Strong east winds has blown the warm water out and the lake has cooled down to the low 50 degrees which quickly drops to the low 40 degrees as you go down in the water column. As the water cooled, the bait scattered and the fish followed. By the weekend you could catch a few fish in 70 foot, 100 foot, 130 foot, 160 foot, 180 foot and 200 foot however, not a large number of fish at any one depth. In addition, the big Chinook salmon that we had been taking have moved and most of the catch are in the 6 to 10 pound range. It is almost like the mid June fishing conditions. Fish are still being caught (9 to 14 fish per trip), however they are a different age class of fish compared to what we caught the beginning of the week.
Early in the week it was predominantly flashers and flies on 300 foot of copper, divers and downriggers. The best combination was Hot Chip and Pro Chip flashers (green glow, white glow, silver/green and silver) with the Rapture trolling flies (last supper, Lakeshore green, green mirage). By the weekend, most of fish were caught on stingray and magnum stinger lures (Craig's X-mas, NBK, Green side glow, gold orange crush, orange crush) on 100 foot, 150 foot and 200 foot of copper.
There were some perch caught in 70 foot of water this past week and we did see some school of perch in 40 foot and 60 foot of water as we ran in and out. I think that if someone did some drifting you could locate some decent perch in the deeper water. In addition, walleye are still being caught in the Kalamazoo River, however this has also slowed some what.
If we get some south winds and currents, we should see the bait start to re-stage in the 100 to 130 foot range and possibly in front the piers. If the bait shows, the salmon and steelhead will follow. For information and charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.