Lake Michigan, Milwaukee

[vdubdipr]

look at this 23 and a half incher! might be some kind of record? biggest crack and made it back?
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff156/vdubdipr/titanic1-1.jpg

[Eric Haataja]

Was out today and the bite was good for us for both steelies and browns, found another nice spot for walleyes and we boated 14 nice eyes with a couple of really really nice fish! Good bite and better weather!!!! I'll post pics and video's when time permits...

[Joe Murphy]

Jesus...I need to get into some walleyes like that...

[gloomis]

Anybody been out in the harbor or into the lake lately for Browns ?
Thinking of heading there tomorrow..

[Walleye1]

Fished out of the harbor yesterday and only managed to get three. Saw others catching a few on spawn, but not too many. We got ours on Gulp. Beautiful day to be on the water. Mike

[addison]

Any suggestions/tips for a newbie for some Milwaukee walleyes/browns? I'm new to the area so I'm not too familiar with locations. Only time I can get out is after work (5pm) or weekends. Thanks in advance.

[Eric Haataja]

I was out this weekend and here's a few fish from this weekend and from yesterday.

We ice fished yesterday and did so so. Hooked a bunch of fish and some really nice fish but for whatever reason they were coming unglued! We landed 8 trout on the ice yesterday both steelies and browns, but we missed way too many!

We ended up going 8 for 19 yikes......... That's fishing though and the weather was nice except for the nasty wind!

Jigging plastics, minnows and and spawn worked for us.

I also made it out the other day with my kids after school and we had a blast catching some really nice walleyes from shore!! All released of course!

Eric

[Eric Haataja]

These fish were all caught on gulp and darter head jigs, our best locations were the rock under the hoan bridge (small spot) out in the harbor, and up in the river near wood.

[Eric Haataja]

a few more fish from 2 days ago. except for the bow in the boat that was last week, great colors on that fish.

Great group of guys!

[cheddermelt]

Nice fish Eric man those bows have great color! that deep red on them looks sweet.

I have some quick questions what pound test do you use on those automatics? im assuming atleast 8lb? ik with my tip ups i use 20lb mono and seem to do alright and for my jiggin i like to use 4lb let me tell you its a fun fight if you get one on the 4lb!

My last question is what are some other good jigs to use for the browns and bows i usually use chubby darters, and white tubes. Is there some other jigs that would be good to add to the box?

also checked out kenosha harbor today and saw bout 5-7 guys fishing right by the tunnel casting and using slips dont know how they did but saw more people arriving to fish.

good luck,

chedder

[MU Fish]

I have not posted in quite a while but got out fishing in Milwaukee both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the wind really limited where we could fish but still managed to scratch out 15 or so Browns and a Walleye. Fish were caught on all presentations-Trolling/Gulp/Spawn but it was not fast action. On Sunday, we probably were closer to 20 Browns with many caught on light spinning tackle. Enjoyed spending time on the water even though the bite was a little slow-Fished both Milwaukee and Bender. Thanks for coming along Cory and Dan. I must admit that Cory definitely had the touch with the Jig stick. Here are a few photo's.

[MU Fish]

A couple of our better Gulp fish.

[trophy_taker]

Just wondering how the ice is in Mckinely and if the water is cloudy. Couple of buddies are going there tomorrow and they wanted to know. Thanks in advance for any replies.

[C. Busalacchi]

February 21st at Gander Mtn. Franklin

This is a day long event from 10 a.m to 5 p.m.

Seminars:

Capt. Eric Haataja: Winter Brown Trout Class 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Eric will be discussing boat tactics for trophy winter brown trout. Pre-registration is required through Eric 414.779.0479 or at haataja2@netzero.com. Fee $75.

Capt. Jason Woda: Summer King Strategies 2 p.m.

Jason will discuss the baits, spreads and tactics he uses to catch summer kings.

Capt. Chris Busalacchi: Small Boat Salmon Tactics 4 p.m.

Chris will discuss boat rigging, equipment and seasonal spreads for small boats focusing on spreads of 6 lines or less.

Lure and Tackle Vendors on site:

Slide Diver, Michigan Stinger, Pro Troll, Rapture Trolling Flies, Silver Horde, Siggs Rigg

Salmon Tackle Package

Approximately $1000 value

Product from the following manufacturers: Slide Diver, Michigan Stinger, Pro Troll, Rapture Trolling Flies, Silver Horde, Siggs Rigs, Opti Tackle, Big Jon, Gander Mtn

Register for salmon tackle givaway for each seminar attended. Receive 5 givaway tickets for every $100 spent on salmon tackle on February 21st at Gander Mtn Franklin. Drawing will be held at the end of the event.

6939 S. 27th St. Franklin, WI 53132 414.761.1500

[Bullhead]

Fished this morning with a buddy and did ok. Caught all seven of my fish on gulp. Was fortunet enough to meet Eric on the wall and talk with him awhile. Looking forward to talking more on Saturday at the seminar.

Biggest fish was a 10 lber seforelan Brown that was really clean and beautiful. I would post the pic, but my home computer is down for the count and my work laptop can't do it either.

Just glad I was able to get out there and fish in open water in February in Wisconsin!!! Just awesome. I didn't think it was possible to fish the big water when snow flakes were falling all around me.

A really great experience. Can't wait to do it again.

Brian
Racine

[Eric Haataja]

I've been out a few times this week and the bite was pretty good except for Sunday. We managed to get some really nice browns and some lakers that we released along with a couple of walleye's.

Both spawn and minnows was working for us along with gulp but the bite seemed to vary day to day.
We also got some fish trolling cranks on planner boards.

Oh I almost forgot to mention I actually saw a bald eagle out in the harbor while trolling this past week. Yes a real live Bald eagle flew right over us...I I have it on video as well and it will be on my you tube account shortly when it downloads I'll try to get the link up. Last year I saw on on Ockachee as well and the year before that I saw on on Beaver lake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0WI5iNZ_Ek

Heading back out again in the morning early.

[Eric Haataja]

We landed 16 fish out there today it was a fairly slow day for the most part, both trolling and live bait fishing. Frenzy's evil eye's and rouges worked for us trolling on boards and lead core. Nothing huge maybe 10 lbs being the biggest.

Eric

[Hunter5]

Made it out to the harbor this morning. Lots of ice. Caught 5 Browns. Kinda slow again...Maybe I should Perch fishing...

[brewcityfishr]

Should be a great year for perch! Guy's from Calumet park are just hammering them right now. lot's of fish in the 12 inch range. maybe I'll take the drive this year. good fishin'

[Eric Haataja]

I was out the past 2 days and the bite was great Wednesday and a bit slower thursday. Thursday we had a lot more ice to contend with so things were a bit more difficult to move around.

weds we probably landed 40+ fish browns lakers and steelhead. Thursday we landed 16 brown trout. Trolling was better yesterday and jig fishing is all we did on weds. We used gulp on Gamakatsu darter heads.

Eric

[Hunter5]

Anyone know if the boat launch has been cleared at National. THANKS

[Rempump]

Getting pumped for the first outing of the year this weekend! Weather is looking good and I am crossing my fingers for a couple of fish.

Keep the reports coming!!

[Honky Donkytits]

The launch was clear.But they are digging abig hole at the top.Looks like the deep tunnel kinda stuff.With all the heavy equipment around...Probably headin out 2maro..Keep ya posted..

[rizzo]

Hey the launch is clear but river is full of ice chunks,you would need a good size boat to get through that stuff.

[Hunter5]

Fished yesterday evening for a few hours. No luck.Lots of ice in harbor

[Rempump]

Never made it out due to the crappy weather. Anyone brave enough to hit it this past weekend?

[Hunter5]

Went out today for a few hours. Caught one Brown by discharge. Water is very dirty

[Eric Haataja]

Was out today and we ended up with 14 fish, so over all it was not a total loss. caught our fish on gulp, skein, spawn and minnows.

Eric

[HotHead617]

Anyone happen to see what the harbor looks like today?

[Eric Haataja]

Well the bite is still going very well despite the dirty water the past 2 days were the best 2 days of the year for me. I had a client cancel today but the bite is still really good! Some area's are a bust other area's are on fire! Gulp, plastics, minnows, spawn and skein all worked! I'll post some pics when I get some time. We caught some absolute giants on light tackle which has been awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Eric

[NOBADDAYS]

Eric where are you fishing? discharge ? lagoon ? lighthouse ? Main gap ?

depth of water ? any help is great! has been the worst year fishing browns in past 5 since you showed me.

[Eric Haataja]

**********PRESS RELEASE**************** By: Captain Eric Haataja

I took steve and darin out from Lake-link

Have you ever had a hard time sleeping before the morning of a Big tourney, or felt butteflies during the rules meeting of the tournament. Well now I understand how these three "PRO" anglers felt, and I was lucky enough to capture most of it on film and get pictures of this event.

It was a privilidge for me to host this years first annual lake-link 3 man in a boat tourney held in the Milwaukee harbor. The contestants of this year event were Darin Novak --3 time chub master of the lower fox river, Steve novak, 4 time hybrid blugill winner in the lower oconowoc river and of course Captain Ryan Dempsey of Green Bay Wi who to this date has caught some huge fish up in the bay including a monster 56 inch ski!

Under tough guidelines these 3 fisherman put there knowledge, fishing skills, and incredible casting abilities to the test that day.

The rules were simple....the first man to catch 5 trout (hook and line legally) was the winner.

It was a fast and furious start with Darin taking a comanding 2 to nothing start over Steve and Ryan but Capt. ryan made a quick come back. after about 15-20 minutes of fishing darin had a comanding lead of 4 fish to steve's 2 fish and Ryans 2 fish.

I could cut the tension with a knife, This was serious with a serious payout. The video says the rest of what happended!

:-))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9FouwHdFbA

I'm also currently downloading a bunch of other video's from that day where Steve, Ryan and Darin all caught some Big Browns that day! Nothing like a good laugh, accidents happen I didn't really mean to do that!

[Joe Murphy]

ahahaa, that was hilarious. dude was all kinds of pissed off. nice work man.

[deadeternity]

ERIC, that was the coolest video I have ever seen man. I never seen something so funny in a fishing video in my life. Not even Bill Dance can beat that with his "Bloopers" videos. That lake-link guy was pretty irretated with you as I can see but sometimes we have to poke fun at someone else's misfortune. Good work man.....:D

[blitzfish]

I was just gonna ask how it went with them two again... I had talked to them at the sports show and said they were gonna head out there with you. Looks like it went real well... so who won?

[gloomis]

Darin forgot to mention this story to me when I stopped by to see him at the Sports Show.. Good work Eric !!!!!!

[luv2fish]

hahahahahah....nice Eric....:D:D:D

[Eric Haataja]

Winner was darin even after I cut him off! It was all in good fun and we laughed a bunch about it!



Here's some really cool video of some giants from this week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aijnLK2XmyY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdG7LizPBUw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8PVzuTebFs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Tf61ZZTys

[Rempump]

Looking to head down to the Mil habor on sunday. How is the water? Anything working better than other methods? Thanks for any info!

Sorry for the 2 post on 2 different areas- not sure what one to use for the Mil. Harbor?

[luv2fish]

I drove over the hoan yesterday and the harbor is clearing up slowly but surely...Its crystal clear just outside the breakwall...

[Eric Haataja]

We did not kill the fish today but the 7 fish my guys landed were all big fish including a big steelhead, we missed another 7 fish and Steve was also near me and they caught some nice fish as well, but sad part of the day was my fellow devil dog Joe 1st Lt. Marine corps had a pig on and it snapped us off, along with a few other snap off just bad luck unfortunately but it was a great day and a pleasure fishing the guys today! I'm really slacking on the pictures..... I need more time, having a tough time keeping up with e-mail and phone calls.....:confused::confused:

Also trying to keep the wife and kids happy is a fulltime job as a dad and husband! I can't give my wife enough credit!

Eric

[John S]

Eric / anyone....have the National Ave problems gotten any better this year? I haven't heard much, and am hoping that no news is good news. How soon until we can launch out of McKinley?

[BigMusky]

Saturday there was a park ranger sitting there for a while...and last fall I saw a cop. So I think it is being patrolled much more regular now.

[Rempump]

Thanks for the info guys- We ended up headin up the dells. It was also a slow bite up there. We caught a dozen shorts.

Any have any guesses as to why the bite has been slow? Is it because the tube isn't pumping or the dirty water? Normally this time of year is good in the harbor.

[ray]

Has anybody done any night fishing in the harbor for trout?

