It has been an interesting week for fishing with rain, high winds, rough water but some very good fishing if you can handle the conditions. The best fishing during the week was in the 80 to 100 foot depth with about 50% of the catch consisting of salmon and the rest lake trout. Today we set lines in 75 foot of water and while we trolled out to 135 foot of water we expertly missed the first 3 fish and then followed that by loosing the next 4 fish we had on. We ended going 7 for 18 or 20 with 6 salmon and 1 lake trout. .
 
The hits were scattered around the boat including 150, 200 and 300 copper, downrigger and dipsy divers. The Stingray Orange Corey had 2 hits on the 150 copper and the 200 copper with the glow wonderbread Stingray had 3 hits. The downrigger at 40 foot with the Stinger bloody nose produced 2 hits and the Stinger fruit cocktail, on the add a line,  had 1 hit. The other downrigger was run at 50 foot and the gold Stinger watermelon on the add a line was hit twice. The rest of the hits were distributed around the boat with Stingrays on the copper lines and Stingers lures on the downrigger and high divers.(at 200 and 180 foot out).  Only one hit on a flasher and fly and we missed that. This week is the first week that we had bait in the stomachs of the salmon with adult alewife in most of them.

During the week most of the best fishing was in the 150 to 200 foot of water with good numbers of fish, but many of the fish were small. On our run out on Sunday we saw bait in 65 and 70 foot of water so we set lines in 90 foot of water with the intent of trolling on out to the 200 foot depth, however we started getting hits in 100 foot of water and took our first salmon in 120 foot depth and another in 130 foot so we decided to turn back and try this 100 to 120 foot depth. In past years, this 100 foot depth has been the depth that the salmon tend to stage in and they usually stage just outside the bait. We were 10 for 20 or 25 (we also lost 3 fish at the net) with 5 salmon and 5 lake trout and the largest salmon weighed in at 20 pounds and another at 13 pounds. Boats did fairly well in the deeper water, however from the radio traffic, the fish ran a little smaller than those we had inside.

Our best methods were:
100 copper with craigs christmas stinger that had 3 hits 200 copper with a glow wonderbread stingray went 2 times.
200 copper with mixed veggie stingray went 3 times 300 copper with a blue/silver prochip flasher and blue hypnotist fly produced one nice lake trout.
The downriggers produced fish with metal flashers and flies run on the bottom.
The high dipsy (120 foot out) and (low dipsy 80 foot out) both produced hits with flashers and flies on the low dipsys and magnum stingers (green dolphin and carmel dolphin ) on the high dipsies.

If we hold the bait in the 70 foot depth, we should continue to find the fish in the 100 foot depth. 

Fishing off of Saugatuck was good to excellent over the weekend. Very nice catches 15+ fish on Friday with a lot of action, then a little slower on Saturday. Early in the week the fish averaged 12 pounds, however by the weekend the fish ran a 7 to 10 pounds average. Same place, same depth, same lures, just a different age class of fish.

 

Fish were in 110-180 FOW, and were caught 20-60 feet down. 100, 200, and 300 copper lines were the best with stinger and sting ray spoons.

Stingers and sting rays were also producing on the downriggers 30-60 feet down, and on the divers 150 and 100 feet with wire. Best spoons:

mixed veggies, jager bomb, blue modified dolphin, green dolphin, caramel dolphin, orange crush (on silver or gold), and the lemon-ice. Very little action on flashers and flies.

 

We’re hoping for a little west wind to stack the warm water back up on the beach. This will concentrate the temperature break and the fish.

Last week we did not fish when the weather was warm, clear and the winds were light, instead we waited until we had 25 mph winds, 2 to 5 foot seas and constant rain. With 3 out of 4 people chumming, the fishing was good with a good catch of salmon and lake trout. We kept 4 salmon and 4 lake trout and returned some under size lake trout and lost some other nice sized salmon. The best depth was 70 to 75 foot of water, fishing 30 to 60 foot down.

The best methods were downriggers at 35 foot, 50 foot and on the bottom with regular stingers (green glow, green/blue dolphin on the 35 and 50 footers and a tin can flasher and spin and glow on the rigger on the bottom. The dipsy divers were run at 90 and 150 foot out with the Hot Chip flasher (frog/glow and silver mountain dew) and Rapture flies (wild fern and green hypnotist) on the low diver and green dolphin stinger on the high diver. The copper did not produce very well, however we had a couple of hits on the 200 and 300 foot copper with the glow frog stinger and yellow tail stingers.

This week Tuesday, 20 charter and private boats will be taking out 70 Saugatuck seventh grade students as a reward for participating in the Salmon in the Classroom Project. We will leave the dock at 7 AM and return at 12 noon. After pictures and cleaning of the catch, Ducks Unlimited will treat the students to a fish fry for lunch at Tower Marina in Douglas. Check back next week and I will update everyone on the student fishing excursion and the fishing results during the week.