Almost went Lake Michigan Salmon Fishing.....

[Big Dave2]

We spent the past week in Door County Wisconsin on vacation with 4 other couples and our campers. I had it all lined up for 6 members of our group to go out on a chartered fishing trip in the early morning of Thursday. The charter called me at 8:00 Wed. evening to inform me that the boat had broken down and wouldn't be fixed until later that day and there were no available re-scheduling opportunities until Monday. 

 

GGGRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

[leech~~]

Auuuug, that suks!  Really nice area up there. 

[smurfy]

So that means you ALMOST caught a fish!!

 

Real bummer!

[Walleyehooker]

Busy time of year out there so if u get canceled it is hard to rebook especially with the smaller operations. Bummer though as it can be a lot of fun if they are biting. 

[NoWiser]

That's too bad.  The fish were ON FIRE up there.  I went out with my dad and uncle with our tiller walleye boat, and hardly a clue what we were doing, and we crushed them!  Ended up with 118 pounds of packaged salmon fillets.  I think I can honestly say it was the most fun fishing trip I've had in my life.  Here's my biggest of the trip, 25 pounds.

 

 

[Crusty old Swede]

We were up there this week as well, nowhere near as good fishing for us.   Two small fish (3#ers) Tuesday out of Rowley's Bay - bait was everywhere in large balls with fish mixed in but not biting what we were pulling.   Wed had winds gusts to gale force per NOAA, went to the hardware store in Algoma, watched the waves break over the wall in the harbor for a few minutes.   Fished Gills Rock Mon evening and Thur morning lots of bait, lots of fish, no action.   We ran from 2.0 to a bit over 3 mph/gps, small spoons to magnums and flys, very frustrating.   Nowiser where were you fishing out of?    What baits were working for you?   How deep?   Inquiring minds want to know.

[NoWiser]

We were fishing south of you.  We stayed north of the Bank Reef to avoid boats.  We also had lots of baitfish on the graph, but didn't mark a ton of individual fish.  Our best action was 60-80 fow and about 2.4 mph gps.  Dipsys set on 2.5 - 3 with 110-130 feet of line on counter and flasher flies were hot at times.  It seemed when the flasher fly bite slowed, spoons on riggers down 40-50' turned on.  Our leadcore/planer bite was fairly slow until the last morning, when our 10 color rod lit up.  Moonshine RV Magnum Flounder Pounder was by far our best spoon.  Best flasher fly was a Pro King flasher with an aqua colored Howie fly.  I'm not sure on exact color.  They all look the same to me.

 

Our 3 and 5 color with orange spoons were pretty slow for steelhead, which surprised me a bit.  Our biggest rainbows came on purple/silver spoons on the downriggers.

 

Water temps were low 60's for the most part on the surface.  We basically got out onto the lake, looked to see where most of the boats were, and headed in the opposite direction.  90% of our trip we were never within 2 miles of another boat.  Big fish and no stress about other boats made for one heck of an enjoyable trip!  Most boats did come back with fish while we were there, so I think the bite definitely must have slowed down after the big wind on Wednesday.  We fished Friday afternoon - Monday morning.

[Crusty old Swede]

Thanks for the reply...classic case of you should a been here yesterday.

[NoWiser]

16 hours ago, Crusty old Swede said:

classic case of you should a been here yesterday.

 

I think this is the first time in my life that I was there "yesterday."

[Duffman]

Two charter boats. (11 people)

Fishing was very slow last Sunday afternoon (8), but we did really well on Monday morning (43).

Due to bad luck drawing cards, neither Mrs Duff or I touched a rod on Sunday.

She went 5 for 5 on Monday.

That's fishing for ya though.

And true fishermen understand that.

 

Some real nice fish this year, good luck to those that make it out there.

 

 

 

[Duffman]

It was slow for us this year, steelhead on Sunday afternoon, and only a couple nice kings on Monday. But the potential for a big fish is there again this year.

 

My friend is a little on the small side, always makes nice fish look HUGE.  

My early morning fish came in at 23.6 lbs. A pound and a half heavier than the top pic.

 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2018 by Duffman

[Borch]

What port did you head out of Duff?

[Duffman]

 

14 minutes ago, Borch said:

What port did you head out of Duff?

 

We were on Kinn's boats out of Algoma.

 

Edited July 21, 2018 by Duffman

[Borch]

Nice fish.  Heading out to Lake Michigan in 2-3 weeks.  Haven't decided exactly where yet.

[Mike89]

heard from 2 folks who went the other day, their boat not good the other good!!  go figure..  same charter company...

[Borch]

Port Washington has been hot but mostly cohos.  A lot can change in a couple weeks.  Will wait and keep our options open as long as we can.

[Duffman]

Mrs Duff caught the picture worthy fish a couple weeks ago, slow overall.

 

After a 6 year annual event, there were 15 of us this year, we've decided to try some new adventures.

 

Thanks Lake Michigan salmon and trout, you've provided some good times.

 

 

 

[leech~~]

Dang, don't you Duff folks ever work?  Didn't you just come back from the Rocky's