[Eric Haataja]

Yes I have and sometimes catch fish. But that's when sleep did not matter as much to me!;)

[slob sticker]

3 of us fished for about 6 hours today. We started out with all the other boats along the wall, that produced a few suckers and shad. Water was dirty so we decided to look for some better water clarity. Once we found some cleaner water we worked it pretty hard and finally found quite a few nice browns. Biggest was 12 lbs and we ended up with 23 total. First 3 hours was lousy but last 3 hours made up for it. Some work being done near the launch as most of you probably know, still no trouble launching though. Used plastics and metals to catch our fish.:)

[Eric Haataja]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh finally a couple of free minutes to post a few pictures from this crazy stretch of trips everyday for almost 14 days now..... The bite Ice fishing was just absolutely the best I've ever had in my life for both steelies and browns, great numbers and some big fish what a blast! Spawn and jigs with gulp and 3 1/2 inch white castaic minnows worked best for us as usual.

Check out that giant buck steelhead!!! Crazy how long we had ice this year in Mckinely back in some of the slips.

Here's a some pictures!

[Eric Haataja]

Few more fish from this past week. Crazy the amount of steelhead we caught as well actually caught 2 steelies to every 1 brown we caught.

[Eric Haataja]

I still have a bunch more pics to download and lots of video's that I've just downloaded on you-tube, but 2 sick kids and lots of spawn that needs to be tied...gotta go!

[walleyewackr]

great fish eric, some real nice steelhead

[chihook]

is there any fishable ice in the harbor?
Thanks

[Rempump]

Sorry to keep asking the same questions. Any reports on the water condition? How are they biting? Good Luck!

Thanks for any info!

[Eric Haataja]

Conditions are improving and the bite is also improving!

Not much ice.......:(:(

[Finese Fisherman]

heading out tomarro and sunday just wndering how the water clarity is (jones, summer fest, Mckinley) any tips appreciated thx tight lines
David

[Rempump]

Sorry for the late report. Made it to the harbor yesterday. The marina is still iced in. Not much ice left, maybe a 100 feet by 100 feet chunk. Launched at National Ave. Ramp has some major construction right next to it. A little trciky but nothing to difficult to launch.

Headed for the wall and there was nothing there. Fished the rocks and river channel. Tried Jigs, cranks and 3 ways. The baitshop was out of egg sacks so we tried everything else. Caught one nice brown in the marina on a crank. Fished just about every where north of the river. Headed south in the harbor and found better looking water. No fish down there and the water was cold!

I did catch my fitst Mil. River walleye. A nice 18 incher- caught right in the middle of the river near the MMSD building. We did not see a lot of fish caught. Some guys were jigging and some were trolling, The trollers seemed to be having a big problem with all of the floating debris. There was everything from logs to tires to you name it floating around out there.

[Eric Haataja]

I was out yesterday for an afernoon outing and we caught steelhead, brown trout, suckers and walleye's! Had a lot of fun managed to have a few spots all to ourselves and have a blast catching some nice fish. All our fish came on spinning tackle and gulp minnows!

Lots of fun and I forgot the camera...

Good to see a nice big pod of walleye's, it took a while but we found them!

[Finese Fisherman]

fished to day by summer fest grounds and got 5 fish 4 browns and one male rainbow all fish were on cranks and the water clarity was decent
Tight lines
David

[Hunter5]

Went out this morning for a few hours. Caught 2 Trout and a few Moon eye.

[Cbangler]

Late report from saturday...
Out with JT for some trolling. Water was dirty in most of the harbor but found some cleaner stuff on the north end along with a few fish. 14/16 on Trout with a laker and a Steelhead - No giants, but steady action pulling Jerkbaits and spoons. All but one fish came off riggers right on the bottom (right were everything was marked on the graph). Water temps were 37-39. JT will hopefully post some of the better pics, but here are a few. Think we might have found one of Eric's rock piles under the hoan bridge along with a few walters

[dkru15317]

Does anybody know if you can launch out of mckinley yet? I am from about 2.5 hours away, and I don't want to come down if I cannot launch. Also would like to know where to go to anchor/tie up and fish stationary with spawn and gulp? Any pointers would be appreciated. It seems like most people are trolling. Thanks!!:)

[andyj]

Saw somebody launch there yesterday, but the docks were not in yet

[Eric Haataja]

Was out in the harbor today and we went 12 for 22 all browns, both trolling and spawn and gulp worked, clairity at the discharge was much better than I expected and there was not a sole out there except us! All fish were 5-14 lbs

Eric

[Hunter5]

Fished this morning for a few hours. Caught 7 Browns in the Harbor on Spawn.

[yatch]

Piers are in, all good to go. Fish weren't bitting, for me at least. Only clean water I found was in the McKinley harbor, the rest of the harbor had all different colors of water. :D

[Eric Haataja]

Fished today and we started shallow and bit was slow worked our way out into the lake and found some decent fish all in the 6-15 lb class!

The Racine Bubbler is going good also in the 25-35 foot depths, wind point is also going good now in the 8-12 foot of water, and the Boils in Bender are good!

Each day is a little different and some area's the water clairity is good and some spots it's not so good!

Eric

[Big_D]

Finally got the boat out of storage and wetted down for the first time in 2009. Was out on the lake for the better part of Thursday, but spent most of the day breaking in my new kicker motor.

Was back out for real on Friday to try my luck at some browns, but struggled to get anything going. Drug dipsey/spoons around the main gap and the mouth of the river mostly. Water was nice and clear around the gap and outside, but a bit dirty inside. Managed this one chunky brown and a shaker, both in dirty water by the mouth of the river. Also tried a little jigging too, but couldn't get anything going there either.

So... a little slow for me, but sure is good to be back on the water!

Take Care,

D.

[Eric Haataja]

Was out this past week everyday and sometimes twice a day doing multiple trips with clients. Fishing has been very consistent and we've been getting some very BIG browns this past week in the upper teens, along with our first salmon of the year which was really cool! Cranks, gulp, spawn, spoons, and stick baits all took fish depending on the day and where we fished. Flicker shad, and walleye divers in chartruse and blue worked the best shallow along with spoons. Found a couple of nice pods of fish and had most of the area to ourselves up until this past weekend.
Depending on the water temps and water clairity we fished both inside the harbor and out in the lake. Both were good, most days we had 12-25 fish and many in the 8-15 lb class.

Best part of this week was fishing with 8 year old Grace she loved to fish and her dad was sick on the boat (flu) but stuck it out for his daughter and what a blast she had landing some big fish!!!!! Great to see the young boys and girls catching fish!

FYI Many of the other harbors the bite has been good as well such as Port, and Racine just gotta go out and find the fish!

[Eric Haataja]

Here's a few more pictures from this past week.

Some really cool pics of 8 year old Grace with some big browns!!!

[Eric Haataja]

Some more pics from this week of big browns clients caught.

[walleyewackr]

great fish eric, i bet young grace had the time of her life with some of those hogs, what do you have for water temps down there eric?

[Eric Haataja]

Water temps were 38-40 degree's and steady.

Was out today and we went 6 for 13. We did not get any pigs except for a big pike which was cool. All cpr'd I'll post the pics when I get some time.

[duckc.1187]

hey eric shouldn't you be up north by now:D nice pics

[addison]

11lb - 28" Length - 17" Girth

Milwaukee Harbor Brown Trout on GULP :cool:

[Eric Haataja]

try to make this short and sweet but had one of the most unbelieveable days ever out there today, we caught smallies, whitefish, coho's, gizzard shad, brown trout, steelhead and a pike. Did a trip in the morning then did some exploring in the afternoon and found the motherload of giant fish! I'll post pics and video when I get some time! Time for some sleep!!!!:eek:

[tim_mueller]

I usually fish in Port Washington and have been havin pretty good luck but i was thinking of trying down in Milwaukee this weekend. Just looking for some tips on where to fish from shore that have been productive lately. Also what have they been hittin on?

[Finese Fisherman]

heading down to summer fest to do some fishing from shore usually have don good but just wonderin wats there hittin the best ths

[Eric Haataja]

Was out today in the snow and wind early then things cleared up. Fishing was pretty good I had 1 client and he caught 11 browns and 1 steelhead in a 5 hour charter. A couple of really nice fish as well. All our fish were released. Trolling and casting took our fish. I'll try to get some pics up sooner or later!


Summerfest has been hit and miss lately from what i was told.

[brookiereleaser]

was out the past 2 days for an hour or so before dark down by summerfest. Fished the lake side, river side, and lagoon side with no luck. Only saw 2 fish caught, both on spawn under a bobber.

My question is , while my boat is in mothballs, what is the best shore option going right now.

Are you better off up in the river say estabrook or kletsch or is the lake and harbor still the best from shore.
I dont have the energy to bust out my fly rod right now and go wading otherwise I would try that. Any suggestions on the best option would be awesome thanks.

[Eric Haataja]

My suggestion is keep fishing where your fishing, but change your techniques a bit, also try by Jones Island and by south shore near the coast guard station we caught a lot of fish there last week before the water got dirty. Port has been good, along with Racine and kenosha as well, and Sheyboygan can also be very good!

Eric

[brewcityfishr]

knocked the dust off the trolling gear this morning and went down to the harbor. fished 8am to 1pm, managed to go 9 for 12, 1 laker and the rest browns. rogue's and spoons did the the damage today, about a 50/50 mix. water temp was 39-40 on the surface. seen quite a few fish caught from the other boats in the area also. bite should be good for a few weeks yet, then the coho's should start showing up! cant wait! should be a really good year for cohos. good fishin'

[NOBADDAYS]

hope we get some cohos seeing stocking is way down all around in all species and going down fast. we had no run last year at all and hardly any browns this year comparing to recent years. here fishy fishy fishy

[Big_D]

Got out again on Saturday (4/4)... lots of boats out. Nice day, water has cleared up considerably compared to last week. Drug dipsy/spoons around the main gap and the mouth of the river for ~5 hours in the moring. Went 6 for 7, 3 browns and 3 lakers, all in the 5-8lb range. Yellowtail spoon in the morning hours, and blue/green/silver spoon later in the day, accounted for most of my action. Running my spoons ~20' down was best for me. Sorry, no pics... forgot camera. :(

Take Care,

D.

[juice1206]

Hey guys ive tried fishing off the mckinley pier several times now with no luck. Have used spoons, jigs, and spawn and still nothing:confused:. Just a college student trying to catch a fish or two before the school years over. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!:)

[luv2fish]

Try some of the rivers / streams in the area...If not that some other popular shore spots are summerfest and jones island...

[Eric Haataja]

Well I had a day this past week that I will never forget! I caught my personal best laker jigging, I've caught a few lakers bigger trolling but to me this was way more enjoyable and more of a challenge! Not too often you have the chance to get on a big pod of lakers out in the lake but I did a little looking around found a few spots a couple miles off shore and we founf a mess of fish and not just lakers. We caught 2 coho's whitefish and lake trout along with numerous brown trout as deep as 52 feet of water jigging with spining tackle.

Obviously the weather has to be right for the small boat to get out and venture into this type of fishing but if you do try you'll see why it's addicting to catch the fish this way!

The best bait was a white 4 inch gulp minnow with 1/2 ounce darter head jig (gamakatsu) fishing near the bottom although we picked up a few fish suspended or up higher.

Here's a few fish including my biggest laker caught on a jigging rod to date. I've caught bigger trolling along with kings etc.. but it's not the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQFn5tY0sBY


Get out and give it a try!

[Eric Haataja]

Pay attention the the graph out there for the lakers they are glued to the bottom on deeper humps. Oh yea how about this big pike???

[Big_D]

Congrats Eric... That's a piggy! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[Eric Haataja]

Few more fish

[Eric Haataja]

The big white fish as well we caught, I love the multi species! It would be nice to see more eyes in the future hopefully the DNR will get on tract the with stocking program!

[deno b.]

Now those are some cool pics Eric. Lake trout are such a beautiful fish. I have never seen a whitefish that big, did not even know they would get that big. Good Job.

[Needtofishmore]

Awesome fish, Eric. Great video!

[collinfishes]

what everybody said hah. i dont think it gets much better than that. amazing job eric. i wonder if i could make it to those humps in a float tube :D

[Doors]

Nice pictures eric; that's interesting fishing by you again :D:D:D wow

[vdubdipr]

man i hate painting.

eric... do you need a towel boy or bait biotch? haha

$15.00/hr????

oh well it was worth a shot

me fishing long time

[brewcityfishr]

hit the harbor today from 12-4pm. harbor is very cloudy with water temp at 42 deg. we found a nice patch of clear water right along the north gap wall and managed to pick up some fish. managed to go 7 for 10 all brown's. all hit's on rogue's, not a tap on spoons today. hope to get some west winds this week to help clear up the harbor. good fishin'

[C. Busalacchi]

Trolled for a couple of hours this morning with fair success. Like Brew City said the clear water was critcal to staying on fish. We caught fish on a little bit of everything today. Rogues, Bombers and Husky Jerks in clown, blue/silver, pearl, purple and gold all took fish. Spoons were so-so but we did have some action on Stingers in blue dolphin and killer blue.

Best of luck!

