Lake Michigan, Milwaukee

[Eric Haataja]

Can you just tell us what color the "something else" was Please the suspense is killing me!!!!! :-)))))))

All I can say is the best bite for us has been 11-7PM some days it varies but last week I was out there and we boated 14 fish in a 5 hour charter all jigging, 6 boats around us and I saw 3 other fish caught. 3/8 ounce darter was awesome!!! Definately other baits that work as well, such as live alewives, jigging and casting spoons.

Tell me this did you put any "Baitmate" secret sauce on the "something else" lure??

I'm a firm believer if you guys are ever going to try scents to use Dr. Juice Salmon Trout formula it's the best I've used and I don't get it for free I buy like you would, I think Baitmate sucks!!!!!!!!!

Heading down right now to see how they are biting.....

[BigMusky]

scum frogs....

[brookiereleaser]

late report from friday

had best jiggin trip to date with my buddy from the pacific coast.
He caught his "biggest fish ever" and the biggest fish that has ever been landed in my boat. We weighed it out on the scale at 26 pounds and i have a video of the entire fight , a framed picture of that will make a nice bachelor party gift for the guy. !!!

started the night trolling due to the wave conditions and how difficult it was to stay in one place. Didnt get anything trolling but you could feel the lure just wacking baitfish through the clouds. I think there might have been almost too many baitfish if thats even possible , the odds of the fish finding our lures seemed minimal, I even impaled a bunch on my lure at almost each pass.

Once it calmed down a bit we switched to jigging and found clouds again everywhere, we just followed the birds dive bombing and instantly we would be on fish.

Fish were all caught jigging gulp and zoom super flukes. The zoom super fluke seemed to do really well and that is what my buddy caught the big king on - rainbow pattern, did add a small blade to the hook for some flash and painted the jig head glow. overall went 4 for 10 that night but that one fish alone was worth it all!!!!! just awesome, 10 pound test 26 pound fish!!!

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee317/3snakes1charm/DSC02597.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee317/3snakes1charm/DSC02606.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee317/3snakes1charm/DSC02574.jpg

[Hyintegrity]

Here are the pics that I promised from our Saturday afternoon

[Eric Haataja]

Awesome fish guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That 26 lber would probably go on my wall ecspecially since it was caught jigging!!!! Great reports guys glad to see people enjoying the awesome bite!!!!!!

Just imagine I've been fishing for them out there for numerous years all to myself! :-)) no one ever jigged salmon out there, and now there a half dozen boats most nights. It's just such an awesome feeling to experience these fish battling hand to hand combat with the runs, jumps, and arm tiring pressure they put up it's simple unforgetable!!! This in my opinion is the best keep secret for fresh water fishing!!!!!

Maaaan it's sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooo much more enjoyable then trolling!

[Hyintegrity]

Awesome fish guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That 26 lber would probably go on my wall ecspecially since it was caught jigging!!!! Great reports guys glad to see people enjoying the awesome bite!!!!!!

Just imagine I've been fishing for them out there for numerous years all to myself! :-)) no one ever jigged salmon out there, and now there a half dozen boats most nights. It's just such an awesome feeling to experience these fish battling hand to hand combat with the runs, jumps, and arm tiring pressure they put up it's simple unforgetable!!! This in my opinion is the best keep secret for fresh water fishing!!!!!

Maaaan it's sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooo much more enjoyable then trolling!

I believe that I would be speaking for everyone on this forum that we all totally appreciate all the detail in information that you share.

Thanks again!
Hopefully see ya out there jigging one of these nights!

[brookiereleaser]

yeah i have to second that thank you for all the info, this is something I would have never attempted if not for eric and his site. Its really a special thing for me because i dont have the capability with a small boat to go after the fish way out there , but theres no need!!!!!

I took that 26lb'er to the cleaning station to fillet for smoking and i just laughed at all the big boats coming in with a bunch of smaller lakers etc and asking me where the hell i got that fish in my little bathtub of a boat. of course i told them "not that far out" !!:)

If i took pics of that thing how accurately could they reproduce a mount from it, I would have loved to get that thing wall mounted for my buddies wedding but its out of my price range at the moment. I never measured the length or girth but i have the weight and a bunch of pics with a decent to scale shot of my buddy standing next to it on the hooks at mckinley . any place you recommend that doesnt need the actual skin to have a mount done. ???

also when the run starts to happen and the gaps heat up , does the jig bite sort of die down for more subtle presentations like skein and spawn , and then just cranks that piss the fish off. My guess is that they wouldnt be that interrested in a shad at that point unless its pissing them off but im sure that im wrong on that matter.

anyways, thanks alot, Im in new york city for the next week and then lacrosse so i won't get my fix out there. good luck guys!!!!

chuck

[irishqone]

Started North of the Green Can in the fog about 5:00 A.M. today. Got 3 Lakers, 6,7,9 pounds. Then 2 shaker Chins. All fish on leadcore 200 and 250 loc with #3 Green and Silver J Plugs. The water is freezing, bring your warm clothes.

[Eric Haataja]

I've done well jiggin gall the way into the middle of Sept FYI was out yesterday and we limited out in the main gap saw the most incredible amounts of salmon busting on bait. Looked like scenes from the ocean salmon going nuts in the dozens on the surface, hooked our fish on jigs and plastics and jigging spoons in 1-2 ounces. Great bite while it lasted.

Fished today and the it was slower we landed 6 fish but one was a gaint 23+ lber which was sweet on the jig rod. It was awesome!!!! Still plenty of fish around water was 43 degree's on the surface outside the gap...Crazy how cold it was............ Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Eric

[BigMusky]

what? You use jigging spoons like the Mega Bait and different colors like Chartreuse? I guess you figured out my secret Eric :rolleyes: Really these fish are not that tricky....but do not just stick with white jerk shads all day because sometimes they want something else. Personally I think it is a bad idea for everyone in boat to be throwing same thing unless you know fish are keyed on that bait.

[Eric Haataja]

Yesterday evening was pretty good the last couple hours same thing this morning. I was down there filming a T.V. show with North American fisherman and we did well jigging for the salmon. The show will air sometime this winter.

Best bite was early and late in the day but my guess with the wind chop and rain the bite will be good mid day the next few days.

White jigs 3/8 ounce 10-12 mono line did the trick!

Here's a few pics from this past week.

Here's a few pics....

[Eric Haataja]

A few more pics from this week.

[Needtofishmore]

That Brown is absolutely gorgeous! Beautiful fish Eric!

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks that brown was cool!!

Today was another one of those incredible days this AM we slapped up a few kings jigging and then did a little exploring. Found a ridiculas amount of browns and we crushed them landing over 20 fish in 2-3 hours of fishing. It was a lot of fun seeing these bruisers and getting them on light tackle. Came home and made dinner for the family then went out this evening we landed 8 kings in less than 2 hours fishing, fishing was fantastic!

I'll post pics when i get time along with vids.

[Grey Beard]

Sorry this is late but kind of poop after getting up 130AM 2 days in a row.

I’ve been launching at Bender and driving to McKinley to clean fish but thought I’d try running south instead. Not a great plan as the cold water and moist air made for some fog that seemed to get worse as light arrived. Boy what a difference it makes to have mapping in the GPS. We setup off the Green can and ended up more than 2 miles south before our first bite on 2 color and #3 glow J. Again quiet for awhile so just as I turned to go back north we had a triple with Mag Grn Tiger down 22 a 20+# king that escaped at the back of the boat after about 5 runs. We boxed the 4 color and #3 J and 5 color Orange Blast. We circled that 55’ area for quite awhile and no more bites. The fog didn’t lift and figured there would be fewer boats south so worked 40 to 55fow finally getting a double on just north of the Blue Balls, a 3yr old SWR down 25 on #4 Blue/slv Andy Reeker and and dandy 18# brown on 5color and the Raider reg orange Blast. Eventually turned north as the fog cleared and a 7 color and Mag OZ a nice 3 yr old. Had a brown close to the net that was clearly bigger than the 18# on a rigger SWR down 20 with a #4 Andy Reeker I taped with OZ(blue/grn). We trolled 2 –2.3 on the Raider with a bone chilling 48.8 on the surface and 44 down 30. While trolling the 40’ contour the surface bait was present for almost a mile but no hooks. Should have been there early.

The radio chatter sounded like we should have gone north of McKinley so despite the lack of a bite in the night arrived Wed at 330 and started in front of the North Gap with 50 on the surface and lots of marks. No bites again in the dark and had move a bit north due to boat traffic working the 35’ contour. 22’rigger with Fishlander org Easter egg took a 4yr old that found his way to the 3 and 4 color setups. Mean while a small one fired the other rigger down 18 and a reg Broken Nose. Got that untangled and 22 rigger fired with a 3 yr old on the Org Easter Egg.

Lots of boats and not many fish being caught and marks disappeared so pulled lines at 0630 and blasted south for the bait. Set up in 45fow and got the lines in and 7 color Mag Oz, 25’SWR Oz Andy Reeker, 6 color Blue/slvr Andy Reeker fired. Just as we were about to net the brown off the rigger bite the 5 color Reg Orange blast took off so had a quad going. All the leadcore bites were LT with 21.5, 17, and 15# with nice redfin coloration. The 7color mag OZ pulled 2 more LT in that area with a #12 and 4# and the 5 color reg Raider Yellow Fever.

3 more passes and no more bites so decided to try deeper water as heard some others took some 4yr olds in 80-90fow. 7 color Mag Oz took a 4yr old king that must have thought it was a rainbow as it jumped 3 times and wiped out the 4 and 5 colors in 75fow. Took a while to clear that mess then hung up the 7 & 8 colors on some small buoy in 80 fow and did escape with all our stuff so decided to call it a day. In 80 fow surface warmer at 56 and 46 down 30 and a fair amount of surface bait fish. Maybe should have gone out there sooner. This was the day of the LT with 5 and one brown and 5 kings.

Not much moonlight and both days lines set by 4 and no bites until 530. I can’t quite figure out when they bite in the night and another 1.5hrs of sleep would have been nice. More west winds in the forecast so getting out the flannel lined jeans. I’m wondering what even colder water is going to do the fishing. One would have expected better action shallow off the filter with current conditions but its been cold water for over 3 weeks with fewer and fewer 4 yr olds in the shallows. I still hesitate to wish for some NE winds but a nice thermocline could help.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[HotHead617]

Went out and tried a little fishing on the peir from 4-8ish.....didnt catch anything but an alewife and it was snagged so didnt really catch it. I didnt see anything caught from the shore fisherman either.....weird?? thought it would have been better. At about 630 or so i talked to eric and told him to come over to the north gap so we could see what a fish being caught looked like......after about 5 fish or so i wanted to go home and curl up in the fetal position and whimper like a 3 year old.....i wont ask for that again!!!! Should have better days ahead.

[Eric Haataja]

Yea Andy that's really weird the fishing was slow from the pier?? Don't know why that was, but better luck next time. Went out to dinner with the wife and we fished for about 2 hours and ended up with 7 kings landed which was a lot of fun all caught jigging 3/8 to 1/2 ounce jigs with 5 inch jerk shads.

Fun watching the wife and finally fishing with her again! Maaan miss those days, but it's fun with the kids too!

Back out there tomorrow we'll see what happens with the wind.?? Biggest fish was low 20's a fought light crazy 20 minutes+

Eric

[Eric Haataja]

Forgot to mention this mornings report. Just Tremendous action and tons of fun! Got out this AM at 7:30 and in our 5 hour charter clients and I landed 18 fish. Browns and Kings. The past 2 days we've really loaded up on the big browns. I don't care to eat the browns so we release them all but never going to complain when you get 3 browns in 2 days over 18 lbs along with numerous fish from 6-15 lbs. Plastics has been hot for us on the spinning tackle!
Good Fishing!

[Eric Haataja]

Carp, Kings and Browns.......

