Maiden Voyage to Lake Michigan – 2013

Pulled the boat down to Milwaukee for the first trip on the big pond for the year. Kevin Sime and I launched around 2:30pm on Saturday afternoon and headed out to 90′ before slowing down. Didn’t mark any fish so moved on to 125′, no fish or bait again. Stopped again in 150′ and marked some decent hooks and bait.

Dropped lines and started fishing. Nothing for the next two hours. Had troubles with the depth raider. Battery was low and soon dead so the rest of the day was spent trolling with no speed and temp sensor.

Caught our first fish around 4:30pm on a wire dipsy set at 125loc pulling a white flasher/LBB. Dead for awhile after that but in the evening hours, the bite picked up and we finished at 8-11 with 4 kings, 3 coho and 1 laker. One shaker went back in the lake so only 7 fish went back to the cleaning station. Best baits for us were rigger at 50′, wire dipsy at 125 loc. Both pulling LBB flys behind white flashers. 8 color with half black, half glow spoon was also good.

Next morning we had three in the boat and a new battery for the depth raider. Launched at around 3:30am and headed out towards the area we fished the night before. Dropped lines and caught nothing at all until day break. (first time thats happened in awhile)

But between day break and 9:00am, we landed 7 fish. Pulled lines at 9:15am with 1 king, 1 steelie and 5 coho’s. (7 for 10)

Best baits were LBB & Aqua flys on riggers and wire dipsy’s and a half black, half white glow spoon on and 8 color lead core rod. Rigger down 52′ fired several times as did our wire dipsy at 125’loc.

All in all, was pretty happy with the way things went.Our biggest King was around 12lbs and biggest coho maybe 7lbs.

Definitely found a few things that need to be clean up, fixed up or just plain done better but considering all the reports of a tough bite, we were happy to catch what we did.

Great stuff Joel, glad you were able to make hay and get your fish even with the slower bite down there. Looking forward to fishing some salmon myself before fall. Good luck the rest of the way!

Joel

How far do you run your flasher behind the ball?

Living ten minutes away I should know…. but is one of the images with a Laker, and the other a King?

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Living ten minutes away I should know…. but is one of the images with a Laker, and the other a King?

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King & a coho.

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How far do you run your flasher behind the ball?

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On one rigger I run a swr which stands for “Secret Weapon Rig”. Its actually 2 colors of lead core. Adding in the 20′ fluro carbon leader and it puts the flasher about 80′ behind and 10′ below the ball.

On the other rigger, we ran 10 to 30′ behind the ball. We kept moving it closer to the ball because we were noticing fish targeting the ball itself on our sonar. We would literally see marks right on top of the rigger ball. I haven’t seen that before but heard stories from the old days of fish actually hitting the ball.
Moving the flasher closer to the ball worked and that rigger definitely caught more fish than the swr rigger on this trip.

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Living ten minutes away I should know…. but is one of the images with a Laker, and the other a King?

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King & a coho.

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Fish number two looks a lot like a hen rainbow to me. Big round eye, square tail, rounded short upper jaw……

Either way – nice pics and report! Thanks for sharing!

T

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Living ten minutes away I should know…. but is one of the images with a Laker, and the other a King?

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King & a coho.

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Fish number two looks a lot like a hen rainbow to me. Big round eye, square tail, rounded short upper jaw……

Either way – nice pics and report! Thanks for sharing!

T

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Its hard to tell from the picture.

I’m certainly no expert and the only way I can tell the difference is by looking at the tail.

I was told by a person I trust, that if the tail isn’t perfectly square or straight across the bottom, then its probably a coho.

Here’s a picture of both a rainbow (1st pic) & a coho (2nd pic). Notice the difference in the tails. If the tail is forked at all, I assume its a coho.

lol…..sometimes they leave a guy scratching his head!!!

The most reliable way I have found is both the tail and the inside of the mouth. The tail is square on a steelie, but can appear very slightly forked if you don’t have it totally fanned out. The inside of the mouth is a dead giveaway. Black = King, Black with white = coho, White = steelie.

http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/fmd/identify.htm

Tim

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lol…..sometimes they leave a guy scratching his head!!!

The most reliable way I have found is both the tail and the inside of the mouth. The tail is square on a steelie, but can appear very slightly forked if you don’t have it totally fanned out. The inside of the mouth is a dead giveaway. Black = King, Black with white = coho, White = steelie.

http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/fmd/identify.htm

Tim

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Good info!
I’ve got to remember that next time I’m out there wondering if we just caught a steelie or a coho. Those two always given me trouble.

Thanks for taking me Joel, I had a great time. I’ve got kings in the smoker as I type this. I just found out a half hour ago that I have a new job.

Pic 2,3 and 4 are Rainbows.

Either way they eat great. I love the acrobatics of Steelies behind the boat.

In MN we have to know because the good old MN DNR wont let us take them in SUP, unless they are a clipped fin. (stocked)

Biggest joke is they haven’t stocked in several years…

I love the big water, its been too long.

Glad you had a good time.

Its a blast catching either one but……I’ve got to get better at distinguishing & identifying these two species.

You’re right, Joel – they are both a BLAST to catch. I really like the rainbows tendency to jump……no other fish out there compares in that department – they are unreal quick!

T

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Its a blast catching either one but……I’ve got to get better at distinguishing & identifying these two species.

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Same here. The only way I can identify them is with the mouth color, and sometimes I still have issues with coho. Rainbows are the easiest to me to identify.

Nice Report, coming in with 7 Fish is a good evening or morning. I love Lake Michigan wish it wasnt now about 500 miles away. Have Gas saver car will travel . Anyway My trip this June was tough, but looking at getting back out there next spring sometime for browns possibly. -QB

Nice Report, coming in with 7 Fish is a good evening or morning. I love Lake Michigan wish it wasnt now about 500 miles away. Have Gas saver car will travel . Anyway My trip this June was tough, but looking at getting back out there next spring sometime for browns possibly. -QB

Great Report Joel

Steelhead have a very white mouth. On Cohos and Kings look at the anal fin. If the height of the anal fin is “as long or shorter” than the fin is at the body, its a Coho. If the length of the anal fin at the body is obvious longer than the height, its a king. I got this from a fisheries dude a few years ago. Saved me some headaches.

Identifying whether its a coho or a steelhead is what gives most of us trouble. Kings, brown trout & lakers are all pretty easy to identify.