Capt. Chris Busalacchi
Salmon Specialist Sportfishing Charters
414.426.2584
salmonspecialist@hotmail.com
www.wisalmonspecialist.com

[C. Busalacchi]

I will be presenting two different salmon trolling seminars at the Gander Mountain in Germantown.


May 6th: Small Boat Salmon Tactics @ 6:30 p.m.

I will be discussing Small Boat Rigging; the why’s and how’s of equipment placement on your boat, Tackle; the best rigs to maximize your productivity on the water, and Trolling Spreads; the theory behind effective trolling spread when running six lines or less.


May 27th: Summer Salmon Tactics @ 6:30 p.m.

Topics covered will include: how to locate salmon throughout the summer, water temperature and its effect on salmon movement/location, lures and color selection and key presentations/spreads.

All seminars are open to the public

Capt. Chris Busalacchi
Salmon Specialist Sportfishing Charters
414.426.2584
salmonspecialist@hotmail.com
www.wisalmonspecialist.com

[Cbangler]

Braved the NE winds on Saturday, only to find exactly what I expected......Lots of dirty water from the big Friday winds. Fishing was a little slo but did manage some quality fish. We ended up 5/7 with all fish coming on the riggers (right on the bottom) with spoons and jerkbaits. Finding the patches of cleaner water was the key....

[GUS MAX]

Fished from 2 til 6 today. Caught some lakers and browns trolling the main gap area. Water color change was key today. Water temp was 44 on the surface. Green colors did most of the damage for us. Deep cranks, shallow cranks behind in line weights and spoons is what we pulled today. Tried the old fashion cow bells with zero success. Bait was all over the place with some real thick pods right in the main gap area. Two of the lakers were real dandys. Tried jigging but the water was a little rough for good boat control. Seen some perch fisherman out and did not see one fish caught. 25 degree difference in air temp from my house to the main gap area, kind of chilly with the east wind. Good luck to all, and be safe out there.

[irishqone]

Got out about 10:30am and was off by 12:30pm. Fished from the Green Can to the South Gap. Went 2 for 3, one 3# and one 14# Lake Trout. Both on small bloody nose spoon behind a Deep 6. Forgot the good camera.

[fishlaw]

Went 1 for 1 Sat morning, in 4 hours. Beautiful conditions, sunny, warm, light wind, but lots of boats. 10# Brown 125' back of in-line board, on a Rogue--sort of ghost white with lavender back. Water in harbor was 45 except for river plume which was darker and 48. Water outside harbor was 42-3. Saw 3 other fish caught--two by trollers and one by boat jigging in the south gap. Except for river plume the water inside the harbor was very clear.

[brookiereleaser]

where is the green can and how do you get there,

is there a good lake mich milwaukee map that has all the usually landmark terminology in it like that can, the boils, reefs and what not.

thanks for any suggestions

[Eric Haataja]

Fished yesterday for 3 hours and we caught 7 fish jigging Brown trout, lake trout, and a whitefish. Lots of fun on spinning tackle and light line!

[walleyewackr]

nice laker eric, i am jealous

[yatch]

Went 6 for 6 outside the harbor on browns and lakers, riggers and small spoons did the job:D

[luv2fish]

What are your guys' predictions for when the Coho will start showing up in Milwaukee?? Heard they are goin good right now in the southern end of Lake Michigan...Im gonna venture a guess and say 2 -3 weeks...

What do ya think??

[Reel Addiction]

Anybody been out lately?
I'm planning on making a trip out of Milwaukee Saturday afternoon. I'll report how it goes after.
I'm guessing right now it's going to be all Browns, Lakers and maybe an occasional King.

[deadeternity]

I stopped down at the Summerfest Lagoon with a 10 foot ultralight rod spooled with 6 pound test line, 1/32 ounce jighead, and some nightcrawlers to kill some time today. I caught 1 crappie about 9 inches long.

:cool:Suddenly I seen this alewive scatter across the surface infront of me with a huge swirl behind it. Nomore then 5 seconds later I feel this massive strike and after battling the fish for about 7 minutes or so I landed a huge silver 18-20 pound brown trout. I probably could've kept the fish but I let her go. It was full of eggs or, alewives. It was a massive brown trout and very clean looking. :cool:

I have never known browns to eat nightcrawlers but that fish is one that will not be forgotten. I will post pics when I figure out how to get the pics off of my cellphone. I of course did'nt have a proper camera with. If I did that would only make me have bad luck ;).

[Reel Addiction]

Fished this afternoon from around 3:30-6:00 before we had enough of the gale force winds. Nothing to show for our efforts other than one hit and run. We fished outside the main gap to the filter in anywhere from 25-55fow. Probably should have stuck around until dark but we had enough of the wind:mad:

[Jason Woda]

Fishing has been tough to say the least for the last 2 weeks. Reports are getting better closer to home and should see some coho action i am guessing within a week or so. The fish we are getting are in deeper water 80 to 120 in the top 50 feet. Spoons on cores and flasher fly combos on riggers ahve gotten the call. Kings and lakers are around, but you have to work for them, and there hasn't been much action. This week will pick up with the south winds coming. There is a ton of bait here this year, so good things are going to happen, just a bit behind. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[Jason Woda]

What a difference a couple of days can make. Fished this morning 75 to 110 fow north of town. Went 11 for 17. 6 nice kings, 5 lake trout. The ones we lost were kings also. Bite breakdown is as follows.
3 hits on metal smoke dodger with aqua fly.
2 hits on full(300) copper with wonder bread Stinger.
3 hits on 5 color lead with green dolphin Dream Weaver.
1 bite on 7 color core with green dolphin.
1 hit on Lemon ice Stinger 80 down on rigger.
1 hit on 50 rigger with Kevorkian.
1 bite on coho rig ( laker no coho)
2 hits on white flasher little boy blue fly down 70 rigger.
3 hits on white Spin Doctor (aqua fly) on dipseys out 140 and 160.
Hope this is here to stay. Fishing should pick up as the week goes on with predominant winds from the south to blow some warm water our way.

Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[brookiereleaser]

any chance to still pick up some lakers or browns in or near the harbor,

i have a small boat and dont like to take it as far out as the coho's apparently are right now, but i would love to try jigging for some out of the gaps or within a safe distance from the break wall on a nice day,

what do you all think

[Jason Woda]

Some cohos finally showed up around town. 90 to 130 fow. 00 orange Jensen dodgers with peanut flies in the top 15 feet. Bigger flasher fly combos down deeper. Kings are coming deeper cohos and steelhead up high. Time to get out there and have some fun. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com:)

[Big_D]

Got out and braved the waves this morning. Not quite the 1-2'ers from the NOAA forcast... more like 2-4'ers. Medium winds out of the N/NE, Surface temps 48F - 49F, and water clarity was great.

After a slow wet ride out, I set lines in 70 fow just south of the filtration plant ~6:15am. Ran 2 dipsey/spoons and a spoon on 6-color leadcore working NE. About 7:45 am, I switched my 6-color up to a coho rig and had my first coho in the boat 15 minutes later in 120 fow. Zig-zagged NE and NW in 120-135 fow for the rest of the day. Finished north of the towers with a limit at 11:05 am. 5 for 5, 3 cohos and 2 rainbows. Not much for size, one of the rainbows was in the 8-9lb range and one of the cohos topped out ~5lbs. Everything came on coho rigs, 4 on 6-color leadcore and 1 on a 4-color that I swapped out one of my dipseys for. Trolling speeds (GPS) of 1.75 - 2.25 mph seemed to be best, but waves were tossing me around pretty good, so it's hard to tell for sure.

Take Care,

D.

[C. Busalacchi]

Fished Saturday night from 6 to 8:30 and finished 7 for 8; 1 steelhead, 3 coho's and 3 kings. Most of the action was outside of 150 FOW. Stinger spoons in blue dolphin, glow wonderbread and glo dolphin (by far my best king spoon this year) all caught fish. Red 00 Dodger w/ Rapture Riptide and Red Double B Flasher w/ Rapture Fission were the fly combos that did the work. Flat lines, 2 colors, 6 colors, 300' copper and my 45 rigger did all the work. There were loads of bait and fish out there so the action should be great once the lake lays down.

Capt. Chris Busalacchi
Salmon Specialist Sportfishing Charters
414.426.2584
salmonspecialist@hotmail.com
www.wisalmonspecialist.com

[deadeternity]

Are the water temps and conditions looking good for us shore anglers that chase perch outthere? I know the season opens June 16th but, you can normally tell if the season will be set to go or if it will drive the schools of perch out deep away from shore.......

[Jason Woda]

Fishing slowed this week after the wind we had last week. Still managed some decent trips with a mixed bag of cohos, kings, lakers, and bows. Fish are scattered everywhere from 30 to 170fow, from 5 to 100 feet down, that will make fishing easy..... We will see if the wind this week will pocket them up a bit. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[Finese Fisherman]

good to hear you guys are doing good on the big pond but unfortunatly i dont have a boat so i was just wonderin if the kings r coming up to Mckinley at night
Tight lines
David

[Big_D]

I ventured out into the wash-tub yesterday (6/6) fishing out of McKinley... stiff NE winds and 2'-4' waves. Surface temps ranging from 46F to 49F in spots. Set lines (3) in 70 fow east of the North Gap @ 5:45am, worked out as far 135 fow and as far north as the towers, and then back south... pulled lines ~1:15pm pretty much right back where I started. Managed to scrounge up 2 cohos and a small Laker (rls). Both cohos came on coho rigs on 6-color leadcore in 95 & 85 fow, and the laker came on 2-set 70loc dipsy with yellowtail spoon in 80 fow. Also had 2 drive-byes on that setup in ~80-90 fow. Was marking lots of bait pods in 80-100 fow, so I spent a good part of the day in that range. Almost got run over by a neat looking sailboat while I was packing up... so snapped a pic of that too.

[Jason Woda]

Fishing this morning was awesome to say the least. Had a 3 boat trip and all 3 caught 25 fish or more. Fished 85 to 100 fow. Kings, cohos, rainbows, and lake trout were parts of all 3 catches. Flashers and flies on everything. Riggers were set at 35, 55,75 and 95. Wire dipseys out 150 and 170 also with flasher fly combos ( 8 inchers) and aqua flies. Planer boards with typical coho rigs took cohos and rainbows. Lots of bait and fish around. Hope it stays.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096

[dkru15317]

I was just wondering if anybody could give me some information on the best time to fish for salmon with a bobber. I did this last year, but I must have been a little late. I am planning to take a vacation to do this, so any info would be very helpful. I was also told that you can catch them casting crank baits. If this is true, what is the best time for this as well. Thanks in advance for any info

[profishermansk8er]

Lake Michigan smallie

[deadeternity]

Fish for salmon with a bobber in October when they come into the harbor and will bite the hell out of skein and spawn.........

[yatch]

It looks like the big pond is going to be great this year. (After the June storms of last year.) Tons of bait fish on the graph and all the fish I have been boating, Coho and Kings, have had a full stomach of 3 inch alwives. Last year the stomachs were empty on most of the fish I did manage to boat. My perspective is from an average Lake Michigan fisherman running three lines and some times 6. A three line spread is a different ball game from the charters with 12, plus lines. Today we had 6 in the water and went 4 for 6, 3 coho's and 1 12# king. No patterns yet. Our fish came high and low but all on flasher fly rigs. WE did our best 90 to 100 then 200 to 220. ! Great morning, all we need is a little west winds to make this a perfect big pond year. :D

[brewcityfishr]

Hit the big lake a few times over the past 2 weeks Racine/Milwaukee. picking up a few coho's and bow's each time out. picked up the first king of the year yesterday 15 pounds and a couple coho's. got a vey nice bow today about 14 pounds and 3 coho's. fished between 90-200 fow with most hits around 130fow. green flashers/green flys and coho rigs being the best. marking tons of bait between 100-120' the most bait I've ever seen! see ya on the water. good fishin'

[dub]

Fished Friday PM, on the water with my dramamine buddy by 6pm. NE out of McKinley to 100ft. Marking lots of bait. Picked up a Coho on 8 colors of lead behind a board, orange dodger with purple peanut fly. Had another boat go through the area and pop a double-header. Trolled North of the towers with nothing going, most boats went shallower. We went shallow and the marks went away. Went back to 100' off the towers to finish the evening and were marking bait and fish all over the place. We had Boards, Riggers, and Dipsies presenting flasher/flies, and spoons, ran the glow spoons at the end which is usually a sure thing but we could not get them to go. Strange. Finished 1 for 1. Too much bait in that area?

