When heat sets-in on the Upper Midwest like it has this past week, the fishing action rarely matches the conditions for most of the species I usually fish for. I guess I should start fishing for big-lake salmon and trout during the dog-days? Not that I was in any-way responsible for our success; as the two salmon guys I shared the boat with had played the game before, adapting the approach to changing conditions throughout the day. I felt lucky to have been able to meet up with fellow IDO’ers Joel Ballweg and Pat Howard on a hot day in Milwaukee to try our hand at targeting some salmon, if only for a day. Joel was the captain, and it was obvious from the way he kept his boat, to the way he never-stopped working, that we would be in for a good day no matter what the fish’s mood would be. Keep in mind, I’m a complete salmon neophyte. I’ve been on a few charters before, reeled in a handful of good fish and plenty smaller salmon/trout, so this was as much a learning opportunity as it was a fishing trip.
We started the day near-shore, trying to replicate the success of other recent anglers jigging hair, plastic, and even some hardware, to no avail. Good conditions slightly off-shore, bolstered by reports and recent trips had Joel liking our odds out trolling a bit more. Who was I to argue when the first king of the day came literally minutes into having our spread set? Fast action in the morning came with several quality 4 yr. olds, including a 20lb+ fish on our full-lead reel some 500+ feet from the boat that Joel caught. Flasher/fly combinations in green and blue seemed to be preferred early, with a smaller number of fish being taken on riggers with spoons of names I’m not sure I’m allowed to repeat. Most of our active fish came from the 60-80’ range, towards the higher end of that range in the early morning, and slightly deeper as the morning wore-on. As boat traffic died, so did the bite, with most folks seeming to clear out after the mid-late morning boom. We had plans to make a day of it however, so we continued searching, switching, and searching some more until we marked fish/bait.
What did become a theme were the number of active fish near bottom in 90-120FOW. Lowering the trolling speed slightly, or moving our baits a bit deeper put those marks from the graph into the boat, only to find out they were primarily lakers. Good lakers! One fish, caught by Pat, approached the 20lb mark and was a real warlord. Scarred by several lamprey lesions, this fish fought every bit as hard as the largest king we caught and then some, to the point where we literally had to drop our speed a bit to get the fish onboard. As the day wore on, bites became tougher to come by until late afternoon when the lakers cranked up again. In our search for salmon, we weren’t even targeting these fish, though they would often come up off the bottom 40 feet or more to attack our offerings.
At the end of the day, we’d amassed a pretty good talley, some smaller fish put back and only a handful of missed fish. It was good to fish with a couple of experienced salmon guys, and they seemed to appreciate someone who was content in keeping the boat pointed straight. If anything, I learned a few new words for fish, like “jacks”, “shakers,” “’ho’s,” “’bows,” etc, with Cohos (‘hos) and brown trout being the only popular trout/salmon species out there we didn’t do battle with. A beautiful steelhead that put on quite a show ended up going home with us as well, rounding out the ranks of fish we were excited to eat, let alone happy to catch. Thanks guys for the great time! You know a trip is good when you’re about one day removed, and already stoked to do it again!
Joel
Bonus Pics:
Good job!
That looks like a lot of fun
Tasty fish too
Ballweg’s talents never cease to amaze me
Great fish crew
I really enjoyed my trip too.
Our crew worked really well together. Joel Nelson did a great job of driving the boat straight & Pat was very good at deploying & redeploying rods.
Driving the boat straight may not sound like a difficult thing to do but I’m always amazed at how many experienced fishermen have trouble doing it the first time they try.
It’s pretty rare that I have two people in the boat at one time that can contribute in more ways than just reeling in fish. Having a couple people working together as a team can definitely result in several extra fish per trip. Keep the boat straight, rods deployed as much as possible and don’t lose fish that you shouldn’t. In the end, that usually results in more fish in the box.
On a side note, Pat’s 16lb Lake Trout was caught on a Brad’s Cut Plug in Wonderbread Color. It was loaded with tuna and run 15′ behind a dipsy diver.
The big King was caught on a Aqua fly behind a green Pro Chip flasher. This setup also caught several Laker’s.
Early in the morning when the sun was dominant in the sky, Little Boy Blue fly’s behind white Pro Chip flashers caught several nice Kings for us. The Aqua fly’s started producing better when clouds began blocking out the sun a bit later in the morning.
Thanks for letting me tag along guys
I had an awesome time and can’t think of 2 better guys to share a boat with
I hope to get out again soon
Great report Joel N
Joel B I can see why you catch fish you work very hard at it
Sounds like an awesome trip you guys!
but it’s still on the ‘must do’ list!
That had to be a bit ‘creepy’ 
and then what did you do with it?
I’m yet to get over there this year
Never have I actually landed the fish with the Lamprey still hanging on
Great report!
Cut it in half with the fillet knife and put it back in the drink.
Much agreed, being on the same page out there definitely seems to put more fish in the boat. Having virtually the same boat, with the exact same sonar also helps in keeping the boat track straight!
Thanks again guys!
Joel
Great report. Seems like the fish have moved from where you had such great success. Water is warming but soon they will patroling the harbors and temps won’t matter much for the mature fish. That’s when the small boat fishery can have a ball abusing their walleye equipment.
Yesterday we had only 7 fishing the same area Joel and crew fsihed. It was still a workout for 9 yo Jack and his dad Dan. All the fish came on garlic flav tuna in Brad’s cut plug in various colors. Still wondering how some Kickin Walleye would work on the Bay of Green Bay. Heck, I bet some Procure alewife gel would turn them on.
Grey Beard
Nice photo’s Michael.
Looks like you’re crew had a great time!
Great report guys! I’ve been wanting to get out there for a couple years now, I’m so jealous!
Great Report Guys
That deffinately looks like a blast
I’ve got to get down there to do that for sure
Great report Joel and congrats guys on some great looking fish!
Nothings worse than Uncle Baldy driving the boat and continuously shouting directions as he stares at the VHF Antenna and says “I am trying to avoid the light pole in front” of us as you set lines directly into a tangled mess.
Nice batch of fish guys! A number of days with west winds is currently in the forecast for the upcoming week. According to Coastwatch, a nice pocket of colder water is rolling up along the Racine/Milwaukee shore. That should make for more consistant action in the days to come!