FBD

Anywhere in the UP, I recommend Gustafson's. Road trip!

Yes, while the king salmon fishing was spectacular this spring as the limited fish were concentrated in SW Lake Michigan, after June 15 I never caught another king salmon. Due to fewer fish being planted and no fish being planted around Holland, where we used to take time off to fish as the fish came back into the harbor, now I don't even bother. Three trips this year around the harbor and not a king taken. Contrast with Labor Day afternoon in 2012 when we caught 27 kings, three coho, and a walleye in about 7 hours. July 28, 2012 we caught 17 fish in an hour in a half and had to throw the last two back and quit as we were in a catch 15 tournament, who knows how many fish we could have caught that day. My buddy in four days of pre-fishing for and then fishing in a tournament out of Holland this year caught one (1) king. Lake trout are present, but not very exciting. The lake is cleaning up - we could see the bottom of Lake Michigan easily in 26', due to fewer nutrients getting into the lake, and the mussels continuously filtering the water. No knowledge of the micro plastics.

Two things come to mind: the introduction of invasive species, namely the mussels that filter the water, and the cleaning of the lake. We don't get as much run-off from farm fields, storm sewers, and fertilizer as we used to. I know around me there's been a huge effort to put buffer strips around fields, to grass the water ways that drain the fields, to not till fields in the fall. When I started salmon fishing you ran your plugs 4' behind the downrigger cannonball to use the noise of the cannonball to attract the fish. Last time I was out we could easily count rocks on the bottom in 26' of water. On beach days we find a little bit of every thing. Lots of water bottles. Plastic bags.

I don't think that plastic pollution is affecting fish populations on the lake - I think there's many other variables that have a greater impact on fish than plastics. However, having participated in beach and river clean ups, I can see shore birds and the like being affected. We camped on the south shore of Lake Superior this summer and it was virtually free of man made pollution. I can take my 14' boat on the Kalamazoo River and fill it with garbage in any one mile stretch. Any more questions drop them here. I hope my barely coherent thoughts are helpful!

Seeing where kings are planted and what rivers hatch all the natural fish, you can pretty much forget nature kings south of Muskegon after mid August.

Taking a small kid out to 250' in September? Awesome! Not catching anything, well, not so much. But it was a great day to try. We got two sheep in four hard hours of trolling in front of Saugatuck. Could see the bottom easily in 26', could see fish swimming around down there.

Two sheep. Was sure one was a king as it tore 200' of drag against 25# test. Side hooked about 6#.

Skunked off Saugatuck. 8-30'. Can't work the plume since throttle jockeys think that 100' visibility and the fog horn going off means go 40. Air horn out.

Skunked off Saugatuck. 8-30'. Can't work the plume since throttle jockeys think that 100' visibility and the fog horn going off means go 40. Air horn out.

Tried Holland again last night. Ended up 5/5 with 4 pathetically small sheep and a 5# walleye. About time to give up on kings and try harder for walleye. Two sheep on J plugs...

Tried out front Monday night, followed the plume, not marking much. 3' rollers and a wicked cold NW wind. Worked the channel after that. Took a 4# walleye on a 1/2 ounce hot and tot. He hit so hard that we debated for about two minutes to check the rod, and that was a yellow bird and not a bigger board. Only other excitement was a gill plate hooked 14# sheep that we had to pull lines and circle, as he wasn't moving.

Absolutely beautiful boat.

Never seen a flip being fish to the pier at Port Sheldon.

Labor Day afternoon 2012 we landed 17 kings, three coho and a 10# walleye doing laps in the channel. Had 33 hits in five hours. 2015 no fish in harbor. 2016 no fish in the harbor. 2017 one king and one brown in the harbor, fishing for walleye in October. I've fished pretty much every cold water flip in September for three years and hooked one king. Week of Labor Day 16 years ago in the three king limit era I had a 500# week and never put my boat on plane. So my conclusion is there are next to no mature kings in these parts come mid August as of the last few years. My offshore trips follow this, good in April, great in May, June is June, July is ok and then a steady drop in kings.