[Eric Haataja]

Did a trip with 2 clients this morning jigging plastics and we ended up landing 9 kings, should have had more but many got off. Lots of fun we sat on a couple big pods of bait for a while and had fun! Same deal as always 5 inch Jerk shad and 1/2 ounce jigs many fish we caught were suspended on 10-15 feet below the surface.

A big thanks to the guy (Bryce?) who lent me his fillet knife this A.M. the fish cleaning station was closed yesterday so I had to fillet my fish at home and forgot my knife here. heading back out this afternoon with more clients and we'll see how it goes.... east winds might shut it right down.

The best bite continues to be early and late, but I did get a few more fish mid morning today, also there are good numbers of fish showing up by the discharge and up under the hoan bridge. If that's not enough info I don't know what is...............................................

[Needtofishmore]

Am I guessing right, Eric, that browns could start moving back into the marinas fairly soon? Man, those a beautiful browns!

[sruege]

thanks Eric for the report..gonna head out this afternoon to give this jigging plastics on light tackle a shot..super excited ..hope the winds stay down a bit!! taking another Ruege who has never experienced this bite before hope i can hook him up!! see you on the water!
shane

[Eric Haataja]

Fishing sucked tonight we only caught 3 salmon :-(( pretty slow for us overall, lots of bait lots of fish on the graph fish just had lock jaw! Maybe tomorrow will be better!

[shakyjake]

was out last night from 4:00 till about 9:30 we went 4 for 4 with 2 lakers one running about 18lbs and 2 kings 1@8lber and 1@14lber the lake was like a really smooth roller coaster out there had some good rollers made fishing a little ruff but the boat ride was fun lol we were fishing in 60 to 70 fow between fillitration plant and the towers first fish came on a northern pro blue black ladderback that was the 18lb laker dr 33loc next fish came on a full core wonderbread jplug next was another laker on dr down 38 witha blue glow alwive last fish same set up 14lb king then the better half was tired and wanted to head in lol I guess the rolllers got to her

[irishqone]

Trolled the South end of the Harbor and a couple of loops in the Main Gap last night. Went 2 for 3 with a 2 and 7 pound Chins. Had hits on both riggers and Dipsy. Small blue glow ladderback Pro King, and #3 green/white j-plug took fish off the riggers. Missed a screamer on the Dipsy, mag blue and white spoon with black dots.. A lot of people are fishing!

Good luck and good fishin'
Jim

[Eric Haataja]

Made it out last night and the fishing improved a lot to say the least. Started off fishing for browns and we landed 14 browns with a couple of big boys all on spinning tackle, then last 45 minutes we jigged for kings and landed 2 4 year olds. Total of 16 fish in 4 1/2 hours.

Good day I'll post pics soon.

[Hyintegrity]

Late report from Saturday 4-8 PM-
Started out in south gap, no bites.
We picked up and moved over to the main gap, jigged up a small king with a jigging spoon. Then fought the big rollers and ended up landing 3 more 4yr olds jigging gulp.

Very slow night, did not see many hookups at all.

[irishqone]

Was out Monday morning. 85-95 fow off the Filter. Went 2 for 2. A 7 pound Coho and a 9 pound Steelhead. #3 J-Plugs Green and White or Green and Silver on the riggers 50 back and 30 down.

Had the first "skunk" since April on Sunday. Fishing has been slow for me. :confused:

Good Luck and Good Fishin'
Jim

[Grey Beard]

We couldn’t resist trying the jigging but we waited too long. There was very little bait at any of the 3 gaps and some scattered bait in the harbor. Very few marks and saw very few fish taken. We fished Sunday PM and my brother took one on 3/8oz jig and 5” Zoom Fluke. My only fish was a snagged smelt. I didn’t think there were many around and especially in the Milwaukee Harbor. Monday AM I had one on for about 3 seconds on a glow 4” Power grub. My brother hooked up on a nice one that we had to chase down and took the same setup as the first. That was it for bites. We hope to do it again when the bait returns.

Trollers also had tuf going with zero to 11 fish reported and avg sounded like about 3 fish scattered from 40fow to 120. Can you believe too much cold water in August! Bait and fish are scattered. Can't believe I'd ever want some NE winds in Aug to re-establish a thermocline.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[Big_D]

Got out this morning for a few hours by myself. Went 4 for 5 plus 2 drive-bys. All my action came in 60-70 fow between the filtration plant and UWM...

Set lines in 50 fow south of the filter at 5am and trolled N/NE. 5:30am had a drive-bye on 35loc/2set dipsy with Blue Gravedigger spoon in 60 fow. 5:45 in 65 fow, 4-color w/Stinger Wonderbread spoon took a 5lb king. Before I could reset that line, 6-color w/Moonshine Atomic Melon Spoon went off… 8lb king. Reset lines and continued north. 6:30 in 68 fow 6-color w/Atomic Melon went off again,,, 6lb king, and had a drive-bye on my dipsy with bloody nose spoon 25loc while I was bringing in that fish. Made a turn shortly after and ran south for ~45 minutes… nothing.. Turned back north again… 7:15 in 70 fow, 6-color w/Atomic Melon went off again… came unglued before I got the board in. 7:30 in 68 fow, 4-color w/Stinger Craig's Xmas spoon took a 5lb king. And that was it. Pulled lines at 8:30 am.

Surface temps were still cold (47-49F) everywhere I fished this morning. Worked as shallow as 50 fow and as deep as 75 fow.

Take Care,

D.

[Eric Haataja]

Nice job big D!!!!

[Eric Haataja]

The bite was hot again tonight jigging spoons and plastics same deal 12-14 lb test with 1/2 ounce jigs did the trick. Clients landed 5 browns, 1 steelhead and 8 kings. Lots of fun on the spinning rods this evening!!!!

[str8shooter]

Sounds like a blast!... are those 1/2 oz jigs darters as well, or just standard style?

[Eric Haataja]

Yes I got got some heavier darter jigs in the 1/2 to even 3/4 ounce and at time snap jigging them triggers more bite these were saltwater jigs I bought a while ago.

