Lake MIchigan Fishing Report

[Northdrifter08]

I hear you.... not many post this year.... Would like to hear what's going on.. Our crew is heading to Door Co. on Friday and will be there for a week.... I'll let you know how our trip went but that'll be a 1 1/2 weeks from now....

The anticipation is killing me.... a whole week over there...

[fishgutz77]

I know, I will be at Baileys the 14-17th before the KD tourney.

Post a report for us smucks back here still waitin.

[Northdrifter08]

One day and counting.... put the finishing touches on the equipment tonight... pack the bags and hook her up.... leaving from work and hopefully launching sometime early Saturday morning...

We'll be fishing the Green Bay side more... we stay in Ellison Bay and fish from there to Washington Island.... Our Lk Mich connection has been boating a few hawgs so cross our fingers on the weather....

[JerkinLips]

My friend owns a home in Gills Rock and had caught only one king through last week. Not sure how much he has been fishing so far this summer. He has been shopping for a different boat, so he may not have made it out much yet. Maybe the new boat will bring us luck when I go out August 3-6.

[tunrevir]

Back from a wed-sun Algoma trip. The fishing was slow to start the week but the bite was getting better daily with longer flurries of activity at dawn and dusk. The usual equipment, spoons, flasher&flies, snap weights, leadcore and dypsies heard of a few guys getting 1 or 2 big kings on jplugs behind a 1# ball. All presentations took fish with no real discernable pattern or system putting fish in the boat from day to day. Caught bows high on orange and deep off the riggers, two lake trout 5&10 lbs apiece. Charters are running out to 250+, we fished from 80-180' with the majority of our fish coming between 95 and 125. There was a huge alewive dieoff and we caught the tail end of that so that may be why it was a bit tougher bite. Biggest king was 24#, biggest bow was 15. Headed back over in three days for another go round.

Tunrevir~

[Cheetah]

Tunrevir, how was the weather? With all the bad weather here in the cities, at the last minute my dad and I decided to go to Mille Lacs instead since there would be no risk of foul weather. Fishing was slow up there, caught a few though.

[JAR JAR]

Just got back last night and the bite was slooooow we fished thursday night thru sunday morning going 8 for 16 for the whole trip with friday morning being the best with three fish, we did notice the fish are running a bit on the larger size with three of our kings going right in the twenty pound range and the best one was 22 lbs. we fished each night until 10 - 10:30. I did hear that the guys that fished from dusk until dawn did well with the full moon bite.

The wind was straight out of the south at 5 to 10 mph during the day and the lake laid down during the night for the most part, I guess the wave height was 1 - 3 ft.

Jar Jar

[DREZLER]

Jar Jar- Where were you out of?

Were flasher flys taking a lot of your fish?

Spoons?

[Northdrifter08]

We're back.... After spending a week in Elison Bay all can say is sloooowwww... We fished around Door Bluff and Gills Rock the first (2) days and never even had a release...Where we stayed we heard of only 3 fish caught all week near Door Bluff and Gills Rock... We then pulled up and started trailering to Moonlight Bay and Rawleys and then we caught a few... a far cry froom last year... We thought about heading south to Algoma but after a call down there we decided to tough it out... The same report... most boats with 1-2 fish per outing, at the most.... It was like someone turned off a switch.... It did seam as though it was starting to pickup over towards Baileys when we left but not like it was a few weeks prior....

We did get a few nice fish and it sounded like that was the norm also... One of the people we know over there has fished and guided for over 30 yrs in the Gills Rock and Washington Island area and said he's never seen anything like this....and that the fish might not make it to the Green Bay side of the point...

Good luck to you... maybe the bite will turn on...Keep a tight line...

We'll be back next year...

[JAR JAR]

Jar Jar- Where were you out of?

Were flasher flys taking a lot of your fish?

Spoons?

We were out of Kewaunee..... flasher fly only took one of our fish .... I talked to a few people down there and they were getting all their kings on flasher\fly combos like the glo white with a white fly or the Mountain Dew green with a green fly but everything on the dipseys back 125 to 150 ft .

Our best lures were the glo bloody nose spoon and the pro king michael jackson (black & white glo).

Jar Jar

[Archerysniper]

Just got back today from a sat and sunday morning trips, we ended up with 8 boxed and 10 hookups that didn't make it in on sat all on flasher and fly the best rod was the 20 color straight out the back on sat fishin 180 to 200 at 1.8 to 2.0. Sunday we had boxed 9 and 3 that didnt make it in, the best was the riggers with a mix of flasher fly and spoons before sunrise and the second best was dipseys on wire with flasher fly depth 150 to 180.

[tunrevir]

Cheetah, we had beautiful weather with minimal waves for the 4 days I fished. Flashers and flies took a few fish off both dypsies and the riggers. I used a mt dew flasher with pearl on one side and silver prism on the other, a white flasher with silver on one side and pearl and white pearl/pearl and chrome with silver prism on both sides when it was sunny. Little boy blue, carlson frog, flame thrower and champagne glow all took fish. Spoons were hit and miss with moonshine glow spoons: mag michael jackson, eliminator, glow bloody nose, happy meal and standard bloody nose took fish before sunrise. Our best spoon was a standard pro king orange with pearlized front/silver prism back and orange ladder back, black and gold proking mag spoon did well and a mag rotten banana glow spoon. There were a few baits that got washed repeatedly going off past results without any current returns. Our riggers were getting hit regularly but we adjusted them to heights where we were marking the most fish. Had some yahoo run across our spread and cut off a 10 color rig.

