Lake Michigan Report 7/8/10

My parents were in town the last few days and I was off from work so of course my dad and I had to find some time to fish. I have been wanting to get my dad out on the big lake for awhile now and it ended up being perfect calm conditions both morning which is always a bonus. Wednesday morning we headed out to 50-65′ of water where I had done well a few weeks ago. There were a lot of other boats that had the same idea and we really had to keep a look out with the fog the first hour or so. We ended up with only one smaller king in the boat and we lost about 4-5 other fish that never made it to the net. I was disappointed with the outcome and after the fact thought that we should have been fishing shallower. Not wanting to let the fish get the best of us we decided to give it a few hours again yesterday morning and I am glad we did. We started shallow in 30-35′ of water and that is where we stayed for the next 3 hours. We had steady action on spoons on dypsy’s and plugs on boards. We boated at least a dozen salmon with one bonus brown trout. We also had at least a half dozen other fish on that never made it to the net. Nothing huge with most of the fish in the 4-8 lb. range with a few that were at or over 10 lbs. We ended the morning boating 3 of the nicer fish in the last 15 mins. after relocating to a different area. The last fish came on our last line out while I was pulling the lines in for the day. It is always hard to leave a good bite but I had to many things that I had to get done yesterday. I know we could have hammered them jigging in the area we ended on but maybe next time. I had heard that the Lindner’s where out there filming the last few days but we never saw them. I would have been cool to run into them. Here is a picture of my dad with one of the nicer salmon:

Thanks for the report, Andy. It’s always a treat to get out on the Big Pond with someone who doesn’t have the chance to very often, especially family. Heading out there this afternoon, with my boat mechanic, who doesn’t fish much and has never done the Big Pond thing, and a brand new fuel pump in my V Max, which he swears has been my problem. Told him he’ll be the one paddling if he’s wrong…..and he better keep it at 1.8 to 2.0 mph.
We’re going to jig the gaps for an hour or two, then head out to troll for the evening. Haven’t been out for a week, and my last few outings have been in 80 to 100 fow, south of the pack. May set up a bit shallower today, though, based on your report.

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I know we could have hammered them jigging in the area we ended on but maybe next time.

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Could you describe jigging tactics that you use for salmon???

I just haven’t heard of many guys doing that, at least not on Lake Michigan….

Thanks!!!!

Well, did make it out with my boat mechanic, and it was a good news-bad news scenario. the good news was that my motor purred like a kitty, so the new fuel pump did the trick.
And now for the bad news….I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. It was one of those nights, where nothing would go right (except for the VMax purring). Started out by almost losing my kicker when I got out of the no wake zone and opened her up. Got out of my routine in launching, because my buddy was helping me with every step….forgot to raise the kicker when we launched. Being anxious to open up the big girl for the test run when we got out of the slow zone, and ecstatic at the sound and thrust of full power, it took me a bit to notice that my kicker was dangling on the transom because it had loosend up from all the force. Stopped immediately, and got it before she went in for a swim….was tied down with two ropes, because I did this idiotic thing one time before, execpt then it DID go in for a swim and was hanging by the fuel hose. That was #1.
Then, as I was getting the first downrigger set, one of my trolling rods just fell in…..saw it sinking in 80 fow, just out of reach, as I delayed for a split second to reach for it out of disbelief…..the Cabelas quick draw rod holder it was in simply fell of the hinged section while the rod was just sitting there, waiting for it’s turn to be set up. Must have gotten overstressed from too many violent salmon hits from previous trips. that was #2.
So, as if that wasn’t bad enough, we trolled right into a wreck. All of a sudden, while in 83 fow, I glance at the depth finder, and see the bottom coming up quick, to the tune of 56 feet. I at least had the presence of mind to raise both downrigger balls to 50 ft quick, which were set at 65 ft. But three of the baits got snagged up, one a two color lead with spoon set on the DR, the other a dipsey with flasher/fly, and the third the other downrigger rod with spoon. Stopped the boat, saved the other three rods, and proceeded to break off the snagged lines. To add insult to injury, looked at my Lakemaster chip map on my Lowrance 334c, and sure enough, it showed a wreck. By this time, it was a comedy of errors, and we were laughing.
So what’s the next you ask? We ended up going 1 for 9. Had fairly steady hits from 5 till 9, but could not get the hook-ups for the life of us. And the one we did boat was on a J-plug on the last DR we pulled when we called it quits…didn’t even know it was on….must have drowned the poor thing dragging it for who knows how long…but at about 3 lbs., filleted it up for the grill.
So there it is…my trolling report from last night…should have stayed shallow like Andy reported. Had a buddy fishing off the filter in 50 fow, and he boated 8 between 6 pm and 9 pm…ouch!! that really hurt.

We did try jigging the Main and south Gaps before trolling. Used half-ounce jigs with 4 inch gulp and had 4 smacks but no hook-ups. Pretty much worked the bottom 5 feet or so while jigging in 30 to 40 fow. Saw 4 fish caught during the time were were there.

S not sure what the moral of this story was except maybe never to invite my boat mechanic fishing again!

Sorry not a post but…

Traveling to Port Washington from Janesville area Saturday. Have a 4:30 am launch with a charter company. We have 3 people, would like to get two more. Figure $100 each including tip if you want to join us. PM me if interested. Thanks, Kent.