Manistee Vacation 7/2 - 7/9

[Ergude]

Went to Manistee for a weeklong family vacation July 2 to the 9th. This was my first time fishing out of Manistee, and after a very solid 2 months out of Holland and Muskegon was looking forward to the Manistee waters. Fished 4 times in Lake Michigan and twice in Manistee Lake. The fishing for pike & bass in Manistee Lake was a lot better than for the silver fish. All my Lake Michigan fishing was done from 80 – 200 feet, except for one trip out to 650. Caught 3 steelies one morning in 110 feet and that was it. One came on a glow watermelon on a diver back 100, the other 2 came on black/white spoons with green ladder back on a 5 color with a 6 ounce snap weight. Both of these came within ten minutes of high noon on a calm day. No salmon. The radio chatter was all saying the same, as well as the locals at the dock. Lots of fish being marked, especially in the 80-100 foot mark, lots of baitfish, but only a few being caught. The charters were running way out 20+ miles. The fishing weather was fantastic, but the catching wasn’t. Nice port and town.

One thing I did see for the first time was my sonar showing a fish mark going from 10 to 20 feet below my lines up to my riggers, following along for a while, then going back down. They also would sometimes show up a few feet above the riggers, and then would make a mad dash 20, 30 or even 40 feet down. Wasn’t doing anything different from what works for me at Holland/GH/Muskegon. Switched around between clean spoons, FF’s, and 2 or 3 color SWR’s which always were winners for me before. Any ideas?

[Rascal Trophy Fishing]

Small lul going on right now Bill, try back again in a few weeks, it may change drastically, for the better. Try Ludington next time too.

[Ergude]

I hope to try Ludington sometime in the next month. I get up there occasionally for work and might have to bring the boat along. Thanks.

[In The Net]

we fished out of ludington durin that week to and the fishing was REALLY slow. We took 2 trips and we caught 6 fish total. 3 each day. 1 am trip and 1 pm trip. no hits on spoons, they all came on mostly meat rigs and some fly hits. all with big paddles in front of them. And yes the fishing was terrible. the charters did offile also. We talked to 2 charters and we tied them both with 3 fish. So thats pretty bad.