great lakes Great Lakes Fishing Reports

[J48jake]

Heading out to Winthrop Harbor next weekend to chase Coho's! Launching out of North Point, I hear the Coho's are already running.

[Borch]

I am not planning on heading to Lake Michigan for a little while yet. Still have some business to attend to on Mille Lacs

That said if anyone was thinking about an early trip I have heard good things! Kings and Bows are biting in many ports and you can mix in some Ho's in the southern ports!

Bite's been hot on the southern WI Lake Michigan ports for kings in 40 - 100 fow based on the few reports I've heard. Wish I could free up time to go.

[Sutty]

I have heard it has been fantastic all the way up to Kewaunee....

[J48jake]

Did pretty well out of North Point last weekend. Netted 157 fish for three boats in 3 days. First time I have seen so many kings being caught! Biggest in our crew was about a 20 lb'er but most of our fish were nice Coho's. It seemed the Cohos on top had some nicer size to them then the ones we pulled deeper on the downriggers. E-chip Clown flasher with a bloody nose fly worked pretty well.

[Jim Almquist]

Got out today with my BIL and fished out of Knife River. We went to the outside of the mud out from McQuades and the pump house. We were out about for miles. We went 2 for 3 with both fish caught being Lake Trout. All bites coming from the top of the water column. 57 chev plug and a green spotted spoon. From the talk on the radio it seemed a little slow for most.

[Jim Almquist]

Today Randy(Loonasea) and I hit the Wisconsin side. The best bite seemed to be deeper rather then on top. We ended up going 5 for 7 with 4 Lakers and 1 Walleye. 40 to 60 feet down over 100' of water. Tried all sorts of water but the tea colored seemed to work best. Trying a new spoon that might just be a winner. We will see after tomorrow

[End of the Line]

My wife caught this nice Brown Trout today during the Jaws Derby. Nice fish, but not big enough to make the board.

Great weather and fishing. I had really good fishing today way up the WI/MN line around 10 miles out from the Superior entry. Lakers, Coho, and this Brown today.

[Lorin]

Wow! Way to go Crystal and crew. That's a dandy. Quite the beak on that fella. Looks like a great day to be on the water.

[reinhard1]

that's an awesome brown!!!!congrats. good luck.

[silver_squid]

Awesome fish! It's hard to beat a squared tailed, hook jawed brown!

[Jim Almquist]

That is a very nice Brown Joel!!!

[Jim Almquist]

Got out today with another HSO member for his first time on Lake Superior. His first fish was a nice eater King Salmon. The next four were Lake Trout and the last for me was a nice King that was 36" long and weighed in at 17 1/2 pounds. We ended up going 6 for 9. Most of the fish were caught in the tea colored water on the line in Minnesota. The depths that we fished were from 100' to 120' and we had our lures down 40' to 80'.

Donnies first King

My King

[reinhard1]

great experience for Donnie and one heck of a King for you JIM. that is awesome. good luck.

[Jim Hudson]

Awesome King!!

[Jim Hudson]

Action by us has been pretty steady since ice out. But, now that the water has reached the mid 40's to low 50's, on the top, action has really been good for Lake Trout. Should stay that way well into August now.

We have been finding fish shallow, 80FOW or less, around Islands. And deep, 100FOW or more, on Flats. Shallow, we have been running a big spread of everything from surface stickbaits off boards to core off boards and tail gunning them straight out the back and of course dipsy and rigger sets too. Deep, all seems to be a rigger bite, as they want it as close to the bottom as possible, and with fish podded up, I dont want any other lures around high, so then I can turn over the fish as quick as possible. Since last Thursday we've put 62 lakers in the net.

[DonnieDahl]

Don't let the face fool you, I was giddy! Thanks again Jim, I had a blast! Nice fish!

[Jim Almquist]

What a difference a day makes! Cool front came through and the barometer went on the rise and the fish got lock jaw. BD110 and I managed to catch 2 Lakers and miss one other bite for our efforts. Fished the same spots as yesterday and the fish were there but just not in the mood.

[JBone]

Awesome fish!

[Jim Almquist]

Got the wife out for the first time and ended up getting skunked. Looked everywhere for some decent water and there was none to be found. All the places that were good on Tuesday are now way to dirty. We tried both WS. and MN and went out farther then I would have liked with the weather looking like it may storm on us.

[tacklejunkie]

Got out yesterday out of McQuade again and picked up one decent sized king and 2 lakers, all on dipseys with spoons with some glow on them. Caught the king over 120 feet and the lakers were caught around 90-95. Then it died but it was a nice evening.

It seems things are settling down nicely from that flood

[tacklejunkie]

So no one is fishing Lake Superior?

Been quiet here

[Jim Almquist]

Got out today and found some clean water. Fishing was good early and slowed as the clouds broke up. Bright spoons trolled at 2.2 - 2.6 down 50-70' seemed to work best. Ended the day with 5 Kings and a Nice Red fin Laker that was released.

[live4chrome]

Got out tody picked up 3 trout over very deep h20

[Borch]

Well we made our annual trip up to Washington Island for a week of salmon fishing 7/25-8/2 and as usual had a great time. Weather always seemed a bit iffy and I can't remember getting out less over that time period than we did this year but we still did ok when we were out.

The key for us was tracking down pockets of cold water as yesterdays spot or water depth was suddenly full of 60 plus degree water the next day with changing winds. We found salmon in 60 -170 fow of water. Several of the spots we had fished had lots of baitfish but not many salmon. Other spots had salmon but few baitfish. We caught fish anywhere from 50 -110 feet down. Almost all of our fish came of the riggers with the mag dipseys getting very little action. Most fish were caught on spoons but at times the flies did very well. The secret weapon rig was a hot one in our boat and the last 4 days accounting for most of the fish going into the box. We had a lot of issues with fish not hooking up good the entire trip. We changed and sharpen hooks regularly as well as tightened releases and increased trolling speeds to try to increase our hook up rates.

The hottest baits for us where the new Moonshine RV series spoons in the mag size. In particular, agent orange, crab face, blue flounder and blue jackel were hot. We also did well on Luhr Jenson diamond king spoons in margarita. Flies that did well were lbb with chartruesse beads and caramel dolphin.

Most of our fish ran 12-14 lbs with our biggest going 16 lbs. Our group of 6 ended up keeping 45. All but 4 salmon had empty stomachs and they ran a bit lighter than usual. Wish I could post some pics but I dropped my cell in the harbor and well, they went with it.

Good Luck!

[Jim Almquist]

Fished Grand Marais Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Had a nasty front come through Thursday night with winds up to 50 MPH. Made for a lousy nights sleep in the tent. It also blew the warm water away from shore. Water by shore was anywhere from 43.9 to 47 degrees and the fishing was slow. Chased around and found the warm water on Saturday and was able to boat 3 kings and a 3 lakers. Went back out to the same spot on Sunday and was only able to land 2 small kings and 3 lakers. From the sounds on the radio and talking to others the fish scattered and really slowed down with the cold water next to shore.