Saugatuck/Holland Fishing Reports

Saugatuck Fishing Report -7/17/2011

A good week of fishing that started out in 250 foot of water and ended in 15 foot of water. The first part of the week found us 9 miles out in
250 foot of water fishing Coho, Chinook Salmon and Steelhead. Creel numbers varied from 8 to 15 fish per trip however strong north, north
east and north west wind during the week produced some rough conditions and ultimately cooler water. By Friday the surface temperature had
dropped into the low 50 degrees and bait and steelhead had collected at the pier heads. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we fished 10 to 20 foot
of water and caught 8 to 13 steelhead per trip with an occasional Chinook salmon thrown in.

Out deep the pattern was flashers and flies on 200, 300 and 450 foot of copper, dipsy divers and downriggers. The best combinations included Hot
Chip flashers (silver and silver and mountain dew) with Rapture flies (green mirage and oceana). Once we move inshore, the pattern was all
spoons on 2 color and 3 color lead core, and dipsy divers and downriggers. Any spoon would work as long as it had silver and orange on
it and was the size of the stinger lures. The best lures for us were the stinger fruit cocktail, double orange crush and jaw breaker. On Friday
we were 11 for 35, on Saturday we were 6 for 24 and today we were 13 for 26. On Saturday, fishermen were walking off the South Saugatuck pier
with stingers full of steelhead.

New report on the perch fishing: Limit catches of perch were reported Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The problem is that the location is
9 miles south of the Saugatuck piers off of Glenn. I talked to boats that caught 75+ perch last night and got their limit again today and the
perch were running 7 to 12 in. in length.

I think that the shallow water pier fishing is probably going to end soon with the wind and current now out of the south and the water temp
beginning to increase. I suspect we will be moving out into deeper water and hopefully the salmon will begin to stage in the 60 to 120 foot depth
were they have that last couple of years.

Saugatuck Fishing Report -7/11/2011

Salmon showing up in deeper water.

Another good week of fishing in Saugatuck with good catches of Lake Trout in 100 foot of water and some salmon and steelhead showing up in 180 to 240 foot of water. The lake trout fishing is still good but not as consistent as in the last few weeks, with catches of 10 to 18 fish per trip with some more salmon showing up in the catch. The silver fish are showing up in the deeper water with some very good catches of up to 20 fish. This fishing is not consistent and you catch them one day and then struggle the next.

If you are planning on fishing the 100 foot depth, go with the Silver Horde metal flashers (silver and yellow) with Green Dude Rapture flies and green spin n glows on the downriggers and low divers. We ran silver Pro Troll flashers and Rapture Oceana, Blue Fern and Wild Fern on the high divers and on the 400 copper and these produced the silver fish along with more Lake Trout. In the deeper water the fish were in the top 60 foot of water consisting of 8-23 lb. salmon and steelhead up to 14 lbs. 200 FOW to 275 FOW. Lots of blue: blue veggie, flying dutchman, blue thunder, dr. hook stinger and stingray sizes. This is the first plug bite with chart. with blue splatter back Ace-Hi. Other boats caught fish on no-see-um flies behind chart. with glow flashers. Hopefully these are the salmon and steelhead we've been waiting for, now moving in from middle of the lake.

Saugatuck Fishing Report -7/4/2011

Oceana Fly Is Hot In Saugatuck

This past week has been excellent with limit catches of 15 to 20 fish almost every day within 2 to 4 hours. The main species has been lake
trout with a few salmon and an occasional steelhead in the creel. The best depth continues to be 80 to 110 foot of water with the lake trout
hitting throughout the day and the most of the salmon coming early in the morning.

The bait in the stomachs of the fish consist of all age classes of alewife from 2 in to 6 in in length, so lures from the regular stinger
size to stingray and magnum sizes on the 300 and 400 foot copper have produced but not one size predominates. What was consistent was the
Rapture Oceana fly. We ran this on the 450 copper behind silver flashers, on the downriggers and dipsy divers, behind silver and white
Silver Horde metal flashers, and behind silver/green and silver blue bubble Hot Chip flashers. We would start with a variety of flies and
spin and glows on the downriggers and dipsy divers and ultimately end up with the Oceana on almost every set up latter in the day. It is possible
that in the green tinted water we were fishing, that other Rapture mirage flies would also work, however we pulled the Oceana and the
Oceana glow.

I think that once the water warms a little more the lake trout will move out of this depth and we will have to locate and target the salmon.
There were boats fishing from 70 foot out to 270 foot looking for the silver fish and there were no concentrations of salmon reported ( at
least from the boat I talked to). The perch fishing has been very poor with 2 to 6 perch per boat reported off of Saugatuck and Holland. The
perch report from South Haven has also been spotty at best from 40 to 80 foot of water. If anyone has information on the perch fishing

Saugatuck Fishing Report -6/27/11

Port: Saugatuck MI

6/26/2011
Another beautiful day out on lake Michigan we headed out on another adventure looking for the fish and man did we ever find them. We caught 13 fish today we started at 6am and fished till 10:45am. I set up in about 95 feet of water and used my tin cans and spin and glows again. I bumped the bottom with those and caught my lake trout with those and i only had 1 copper go today which was strange because usually they go alot more on sunny days but that 250 feet of copper had a northport nailer on it. My divers were going on the high wire divers at 180 feet back set on 3 and my low wire divers were going at 125 feet back I had stingers on all of those. We ended the day with a total of 2 salmon 1 steelhead and 10 lake trout. The best picture I saw on the graph was between 90 and 100 anything outside of a 100 feet the picture went blank.
Fair Winds and Following Seas Until Next Time!!!
Captain Matt DeWitt <>< <>< <><

Port: Saugatuck MI

Another interesting week of fishing out of Saugatuck. Early in the week we fished 80 to 90 foot of water with good catches of Lake Trout and a couple of Chinook Salmon. Water temperature was 41 degrees on the bottom and bait suspended in 65 to 70 foot of water. Wednesday the bottom water temperature increase to 51 degrees and after the blow on Thursday the bottom temperature was 61 degrees. On Saturday the temperature was back in the low 50's and we went back to pounding the bottom in 90 to 100 foot of water. Saturday we took 12 fish, 10 legal Lake Trout, 1 18 in. Lake Trout and one 13 pound Chinook Salmon.

The best methods included metal (silver and white) flashers with the green hypnotist Rapture Fly and spin and glows on the downriggers pounding bottom. The Salmon were caught a little higher in the water column on the dipsy diver at 150 and 180 foot of line out with blue wiggle and silver mountain dew Hot Chip flasher and the Rapture blue bubble fly. We also had some action on the 450 coppers with a silver blue Hot Chip Flasher and Rapture mirage fly, however the 95% of the activity was on the downriggers and and dipsy divers.

On Saturday we ventured out to 160 foot of water and the bait was unbelievable suspended out in this water. It was so thick that it would error out the graph for 100 feet or more. There were fish marked and caught out in this water, however, most of the action was in the 90 to 100 foot depth. With all the bait off shore, I have to believe that the salmon are going to find them and then it should get interesting.
Captain Ron Westrate <>< <>< <><

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