Fishing, for me, has always been a universal language that’s spoken only slightly differently from lake-to-lake, stream-to-stream. While the details may be different from species to species and in different states, applying what you already know generally pays dividends due to the confidence you have in personally proven techniques. Such was the case for IDO and Rapala Staffers Grant Sorensen and James Holst, when they decided to pair with yours truly on a salmon/trout mission on Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. In terms of experience, I brought little extra to the table sans almost a dozen or so trips to Lake Michigan over the years. Grant’s knowledge on Lake Superior is well-documented, as-is James’ trolling experience for numerous big-water species. Enter the ringer, Joel “Boog” Ballweg, who would also be working with us. Joel B. has a pile of experience fishing out of Milwaukee and most ports northward, so this really would be the confluence of a wealth of salmon/trout fishing knowledge from several accomplished great-lakes anglers. Along with a buddy of mine Bobby, my goal was simply to work hard and drink-it-in, without drowning from the deluge of details.
When arriving in Two Rivers, we found James not feeling good, and requesting only some Gatorade while he sat out the post-arrival festivities. After getting groceries and stopping for a bite to eat, we got a message that James had checked himself into the ER. We headed straight to the hospital, only to have a nurse not allow us back because we weren’t family, but we later learned that James’ appendix had burst and they’d be removing it ASAP. Not a great way to start a trip. Man-down. Morning came fast with little other word than to “go-fishing.” “It’s what he would’ve wanted,” we told ourselves as we hit the harbor pre-dawn with a guilty conscience. Hopefully if all went well, we’d be able to visit and James could make the return trip home with us. We later found that his condition was a bit more serious, as those who have been following IDO already know. The good news is that he seems to be on the mend, even though he’s still out there, tantalizingly close to some good salmon fishing right now. As for the fishing itself, the following is my account. Hopefully Joel B. and company can fill in some details I may have missed, but this was my perspective from the mental notes I kept.
We found our trip out of the harbor complete with shore-fishermen up and down the harbor break-wall, a sure sign that at least some salmon were moving back into Two Rivers from where they were initially stocked. Maybe we should be fishing shallower near the harbor? It would be something to try out later, but right off the bat we headed straight out to 100 feet and started working our way southwest in extremely flat conditions. Our initial spread consisted of two downriggers, two dipsy rods, and 3 board rods per side. Right off the bat, we ran rods that had anywhere from 3 to 5 colors of leadcore on the outside board rods, eventually favoring rods that held 7 colors to a full-core of lead on the inside board rods as the sun got higher with the calm conditions. High-riding spoons behind boards gave up fish before and after dawn, especially in greens and whites, but the action slowed at 8-bells, prompting a move away from the slack conditions and constant weeds we were fouling in. It’s likely what brought the fish to that area, but we ran into lots of company as the sun got higher. So we headed south, and spotted an area we had all to ourselves. Lots of gulls, and this time, a floating weed slick that seemed to hold fish along the edges. An experienced Lake Michigan troller, Joel B. had us pull boards with high-riding spoons to the outside, with a more varied combination of flasher/fly combos, as well as a few “meat” offerings in the form of cut-plugs. The meat-rods had cut-plugs stuffed with canned tuna, and these really shined over traditional offerings with high-skies and little wind. We were averaging a fish every 30 minutes, which was enough to keep us interested, but only to a point. Eventually we gave in to hunger, headed back to harbor, and never did get back on that same slick we fished earlier.
Time for a new plan. We’d stake our claim for the rest of the afternoon in shallower water, hoping to score on transitioning fish moving back to the Two-Rivers harbor. Immediately into our trolling passes we found the area to be littered with bait, anywhere from 50 – 80FOW. As the afternoon and night wore-on, we move progressively shallower, getting into impressive numbers of tripped-rods, but only a few nice steelies and lots of “shakers” or small fish to show for it. Not what we were after, but it wasn’t a bad plan, nor were we disappointed to have eliminated it from the game plan. Day 2 started with a bit more wind, and a run out deeper that came just in time to take advantage of a shore-ward wind that literally trolled us back to port. Dawn brought little action, but the bite got progressively better as the morning went on, this time in 215-230FOW. We were trolling shallower due to the size of our craft and the wind direction, but it would’ve been nice to stay in that 200 foot mark. Numerous big steelhead and several great cohos and kings were caught, as were quite a few lost, almost entirely on flasher-fly combos of green/white and little-boy-blue or aqua. Three big fish in a row came un-buttoned at least halfway back to the boat or even closer. Definitely a bummer, but par for the course as Joel B. explained. In his words, “I’ve never left Lake Michigan thinking I caught all of the salmon that I knew I could,” which to me, is the very reason a trip like this keeps tugging away at the walleye angler in me come July and August. It’s also the reason I was so impressed with his knowledge and help, considering we went back with a pile of great eating kings, coho’s, and steelhead!
Joel
Here’s some pics from our boat on the first day, check out the flat calm conditions as Joel nets a fish for me.
Joel
Flasher/fly combinations seemed to shine mid-day, and here’s a close-up look at some of what Grant’s boat was catching and using during the high-sky hours.
Joel
Dawn/dusk was a different beast with all species responding much better to spoons on leadcore away from the boat.
Joel
Looks like a blast boys! Nice work
thurs can’t come soon enough! 
Thanks for taking care of posting this report Joel. Love the pictures!
After a quick read thru, just wanted to point out that we only ran 3 boards on “one” side of the boat. If we had put out 2 riggers, 2 dipsies and 3 boards per side, we would have been one over our limit of lines per angler. Most times we ran 2 boards on each side of the boat but when things got slow, we did run a 3rd line on one side to max out our trolling spread.
It was a bummer that we had to fish without James aboard his Skeeter but Grant and Ben did a great job fishing with only 6 lines.
As for my crew, it would have been hard to find two guys that were more fun to fish with. Yes, we lost some nice fish and everyone hates when that happens but that’s all part of fishing on Lake Michigan and common for both amateurs and charter captains alike. It also one of those things I’m forever trying to fix. Figuring out why they came off in the first place is a good place to start and it gets a lot of replay and review on the drive home after each one of these trips.
In no way, shape or form to I consider myself an expert when it comes to fishing salmon & trout on Lake Michigan. For me, its just a constant learning process and each trip is a chance to build on the knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work out there.
As for more details, I will try to add a few of those when I have time later today.
Looks like a great time was had by all. Too bad James was not able to take part, as those scream’n chins always make for a good time – regardless of light tackle or trolling gear.
Joel – Just a suggestion on the fish unbuttoning. Obviously this is a guess based on my experiences when I was out there all the time. We had way too many fish lost with heavier hooks. Many of the tube flies and some spoons came with 2X or thicker hooks. We found the thicker wire hooks would rip a pretty big hole in the jaw and in most cases, would fall out when we landed them. After we switched to quality thinner or standard thickness wire hooks, our catch rate improved dramatically. Two other minor things was kicking the speed down when we suspected we hooked up on trout as their mouths are softer. Plus, using snubbers directly behind resistance components like dipsey divers helped. Again, I have no idea what your running for hooks. These were thye couple things we learned to do that helped us out through the 80’s and 90’s when I lived on lake MI
Randy – Like the hooks suggestion, as we were about to try anything. That said, my only experience with lighter hooks out there has been bad. A few years ago we lost a handful of 20lb category kings right behind the boat due to broken hooks. We didn’t let that happen more than a time or two until we switched all hooks on those flies.
The part I love about fishing is making decisions in gear, technique, and location to directly affect your own luck. The part I have a harder time with? The whole “luck” thing to begin with. We tried alot of different things to keep those hooks sunk deep, but most of what we attempted focused on applying more or less pressure at key times of the fight. The frustrating thing? Most of these fish didn’t come un-glued with a thrash or jump, they literally were coming in on a straight retrieve and would go from heavyweight, to no-weight. Like Joel B. said, it’s just part of the game, but Randy I’ll be taking your advice when possible on future trips.
Joel
Joel, we had our share of broken hooks! For the life of me, I can’t remember what brand they were. When they broke, you could see they were made of an alloy and had that crap “bumpy” look inside.
i hope James is doing ok?!
How has the laker bite been on superior?
Grant is on another expedition, so he didn’t have time to write up a full-report. However, he just sent me some short bursts of details I’ll put together from his boat!
Grant’s Boat
For steelies, bright orange, yellow or pink spoons did best, ran high in the water column. 5 colors of Sufix Advanced 832 lead over 200FOW caught most of our fish. Steelhead love orange, and prefer smaller lures as they tend to eat more bugs than most of the species out there.
Most of our fish came on a hot mid-day dipsy bite, 80 feet back on a mag ran high. Big flashers in the bright sun brought in fish from a long ways away. Our biggest king came on 8 colors of the Sufix 832 lead, with a flasher and fly combo. Most of our mid-day fish, especially with day one’s calm conditions came from as sharp a turns as the spread would allow to get that lead to rise and sink. Early hours, green in anything worked best, mid-day the fish showed a definite preference for blue. Bright colors for kings did not work. GPS boat speed around 2.6mph worked best for the conditions we had.
As for specific flies – Jensen Flash Flies in Everglo Blue Mango and Everglo Blue Pirate worked best.
Concerning hooks, I do not believe that was our issue with losing fish. All my fly’s are tied with size 1 Owner or Gamakatsu round bend treble hooks. These hooks have proven there value over the past several years of on the water experience. This is the hook style that was past on to me by the guy who taught me how to tie flys in the first place and he learned it directly from Crabby Charters who is one of the best in the business.
There is definitely a knack to knowing just how much pressure you can apply to each fish as your reeling it in. And the amount of pressure you apply changes fish by fish and even through out your battle with each fish.
Apply to much or to little pressure at the wrong time, and its bye, bye fishy.
If your using decent equipment, I firmly believe this is where & why most fish are lost. The best way to fix this problem is to get out and fish salmon more often and gain experience.
Having said that, I don’t blame people when they lose a fish. Standing there watching them as they fight each fish, many times I cannot see anything that they did wrong when a fish is lost.
However, some people definitely show a knack for consistently putting fish in the net when its there turn to fight one and most of the time, that person has a fair amount of experience under his or her belt.
I should add that these are observations and not concrete evidence that I know what I’m talking about. It’s more a reflection of what I’m thinking about on my drive home and how to fix a problem that doesn’t seem to have concrete solutions.
Taking a look at my equipment, the only thing that may be an issue is some of the reels. For the most part, my rods are rigged with Daiwa Sealine line counter reels. The new ones definitely perform the best. Some of the older ones will be replaced with Tekota’s starting next year. This is a direct result of how I feel they have performed over the past two years.
Will that decrease the number of lost fish?
I don’t know for sure but it definitely won’t hurt.
I have a hook question. On j plugs, do you guys just use the factory slide rig that comes with the plugs? The snell on the back hook seems a little long. Wondering if that is right….. Thanks
I don’t run a lot of J-plugs but generally use the standard double treble hook snell that it comes with.
As for the best baits aboard my boat:
During low light hours – Green flasher & double Aqua fly was by far our best rig. We ran 21-1/2″ long leaders behind the flasher.
Clear skies & sunny – White flasher & litte boy blue fly was our best rig. 21-1/2″ leader on this setup as well.
2nd best rig when it was sunny & clear – White flasher with a wonder bread Brads Cut Plug filled with regular tuna fish. We use a 42″ leader from the flasher to the cut plug on this setup. This bait has definitely increased the number of fish we catch during the middle of the day and will see more time in the water on future trips.
Spoons were best during low light hours for us. Our best spoon was an Magnum Orange Easter Egg. One odd thing about this spoon is it never seems to get hit in the dark. But low light hours, it works very well.
Magnum Crab Face spoon was best when fishing before light or after dark.
Mid-day – regular Rainbow Spoon. (blue, pink combo spoon)
In general, we had a hard time getting any hits on spoons during the middle of the day.
