Lake Michigan Kings on Jigs w/ Eric Hatajaa

Last fall I had the opportunity to fish and film for the first time with Eric Hatajaa out on Lake Michigan and that experience, catching king salmon on Rattlin Super Rogues cast on walleye weight spinning rods, will forever be etched in my memory as one of my favorite days of fishing.

The king salmon is known for its incredible speed, stamina and acrobatic leaping ability and when an angler is matched against this phenomenal fish on a 6′ 8" St. Croix walleye rod… the ensuing battle from hook up to landing net is something that all anglers need to experience at least once in their lives. Your skills will be tested as will your equipment. One wrong move and you’re left with a ringing in your ears from the crack of the parted line and slumped shoulders from knowing that you just threw your very best at one of the toughest fish that swims… and you lost.

During my first outing with Eric we swapped stories and shared some of our favorite bites as we fished and one common thread was shared between us… we both love fishing jigs. So when Eric told me that he’s been putting together a pattern for mid-summer kings on jigs and soft plastics… my interest was more than piqued, I told him I would set aside the time this summer to come out and take a whack at trying to get this truly unique bite on film and I’ve been waiting with some measure of anticipating for that call to come. That call from Eric letting me know "it’s time" came this past week. I can honestly say the truck, boat and camera gear has never been packed faster!

The key to timing this bite right would be in arriving in Milwaukee ready to fish after a couple days of offshore winds. Those winds out of the west blow the warmer surface water out onto the lake which allows cooler main lake water to keep water temps down where they need to be for the King Salmon’s favorite prey, the alewife, to come in close to the harbors in huge numbers. Where the bait goes the predator will follow and on this day our key to success started and ended with finding these massive concentrations of bait. Once the bait was found… the catching of these tremendous fish was fairly straightforward for an angler that can effectively cast or fish a jig vertically.

Our top baits were 3" – 4" minnow style plastics tipped on 1/4 – 3/8 ounce white Precision Head jigs. The BFT Paddletail in white was the BOMB for me putting fish after fish in the boat. White is the key color according to Eric. Other colors have been tried in the past but nothing seems to produce like WHITE when using this presentation.

Depths fished ranged from 27′ – 35′ deep with the majority of the fish coming within 5′ of the bottom as the kings worked underneath the large schools of bait. Both casting the jigs back through the schools of bait and vertically jigging the baits worked equally well. In sharp contrast to the rage fueled fight that follows the hookset very often these Kings would mimic the subtle tap a walleye angler fishing a jig and leech is used to feeling when ol’ marble eyes takes the bait. But any confusion regarding the species at hand is quickly forgotten once the hook slides home and line begins to peel off your reel at an alarming and ever quicken pace.

For the day we landed 25 big kings and one massively fat brown trout with most of the kings coming in at 12 – 18 pounds.

For anyone interested in this bite or kings on light spinning tackle in general, give Eric a shout. These kings are available all summer through November as the 4 year old adults start to mass in and around the harbors as they go through the spawning ritual and Eric definitely has these bites figured out and will get you on fish! Contact Eric here >>> www.wibigfish.com

Well, this show is a wrap and we’ll have it out for broadcast as an In-Depth Outdoors episode some time early 2010 and it will of course be available here online as a streaming video.

Next week I’m off to Lake Nipigon to chase down a 30# lake trout on spinning gear. With a little luck (actually on Nipigon you need a LOT of luck) I’ll have a good laker report up here to share upon my return.

Good fishing to all!