[Jason Woda]

Fishing this past weekend was very consistent, except for the fish moving around a bit, but once you found them it was pretty good for kings and cohos especially. Fished all over from 85 to 225 fow between all the trips covered alot of water. Friday the bite was in a bit shallower, but by Sunday it was out deep. Coho rigs on the surface had their moments, but are starting to slow a bit with the water getting warmer. Wire dipseys and riggers were best all weekend fishing with 8 inch flashers and flies.... on all of them. Dipseys were set 150 loc and 180 loc. Caught fish as deep as 140 down on the riggers. Lead core is starting to pick up steam with Spin Doctors on them in 5, 7 and 10 color rigs. 300 feet of copper took a couple fish this weekend also. Fish are going to be scattered a bit till a thermocline sets up, you have to wander around a bit to get some action. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[irishqone]

Thanks for the great reports Jason W.
Got these two today. Coho in 97 fow, Chin in 103 fow.
Both on flasher/fly combos. Had hits on spoons too.

[Big_D]

Got out for another round this morning. Fished 5:15am to 10:15am dragging three lines all over creation once again. Nice morning to be out, except for the lack of action. Waves were ~1' most of the morning... was just starting to churn up to 2-3'ers as I was packing it in. Light winds were out of the E/NE early and shifted to E/SE later in the morning. Water clarity was good, but lots of surface junk out there, cotton/weeds/skum, etc. And it seems the lake flies are now in full bloom too. Pesky little buggers with not much wind to blow them away.

Started in 70 fow just South of the filtration plant, worked E/NE all the way out to 221 fow (yikes!) with just one little bump on a dipsy (70 loc) with blue/green spoon. Puttered around out in the 200's for a while but couldn't get anything going, so I motored back into 120 fow and reset ~8:30am. 8:45 picked up a nice 10+ lb laker (released) on 6-color lead with watermelon spoon. About a half-hour later had something nice hit my 4-color lead with coho-rig, but it shook loose before I even got the rod in hand. That was in 85 fow... and made amatur mistake of not checking the bait after that... drug around a fouled up coho rig for the rest of the day :( Live and learn, I guess. :cool:

Anyway... got the skunk out of my boat. That'll have to be enough for now.

Take Care,

D.

[irishqone]

2 for 3. 1 small rainbow on a Kevorkian spoon. Missed another bow at the boat a little bigger on a cracked ice spoon. And finished with a 13 inch King on the Kevorkian again, the bigger spoon. Got windy earlier than expected.

[collinfishes]

did some exploring yesterday and walked quite a few miles of shore in search of carp. started off pretty bad. water was terrible and made sight fishin impossible, which made catchin a carp impossible too. could see clear water a ways down shore so thats where i headed. about 4 miles later i found a TON of carp tailin and in a feedin frenzy. the only problem was they were in some thick slop and feeding on the bottom so everytime my fly hit the water it was instantly cover in weeds before it could get to the fish. ended up missing a bunch either setting the hook too early or too late. did get a few slimy suckers and a little brown though. oh and i found a dead goby washed up that was 9in. thing was a beast.

[Reel Addiction]

My brother and I took my dad out for Father's Day, another beautiful day on the water. We ended up 6 for 8......but we sure had to work for those 6 (4 Coho's, 1 King, 1 Rainbow.) We went 3 for 5 before 730 in 100-115fow than nada until 11AM. We picked up and moved out to 230fow off of Whitefish Bay and picked up another 3 more in short order. It seemed that the fish were far more active offshore than the shallow fish in 110fow.

What worked:
2 Color with Orange Dodger w/green copper peanut fly (4#Coho)
10 Color with Purple/Black ProKing Mag (9#Rainbow; 3#Coho; 7#King)
Pump - 250loc w/Smoke Opti Dodger and Green/White Poseidon Fly (6#Coho)
Wire Dipsy #2 Setting 150 loc w/Smoke Opti Dodger and "Icicle" Poseidon Fly (6#Coho; Lost Coho)
7 Color with Orange Dodger w/ Blue/Gold Cheddar Fly (Lost Rainbow)

Not much of pattern only the Purple/Black ProKing Mag and the Smoke Opti with Icicle Poseidon Fly took multiple hits.

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks a bunch for the awesome report!

[dub]

Got out Saturday 5 PM, set up just South of the towers in 100 fow. Debris floating all over. Trees, branches, logs etc. all playing havoc with the lines. Marking lots of fish, didn't seem to be in the pods of bait that the shallower boats were in. Picked up first fish at 5:30 straight East of the towers in 110 fow 1.7 on the raider down 50 at 57 degrees, SWR down 80 white flasher with Little Boy Blue fly yielded a 19.5 lb King (picture att.). Second hit was a floating tree on a 6-color behind a board. While circling back around to free the tree, big fish hit on SWR Mountain dew flasher with glitter green fly down 70 and managed to take out several lines. Back in the fish by 7pm and picked up an 8lb Coho on white flasher with Green and white fly on a slide diver back 40, 70 loc set at 3.5. Last fish hit as we pulled the last line on the SWR down 30 orange dodger and purple peanut fly, 12 pound King.

[Finn Lander]

Fished Saturday 6/20 am. Straight of from north gap and went NE. Like everyone who fished knows, lots of debris. Shallow water had logs, boards, garbage, sticks and cottonwood tree (cotton). Thought I made it past the debirs until we hit willow tree debris (sticks and leaves) all the way out to 185'. Ended up fishing 200' to 230' because the water was at lease clean. Ended up 2 for 2 with a drive by. Both nice coho off of a dipsy 50' loc with 00 dodger and LLB peanut fly. Found that my DR's had willow debis for most of the day...could have explained their silence.

[Reel Addiction]

Made it out last night for a few hours.

Not our finest showing......ended up an embarrassing 1 for 4.
Worst part is we snapped off 3 lines. One was on a huge fish that was 350 yards behind the boat, the line was burning off the spool so fast it was starting to back lash and dug into the spool and locked it up snapping off the piggie:mad::mad::mad:

Did manage to catch one 14# king and watch the fireworks on the way in. we started in 170fow and trolled out to 200 than back into 100fow. All fish were between 100-115fow 30-90 feet down.

Here's what worked:

250' Copper of board with Green Blade/Silver Tape Coyote and Double Aqua Poseidon Fly. (14# King)

7 Color with Silver Streak Orange Crush (Snapped off Coho?)

Slide Diver Set#3.5 80loc with Orange Dodger and Blue/Gold Cheddar Fly (Lost Coho)

10 Color off board with Purple/Black Pro King Mag (Snapped off very large King)

Water temp was 76 on the surface, 46 degrees 30 down and 43.5 degrees 80 down.

Reel Addiction

[irishqone]

I was out a lot over the past week and things are slow to say the least. Several skunks, 2 perch and two Rainbow in about 6 trips. I hope things get better soon. I have had the best luck trolling in 95-115 fow. Caught both bows on green/glow spoon off the rigger 40 down.

[Finn Lander]

Got out early, 4am, with my dad and caught a 17# chinook on a wonderbread glow j-plug 5 color lead core gunner 4:30 am. Minutes later had a drive-by on a glow bloody nose spoon on a rigger down 30'. Fished in 60-70' fow until 5:30 am. Then went back to the launch and picked up my buddy and his son at 6am. Ran out to 240' immediately. Fished out to 255' and into 225' back and forth straight out from filtration plant. Picked up 2 coho on dipsy 50' loc on a 00 and green/purple homemade peanut around 7:15 am. Second coho hit while resetting the line from the first fish. 7# and 4.5# coho. Around 8 am picked up a 8# laker on 6 color LC on a purple spoon w/ white tape added (purple ice). Got a 9# bow on another disey with white flasher and aqua fly 80' loc at 9am then no more fish. 5 for 5, 1 driveby, and four different species. Perfect weather and the flies were not bad at all.

[Jason Woda]

Fishing has slowed to a crawl. A couple of fish per trip now is the norm with an occasional better day. Waaaay to much bait around and my thought is the fish are full and have a meal in front of them all the time. Fishing should pick up with the thermocline setting up, but I thought that a week or two ago. The fish we are getting are mostly on coppers (75's to 300's) and few on riggers. Flashers and flies are still our choice in white with aqua, but we are still getting fish on coho rigs. Hope it gets better soon. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[irishqone]

It was really windy, but I picked up one Coho in 70 fow on a Wonder Bread flasher and aqua fly, right at sundown.

[Reel Addiction]

Fished Thursday night from 4 until 9. Ended up going 3 for 4.
Two were nice 7# bows and 1 shaker king (released). Of course everything hit in the last hour of daylight. We fished between 60-120fow with the best action being around 75fow. We marked tons of fish, but getting them to eat was a different story.

What worked:
7 Color with Orange dodger and Blue Copper Cheddar Fly (Bow, Lost Fish; Shaker King)
10 Color with Silver Streak Kevorkian (Bow)

Friday morning we were on the water by 4:30 and had lines set in 75fow off the towers working north. Missed 3 fish including one screamer before 5AM. After 5AM it was SLOOOOW!! We screwed around between 70-100 fow until 7:30 and decided to try out deep. We moved out to 260fow and started trolling NE. Not much better out there. We caught one greaser (released) 65 down on a mag dipsy with white inticer Flasher and LBB Poseidon Fly.

Hopefully the fish turn on sooner or later.

Good Luck!

Reel Addictio

[Finn Lander]

Went out of McKinley at 4:45 am. Started in 55' and worked zig zag north of filtration plant 55 - 80'. Lots of bait and marks, but no takers. At 7:30 am headed east (looking for hungry fish). Told my crew we were going to keep going east until we caught something. At 8:45 am in 240', a 2# chin hit a coho rig/ aqua peanut on 3 color. CPR'd. At 8:55 am, in 250' on a DR down 70' green monkey puke spoon, 23.5# chin with great girth, only 37" long but wow the girth was impressive. At 9:25 am a 6# coho on a rotton banana on a dipsey 80 loc. And that was all she wrote for me. 3 for 3. Took pictures with a regular camera. Will have a digital picture made from it when developed. Will post picture then. Stayed out till 11:30 am and nothing else going on. Was talking with someone on 68 who was persistent and worked 70 - 80' all day and was 8-13. Green flash/ grn fly was his best action.

Kevin

[irishqone]

Did real good this morning from 4:45-7:30. Had 9 hits and 5 fish; two Kings, two Coho, and a big Rainbow, along with 4 hit and misses. Spoons and Dodger/Fly combos took fish. Dodger/fly behind a Dipsy took the most hits.
My buddy from work had a blast.

Good Luck and Good Fishin'
Jim

[Jason Woda]

Fishing has been tough but it is getting better. Most action has been on lead core. Best set ups are 3 colors right now with all the steelies around. 5,7 and 10 color have gotten action too. Bites are still coming on 300 copper...just shows you the fish are top to bottom with no pattern. White cracked ice Pro King, Hey baby, and Stinger glow dolphin have been best for me on cores. My riggers have been run with flashers and flies along with dipseys set out 150 loc. Not hot and heavy but still getting bites. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[Grey Beard]

Finally something to report. Tired of these 3 bites in 7 hrs outings. Especially in tournaments.

Left the harbor around 4Am and headed NE setting lines in 65fow. Took awhile to get bit but in 80fow rigger SWR down 35 with Reg Raider Grey Beard had the only screamer of the day the fell off after 4-5min. King hit the rigger down 50 with Mag Raider Broken Nose. 65loc wire with White Opti/glow and Siggs AquaGlow fly another med. King. 7 Color with reg Raider Bloody Puke a nice bow and a drive by same spoon swr down 25. Bow on 25loc 3 set and Miss Thing reg that was a real dancer. Missed another fish on the 65loc wire flasher setup. Worked 70-85fow off the filter. It went pretty dead after 6AM but still marking some bait and fish but pulled at 7 and ran to 180 on a NE course.

200fow nice bow on a 2 color with orange Bechhold and Blue longtail fly and 2 more on same setup over the coarse of the AM. 6 color and Mag Raider Flame Thrower 1 for 2. Drive by on 5 color and another mag Flamethrower. 40’ rigger took a coho on MT.Dew/orange Opti and Blue longtail. LT on 3set 65loc on reg Miss thing. Shallowest deepwater fish came in 175 and deepest 235. Just wandered around and didn’t mark much but did see a little bait near the surface. Surface temp 59.5 and 44 down 55. Trolled around 2-2.2 on the Raider.

Ended up 10 for 12 and 4 drive-bys with 2kings, 1 LT, 1 coho and 6 bows. Bows were all nice solid fish 6.5-9.5#. It took us 9 hrs but a great day to fish and finally a few bites.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[irishqone]

Got out and had a blast tonight. Went 7 for 13 in just a couple of hours. 60-80 fow North of UWM. Even caught a Whitefish, I think? Let me know what you think.

[Reel Addiction]

That is a whitefish! I've never managed that before what did you get him on?

[irishqone]

We got it just before dark on the rigger 40 down with a Cracked Ice Mag Spoon.
Thanks for the help with the ID, we thought maybe a Cisco, but the mouth gave it away. :D

Good Luck and Good Fishin'.
Jim

[Finn Lander]

Took my standard camera film into Walgreens and had it developed yesterday. I'm posting the picture that I promised. Attached is the 23.5# king (male) I got on Saturday 7/4/09 in 250' of water on a DR with a green puke spoon down 70'.

