Milwaukee 5/20-21

Heard despite rough seas on Wednesday a charter had a 30 fish catch in 90-120fow. Better weather Thursday found fish in 70fow or fairly tight to shore. Set lines around 515 Friday and elected the deep water hoping for a better chance at a mixed bag. We started in 60fow and took a NNE heading just south of the N Gap. We had all 12 lines in for about 20 minutes and nadda and thought maybe we should have fished shallow. Then the fun began with a triple, mono board OO dodger and blue green Coho Candy, 5 color 8” Orange Bechhold and Blue longtail and 20 LOC 3 set 8” Orange Bechhold and Brad’s Mini Double Take. Things kept popping fast enough can’t remember everything and took quite a while to get quiet enough to turn back to our first waypoint. The boards were busiest and at first the side with 4 color purple fly and OO and 5 color Bechhold were going and said we should change up the flys on the mono, 2 and 3 colors but then action shifted to them with OO red dodger/flashers and green sliver Coho Candy, aqua and blue/silver.

I set one wire dipsy 1.5 set 60loc for kings and reg dble Purple Spook and took 2 coho. SWRs Brad’s Purple Frog down 30 2 for 4 including a 5.85# Coho that I thought was a king when it hit the surface and weighed in almost 2# more than it’s class mates. Other SWR down 40 Brad’s Redhead quite so change to Green Spots and 1 for 1. 55′ rigger 8” white/pearl Opti and mini Double Take took another. 25′ loc 2 set dipsy 8” Orange Bechhold and Blue longtail contributed nicely as usual. Surface temperature was 46, 43down 40 and speed 1.8-2 on the Depth Raider fishing 60-75fow. I didn’t have much time to watch the fish locator but didn’t notice much for bait or hooks. Craig complained he didn’t get time to eat as we had our 20 coho by 810. We had a couple drive bys and maybe 3 hookups that fell off. A buddy did have a couple of 10-12# kings fishing in 65fow down 50 on spoons and he also ended up with his 20.

The weather report for Saturday had improved and rain shifted to the afternoon and only risk seemed to be the dense fog advisory. I was on the phone on the way home lining up a crew. I was on the water 20 minutes earlier and setup just short of Fridays waypoints. We got all the lines in and had but one bite on 20 LOC 3 set 8” Orange Bechhold and Brad’s Mini Double Take by 630. The locator was empty and the fish moved and seemed like a tournament day, pre-fishing was great now where did they go? I still had hope as once you find a school this time of year things usually go well. I called a friend who was already half way to his limit in less than 40fow so headed back towards the stained harbor water. When we got to 45fow we started marking bait near the surface and started to get bit but wouldn’t stick at one point 5 for 15! The Dipsys were the only thing going with same sets as above except I shallowed the wire to 35′ and purple Stanley fly.

I didn’t want to join the crowd near the gaps but when I called the buddy who limited Friday to see how he was doing he was already home with his limit of 15 before 630 near the gaps. It was late and the fish had been pushed to the bottom and the riggers turned out to be the ticket as the boards were dead. SWR Purple Frog down 18 in 35fow went 4 for 8, Mini Purple Frog down 32 2 for 5 and SWR down 15 and mini Hot Melon 2 for 4. The Purple Frog took our first king only 7# but nice to hear the drag rip. The surface temp in shallow was 52 and 48 down 18 and 1.8 on the Depth Raider & worked better at slower speed than Friday. Lots of bait around and some streakers on the locator especially near the gaps. The predicted fog did arrive but not enough to be a problem with other boats. My crew stuck it out when the rain arrived but when we got to 15 for 29 and batting over .500 they were happy to call it a day. It was one of those days when we weren’t in the right place early and when we got to the fish they were not aggressive and missed a lot of bites but hey, 15 ain’t bad.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard