The weather was too nasty on Wednesday to winterize the boat and too nice on Saturday not to give it one more try. Set lines at first light in 35fow out of the North Gap finding some marks and temp down to 45.5 on the surface. Trolled that contour and no bites until a shaker on a 3 color and reg Bloody Death just north of the filter. Quite a flotilla of boats behind me so kept going north fishing water I don’t typically hunt for browns. I hoped that fewer boats would help us pick off the active biters.
The first nice brown came on a Dipsy on a Fishlander Green Easter Egg 1.5 set. Not sure exactly out far out because it was so cold the electronic counter on my Penn 875s would not turn on. It was back to how many passes, 4.5. Same set took another brown then went to sleep the remainder of the AM. 25’ mono rigger and reg Grn Tiger took a nice LT and then no more bites on that. Five color and reg dbl Purple Spook lost a boxer then captured one and another shaker. The reg Pink Tiger SWR down 15 was quiet for a change taking one boxer and one short. The other SWR reg green Tiger moving it around from 20 to 35 took two shakers.
The 4 color and reg Bloody Death took a boxer and a shaker. 65’ 3set Dipsy and Blue/white blk dot Andy reeker took out second Laker. 2 color and reg double Orange crush captured a leaping bow, the first one in the last 4 trips. Listening to the radio chatter it seemed that most were struggling compared to last weekend. I didn’t hear of any keeper size salmon caught. The only bait fish were puffs near the surface. About 1130 with 10 in the box tried to decide whether to go home or go deep looking for salmon. Considering the nice seas and probably last outing of the year we pulled lines and ran east setting in 100fow. We set the same as the productive spread from 3 weeks ago. Three boats working 100-145 fow for a couple of hours yielded one strike for the 3 boats and nadda for us. Marked lots of bait and some hooks and kept thinking should have been there earlier in the day.
My crew had no urge to go home so we pulled lines again and re-set in 45 fow off the Filter and trolled north. We decided we would fish from dark to dark and see if there was an evening bite. Not much happened until the last ½ hour of light and took three more boxers, 4 color reg bloody death, 5 color dble Purple Spook and 6 color Oz decorated Andy Reeker. Another shaker on 2 color Dbl Orange crush and 3 set Dipsy reg Sister Sledge.
We ended the day with 12 browns, 1 rainbow, 2 LT released and a dozen or so shakers. Trolled 1.8 to 2 on the Depth Raider 35-50fow and caught fish as far as 43.06.5 north. The forecast for the coming week looks like putting off winterization any longer would be a mistake. Will now have to switch to walleyes until ice up.
I had no trouble falling asleep last night!
Tight lines and full coolers,
Grey Beard
Nice job out there this fall! Almost contemplated trolling myself on Saturday. See ya around Mike!
Mike is a class act and one of the best fisherman I have personally met!
I would have been out there for sure saturday morning if I had not put the boat away a few weeks before, It was a nice day and my Dad was in town so it would have been nice to get out. Nice report!
Wow Eric, coming from you I feel honored by your compliment! I don’t know anyone and I mean anyone, that can find and catch fish in such diverse bodies of water by whatever method required.
On my way to Pool 9 to see if the eyes have started their fall bite with a little more enthusiasm
Thanks,
Michael
I went up to Milwaukee Harbor on Fri, the 27th. This was only my 2nd time ever fishing Milwaukee, but definitely enjoyed getting a mixed bag of fish. We stayed in the harbor and went a bit into the river, trolling rapalas behind planers.
Definitely a fun experience and excited to try to make it back sometime!
Nice report Michael.
You’re still not missing anything by going out on Lake Michigan instead of Lake Wisconsin.