[Eric Haataja]

A few more fish from this past week

[Eric Haataja]

a few more fish

[Eric Haataja]

Here's some recent video's.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaVUsb0rpvg&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU-rBhaj4RI&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNp3eMWfk98&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8OtrBdpNAc&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FCNoRda7zk&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut6B8h_kUXQ&feature=channel_page

[rootpro6]

nice videos eric!! It looks like a asweme season for you so far

[darrink]

Nice videos I had to watch all of them:)

Eric have you had any problems with the cost guard while you are fishing. I heard since there have been so may boats jigging in all of the gaps and they have not been moving for other boats the cost guard might start issuing tickets.

[Eric Haataja]

No I've had no problem but if you block or impeed traffic then you might get a ticket..... If you stay out of the center of the gap you should be fine, nothing wrong with fishing there just use good common sense. The fun will get started here in the next few weeks when everyone is in there trolling.:eek::eek:

Sometimes you have to chase your fish down but I've had no problems to speak of as of yet. Don't anchor in there either. Just try to stay out of the way of the shore fisherman and move out of the way when the boats come in and out.

Spring and fall the gaps are always loaded with perch trout and salmon fisherman.......

my 2 cents

[darrink]

Thanks for clearing that up. I have trolled threw the gaps, but with all the fish you are catching, I may just give it a jig or two.:p

[mo50]

Hitn the harbor 2mrw n wanted to know if weather will be 2bad to even try. Any suggestions gang? Thanks

[Reel Addiction]

Is the jig bite still going? I'm going out tonight and tomorrow night and trying to decide if I should give jigging a try or troll as usual. With the E and NE winds the last few days I'm guessing had to bring in some warmer water. I wonder how warm.

[Eric Haataja]

It was great last night, should be fine tonight as well, but you never know until you get out there put your time in and fish!!!!!!!!

[brookiereleaser]

hey all, ive been gone for 2 weeks out in driftless area.

I saw there is a small craft for tomorrow morning, do you still think the harbor will be calm enough to fish or would i be better off trying the streams from shore??

any help would be awesome,

will report how it goes.
thanks
chuck

[Reel Addiction]

I made it out tonight for from 6:30 until 8:30. We started trolling in 60fow off St. Mary's and trolled between 60-80fow until 7:45 with only one hit. At 7:45 decided to pick up and try our hand at jigging for the last half hour or so. We jigged the main gap area without a sniff. So it took until the end of August but we finally got skunked. I talked with one other boat that left at the same time we did and was out trolling and they also got skunked without a touch.
It's tough out there. Hopefully the hard NW blow changes things up for the better.
Good Luck!

[deadeternity]

Today I caught and released the first 2009 Salmon that I caught that shows Fall spawning colors starting to form. Caught on a glow in the dark KO Wobbler style Moonshine spoon around 7:30pm. I am surprised after the fronts and rain that we are still getting fish .....

Here are a few highlights from the past month or so. McKinley and Racine is getting hot and, at least 1 day a week for the past month has been insane for these fish....

[deadeternity]

More pics of the salmon and trout.....

[deadeternity]

99% of my fish are coming on spoons, Cleos, KO WOBBLERS, Moonshine Spoons, and Kastmasters in assorted colors. Any color combined with silver is working, and glow is working day and night. Dingy water and glow spoons go hand in hand....

[deadeternity]

My fiance Michelle with some big fish she has caught throughout the past month.

[deadeternity]

Here is the last of the pics. My friends have even landed a few lake torut which are awesome to see. I have yet to land a laker so hopefully this year is my lucky year. We have landed more steelhead and chinooks then browns, cohos, or lakers but, they have shown up once in a blue moon for myself and my friends.

[TJPike]

:mad:Sheboygan Harbor is loaded with fall color hookjaw browns,fishing from north pier in area where fish are piled up for 6 hrs and only 1 fish on small blue and silver crank.. Any ideas on hooking some of these stubborn early fall browns ? What about live bait,spawn,plastics or a hot color combo crank ?? Everyones help would be much appreciated..:confused:

[Reel Addiction]

Fished last night from 5-8PM. We first attempted to fish off the filter in 60-80fow, but the wind was insane and non-stop 3footers very close together was too much for some of the crew. We didn't even get a hit out there in the hour we managed. We trolled in to the main gap and went 3 for 4.

What worked:
11# Rainbow - Rigger down 22ft on a Mag Green Dolphin Stinger
Shaker King - Dragged the little guy around on a Regular Bloody Nose Stinger on a 5 Color.
16# King - Slide Diver 90loc #3 Set with a Silver Bullet J-Plug
Lost a Screamer on a 5 color with a Mag Caramel Dolphin Silver Streak

Water was 57 on the Surface and 55 down 30 ft.

[bigfishfred]

Launched at McKinley at 6am off by 11am. Fished all around, stayed in the main opening fighting waves, trollers. Even went up the river....through shallow cranks, deep cranks, spoons, and jig/flukes. Marked fish near bottom everywhere, only saw brownies jumping?

Water looked all churned up. Only saw one troller hook up with something small.

Then I heard the kayaking guy said he had 7? Did the high pressure/bright skies kill the daytime bite today? Anybody else have any reports?

[Eric Haataja]

Was out this evening and it was slower landed a few 4 year old kings and browns but nothing great, definitly a transition going on now, took a while but finally figured out what they wanted to eat but there was not enough time in the day to capitalize on the bite, due to the lack of light.

Eric

[bossman]

Fished sunday morn and started at 4:30 am around the main gap jigging gulp and no takers as waves up to 7 feet were crashing the break wall around the lighthouse then moved to the mouth of the river and discharge still nothing so on the way back to the launch around 11 am decided to long line troll cranks in the mud line after marking tons of bait and hooks below we wound up going 10 for 22 all kings except for 1 ho and acouple of lost rainbows mixed in, What a way to end the afternoon!

[deadeternity]

This will be the week to fish late into the night and morning because of the full moon phase and, the upcoming west winds. I will be outthere casting till my arm falls off for them beasts. My Moonshine glow spoons took a beating in murky water during the day already, so I hope at night they take another beating.....

