This past week produced some interesting fishing with some very good catches in the 120 foot depth the first part of the week and then the salmon moved out to deeper 180 to 200 foot depth. Early in the week we took 75 6th graders fishing (19 boats) fishing and caught 90+ salmon and trout in the 120 to 130 foot depth. Friday and the early weekend the fish were in the 140 foot depth and then Sunday we had most of our action in the 180 foot depth (no real change in temperature) producing 1 lake trout and 4 four year old salmon and one small salmon that was returned.
Our best pattern on Sunday consisted of 400 and 300 foot of copper with the stinger dive bomb weight with silver and silver green Pro Troll flashers and Rapture Last Supper and Green Hypnotist flies. This was completely different from early in the week when the best was 200 foot of copper and Stingray lures with green and orange. On Sunday the downriggers produced best with silver Pro Troll flashers with Mountain Dew and Green and Green Hypnotist flies at 90 and 60 foot down. Compare this with the early week when our downriggers produced at 40 and 50 foot with magnum Stinger spoons and regular Stinger spoons on the add-a-lines. No patterns to the colors since the best two were green/blue dolphin and bloody nose. No real pattern on the dipsy divers either and we tried multiple lengths out and lures. The only thing that more than once on Sunday was a white Pro Troll with silver hologram tape and the sour apple fly at 225 foot out.
It appears that the fish and the bait is moving constantly, so you just have to go out and try different depths and patterns until you find the right combinations. For move information or charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.