watched a pleasure boater rip his trailer wheel apart on the post at the entrance gate at black river boat launch. We were cleaning fish when it happened. He had no spare.

Sure am glad I have never done that - recently. Thank god I was still tied up to the dock, but had already parked the truck. It took me a couple of minutes of wondering why the bilge pump was running to get to that oh crap moment. Don't believe I ever moved that fast to get the trailer back under the boat and up the ramp. Sure seemed like it took a lot longer for the water to drain out that it took to get in.

Saw this in South Haven on Sunday. The Van Buren Sheriff boat was on the scene. Anyone know what happened? Hope no one was hurt.

Ran out to 70 ft on a NW heading around 6:30. Took a nice steelhead on a glow bloody nose on a full core around 7:30 in 90 ft of water. Took a laker on a UV blue dolphin SWR DR down 75 ft as we were pulling lines at 10:00. Stayed in between 85 to 110 feet of water north of pier head. Only two guys in the boat and ran meat on 1/2 of our six lines without one hit.

Thanks for the report. Sure am glad the fishing picked up out of SH this last month. Time to fill the freezer for the long winter. Sure looks like plugs and flasher/fly and meat rig combos are hot right now.

Thanks for the report. Hope to get out this weekend - weather permitting

Thanks for the report! Marking any fish more shallow like 110-140?

Did not mark many fish anywhere, even when we were catching them. No balls of baitfish either. We started in 70 ft and kept moving out looking for the colder water. I had my temp probe running between 65 and 75 feet and we had to move out to the deeper water to get temps below 65 degrees at those depths. Made several passes into the 140 or less water, but had no hits.

Fished SH this morning. Went 5 for 7 or 8. One king, two steelhead and two lakers. All fish were caught before 9:30.

150 to 165 was best. Straight out to north of pier.

Moonshine Flounder pounder, Mongolian beef and bloody nose all took fish. A mt dew/pearl SD/meat rig took two and one of the missed fish. 10 color, 200 & 300 copper and SWR on the DR all took fish.

Everyone was telling me that meat rigs were hot, but I remembered late that I was out of any kind of meat, so I stopped by gander mountain before they closed and picked up a bag of 5" alewife looking swim baits. Worked great.

Heading out in the morning. Thanks for the report.

Thanks. That's why you drive 10 hrs. You can always catch walleye a lot closer to home. Sometimes it's about more than the fishing. Here is the wife and I watching the sun go down. I took the photo off of the web cam sitting in the chair with my iPad.

Had another great week of fishing in Chapleau. It was a week of firsts. Big first -was taking the wife. First time walleye fishing with her after 40 years. She caught her first walleye and the big fish of the week 26" 6lbs. Got our limit of eight fish in 2 1/2 hrs one day - quickest limit. Got rained out one day, another first. All in all another great trip.

Just to echo what has already been said, it has been tough fishing out there this year. I've been at it now for more than a decade and have not come home with an empty box in years - that is until this year.

I remember how you feel. Back when I started, everyone use to talk on the radio and it sure seemed like we were doing the same stuff everyone else was and everyone was catching fish but us. But hang in there, it will get better and this is some of the most exciting fishing around.

All of that said, the best advice is to find someone who can show you the little things that make a deference. There are some good fishermen on this web site who will be more than happy to help you.