[brewcityfishr]

Fished the big lake both yesterday and today. set lines yesterday at 4:30am in 50 fow and managed to go 5 for 7 with 4 bow's and 1 coho. trolled between 50-80 fow and ran mostly mag glow spoons and 1 flasher/fly set-up. all fish caught on the spoons, 1 hit on the fly.

today- had lines set by 3:30am and had a good early bite but it died as soon as the sun came up. went 6 for 10, with 4 kings, 1 laker and a coho. same depths and baits as yesterday. very nice fish today 19 pound king, 6 pound coho, and a 9 pound rainbow! had a break off on a lead core. another hit on ledcore that took off, took the board under and I couldnt stop him. lot's of big fish this season! should see a few 20+ pound kings this year! good fishin'

[yatch]

Got out this morning out of McKinley, on the water by 3:30 am (should have slept longer) worked 115 to 120 north of the towers. first fish at 5:30am nice 12# king 55 down on a swr one color with a pro king 100 back. Next bite at 6 am a double both on riggers. Same set up but one rod was a 2 color. Lost the one could only work one at a time. Wrapped it up at 8am with 2 for 3.
Ran other set ups with 3, 5 and 7 color rods. Even spent some time with a p/p dipsy 100 out on 2 with nothing. Good morning, boat back in the stable by 9:30 am. :D

[Jason Woda]

Well, fishing has improved over this week. The early bite is strong. fished the last couple of days from 55 fow out to 160fow with fishing coming in all depths. Wire dipseys have been good with green spin doctors and aqua or green flies. Riggers are taking fish with flasher fly set ups in the same color. Lead and copper have been tipped with spoons and have done very well especially after the morning bite slows. Best spoon has been Pro King double cracked ice. on 10, 7 and 5 color. Steelhead are coming on 3 color with double orange crush Stinger. Get out there..fishing is pretty good now. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[Finn Lander]

Fished 4:30am to 11 am. Had to wait for the storms to pass before launching. Set up in 55 fow. 5am 10# chin on glow kevorkian (blue glow) down 40' on rigger. Then nothing until 7am when we got a 10# chin on a 9 color on #4 J plug in about 85 fow. Worked deeper to 125'. Saw more marks at 100' than anywhere else so I concentrated on 100' - 110' and set stuff deep. At 9:15 am hit a 6# chin (rare 2 year old) on a rigger down 85' on a watermelon spoon. Then at 9:30 hit a 8# LT on same 85' rigger set up as previous. Then 9:45 am hit a 5# coho on # 4 green glow j-plug on 9 color. Nothing else and quit at 11 am.

Ran green flashers with green and aqua flies...even tried white/lbb and white aqua...nothing. Also ran cracked ice spoons on riggers, 10 color and 8. Tried orange on 3 color, purple, blue dolphins, hey babe, NBK, bloody nose, rotten banana and many more. All the things that tend to work didn't. I got my fish on the stuff that I tried out in desparation.

5 for 5

Kevin

[Reel Addiction]

Fished for a few hours tonight 7-9PM and went 2 for 5. Best action for us was north of the filter in 95-105fow. Not fast and furious By any means, would have been a better outing if we managed to keep a few more hooked. It seems as if there are a lot of nice Kings around and they are tough buggers when they hit a line with 350ft of copper out.

Here's what worked for us
1. Lost nice King in 105fow on 300ft of copper on a Hot Lobster Magnum Silver Streak.
2. 13# King in 95fow on a 7 color with a Dr. Death No.4 Diamond King.
3. Lost fish in 100fow on a rigger at 70ft SWR Green Dolphin Pro Troll E-Chip with a Naughty Leprechaun Poseidon Fly.
4. Drive by on a 5 color in 105fow on a Orange Crush Regular Silver Streak.
5. 7# Grease Ball (released) in 98fow on a 5 color with Orange Crush Regular Silver Streak.

As you see there was no real pattern for us. The boards were much better than the riggers today, which in becoming typical.

Good Luck out there!

[deadeternity]

Does anyone notice mass amounts of baitfish ruining the fishing for them? I have this theory right now that the perch are'nt feeding because they are stuffed so full of alewives. I had 100 follows from these perch but they would not hit. Only landed 12 in 5 trips, and all of them were filled up on alewives like you would not believe. I also see massive schools of alewives everywhere I look, and see the perch occasionally attacking them. Seen one choke to death on a alewive that was 8 inches in length, the perch was only 10 inches long.

I will be trying again tomorrow but, I hear the salmon are also tougher to catch this year with all the bait around now.....

[collinfishes]

what happened to you sayin there wasnt enough bait around? haha. the perch down in racine have been stuffed like that since the opener and we havent had any problem limiting out up until about a week ago, some were even filled with crayfish which i havent seen in awhile. all the trout and salmon have been full to the brim too. even the smallies earlier in the year were coughing up tons of alewives. there the thing to follow and eat out on the big lake and every fish thats bigger than them knows it. i dont think its a problem at all, the more food for them the bigger they get and i can wait till there hungry again :p . if the lake turned over and took that warm water with it, it might have been what shut em down. yesterday surface temps were 64-65 in 30fow and 66-68 in 90fow not sure if that would have anything to do with it but just a thought. i remember a few years ago the WHOLE boat launch was a giant school of alewives and the perch we biting as fast as you could cast. what i do if im gettin a bunch of follows if you dont already do it, is a throw back bait have a pole with some kind of single rigged plastic or live bait laying in quick reach. i got bored and a little frustrated with the perch so i went back to fishin the ol reliable trout and salmon. :D

[deadeternity]

With the salmon their bellys are 4 times the size of the perch bellys so they can suck in alot more baitfish and still have room. The perch I catch have so many alewives in their bellys that it is a wonder why they even hit the plastics I throw to them. The people using minnows, shiners, shrimp, crabtails, plastics, crankbaits, and spoons are having trouble now. There is tons of fish but, they are clearly full. Alot of us perch anglers see that. Racine may have tons of perch and baitfish, but the fact is the greater Milwaukee area is filled with schools upon schools of baitfish. I have chased these perch daily for the past month and, I noticed a drastic change once them baitfish showed up. A week ago there was not this much bait,maybe small schools of maybe 10 alewives, not huge schools of hundreds of alewives everywhere you look. I think it is making the difference between success and failure. To me catching 5 perch or a 3 man limit in 4-5 hours is not good perch fishing, that is barely scraping by. Good perch action for me is 30+ fish in 2 hours or less.

How is that salmon bite from shore? I hear alot of fish are present but alot of bait is making it hard to get mass numbers of them. I have not seen this much bait around in years, at least 10 years if not more. It is a good thing for the future but, not a good thing if the fish are to full to feed on what we give them. I tried the throwback bait method, I tried litterally everything and these perch would follow or not even pay attention. Oh well, I will try again today......

[collinfishes]

its been the opposite here once those bigger schools left so did the perch action. while they were here though atleast 85% of the perch we caught had 2-3 tails sticking out of their throats and just as many if not more inside of em. on good days we were averaging 150-250 perch in 2-3 hours. even on the slowest days we still got atleast 30 fish between me and joe. but now its like someone flipped a switch and you cant even buy a bite. the alewives get thick like this every year and it always slows the fishing alittle for something atleast for me it does. good luck with those striped guys. :)

[yatch]

Got out today for a couple hours out of McKinley. Fished 10 to noon. Strong west wind had the cold water less than 15 down in 60 ft. of water. Surface was already at 56 degrees when I left. By morning we should have fog and jackets on with this continued blow from the west. Bring your long johns in the morning. (Lets see if this happens) Boated one steelhead about 7 # on a pro king w/ a three color on a board. Lotsa marks in the top 30 when I left. :D

[yatch]

Went back this morning looking for those shallow kings with all the west wind we have been getting. Found them in 30 to 35ft. of water along with tons of bait fish. Fished from 4:30am till 6:30 am went 5 for 5, 3 kings and 2 browns. Mag/glows on a one color 100 to 125' back 17 to 25 down. Kept just 2 big kings. My personal best for the year a 18# 35.5" King (Talk about a fire drill) Solo trips lack something when you take a photo of the big fish laying on the floor:o. :D

[Finseeker]

Made it out for a few hours on Friday night after a little intel from Capt. Haataja. We only got 2 jig bites but they were worth it. 1 20 lb male and a 18.5 lb male.

Everything was great until a fleet of sailboats doing 30 knots almost ran over 3 kayak anglers and the cappie who had Cal in the boat.

[Eric Haataja]

fishing has been o.k. this past week out jigging for kings, not a bunch of fish but 2-6 fish each trip out. Nothing beats kings on light tackle on jigs it's a blast!!!! I just posted some video's from the past few days. I'll post some pics when I get some time heading back out now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXvzxbN_0w0&feature=channel_page

[BigMusky]

I thought this bite might be going...but decided to go out trolling instead because usually trolling it good when the jig bite heats up...but it was kind of slow. Only 2 for 7, had a some big fish on but just would not stick. Need to refine some things in presentation.

[Reel Addiction]

Late report from Saturday.

Finally a better day ending up 11 for 15 (2 Lakers; 6 Kings; 1 Brown; 2 Rainbows) in 6 hours of fishing. In addition I managed to catch a 17.35# Laker that was good enough to finish in second place of the lake trout category at the Big Fish Bash. He ate a Poseidon Blue Mirage Fly tipped with an alewife fillet behind a Blue Bubble Spin Dr. right off the bottom in 55 fow.

Best depth was by far and away between 55-65fow.

Here's what worked.

Slide Diver 70loc with a Green Dolphin Pro Troll E-Chip and a Poseidon Lighting Bug Fly tipped with an alewife fillet. Took two fish (10# King and lost another King at the boat)

7 color with a Magnum Caramel Dolphin took 7 hits landing a 15.5# King; 3# Rainbow; 10.5# Rainbow; 18.5# King; 10# Lake Trout; and Lost two others.

5 color with Orange Crush Silver Streak took 5 hits (Lost Rainbow; Drive by; 7# Brown; 6# King; 14# King)

10 color with #4 Diamond King took one Shaker King

Rigger down 55 ft with Poseidon Blue Mirage Fly tipped with an alewife fillet behind a Blue Bubble Spin Dr. (17.35# Laker)

All and all pretty darn good out there. We had to work for them but it payed off......this time at least:):)

I attached a pic of the big grease ball.

[irishqone]

Over the week I fished a lot. Had a few consistencies. A Green/Green Pro King spoon took many many hits down 31 on the riggers. A e-chip flasher (green&black laderback) with an aqua peanut fly took many bows and coho behind the Dipsy set at 2.0 about 90 feet back. Same with a Wonder Bread flasher and an aqua peanut fly behind the Dipsy. Had several hits on a Blueberry Muffin spoon down 65 on the riggers too, mainly Lakers. Late in the week we caught fish in as far as 35fow, the main action was between 67-85 fow.

Good Luck and Good Fishin'
Jim

Ended the Big Fish Bash in 25th place on the Master Angler List
Nice job to all that ran the tournament.

[Jason Woda]

Was out plenty this last week or so with mixed results. Fished all over but concentrated on 65 to 95 fow for the most part. Some trips had 4 fish some with twelve with mornings being the better of the 2. Didn't have the chance to fish the bite well before sun up but heard that was where it was at. Spin Doctors on dipseys have by far been the best with leadcore coming in a close second. I have gone through tons of spoons on lead ths past week and still come back to the cracked ice Pro King. Kurt is right the current on the lake caused by wind shifts did not help at all. It will get better, Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[brookiereleaser]

checked out the lake last night ,

trolled around trying to mark fish but didnt see much of anything and didnt feel like taking the boat out to where the fish were.

Decided to fish the lagoon instead , picked up a bunch of rock bass and missed a few something or others.

lagoon was as nasty as I have ever seen it, tons of surface slime, was hard to keep baits clean.

brought out the underwater video camera and dropped it down to find a bunch of fairly decent sized perch at the bottom, didnt bother to fish for em.

I hope i can experience the king jig bite this year, i guess i probly have to wait for west wind though!,

take care

[Finn Lander]

Started in 75' fow at 5:15 pm and worked out to 110'. First fish was a 6# bow on a watermelon spoon on the deepest rigger 70' at 5:45pm in 100 fow.. At 6:15 pm lost a fish on 10 color LC in 95 fow. Silent past 7pm. Then talked to a couple of guys who were marking fish in 65'. Started to head west towards shallower water and hit a chin on 10 color in 77 fow at 7:10 pm. 8 color then ripped at 7:20 pm and the fish broke the line in the middle of fluoro-leader. Must have had a nick. Re-tied and took another hit on 8 color and landed a 13# chin at 7:35 pm. 7:50pm DR down 32' in 65 fow took a 6# chin on green & orange spoon. Switched over to glow stuff after snagging the bottom with 10 color rig at about 8:15pm. During the night bite we went 2 for 3. All on riggers set 25' - 30' deep. 1 chin on kevorkian glow and one miss on kevorkian glow. Other chin during night was on orange easter egg glow. Quit at 9:15 pm going 6 for 9.