[irishqone]

Got out this morning and made a few passes in the North Gap and then out to 50 fow and back in to the South Gap. Picked up a 8# Bow 1/4 mile outside the North and a 10# Chinook about 1/8 of a mile outside the South. No other hits, very slow. The water is as warm as it has been all year 65-66 degrees on top, and a bit cloudy. Both fish hit a #3 J-Plug (green/silver) 60' back and 27' down on the rigger. Back to school tomorrow. Keep the reports flowing and the coolers full.

Good Luck and Good Fishin'
Jim

[bossman]

Some pic's from yesterday!

[Hyintegrity]

Went out yesterday, left the marina at about 6pm and fished until 930ish.
Only 3 fish... Really slow night jigging. All which were caught by the same guy. He must have had the right technique...;)

[Eric Haataja]

Was out this weekend and the bite is starting to transition a bit. Kings are starting to get in the "agressive" mode.

Got out with my kids and they had fun catching some kings jigging gulp, also fished for browns and we ended up with 11 fish on Fri. Sunday we managed a few fish Kings and browns but not as good as days priror. Did well under the hoan bridge and by the discharge one day then the next day nodda...... that's fishing. A few walleye's starting to show up as well up the river in a few spots. All the fish we caught were on spinning tackle.

Be ready to start using more jigging spoons, and cranks for these fish now that the mode has changed along with rattle traps etc...

Good fishing!

[walleyewackr]

good stuff eric, great pics with kids. bet they have a blast.

[brookiereleaser]

fished last night 6-9

no hits , tried main, north, harbor , and discharge.

marked almost zero baitfish in the gaps yet saw a few fish caught in the north gap , kinda surprising to me considering i didnt mark any hooks or clouds all through the gap.

saw plenty surfacing near discharge, no takers.

I always see tons of stuff in the river from the launch to the harbor but i never really bother to fish it , not sure what it is, whether its fish, debris, or whatever but the locator was marking something,

anyways hopefully better luck next time.
tight lines!!!

[TJPike]

Do you care to say what the browns wanted?

[Ryan H.]

Went out yesterday, left the marina at about 6pm and fished until 930ish.
Only 3 fish... Really slow night jigging. All which were caught by the same guy. He must have had the right technique...;)

*chuckle* you know i did!

[deadeternity]

Last night at McKinley showed no baitfish but, the fish were still there. Browns jumping in the inner harbor and marina, salmon and trout jumping on the deep side of the pier. My fiance caught 2 salmon, one was a 12 pound chinook and the other was about a 16 inch coho. I lost 2 fish, my friend lost 1 right away, and my fiance lost 2 fish. We would have ended the night with 7 fish.


We were casting glow in the dark Krocodiles, Moonshines, and KO Wobblers. I have to give the browns a whirl next time if I make it out during the day. I have a few techniques up my sleeve that may just be crazy enough to work if I just get my butt out there and use them. The browns were in thick last night and, one fish I seen looked like a spawner already so they are staging already. It seems early but, they are in. I will be back out tonight patrolling the pier and hopefully catching some fish with my friends......

[deadeternity]

Fished McKinley pier for 5 hours and my I had 2 solid strikes, my fiance lost a big fish, and I started aggressively snap jigging a Moonshine glow spoon and right infront of the wall a giant fish hits. So after fightingthe fish to the surface I see the fish and think it is the state record smallmouth because of it's size and body shape. Once we got the fish in the net and the light on it, I can't believe my eyes. A GIANT SHEEPSHEAD!!!! That fish nailed that spoon, and I was snap jigging it super hard. That was the action for the night........

[walleyewackr]

good stuff man, just never know do you. have caught some pretty weird stuff of the pier in sheboygan myself from channel cats to pike and smallies to white fish to burbots, just never know

[collinfishes]

nice!!!! thats a dandy sheep! they LOVE snap jigging and they always crush it. very very cool fish, i cant get enough of em. seems like theres alottt of em around this year.. that woulda been one heck of a smallie.

[Eric Haataja]

Last 2 days have been a bit tougher than I'd like to see! Still getting a few kings that are 15-20 lbs each trips but it has slowed, high pressure, full moon, calm water, gin clear water have all been factors in a slower bite in my opinion.

It can only get better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eric

[deadeternity]

Eric, it is strange that the night bite was so slow last night. I would think the only factor against us would be the the high pressure when we are out at 1:00am. I normally did really good around the full moon. We did lose 3 fish but in 5 hours that is really slow. I am almost wondering if alot of these salmon and steelhead are in the harbor already with the browns I see jumping all over the place?

It seems so early though but, then again the browns are in thick really early to. I am not sure if this is a normal occurence with the browns staging so early but, the salmon have to feed sooner or later. I will be out tonight so I am crossing my fingers. The full moon is tomorrow night so if the lunar phases are right either the 3 days before or after the full moon are best for night fishing.....

[walleyebum]

any kings in the harbor yet?

[Eric Haataja]

Fished tonight and we caught 3 kings all in short period of time "last light". All caught trolling

Eric

[luv2fish]

Had lines set this morning at 6:15 am just south of the towers in 90 fow. Trolled out to 170 fow and back to 80 fow with nothing to show for it at all. I tried everything...E-chips, Coyotes, and Spin Doctors in white, green and blue with various flies. I tried different plugs and spoons. I tried varying speed, depth, heading, color, presentation (2 riggers, 2 dipsy, and 1 lead to 2 riggers, 2 lead, and 1 dipsy) and lead lengths with absolutely nothing.

Talked to someone at the launch who worked form the gaps out to 60 fow and he got the skunk too...

I am open to suggestions if anyone cares to give a few pointers in terms of starting depth or location, today stumped me for sure...

Good luck and enjoy the holiday,

Ryan

[Eric Haataja]

Lake Michigan Salmon Fishing

Well the bite has gone down hill!!!! At least for me it did on friday afternoon! That's why they call it fishing:-)) (((

Fished the past 3 days and Yesterday morning we were 5 for 7 (not horrible) but yesterday evening sucked!! It was the worst trip I think I may have ever had down there with only 1 king. High pressure, gin clear water, full moon, boat traffic, warmer water I'm sure were all keys to the bite going south and fast! Weds and Thursday were alright as well with 5-7 fish each time out.

