Salmon Sniper

Worked a half day so I could go to parent teacher conferences. By some miracle we had no games or practices this afternoon. The kids said they wanted to go fishing so we did. Decided on the longer drive to New Buffalo since we did so well there on Monday. We only ended up being 3 for 3. A 10 pound steelhead and two average size coho. Nice night on the water and the kids had fun so no complaints. Caught fish on 1 color with a thin fine and 2 color with a thin fin, nothing on riggers or divers. Fished from 15 out to 40, caught fish in 25-30.

Sorry, I meant 5 lakers

Fished New Buffalo today. Fished from 8a until about 1pm. Went 22 for 25. 16 coho, 1 king and 6 lakers. Kept the king and 14 coho. King was around 10 pounds, coho were nice size. Best water was 15-25 feet. Did not catch anything deeper than 25. I will post a picture of the best lures. Riggers and spoons were better early. High lines and 2 and 3 colors were better later. Troll direction didn’t seem to matter but the wind really picked up and the north troll was much more comfortable.

Here are the pics of the kings

We were south, ran about 3 miles just to go with the waves when we were setting up, it was a south wind so the north troll was the most comfortable. I did see boats by the power plant but we didn’t get that far south. I think the power plant is about 8 miles south of the river but that is just a guess.

I wasn’t paying  that much attention to the temps.  I think 43 in closer and 41 at 60 foot.

Fished St Joe today looking for coho. Lots of marks between 20-30 but only ended up with one coho. We did manage to get 2 nice kings, 16 and 18.5 lbs, and 2 average lakers. 3 color with small  spin doctor and peanut fly took the coho, we also last one one a 2 color with a thin fin. 3 color with green and purple thin fin took a king and a laker. Dipsy set at 3 out 45 with a pink spoon with black dots took a laker and the big king, that was a fun fight as he smoked it and peeled out a bunch of line. Nothing on high line or one color, nothing on the riggers. Fished from 15 out to 60 looking for some coho but only caught the one. Caught all our fish in about 25 feet of water.

Fished out of South Haven for perch in the am on 9-20. Worked all over the water in front of the dunes from 30 feet out to 55 feet. Marked lots of fish but only caught 6. I did not see any of the other 25 or so boats catching many either. The 6 we caught were nice size.

Went out salmon fishing in the afternoon. My thoughts were to work in shallow but all of the morning fisherman reported no luck in close. Ran out to 100 and caught a 12 pound king on a swr on rigger with a yellow and green ace high plug set down 85. That was the only king we caught. Worked from 100, out to 135 and back in to 80. The current was pretty strong. We did manage to catch 5 lake trout so it wasn't a bad night, just hoping for a few more salmon.

The lakers came on 300 copper with modified blue dolphin spoon, large green paddle and fly combos and a 200 copper with green ladder back j plug.

Perch were in 42 -38 feet of water in front of the dunes

Straight out to start, then a little south.

Started just before 7am in 65 feet on a sw troll. Had three quick fish, an 8 lb king on 200 copper with a green ace high plug, a steelhead on a high diver set back 90 with a j plug and a throw back laker on a purple spoon on a rigger set at 50. Also caught a big sheep head on a swr rigger with a yellow ace high plug set at 60.

Finally got those fish taken care of and got all of the lines down. Marked lots of fish out to 90 without taking another hit, worked back into 70 and then out to 110. Caught a 12 lb king on the same swr rig but had it down 100. Then caught a laker on wire diver with green flasher fly combo set back 150.

Worked back in to 90-80 and picked up 4 more kings on riggers down 70 and 80 and 300 copper, all with green or yellow plugs. They were 10-15 lbs.

Then we went perch fishing for a little bit. It was not fast and furious but we caught 20 jumbos in about 2 hours.

Took out 2 guys who had never been out before and they had a blast!!!

Fished from 700 until 1030, started in 95 fow, worked out to 160 on a mostly west troll, back into 130 before we took our only fish, 7 lb king. Worked back into 110 before we gave it up to hang some tree stands.

Only fish came on rigger with secrect weapon rig with a green / yellow ace high plug. We had a 10 rod spread and I changed out several different presentations which included various spoons, flasher and fly combos, plugs and meat rigs.

It sounded like it was pretty slow based on the radio traffic and fish cleaning station.