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks for the report Brookie, Jason and Kevin!

[irishqone]

Got out today at 4:30, had our first hit around 5:00, three rods went off and a mess ensued. Cleared that up and got our first fish an average Coho in 65 fow on smaller purple easter egg spoon. The same set up hit two more times, the first was a big King and later a really chunky Coho. All the hits were 40 down and 40 back on the rigger.

[Eric Haataja]

Glad to see your on the fish out there it's good to see!

Thanks for the report!

[brookiereleaser]

with the west wind the last few days would sat morning be a good chance for gap jiggin

On a side note fished up in the river two nights ago got about ten smallies and a northern nothing of any siZe

[Eric Haataja]

I would think so!

[brookiereleaser]

hey guys i didnt know where to post this but i think its important at least for this weekend

with the air show going on in milwaukee there are certain harbor restrictions

has anyone found out for sure how this will affect trolling and or fishing the gaps.

Are you able to go in and out of any of the gaps in milwaukee , if so is it only like during a certain time, or only not during the actual show or what .

I was looking forward to fishing this weekend but canceled my morning plans to fish due to not knowing the status of the harbor.

if anyone knows, please post, thank you

[yatch]

Went out of Mckinley this morning at about 4:30 am went 4 for 5 all kings north, never fished deeper than 47 ft. west wind had the cold water down 25to 30 in most areas. Depsie, 6 color, 5 color and a rigger all took fish with Mag. spoons and 1 on a flasher fly with the depsie.

Made it into the north gap at about 10am but the gap was closed to boat traffic right after us. Boats were sent all the way to the south gap to get into the harbor again. Air show started aroaund 11 am. That's all I know about the restrictions.

The bite should be great tonight and tomorrow morning with the cold water in tight.

Have fun. Yatch :D

[brewcityfishr]

Got out last Saturday am, fished 4am til 7 picked up the first 20+ pound king of the year @ 22+ pounds! only picked up one more bow and called it a day, it was a little to wavey for us.

last night the bite and weather was awesome! got lines set at 6:30pm and fished til 10:30 , managed to go 5 for 10 with a fat 8 pound coho and the rest kings. all on mag glow spoons. slidediver's have been best for me followed by leadcore then riggers. it was cool to see the air show then fireworks last night. be back tonight for round 2!

good fishin'

[brookiereleaser]

made two trips out today, was on the water a little before 5 and fished til about 1030 , marked bunch of bait in close very early tried jigging and wasnt gettin bites so moved out to deeper water. I am convinced my locator is total crap because sometimes i see absolutely nothing when others are marking stuff all over. Anyways, managed to get what appears to be a juvenile king or possibly coho, very small fish.

near the end of the morning decided to try jigging again and hooked up with a big king. I have to say this was the first time i was able to hook a fish in this method with such light gear. I owe eric big time because that was the most enjoyable fight i have ever experienced on a rod.

Went out for a night run as well. Stuck with the jigging, marked alot of bait and fish around close. tons of huge boat traffic going by, whether it was yachts , cigar boats headed for cuba, or giant freight ships, it was crazy.

i witnessed eric's crew have the most epic fish fight backdrop ever, They were fighting a big king and if you have seen star wars a new hope, imagine the opening sequence when a small ship goes by, followed by a massive star destroyer that just went on for miles. I guess you had to be there it was so cool!!!

anyways, thanks for all the help guys , such an awesome place for fishing talk.

see you out there.

chuck

[Eric Haataja]

Glad to see you got to experience that it's simply amazing to catch them that way! Took my wifde and kids out for the air show which was cool and while fishing the gaps for 1 1/2 hours landed 3 kings, North gap was good early in the AM. Also fished in the PM and fished was fantastic landing 9 kings all jigging all on light tackle, not to mention the 10 other fish we hooked up fought and lost! What a fire drill at times with these fish and chasing them down! I'll post pics when I get some time, sorry super busy!

It's ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eric

[Grey Beard]

My computer is back up so a late report from Friday. Crew included Joel “Boog”Ballweg, a well know Lake Wisconsin, his buddy Kevin and my brother Pat. A little trade for the late season walleye action. Started off Wind Pt in 65fow and action started in the dark with Dipsys and in fact all 4 went in the first 45min with reg Raider Broken Nose 75loc 1.5set, reg Raider Grn Tiger 60 loc 1.5set, Mag Grey Beard 35loc 3set and prototype Raider reg Blue Tiger 30loc 3 set. Glow Grn ladder#4 went on 3 and 4 color and Reg Grn Tiger on 5 set. Frankly after leaving home 130AM Fri and same Sunday have some trouble with the details. However it’s hard to forget that the Reg grn Tiger had 5 bites on the dipsy, 4 on the rigger near the bottom later in the AM and one on the 5 color. Had a couple on 7 color on a Fuzzy Bear mag OZ.

Trolled 1.8-2.4 on the Raider, 66 surface and 52 down 35 and 48 near the bottom. Went 17 for 21 with 1 LT, 1 coho and the rest kings. Noteworthy was no bows which had made up a lot of the previous catches. Still no browns.

Thanks to some friends reports from Sat. launched at Bender and started in 35fow with NW winds cooling the water a little. Lots of baits and hooks in the dark and netted 5 with the lights on. Best action again with the Dipsys with the same sets as above. Sized down to #3 grn glow Js on 3 & 4 color and left a #4 on the 2 color and that was the only on that didn’t fire. 5 color reg grn Tiger in the dark was 12 yr old Adrianna’s fish salmon around 15#. Riggers were kind of quiet with 35 down Mag grn Tiger and 2 later on reg grn Tiger 5’ off the bottom. 7 color #3 grn J got hit the first time our before the board line up and at first thought we hook bottom until bottom started to move. Reg Fuzzy Bear Oz 8 color took 2. Stud rod was the 65 loc wire Dipsy reg grn Tiger with 4 four yr olds.

Trolled 1.8-2.3 on the Raider. Surface 66 down 35 varied from 48.5 to 56 on the same contour spending the majority of our time in 45fow with bouncy NW winds. Picked up some slime on Dipsys despite not catching bottom. Some new junk to worry about that also did the same on Fri. Had to keep checking the Dipsys. Best box in a long time as quit because would have had to take ice out for more room despite keeping 2 shakers. One bow and one coho and rest kings with 13 four yr olds. Adrianna caught on well as she handled the last big fish off a rigger all on her own. We cleaned the fish at South Shore and no place to hang them. Terrible grinder but beats the mess at home. We went 21 for 24 (single hooks Tom).

Sounds like the fishing is improving at Milwaukee so may get to sleep in until 130AM for the next outing.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[Eric Haataja]

Awesome Mike!!!! 1:30 AM Holy cow that's early! Fantastic report thanks for taking the time to share it!

Eric

[memert]

i am going out this weekend frist time i fish in milwaukee any tips and where should i fish and what to use. thanks

[brewcityfishr]

Hit the big lake again last night 6:00pm-9:00, managed to go 3 for 4 all on mag glow sooons, 2 about 15 lbs. 1 about 7 lbs. all kings. fished between 50-75 fow. lots of cold water near shore! we would of stayed out longer but we had a mess of lines and even got a line in the kicker motor so we called it a night...lol. be back soon!


m- I would start very early in the morning or later in the day 6pm - dark. fish 40-70 feet and run all glow spoons. you could also try jigging the gaps with jigging spoons or gulp minnows.. look for pods of bait and hooks on your locater and fish them! good luck

[Jason Woda]

Fishing this week has improved considerably. You pretty much have to be out in the dark to do really well. Once the sun is up it wil be picking away at them. Everything gets bit early. Spoons, Plugs, and flashers have all been producing equally. Shallow early 40 to 60fow, then moving out to 80 to 100fow and sliding stuff a bit deeper. My dipseys have had good action with Spin Docs in greens. Lead core in 3, 5 ,7 and 10 colors have been very good with spoons. Cracked ice Pro Kings and glow stingers have been my go to baits. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[Eric Haataja]

Here's a few pics from this past week fishing including my biggest king of the year so far which was nice to see there's a few tankers still around in the mid 20 lb class!

[BigMusky]

went to the harbor yesterday to jig gaps, even with impending doom forecast by our spot on local weather guys. Anyone could look at a radar and see it was going to miss Milwaukee.

Went 3 for 5 in several hours. Two four year old kings with biggest at 18lbs....also a big brown over 15lbs.

[idiotteeth]

What do you mean by "the gaps"

[brookiereleaser]

went out last night to jig the main gap.

got out super late because traffic coming home was absolutely redonkulous.

got on the water at around 7pm.

As i got to the gaps people were hooking up all over the place. My buddies had 3 in the boat by the time i got there. Apparently the hot time was a bit earlier than that.

Stayed fairly late until about 10, hooked into what appeared to be a big steelhead/rainbow right at the wall on gulp but lost it close to the boat.
Baitfish seemed to clear out sometime around then couldnt find pods to fish over.

Im not sure what the weather looks like but hopefully this will stay on for a while.

What is all your opinion on different plastics brands. Is gulp far and away better than anything else on the market? If so why , is it scent, feel , shape? The reason i ask is that I picked up some glow in the dark minnow plastics cabelas house brand, and I thought they could work well for the night bite with a glow jig head. They have a different shape to them at 5.5 inches but they have a really long thin whippy tail on them. I kinda want to try them out but at the same time i think there is a reason that everyone chooses the gulp.

let me know
and good luck all
chuck.

[Reel Addiction]

Made it out last night around 7:00 and fished until 8:45. We ended up 4 for 6 so I was pretty happy with the results for the short trip.
We started in 45fow just out of North gap and worked out to 80 fow of water off St. Marys best for us was 60-65fow.

Here's what worked.
Slide Diver 100loc and 75loc with Blue Bubble Spin Dr and Poseidon Blue Mirage "sushi" fly (Lost fish; 14# King)
8 color with Magnum Hot Lobster Silver Streak (6# Coho; Lost Fish)
Rigger set 32 down with Magnum Dr. Death Silver Streak (7# King)
Rigger set 24 down with Regular Green Dolphin Silver Streak (6# King)

Water was VERY cold it was 41 degrees down 38 feet. Chilly!!

[BigMusky]

gulp scent definitely helps with trout...I am not sure about salmon yet. I did seem to get more hits after i recharged bait last time out for salmon, but I really do not have anything else to compare to. One tub of gulp alive jerk shads last a long time, so no need to buy other stuff.

Gaps are the opening in break walls for boats to leave harbor.

[HotHead617]

If you get lucky and find them berkley does make a glow in the dark gulp i have some but only found em a coulple times have had some luck with them.I gotta get my motor fixed im missing all the fun!!!!

[Grey Beard]

Tuesday had our first fish in the box at 0345 fishing just north of Bender in 38fow on a #3 chart glow J. Six in the box by 5AM with 3 on 60loc 1.5 set wire and reg Raider Grn glow. This report kind of simplified as that setup got hit ELEVEN times and netted 10 over the course of the AM. Same spoon on 5 color 1 for 1 and SWR rigger 3 for 4. Never had a day like it for one color and one rig so hot. So busy hardly had time to put it on other sets working 45’ with 49 down 35 and 1.9-2.3 on the Raider.

7 color green #3j 2, 3 and 4 color #3 js Chart and 3 set 60loc bloody puke 2 were the other things that worked. 2 color no bites in 3 trips #3 or #4 js. On our way to the dock at 0920 and a full cooler with 2 bows, 1 coho and 17 kings biggest just over 22#. 4 escaped and 2 drive-bys. Getting up at 1AM worth it and doin it again the next day.

Wed AM figured I knew where the fish were and what they liked but greeted by an unexpected north wind and fish in a different mood despite lots of bait and hooks. First fish on 5 color glow#3J at 4AM, then 3 color #3 pink/purple glowJ (home paint job), 50 loc wire reg grn Tiger. Triple going at first light 3 set 35loc reg grn Tiger, 1.5 set as above and 3 color again then the fish went to bed. Radio chatter and cell calls the same prob, no to rare biters. Trolled north into the current hoping the fish did the same and rainbow off 3set 60loc reg Raider Orange Muffin and coho 3 set reg grn Tiger 80loc and a shaker on 1.5 set.