Fish are there but were shut down, it will only get better ecspecially if the water warms back up! 1st light and last light have been the best the past 3 days but when things pick up you'll be able to catch them all day long again

Eric

[Big_D]

This is a late report from Friday... Got out and tried trolling out by the filter and UWM from 5-9am. Worked 50-100 fow and not a bump to show for it. Headed in and tried some jigging in the gaps... could not get anything going there... then tried tossing crankbaits around in the marina for a couple hours, and finally got a little bit of action. Lost a ~6-7 lb brown, then boated one same size (rls), and then hooked a nice 16lb king that gave me a good 15 minute fight dodging sailboats and boat traffic. Not a busy day by any means, but did manage find a little bit of fun. Action all came on a #12 Husky Jerk (Firetiger).

Take Care,

D.

[brookiereleaser]

late morning the harbor looked pretty slow,

Didnt really see any boats out there , in the gaps , or even off of the tx facility. Also walked both the breakwall at Mckinley and the yacht club wall , didnt see anything but panfish down there.

Either everyone did really well today and limited early or it was a slowwww day.

Hopefully we kick into high gear here very soon,

anything showing up in the tanks at the steelhead facility on the root these days? or is the window closed and not processing yet?

[walleyewackr]

same stuff up here eric, seemed like you had a half four window in the morning and then might as well go home. tons of bait, very clear water and lots of boat traffic shut it right down! water is super warm to, seen tons of brownies on saturday morning and hardly any yesterday morning. still managed to scratch a few fish, but tough none the less. had 3 bites were my jigging spoon was dropping to the bottom but couldnt hook up on any of them. i stll get so surprised how hard they hit baits sometimes and dont get hooked up at all, very shocking. you said it best though, thats why its called fishing

[fishhooked]

Was out Sunday evening with my wife tried jigging the north gap water too warm no bait showing up either. But still had a good time until some ass in a cabin cruiser decides to come blasting into the entrance to the harbor, we had stopped to jig there because we had no luck in the north gap and locater showed fish at 25 ft. this guy had to be doing 15 to 20 in a no wake area and almost rolled us , If any one had seen this and knows the name of the boat that did this please send me a private message as we just happed to have it on video but can't Identify the boat by name or number Milwaukee Police and the Coast Guard are going to get the video and a ear full and I would like to have at least the name of the boat. Tried to follow this jerk but I wasn't going to risk my ruining my boat ,he cut across the moored area and came close to hitting a couple of mooring buoys. Why some people have to be such asses I'll never know. The picture here is just before he blasted through, friend of my wife was taking pictures from the seawall. what a surprise that was.

Eric thanks for posting all the videos on jigging the gaps, caught some big fish thanks to you .

[rootpro6]

fishhooked I saw that same boater come in as I was shore fishing and I also couldn't believe it. What a clown.

[HotHead617]

Went out tonight tried to find some fish in the marina ....i did see a coulpe surface but thats about it...went out to the harbor and tried there still could not get hooked up but did see lots of kings surfacing and jumping seen 1 jump with a lamprey on it....also alot of the fish i seen were already dark...still have not got a king this year casting wtf? Cant wait till ice fishing!!!!

[Fish Tales]

I really apologize for throwing out this question once again, because I know there are those out there who have tried to provide the answers. I am once again confused regarding water temperature, wind direction and its relation to fish activity.

Eric, in your previous post you stated: "High pressure, gin clear water, full moon, boat traffic, warmer water I'm sure were all keys to the bite going south and fast!" Then, in the same post, you said: "It will only get better, especially if the water warms back up!" Maybe I am missing something, but which claim is correct? I don't see how it could be both.

I do know one thing though, if it's been bad for you the rest of us don't stand a chance.

On a similar note, those on this site as well as others, have been bemoaning the easterly winds we've been experiencing. Everyone is hoping for westerly winds to blow the warm water out of here so the cold water will return and fish activity will pick up. Same question, which is what we should be hoping for, easterly or westerly winds?

I am asking this from the point of view of a landlocked shore angler, fishing for Salmon and Trout out of Kenosha, Racine and Bender Harbors.

1) Best wind direction?
2) Importance of water clarity?
3) Best water temperature?

I will likely be out again tomorrow morning. Still looking for my first King, but realistically fishing for Browns, probably inside Bender. Set to go once again with small chartreuse spawn sacks under slip floats.

[Eric Haataja]

Fish hooked that is a sweet pic! I have tried to take a few pics in the evening and it never seems to turn out with my camera. What type of camera do you have?

Was out last night and the bite is still slow..................

Fishing will get better because at some point int he near future the water temps won't matter as much. West winds will help.

Bender should be good for browns soon but if you want kings fish the mouth of the root with cranks, spoons, spawn etc... Kenosha is also a sleeper harbor for giant browns and salmon etc..

Eric

[No-Fish Nick]

I really apologize for throwing out this question once again, because I know there are those out there who have tried to provide the answers. I am once again confused regarding water temperature, wind direction and its relation to fish activity.

Eric, in your previous post you stated: "High pressure, gin clear water, full moon, boat traffic, warmer water I'm sure were all keys to the bite going south and fast!" Then, in the same post, you said: "It will only get better, especially if the water warms back up!" Maybe I am missing something

1) Best wind direction?
2) Importance of water clarity?
3) Best water temperature?


Fish Tales, I'm sure Eric meant to say "when the water cools down" or "when the fishing heats up"

Best wind for you this time of year would be West (brings in colder water and is usually associated with lower barometric pressure).
Best water clarity is slightly stained
Best temps mid-forties to mid-fifties

Hope this helps with your questions, Catch some big ones

Nick

[deno b.]

As of late in Racine i have not been able to get a fish during the day or even at low light. Been casting alot to no avail.

So I switched to night fishing and it seems to be alot better. Last four nights I have been out and the best time i've noticed was from 8:30- maybe 10:00 and after that they seem to shut off for a while. Was out fishing with Colin lastnight, between the two of us, went 0-4. Colin had one on for ten minutes and ended up straighting his hook. The others have gotten in the rocks and snapped our lines. Still good action. Just fishing skein on the bottom. There are so many fish west of the main gap now.

