Chinook Lockjaw

[westrate]

July 9, 2006

What a change in fishing this week. We started out with good catches of salmon and steelhead in 125 foot of water. By the end of the week the salmon had disappeared and the catch consisted of lake trout, some steelhead and some Coho. By week's end and good catch was 2 to 5 fish. The water temperature was still good, there was still a good supply of bait in shallower water but the Chinook had disappeared. This condition appeared to hold true from St. Joe to Grand Haven, with boats struggling to find fish. We still mark, what we think are the Chinook, in 135 to 150 foot of water and also out in 180 to 220 foot of water, but getting them to hit is another matter.

This past week, the best lure was the Hot Chip and Pro Chip flasher (silver and green and green and glow) with a green G fly. These where run on the wire divers at 100 foot and 150 foot of wire and on the downriggers at 50 to 90 foot. The 7 color lead core and 200 foot of copper produced steelhead and lake trout with the orange crush Raider and Stingray and the Pro Spoon bat man.

What happened to the Chinook? I hope that this is a temporary slowdown and they will move back in on the bait and begin to feed. Check back and keep track of the fishing in Saugatuck through out the year.