Sept. 21, 2008
Another week of warm water and deep water fishing. The fishing was very good, with catches of 8 to 18 fish per trip. The creel consisted of about half lake trout and half salmon. There are a few salmon in front the piers and a few already in the river, however the warm water has drastically slowed the run. There are still many 4 year old salmon out in 70 to 150 foot of water that are ready to run however they need some cold water to get a mass run.
This past week we fished in 100 to 150 foot of water and 80 to 140 foot down. The best method was the downriggers at 100, 120 and 135 foot down with 11 in Hot Chip flashers (white/glow, silver, and green/blue glow) with Rapture trolling flies (green dude, green hypnotist, and wild fern) pulled behind. On the wire divers (240 foot and 160 foot of line out) we pulled the 8 in Echip flashers with the Rapture trolling flies ( same combination as above). 300 and 400 foot of copper with Nature Born Killer and Glow Frog Stingray lures produced on some steelhead and salmon. Three fourth of the fish came on the downriggers and the divers.
With the end of Lake Trout season on the 30th of September, we will have to either fish the warm water in front the piers or fish the depth that these salmon are in that have a minimum of lake trout. If you can find the depth that hold the bait (probably 60 to 80 foot of water), there should be salmon just outside of this. You can catch the salmon at the 100 to 140 foot depth, however the lake trout you catch at that depth may not survive being returned to the lake.
With the season winding down, I will post the fishing report every 2 or 3 weeks rather than every week. So check back in a couple of weeks and see if the water cooled down and the salmon moved in. For information or charter reservations, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.