I've got the "eye of the tiger" now, gets alittle frustrating loosing fish, thats what makes chinook challenging. Back at it again tonight. I must point out fun watching Colin try to catch a fish with one arm.

[walleyewackr]

yup right now nighttime is the right time, crystal clear water makes these fish very spooky espiecailly when you have charters boats runnin around all the time, moves fish out and down. looks like 5 or 6 nights in a row of light easterly winds is gonna keep things pretty clear for a while unless we get some rain to muddy things up a bit. fish are definitly in

[TJPike]

I ask this question before.. Presume you guys are preserving your skein. What method are you using ? I use Alaskan method,is there something better ?

[Big_D]

Got out yesterday morning to see how things were progressing. As most of you probably know already... 'tis status quo.

I started out trolling the north gap with spoons and J-plugs for a couple hours through sunrise, and got no action there. Then I went and tossed cranks around the marina for a couple hours... one hit that did not hook up and a couple of short follows, and that was it. Also tried soaking some skein for a couple hours... no go there either. Went back to cranking for a little while longer and again... no luck. Nuts all day!

There are certainly plenty of kings in the marina and harbor area already, but the trick is figuring out what will turn them on right now. I talked to a few other boats and shore anglers and sounds like everyone did about as well as I did, unfortunately... so no clues so far. :(

Take Care,

D.

[brewcityfishr]

TJpike-

I go with a 70/30 mix of Pro Cure's double red and Pautzke's Fire Cure ( red color also)

70% Pro cure, 30% Fire Cure. just follow the directions on the back of the bottle's and your good to go. ALWAYS bleed out your fish before taking the eggs out. I wouldnt wash them off either, just cure them as soon as you get home and seal/jar them up after the cure is complete. you could also add a little extra powderd krill scent to the eggs about 30 mins after you put the powderd cure on. should be game on for the skein bite! maybe a week early yet. good fishin'

[No-Fish Nick]

That is some great info guys, thanks for sharing :D

Nick

[TJPike]

Thankyou much Brew dude.:D

[Reel Addiction]

Went out for a few hours last night and decided to try for some deep water action. Not much going ended up 2 for 4 with a 10# King and a 8# Laker lost two other kings at the boat everything was on White Opti Flashers and LBB Poseidon fly best depth was 100-120fow 80-115ft down on the riggers and 225loc on the wire dipsys set 1.5. Not great action, looks like it's time for harbor patrol :eek::eek:

[walleyebum]

:cool:MANISTEE, Mich. - The Ludington Daily News has learned that what appears to be a new world record brown trout was caught in the Manistee River this morning.
Grand Rapids-area resident Tom Healy caught the 41-pound, 7.25 ounce monster on a crankbait while fishing with Tim Roller's charter service. Michigan DNR fisheries biologists Mark Tonello and Todd Kalish weighed the fish after leveling the certified scales and determined the weight. It is the new record for Michigan. Upon the second weighing with the scales leveled, the weight was determined to be 1 pound, .75 ounces heavier than originally determined. The fish was 43.75 inches long.

[Needtofishmore]

Here's a pic. What a monster!

[Eric Haataja]

I heard about this fish 2 days ago that's awesome!

Was out yesterday and we went 5 for 10 so the bite was decent jigging and trolling. Lots of fish around the inside and outside of the harbor yesterday, all our fish were kings.

[deadeternity]

Once I return from up north, I am gonna hurt the lips of many salmon and trout!!!! About time there is a good report for a change. The past 2 weeks has been tough to say the least.....

[TJPike]

What would be cleaning skein off the hook [single or treble] when its on bottom for a few minutes repeatedly for hours,without detecting any bites?? This happened last night on Sheboygan north pier on lake and harbor side.Managed to get 2 Kings 20 plus pounders jigging big glow cleos near bottom !!! Gobey stealing skein ?:confused:

[HotHead617]

My guess would be gobies or small perch.....i have caught perch on eggs before.

[TJPike]

A city of 600,000,what happened are you all ok or is the fishing that bad ?No reports.Dont want to go to Lake Links and read about those guys bicker with each other.:confused:

[RedBullFisherman]

Yep, its been that bad. Casted off mckinley pier (shore fishermen) friday, saturday and monday. Picked up one 15# king on saturday. Skunked every other day. Saw zero fish taken monday by anyone, 1 one fish friday, and one other on saturday.

[Eric Haataja]

Well the bite absolutely sucks in there now we hooked up a few fish today but other than that is was terrible! Most of the fish have seemed to pull out and I do not mark as many or see as many surfacing. This is a really really crazy fall unlike any I can remember in a lonf time. Fish should be piled up now but the water is just too warm. I do expect thing to get better now that the water has gotton churned up with these east winds.

[luv2fish]

I've got a funny feeling that as soon as we get some CONSISTENT west winds it is going to be on big time...its that time of year but we need some colder water...

Just my 2 cents...could very well be wrong...

[irishqone]

I've got a funny feeling that as soon as we get some CONSISTENT west winds it is going to be on big time...its that time of year but we need some colder water...

Just my 2 cents...could very well be wrong...



I agree, the water was 78 the other night and we have more NE wind all weekend. Some fish are being caught from 100-150 fow.

[Grumpa]

Fished the harbor, yesterday, Sept 17 with a buddy. Started trolling at the McKinely ramp. Marked way too many fish. Tried crankbaits on boards...nothing. Spoons and J-plugs on Dipseys...nothing. 10:30 AM first fish going East, middle of the main gap on Downrigger. 22 down, 1.5 colors of leadcore and a Silver J-plug. 15.5 lb 4 year old king. Three hours later (Oh such fun) going west bound thru same gap. Downrigger, 24 down. Blue and Silver J-plug, 30 back from the ball. King, maybe 5 lbs. Beautiful weather, plenty of sun. Someday the west winds will return.