Slid out to 65fow and few marks and no bait so diagonal back to 40’ and trolled south for 5+ miles and nadda. Then the 9 for 9 evaporated with 5 bites in 45 min and nothing in the net. 5 color reg Raider dble Orange Crush twice dancing bows, SWR rigger grn Tiger 5’ off the bottom, and 7 color Raider mag Blue Bubbler twice. Finally the 7 color stuck a coho and 1.5 80loc grn Tiger fired but no one home. Ended the day with a nice 10.5# bow on 3 set 60loc reg Orange Muffin. 11 for 17, 2 coho, 1 bow and 8 kings.

Best story of these trips was Tues had a 3 color break this side of the board and watched my board and only #3grn glow ladderback J escape. A couple of hours latter heard some strange noise from the back of the boat but no rods moving. Then saw my lost board floating behind the boat. Made a circle and picked up the board to find the lead core side also cut. Fish must have still been on and tangled in my rigger. $ saved.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[Eric Haataja]

The bite has been just getting better and better down in the gaps up until this AM the was gone and ZERO fish! Although yesterday was a different story filmed a T.V. show down there and we landed 26 fish hooked over 50 fish and got snapped off as well. I fought a giant fish for 35 minutes only to snap it off at the surface :-(( what a great day to say the least all the gaps held fish. we actually did better in the south gap in the later AM than in in the main gap. Find the bait and find the fish!!!!!!!!! Filmed with In-depth outdoors that show is going to be awesome!

Caught a 12-14 lb brown as well and the rest were all kings 10-20 lbs not bad for 2 guys jig fishing! I saw 5-6 other boats trolling throughout the day and they never caught a fish in the gaps, so in my opinion this jig big is certainly more effective than the trolling bite at times and in certain places for salmon!

Heading out on vacation this sat to Minn for 10 days with the family to Lake Vermillion save some fish for me guys! I may try it this evening since the winds shifted back south west so the bite should just get better again.

Thanks for all the great posts and reports guys this site is really improving in traffic and I love how there is no B.S. !!!!!

Eric

[Eric Haataja]

Here's a pic from the other day when I went out jigging with my little guy. Lots of fun in a short period of time.

[irishqone]

Trolling this morning was good too, rods in by 4:00. Was in 27-62 fow. Had fish on everywhere. Was off the water by 6. Caught 12 fish, let 5-shakers and 2-2 year old Chins go. Kept the pictured fish, mostly because they would not swim away. A great morning.

Good Luck and Good Fishin'
Jim

[GUS MAX]

Was out Tuesday and Wednesday evening, jigging the main gap. Hooked into a few fish each night. We jigged gulp products as everyone else is jigging this and seems to be working. Caught all 4 year olds both nights. Took a buddy down in his john boat (never again) and was riding the bucking bronco trying to use the bow mount. Saw Eric down doing some filming on Wednesday evening. These kings are something else on light gear. I am thinking of going for some line class records with 2 or 4 pound test and see how that goes. I can see fighting some of these fish for a long time on super light line. Heading down this evening again to give it a whirl. Sorry no pics, camera took light swim and would not work.

[Eric Haataja]

Was out there this AM and the bite was tough we landed 5 fish most were 2-3 year olds 3 kings 1 laker 1 brown. Brown and laker were released since they do night die after spawning. I thought it would be better.... :-(((

I just posted a bunch of new fishing video's as well from this past week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxDe10QVpFM here's one of about 20 vids. check them out

Caught more fish today on jigging spoons.

Eric

[Big_D]

Out this moring with a rookie friend... ~4:30 am to 11:30 am. Went 4 for 4 all kings.

Picked up first fish 4:45 am while setting lines, 15lb king on PP dipsy 40 loc 3-set with Fishlander Blue Gravedigger spoon in 60 fow. Next fish came at 5:30 am on 6-color leadcore with Moonshine Atomic Melon spoon... 9 lb king in 50 fow. #3 came ~6:30am when I went to change spoon on my 4-color leadcore... found a shaker on the line... all done shaking, so probably been on there for a while...hit Stinger wonder bread spoon somewhere between 50-70 fow. Last fish hit ~7:45 am in 75 fow on the 6-color rig (same spoon) again...headed straight for Michigan, peeled off 200-300 feet of line on the first run, and made a few more good runs afterwards too, and made every effort to get tangled in every other line I left in the water... 25 minutes later, boated a 16 lb king. Fished on till 11:30 am, but not another bump after that last king. All of our fish came between the Filtration plant and UWM.

Rookie handled all the full-sized fish... and very nicely, I might add. Good coaching prehaps? |( Sure was nice to here some screaming drag once again. Tis been a been a tough summer so far in my boat.

Take Care,

D.

[Eric Haataja]

What a difference a few hours makes saw lots of guys out there tonight I know some hooked up some did not, we got out at 5 PM and limited out jigging for salmon by 8:15 lots of fun all kings except 1 rainbow I released about 8 lbs.

Heading out of town tomorrow for 10 days so save a few for me guys!!!

[buttman]

Hey, quick question. What size jigs (1/2 oz?)guys using? Also Are you mostly within the breakwalls. I have sixten foot boat, wondering if it is sufficient. Any hints on type of gulp. It seems like 4 inch is the size?

Appreciate it,Buttman

[Jason Woda]

We are seeing the most consistent fishing of the year right now since cohos in the spring. All presentations and baits are getting action. Waters from 25 to 100 fow are holding fish. There is a ton of cold water around so fish are biting from top to bottom. Like always our flasher fly combos on riggers and dipseys are solid. Plugs and spoons have been good on lead and copper set ups in 2,3,5,7,10 colors and even 300 foot copper has had some action when we get out a bit deeper. Our spoon choices have been mostly mags by Pro King(crushed ice). Stinger green dolphin has had some action, but most of our fish are coming on riggers and dipseys with flasher fly combos. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[irishqone]

Lots of COLD water out of Bender. Caught fish from 35-60fow. Got pretty rough early. All fish came before sunrise. The biggest Chinook was 22-23# easily. Anything that Glows was hitting; spoons and j-plugs best. :)

Good Luck and Good Fishin'
Jim

[Reel Addiction]

Fished last night from 5 until 8 PM and ended up going 4 for 7. All Kings (18.5#, 17.5#, 15# and 12#) so all nice size and tough fighters in the cold water.
Water was extremely cold it was anywhere from 48-52 degrees on the surface the best bite for us was a small area off the filter in 55-60 fow. The temp changed from 52 degrees on the surface to 49 degrees in less than 100yards. The fish and bait were stacked in that area. :) I'm sure this will all change due to the strong SE blow today.

Here's what worked: (Leadcore worked early than the slide divers took over)
5 color -with a Magnum Caramel Dolphin Silver Streak (Lost Fish; 17.5# King)
7 color - with a Magnum Hot Lobster Silver Streak (Lost Fish; 18.5# King)
Slide Diver 90loc #4 Setting with a Green/Silver Protroll Flasher and Naughty Leprechaun Poseidon Fly ( Lost Fish; 15# King; 12# King)
Rigger - 31 down with Blue Bubble Spin Dr. and Blue Mirage Poseidon Fly.

Attached is the pic of 17#er

Good Luck out there!

[GUS MAX]

Did some jigging at the main gap a few times in the past few days. Tried some different shapes and sizes of the minnow type plastics and all seemed to work pretty much equal. After some jaggin around I attatched a small barrel swivel and a small colorado blade to the bend of my jighead hook and the light hits turned into big smacks. I do not know if it was just timing and everything would have gotten crushed, or the small flash worked. We boated WAY more fish than the boats around us as soon as we put the the blades on. My buddy put his on the eye of the hook but seemed to foul the lure a few times. Caught some smaller kings which is good to see. I think the dnr might be a little off on the estimate of the bait biomass in the lake. We took a ride and was having a hard time finding water that did NOT have bait in it. 50 FOW was so stacked where we went that the locator was marking suspended "rocks". We could see bait and feel it while trolling some cranks pretty much everywhere we went. Good luck out there.

[andyj]

My buddy and I made it back out on Lake Michigan this morning with us both having the day off. We decided to get out there really early so we had our first lines in the water at 3:45 am. It was a great morning to be on the big lake with a very light wind out of the west with a calm lake. We ended up having another good morning for king salmon getting our 10 fish limit by 8:00. We ended up going 12-16 with 2 of the 12 being small shaker kings that we released. We had 3 out of our 4 lines with a salmon on it at one time which made things interesting but we managed to get all 3 in the boat. The kings size ranged from 6- 15 lbs. and one big 20 lb. fish that is my biggest king so far this season. Water surface temps ranged from 47-55 degrees. These fish are just a blast and gave us some screaming runs. Time to clean the boat!
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3997/img17642.jpg (http://img265.imageshack.us/i/img17642.jpg/)
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4084/img1763.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/i/img1763.jpg/)

[brewcityfishr]

Hit the big lake Sunday for a few hours.. fished 6pm-9:30, set lines in at 35' and worked between 35 and 60 fow. ran a mix of mag glow spoons and managed to go 8 for 10, 2 nice bows around 9lbs. and 6 kings, one right around 20 pounds. the cracked ice wonderbread, cracked ice pro king, fishlander gravedigger and stinger bloody nose (the one with the orange nose) have been doing great. slidedivers and leadore are still working the best. downriggers are still slow for me. water is ice cold! be back tonight... good fishin'

[irishqone]

Still good. :D

[brewcityfishr]

got the first skunk of the year last night, tried jigging the main gap for a few hours and only had one hit. jigged 4inch gulp with darterheads in white and white/chartruse water is still ice cold in close but not a lot of bait clouds or hooks on the locater. be back soon. good fishin'

[Big_D]

Late report from last night (8/4)... Went 4 for 4 plus one drive-bye.

Set lines in 50 fow on south side of the filter at 6pm. Trolled NE and and picked up first fish @ 6:15 in 60 fow on PP dipsy (3-set/50 loc) with Reg Raider Cracked Ice spoon... 10lb king. 2nd fish came ~7:15pm... 65 fow off of UWM trolling south... found a shaker on my 6-color leadcore (board) with Moonshine Atomic Melon spoon. Next fish came ~7:45 PM, same location/direction on dipsy (1-set/70 loc) with Yellowtail glow spoon... another shaker. Worked my way in to 50 fow again, and then turned back N for final pass... had a drive-by on the Yellowtail rig same settings in 60 fow @ 8:25pm, then at 8:30pm my 6-color went screaming off, this time with Wonderbread glow spoon... boated a ~14lb king. And that was it for me. Pulled lines @9pm.

Worked out as far as 75 fow and in as far as 50 fow, but all my action came in the 58-65fow.

[Grey Beard]

Tuesday we had our rods set for 30 minutes before out first bite at 0425 then 5 in 8 minutes fishing in 40 fow out of Bender with 51 to 57 on the surface and 46 down 25. 2, 3, 4 colors with glow #3 Js and 5 color with reg Raider Orange Blast, and mag Orange blast on 3set Dipsy 35loc. Dillon’s first salmon was a nice 4yr old on a 5 color in the dark, quite the introduction. There was a ton of bait and marks in the dark but the screen went vacant with first light. Pulled 2 more on the #3 Js and reg Orange Blast 45loc 3 set dipsy.

Trolled north for almost an hour with nadda so slid out to 69-65fow and was able to peck away at them. 6 and 7 color with reg Raider Sister Sledge, 8 & 10 color Mag Fuzzy Bear Oz. Nothing on 2, 3, 4 & 5 color after light. Dipsys were amazingly quiet as compared to previous 3 trips except for a nice bow on reg Raider Double Orange Crush on 3 set 60loc. Riggers finally took a couple nice 4 yr olds late AM SWR down 35 reg Bloody Puke and Mag Oz down 42, a real screamer. Ended up 22 for 26 with 2 coho, one bow and the rest kings. While clearing lines at the end of a busy day the full core took off and father and son teamed up to subdue a dandy 18#king on a mag Oz, only the second brown of the year. Dillon and Hunter slept thru all that excitement suffering from reeling in a lot of fish and our 130AM departure.

Heard some great radio reports so decided to launch at McKinley today and save the drive from Bender to clean fish. Started in 40fow just north of the filter finding surface temp 56 and 42 down 30. First hookup at 0400 was a 4yr old on 1.5 wire dipsy 55loc and Mag Grey Beard. Then the same #3 Js and Orange Blast as above were really cooking. Rigger down 22 back 100 with a Mag Green Tiger was the only rigger bite for the day. Like yesterday tons of marks that evaporated with first light and so did the bites sitting on 7 by 6. I slid out to 55-60fow and trolled north as far as Fox Pt taking one on a 7 color Mag Raider Sister sledge on the way. Slid out to 70 due to quiet and no marks but no better out there so head back in took a nice bow on a 5 color and reg Raider Orange Blast. Full core and Mag Bloody Death took our last 4yr old in 55 fow. 1 for 3 on wire dipsy 1.5 set 85loc and reg Sister Sledge. Boxed 14 with 3 throwbacks and all kings save the one bow.