I did see a few people perch fishing and talked to a guy at the launch who said he caught his limit.

Thanks for the report, I was planning on going out but a little worried taking my 7 yr old out with a chance of thunder showers, hopefully tomorrow. Do you know what the water temp was?

Pretty slow, ended 4 for 7. Three nice kings and a small throwback laker. Fished 110 out to 150, mostly with the waves on a north troll. Caught fish on 300 copper with a modified blue dolphin, green splatter back j plug on rigger down 95 and wire diver back 150 with green flasher and fly, lost fish on 300 copper with a j plug, wire diver with a meat rig set at 140 and high diver with a double orange crush spoon out 110.

3 for 7, all lakers, it was a little bit wavy so I was limited on direction and depth. Only two of us so just a 6 rod spread. Started in 90, worked out to 110 and back in to 80. No temp probe so I am not sure what the temps were down deep. We caught all three lakers on wire diver set back 150 with green flasher fly combo. Lost 2 fish, seemed like kings by the way they hit/fought on 300 copper with modified blue dolphin, also lost a fish on 200 copper with green j plug and on a rigger with silver and blue spoon set at 60. Fished from 530 to 815 and just got in before the storm. We marked more fish and lost 2 while pulling lines in at 80 feet.

No hits on meat or blue flasher and fly combo I had on the other diver.

We were a little south

Lots of fish, 9 for 15ish? I took out a couple of first timers and my 7 year old son so I lost track of what caught fish and when. We set up in 90 feet around 630 am. Fished til just after 10. Worked from 95 to 115, direction did not seem to matter. We caught 5 nice kings, 2 steelhead and 2 lakers. Lost several nice kings at the back of the boat. Caught fish on divers set back 130 and 150 with big green paddles and flys, high diver with green j plug set back 100 also took a fish. 300 coppers with blue and green dolphins, 7 color with mixed veggie and riggers with green moonshine spoons set at 55 and 70 also took fish. Nothing on 200 copper and no bites on meat rigs.

We had great action from 730 to 830 with several doubles.

Lots of boats out there.

I went up to the UP this weekend and fished in the Manistique salmon derby. The derby is a big fish event that pays 1-8 for biggest salmon and trout. We caught 11 fish both days but no real size. Our biggest was a 14 lb king. We caught a mixed bag of salmon, lakers and steelhead.

The biggest king for the derby was just under 18 lbs which is under the average size of past winners. For what it is worth everyone up there was complaining about the lack of salmon and the increase of lake trout. It used to be pretty rare to catch a lake trout up there, there is still a slot size, but 9 of our 22 fish were lakers.

Speed on top was 2.5-2.7, no fish hawk on new boat yet so not sure what bottom speed was. East and west troll a little better than north and south but we took hits in all directions. I trolled in an s pattern because I was not sure about the current down deep.

Fished 530p to 830pm, had some kids on board so we had to be in early. Ended 6 for 9, 3 kings 12-15 lbs, one small steelhead and two lakers. Fished 80 to 110 with 90 being best depth. Kings came on 300 copper with modified blue dolphin, 200 copper with mixed veggies and green glow frog meat rig. Steelhead on 3 color double orange crush, one laker on a wire diver with JJ's girlfriend meat rig set back 130 and the other laker on rigger with orange spoon. Lost fish on 300 copper blue dolphin, rigger with blue bubble meat rig and high diver with kevorkian spin doctor.

Marked lots of bait and fish between 80 and 90.

We ended up 5 for 8, two decent kings in the 12 pound range and three lakers that were 5 to 8 lbs. Best water was 100 to 110, green meat rig (not sure on name) and JJ's girlfriend meat rig, both on wire divers set back 130 and 150 took all but one fish, the other came on rigger at 80 with a green dolphin spoon. No hits on coppers or lead core.

Just getting the poles ready to head out for an evening trip. Any reports so I have an idea of where to start?

Set lines at 6am, took out some people with limited salmon experience so we lost quite a few. Pulled lines at 1130, ended 7 for 13 or so. Best water was 90-100, divers set back 110 and 130 with 11 inch flashers took the most fish. Also took fish on 7 color and 250 copper. Our 7 caught fish were 5 kings and two lakers, one of the kings was a small throw back.