Great report and pics. I wish we had more days with those kind of sea conditions.
The debate over hook style in the salmon troller’s websites still rages after all these years and I fully expect it will never die. These fish are slashers and almost every successful outing you will land a fish with the hook under the chin or top of the nose or just by the skin of the lip. Remarkable how many fish once they hit the net, the hook comes out. Thus I expect to lose fish and always remind my crew it’s going to happen and it likely will not be their fault.
There are rare days of 90+% landed bites and unfortunately days of under 50%. When I’ve had the bad days of hook ups it is not uncommon that other anglers are experiencing the same frustration and seems to depend on the mood of the fish. Certainly experience helps but as Joel mentioned good equipment that is well maintained is very important for consistent success.
The inexperienced reelers too often pull the rod way over there head and drop the tip before starting to reel resulting in slack. I try to coach the less experienced to keep the rod tip in their line of sight so they can keep it loaded. When the fish gets closer to the net I encourage them to make shorter sweeps and only pump the rod if necessary. For fish coming to the surface I ask them not to pull up but to pull to the side to attempt to keep the fish submerged. When close to the net I want them to try to get the rod tip close to the water so when they lift they have a small sweep to get the fish up so I can get the net under the fish.
I’m in the single hook (Siwash) fan club for spoons, Brad’s cut plugs(aka the tuna plugs) and double snelled 4/0 octopus for flies. I do have some “tournament ties” for flies (one octopus in front of a treble) but not sure it helps. The only setup that I use a treble is for J Plugs and I use only 1 treble that has the hook eye close to the end of the plug. I tried a single siwash on Js but too many 10 second screamers. Because these fish are slashers it is way too common that the second treble is somewhere outside the mouth (rare with double snelled octopus) resulting in twirling fish that take forever to land. Also the second treble is notorious for fouling the net in the middle of the best bite in the dark or a double coming in.
Grey Beard
Michael,
Thanks for shedding some light on the hooking percentage issues. Always good to hear the from someone who has a many years of experience and many, many salmon fishing trips under his belt.
Awesome read Joel! With such detail as you put into your writing I feel like I’m almost in the setting. Great info and even better pictures. I have always been interested in trying my hand at the great lakes but never done it. This report almost gives me the confidence I could head over tomorrow and have success… If my jeep weren’t blown up.
Keep the info coming Joel, I always love seeing your reports!
Just found this thread… all of it is great. I live here next to the lake… and it sure sounds like fun. At the the same time, a huge investment in gear and lurers. Almost like starting over. Some day I’ll try it. For now, just great to read all this!
Hi all.
I am interested in finding out if it is worth my drive over from Eau Claire to go after some salmon/trout. I hear salmon fishing is slow and always thought they were in rivers this time of year and not worth fishing for? I have limited experience but have the equipment/boat. Can anyone give a new guy some pointers and advice?
I hate to pass on a really good walleye bite going on over here but the wife likes salmon and mama always wins…….
Feel free to email me:
[email protected].
I’ve seen reports on other sites of some pretty decent catches for those willing to get out and give it a go.
4 year olds right in front of the harbors if you like catching big fish. Not very tasty this time of the year though.
2 & 3 year olds still being caught out in 200′ of water. These are certainly much tastier fish.
Where ever you go, stop in at the cleaning station and ask for some starting points. Many Lake Michigan fishermen are willing to share a little info.
Can’t catch anything if you don’t try!
Joel-
If you catch a salmon in shallower water right now… if it is smaller, and still very silver, is it likely a younger good eating fish? Or are some of these four year olds just small, and in that process of their final years just the same? I saw what looked like a couple small ones at the cleaning station in Racine, and thought the guys were fishing from shore.
It could easily be a 2 year old salmon, especially if it’s still silver in color and silver fish, regardless of where they are caught, should be fine table fare.
At this time of the year, most of the 4 year old’s will be trying to get back to their place of origin or birth place. Which will be the location where they were released for stocked salmon. This is usually in a shallow water, near shore location.
But that doesn’t mean a younger fish won’t be found there as well, especially when conditions are favorable.