Highlight of today was during the early flurry was a break off on my 4 color with a heavy fish that took my Off Shore board and my fav purple/pink #3 J. Foolish me tightened the drag too much! A couple of hours later my cell phone rang and a stranger to me, Adam Robakowski, informed me he found my board and would leave it at the marina. That would be after he returned to South Shore, drove to work for some policeman duties and then back to McKinley. Nice to know there are still some good people out there.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[Grey Beard]

Didn't click the button for the pics.

[irishqone]

The fishing has been great. Anything that glows has caught fish. Dipsys with Spoons and Flasher / Fly 100 loc. Riggers with Spoon or flasher / fly 40 down and 40-50 back. Lead out the back 350 up high with spoons and J-Plugs. All have caught fish. :D

Good Luck and Good Fishin'
Jim

[yatch]

This is a great time to take friends out that normally don't get much of a chance to enjoy this great resourse. Tues. which was about the best fishing on the pond I have ever had, I had a high school student out for the first time ( from Florida). Fighting and netting fish in the dark was a real treat Kings to 15# what a blast.
This morning three fish 2 kings and a dancing steely. All in 40 ft. and less. My friend Al had a great time fighting this 14# King to the boat. Kind of neat what a little west wind can do for our skill level. ;)

[BigMusky]

Hit the big lake yesterday...started out jiggin the gaps. Got two hits right away but had my drag too loose and both fish got of right away. Corrected that problem and stuck a nice 15lber shortly after. Went in and picked up some friends and went back to gap. The baitfish were not balled up like when I first got out and it was hard to find any kings...and other boaters started showing up making it hard to jig. Buddy ended up catching one and getting broke off by one. His first jigging king...so that was cool. My a gut call that this bite was not ON and headed out to troll. Trolled for an hour and then right at sundown...first triple ever for my boat. Of course the little jack king pulled planer into giant king I was fighting and cut line! Doh!. But then got another after dark about an hour. So ended day 6 for 10. Fish came on snap weights with boards and down riggers...all spoons and j-plug got hit. Nothing hit dipseys. Most hits came in 45-55 FOW all throughout water column

[Honky Donkytits]

Thinnk weer in 12th Jenny v

[Eric Haataja]

Made it out today for about 90 minutes after the storms pasted and the bite was good, went 3 for 4 all jigging. Crazy current in the harbor unlike any I've ever seen before it was like a ridiculas amount of current ripping in and out of the harbor unlike any I've ever seen. I wish I had the video camera...

Water was very cool still!

[irishqone]

It must have something to do with the 4-6ft East Rollers on Sat. then the 30+ blowing from the Southwest on Sunday. Along with the runoff from rain. Oh and the 44 degree water on top in some spots.

We fished the Brew City on Sunday. It was a tougher day than most for us. We had the big Coho for a long time,but ended 3rd with that one. Also had a nice 16+ Brown Trout. Seven fish, 46+ pounds total, not good enough. Maybe next year.

[irishqone]

We got out on Friday and it was flat. Still had some good fishing with the little guys.

[Brian Mirek]

Went 0 for 1 jigging in the main gap. Worked the mud line, found alewives, couldn't get anything going though.

[irishqone]

Tough day. Went 3 for 6. Two shakers and a 4-5 pounder.
Water warmed a bit from the weekend. All the way up to 54 degrees.
Mag Moonshine spoon behind Dipsy 85' loc took two. Cracked Ice on the rigger 40 back and 30 down took one. Had a couple hits on the flatline 350' loc but couldn't get them to stick.

Good Lick and Good Fishin'
Jim
Boat: Recess

[irishqone]

Got out at 4:40 and it was slower again today, went 3 for 4. Picked up a shaker first, then a 16 pound King. Three hours later a decent Bow about 9 pounds. Everything on lead. 200 and 300 loc shorter on the board, longer out the back. Shaker was on a Dipsy 85loc. Water has warmed up a little from the weekend. Mainly stuck between 60-70 fow. Speed was 2.6ish.

[rootpro6]

Got out at 4:40 and it was slower again today, went 3 for 4. Picked up a shaker first, then a 16 pound King. Three hours later a decent Bow about 9 pounds. Everything on lead. 200 and 300 loc shorter on the board, longer out the back. Shaker was on a Dipsy 85loc. Water has warmed up a little from the weekend. Mainly stuck between 60-70 fow. Speed was 2.6ish.

that one king is turning dark already from the looks of it

[Jason Woda]

Fishing was really really godd for us over the last week or so up until Sunday when it counted for the contest. The water has been cold everywhere so fish were coming everywhere. We have been concentrating on 50 to 65 fow and getting good numbers there. Every type of bait on any type of apparatus has been taking fish. Some of our beat have been #3 plugs on 7 and 10 colors in silver patterns. 3 and 5 color lead with spoons like Killer Yellow from stinger and wonderbread have been productive. Our best has been riggers and dipseys with green or white flashers fished from the bottom up to 20 feet or so. Dipseys have been out 100 loc. With the northeast winds today and tommorrow things will definately change and maybe for the better. A lot of cold water around can make the fish scatter, but with a good thermocline it can make them easier to target and eliminate some of the high lines that might or might not be as productive on a day to day basis. The only variable is that with the spawn approaching high lines will produce big 4 year old sitting in the warm water staging for their fall run. Good luck and see you on the water.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[Brian Mirek]

The only thing better than watching a great fishing show on HD is watching Capt Haataja live. Got to watch him put on a clinic this evening. I believe you went 4 for 5, right?

We didn't fair so well. 0 for 2.

Jigging in the gaps.

[Eric Haataja]

Got out today for a couple of hours after my morning trip and the bite was pretty good We went 4 for 5 all jigging and missed a few others. Great time, not to mention the aerial display one king showed us tonight while hooked up. This is just too much fun not to do!!! Also got to see my good friend catch his first salmon jigging which is always cool.

Here's a few video clips from last 2 weeks ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bHc6ZWwCmU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdYSotNXSm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urkmrDPXfUc

Eric

[rootpro6]

nice job on that fish you got on the jigging spoon. And looks like a lot of people are catching onto your jigging techniques.

[Grey Beard]

We continue to lauch around 0330 at Bender and some days they bite in the dark and other not so much but first light remains awesome. Monday they bit a little with 2,3 & 4 colors with #3 glow Js doing the most damage. Dipsys worked with reg Raider Broken nose 3 set and 35loc and 1.5 set reg Green Tiger 45loc both went twice before 0600 working 40 fow. Lots of marks but strange looking and not sure if salmon or bait but just evaporates with the sun. We had 7 in the box by 6 and a couple of short ones returned and happy to have Jason’s 20.5# on #3 J in storage. Things slowed for 45 min so headed east to 55-65fow and never left.

There would be lulls and then doubles. Double Purple spook had been my stud the last couple of yrs but this yr was not producing. My fishing partner Craig had not lost faith and took 5 on it the day before on Kevin’s boat so put it out on 5 color and went 3 times. Put it on the swr rigger down 30 and 2 more. 7 & 8 color were busy with Mag Fuzzy Bear Oz, 6 color with reg bloody puke. After first light 2,3 4 colors dead and nothing on full core and Dipsys went dead also except for a coho on green Opti and double aqua 1.5 set 85loc.

Ended 23 for 28ish and a few drive bys trolling 1.9-2.4 on the Raider with 50 to 53 on the surface and 44-46 down 35. 2 coho and the rest kings. When clearing lines found a shortie on the seven and 4 color so better lighten up the drags.

What a difference a day makes. Working the same area on Tuesday with same setups went 1 for 2 in the dark with 3 color taking a nice 18#. Thought the young man Michael was going to expire before he got his first salmon to the net. Surface temps had warmed to 54 and down temp 46-48 down 30. First light we had a quad with rigger down 30 and #3 glow J, 3 color glow J, 5 color reg Orange Blast and dipsy 1.5 set 45loc reg green Tiger and got them all in.

I thought we were going to have another very busy day. Then they started to either drive by or fall off on the way in. Rigger screamer hit the 5 color and eventually broke off. Last boxer was a nice 4yr old 3 set 60 loc reg Broken Nose. Never boxed another fish after 0700 and fished until 11. Bait and marks were gone. Tried shallow again then further north then out to 75. Had one more drive by on a #4 J I taped with the blue/grn Oz tape on 4 color and drive by on 5 color and double Purple spook. Ended with 8 kings and 1 coho and 3 shorts released losing at least 8 hook ups and at least 6 drive bys. Still some nice fish but I wonder where the fish and bait went. Maybe a little NE winds will help for a change.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[irishqone]

We have had a couple of those so far. That one was the darkest so far. Most are still silver, but the spots are getting darker and bigger.

[rootpro6]

edited

[rootpro6]

edited

[buttman]

Does anyone know if there is a launch fee off of national?

Thanks,
Buttman

[Eric Haataja]

Yes there is a launch fee.

Fishing with clients tonight was exceptional maybe the best trip of the year for me because this is just too much fun!!! We ended up with 14 fish landed and missed many more in the 5 hour charter. I will post pics when i get some time, hitting the inland lakes the next few days.

No secrets 1/2 ounce darter 26 jig heads and 5 inch jerk shads did the trick! What a great year for jigging this has been!!

Great pics and video will be posted soon!!!

[Ryan H.]

Eric -

I gotta ask ya sir, where are you getting the 1/2 oz darters? I cant find anything over 1/4!

[walleyebum]

i just buy the 1.2once saltwater ones.

[HotHead617]

I get my darter head jigs from either gander mntn in waukesha or ranke bros.

[buttman]

Any thoughts 1/4 or3/8

Thanks,
Buttman

[Eric Haataja]

Here's one site to check out I do not reccomend reinke bro darters they bend out and the hooks are week. The hooks are critical.

[rootpro6]

edited

[rootpro6]

edited

[Eric Haataja]

Best bite is during daylight hours talked to a buddy of mine who fished from noon till 3 PM and caught his limit of 5 salmon from shore also another friend of mine caught his limit jigging the main gap yesterday. For whatever reason the bite has been much better during the daylight, ecspecially mid day.

[rootpro6]

Best bite is during daylight hours talked to a buddy of mine who fished from noon till 3 PM and caught his limit of 5 salmon from shore also another friend of mine caught his limit jigging the main gap yesterday. For whatever reason the bite has been much better during the daylight, ecspecially mid day.

Ha, that is pretty odd but you never real know. HMM maybe a daytime trip is in order once these east winds get outta here.

[blitzfish]

It has been the exact same in Port the past 4 or 5 days as well, kind of odd. It could be that the water has just been so cold in there that the fish are going out to find warmer water at night then coming in into the warmer water when the sun comes out... or something like that. idk, it's been a very odd year so far though. lol

[collinfishes]

i dont see anything odd about it at all. ive been catching fish in that time period my whole life. most of my best days on the water are between 11-3 and usually in an east wind of some sort. noon is lunch time for us and the fish, jeeze doesnt anyone know this haha. :D i think its just an off time in fishing pressure and some fish use it as an opportunity to feed and not be scared there gonna eat their last meal, ya know. maybe fish dont quite think like that though.

[buttman]

Hey Eric,

Did you have that site that had 1/2 oz. jigs? 1 king this morning on gulp.

Thanks,
buttman

[buttman]

Does anyone know if a darter is similiar to a bullet head?

Thanks,
Buttman

[Eric Haataja]

Did anyone make it out today? I know the bite has been very consistent for my buddies who have been fishing from shore.

Eric

[Hyintegrity]

Late Report from Saturday

Made it out with Ryan H from about 4-8pm, headed out to the main gap to jig. Started out the day with a nice double header. Then proceded to have a great night. I think our final tally was that we went 17 for 24.

Pictures to follow.

[Ryan H.]

Late Report from Saturday

Made it out with Ryan H from about 4-8pm, headed out to the main gap to jig. Started out the day with a nice double header. Then proceded to have a great night. I think our final tally was that we went 17 for 24.

Pictures to follow.

All Fish CPR'd...and I have to say, one of the most fantastic days of fishing I've ever experienced. I think by now we all basically know the formula, thanks Eric for keeping your eye on that bite and letting us know!

[Ryan H.]

Does anyone know if a darter is similiar to a bullet head?

Thanks,
Buttman

I'll tell you when my cabelas order arrives...I ordered a few of the kalins saltwater 1/2 bullet heads. (And a new net to replace the one that gave out on saturday, always a fantastic sign!)

[BigMusky]

I fished saturday hard and the trolling bite and jig bite were both luke warm at best. Did catch some big salmon, but they were not fast and furious. We gave up at 3pm...based on lower report of fish exploding at 4pm...empirical data points to mid-day not being best time to fish for salmon when i am on water :D

I found it very shocking that every boat I saw out there had two or three guys all throwing white jerk shads.....I caught all my fish on "something else"....