Tunrevir~

[certified jumbo]

Fished Sunday evening and Monday evening. Overall, slow. We boxed 6 the first day and 2 the second day. 16 lb king was the biggest.

[Northdrifter08]

Go long..... only consistant action is out over deep water...

[Cheetah]

Sutty and some other guys I know were out in Kewaunee this past weekend (3ish days). Slow fishing. I read many similar reports as well.

From Sutty:

Quote:

My weekend went like this

Thursday eve 3

Friday morning 2, Eve 1

Sat Morn 3, Eve 4

Sun 1

Slooowww

We are leaving town on Thursday at lunch time to hopefully fish that evening through Sunday morning.

[BSG]

My old man just got back sunday pm from Baileys. 16 fish for 3 guys. 7/21-7/24. Slow for them also. All fish caught on moonshine spoons.

We're heading back out fishing 7/28am-7/30pm. Black and red Tuffy. Hopefully the fishing picks up.

[tunrevir]

The bad news is the fishing really slowed from the previous week when I was out. I went out of Algoma this past weekend and worked 75-180. The fish we caught came in singles with no consistent depth that they were stacked at in the areas we fished. Flashers and flies and dypsies caught most of our fish with 5 color board lines taking a few fish up high on spoons. Talked with many people with skunks or 1-2 fish an outing. Foggy a.m. conditions made for some hazardous boating but the fish didn't seem to mind. Ended the weekend 9/13 with some of the slowest fishing I have had out there in many years. The good news is that the water temps had dropped and were 49-55 degrees and that should pull the fish in close in the coming days. Good luck to anyone going over, the bite should be picking up.

Tunrevir~

[Borch]

Good to here that the bite may be picking up. I keep hearing about slow bites but with some very big fish when you do get hit. I'm heading out tomorrow for 4-5 days off Washington Island and seeing if my custom tied flies are on the big salmon menu.

[Cheetah]

Sutty and I have been in Kewaunee, did well up through last night. This morning it completely shut off though. Only a couple people on the radio had anything in the box. Going to breakfast now, hoping it turns back on in the afternoon.

[Cheetah]

We slayed em! Sutty swore me to secrecy on his secret lure and location. Moonshine spoons were the ticket though for us. We didn't get a single bite on flasher/fly, though we didn't bother running them at all after the first couple outings since they weren't being hit for us. All glow spoons, even in the daylight, up or down, didn't matter. Picked up a few on high boards with orange spoons too. 50%-60% of our fish were rainbows, one coho, one laker (released) and the rest kings. Best fish was a 20.38 king for Sutty that we entered into the KD tournament, as well as a 12lb and change rainbow. It always seems to be his turn when the big ones bite...

[tunrevir]

Great job Cheetah, Sutty has been dialing in the bite for awhile. It seemed that with the cooler water temps that blew in while we there a few weeks back that once things set up the bite would take off. Great job! I had great luck out there last year running the moonshine spoons even once the sun was up. Glad to hear you guys got into them and had a good trip. Last I looked a 29# fish was leading the KD. Heard a 34 lb fish was weighed but the guy didn't have a ticket Just had a bit of grilled salmon tonight for dinner. Some good eats there for sure. Funny we got 1-2 lakers each weekend we went out and that is the first lakers I have caught over there in 15 years of fishing it.

Tunrevir~

[Cheetah]

Top fish in the KD I believe is a 32lb King from Bailey's Harbor. There is a photo on the Facebook page for the tourney, plus other updates.

Sutty is good at finding fish, that's for sure.

[BSG]

Got back sunday night (7/31) from baileys harbor. Fished thurs am - sun am. Fished 3 guys, mostly running 6 rods. 4 Riggers, 2 dipseys. Came home with 25 fish. We caught alot of fish 6-12lbs.

Started thurs am in 110-130fow. Finished the trip on sunday morning in 300-330fow. Had pretty much the same amount of luck, just seemed to be nicer fish out deep. But the drives out are long.

Best lures were moonshine DO-De-K and Nightcrawler. Caught 2 fish on flasher flys, and only ran them down deep. Green or white flasher w/ green flys.

Most fish on riggers were caught 45-60 down, with a few caught 70 or 90 down. Dipseys were ran on setting 3+, 110-160 back seemed to be best area.

Highlight - Having a true quad with a kicker 5th fish coming right as the 3rd fish was landed. That made the entire trip.

Lowlight - Having our 2 back riggers get tangled and wrapped around the big motor (not running) at 6am. Riggers blew both fuses so had to change those out, all that good stuff. Pretty much ruined our morning as it took us outta commission for about 45 min.

Long story short, not our limit, but close. Had to grind our way to them, But very average for whats goin on right now out there. We lost a few fish, but it coulda been way worse. Great weather and good times.

Good luck out there.

[Sutty]

Sutty is good at finding fish, that's for sure.

Bah every once in a while a blind squirrel finds a nut

[chaffmj]

Thanks for the reports. Heading out there this Saturday thru Tuesday will post when I get back.