[.Pan Handler]

Night fishing can be much more productive with weather and water conditions like these. Fishing the middle of the day with light easterly winds and bright sunshine is not conducive to catching kings. Try starting at 9 PM and fish till sunrise, I bet quite a few more fish would get boated.

[Eric Haataja]

Fishing has been very good the past couple of days finally things have changed for the better!! Kings, big chrome steelies and browns all caught by clients with 20+ fish trips thank god!

[John S]

From the boat, or shore?

[NOBADDAYS]

hes fishin from boat alot of times you can cast where he is....:D bite is on trolling casting soaking west winds dominate our fishing fish from west bite is best from east catch the least. they were jumpin all over today and yesturday.

[Justinm]

Fishing was tough for me today. I still saw fish jumping all over but had a hard time getting them to bite. Everyone I talked to had zero fish and most said yesterday it was awesome and today it turned off. After not doing well in the harbor I ventured out to the lagoon to try my luck with pike and ended up catching a nice king on a thunderstick. I might have only caught 1 today but I am super excited to catch a fish I rarely get a chance at!

I felt like a retard because I dont know my great lakes species very well and I had to ask some guys in another boat what I had caught LOL! They assured me it was a king. The color was much lighter then the other kings I have caught so that threw me off.

Justin

www.fightingthefish.com

[brookiereleaser]

went out this morning to the harbor.

Got 5 hooked up on cranks , only boated one , those damn mooring lines can be a beast. My buddy's entire spool got absolutely shredded by a king that took the line right along a mooring line.

Lately any variant of fire tiger has been THE go to crank/stick. I seem to not be able to hook up anything else. I have all these new shiny cool looking cranks that I want to work so badly but i guess that its true what they say , they sell the lure to the fishermen not the fish.

Anyways, things that were working last year like blues and silvers and such and more natural looking cranks have really done jack nothing for us this fall. Fire tiger variants and BIG seem to be key. The smaller fire tiger lures have not worked as well for us, but that might just be our deal.

Does anyone know what happened to the gap trolling this year. I remember a solid few weeks last year during the run where the gaps were absolutely log jammed and we were getting fish on almost every pass for a while. This year I have seen basically no boats in the gaps and all the fish seem to be in the inner harbor or river. Did that part of the run just kinda pass by relatively un-eventful or what??!!?!?! Is that part still a possibility or are the rivers and inner harbor really the only place to be now . I can't believe I havent gotten a fall run fish in the gaps this year.

Thank god i got to jig for em this summer thanks to all the help from this site , otherwise I would never have picked up a silvery king>

BTW dont be an idiot like me and get on any of the docks in the sailing center to have a look in the water from a birds eye view , almost done got arrested or something today by the cape cod police. won't make that mistake again.

good luck,
chuck

[deadeternity]

Hit the lakefront today and fished skein eggs and Rapalas and landed 2 salmon on the Rapalas, lost 2 on the Rapalas, and lost 2 on skein. It was a blast battling them fish even though some got away. Fishing has been pretty good for us lately. Lots of fish jumping, browns and chinooks everywhere. The skein also was getting pulled under from time to time but they would spit it out fast. Maybe I will add some krill oil to my skein. This fishing is only gonna get better in the next week or so......

[TJPike]

What the heck is kreel oil ??:confused:

[BigMusky]

hit Mckinley harbor casting for Kings....went 1 for 2. First cast got a hit on rattle trap...should have known that was a bad sign when fish comes on first cast....came unbuttoned at boat. Lucky to avoid hooks flying at extreme net man (me) at terminal velocity!

Next fish crushed a jerk bait a could three hours later. It was easily the most violent strike I have ever had.

Fish are definitely not as thick in harbor as usual. Almost none by launch and almost non schooled up by north gap.

[Big_D]

Late Report from Saturday... pretty much confirming what everyone else has reported. It was a pretty slow day. I started out trolling. Worked the north gap/area for ~1hour and then the main gap/area for another hour. Marking LOTS of fish, but they just not biting. Ran spoons/J's on dipsies and stickbaits on boards. Decided to head into McKinley for the rest of the day. Spent a few hour tossing cranks and a few hours soaking skein. Went 1 for 3 in about 5-6hours. First hook-up was on a #12 firetiger Husky Jerk. That one came unglued. Second fish came on a blue/silver DT10... a very silver 10lb king (Forgot to snap pic, sorry). Third hook up was on skein, and lost that one half-way into the boat. Had a couple of other short follows on cranks and a couple of sunk bobbers that didn't hook up too... but all in all, it was really slow.

Take Care!

D.

[BigMusky]

I should clarify...I did not sonar the actual gap...I meant deep water at mouth of McKinley adjacent to gap.

[deadeternity]

Caught 2, lost 3, one fish on skein, the other on a crankbait. Had a few solid hits and misses, a few on the skein and some on the crankbaits. Its been a relaxing and theraputic feeling just hanging out and fishing for these salmon. Milwaukee sometimes shows a brighter side to life, and it's fishing can be a blast....

[brewcityfishr]

Got off work early today so I hit the harbor solo from 9am-230. bad weater, awesome fishing! went 9 for 16 all on skein/slipfloats. all kings between 10-20 pounds. seen a few nice browns jumping around also....should be a great fall! good fishin'

[HotHead617]

Late Reports!!!
Went out Monday and Wed after work.....Monday caught 3 fish and lost a few.....wasnt bad but skein bite was good for the early afternoon....i didnt have any with but didnt matter once night fall came as cranks were being hammered.
Wed...only landed 1 fish but was busted off twice (line under boats)and had a couple jumpers throw the hooks and missed about 8 with skein...they were nice bites but i was to slow to the rod....plain skein to didnt cure it.

[Tom Wendel]

Got in on the skien bite Wednesday thanks to the encouragement of Eric who unselfishly reports a hot bite to all that watch this thread. So since my younger brother who was in town from North Carolina and my older brother has always been after me to get out on the lake for salmon, were available we set out to McKinley for a morning of fishing. We ended up with 5 kings and a nice steelhead to finish the day. A great day for all of us but got outfished by my son who fished out of his new Hobie kayak.
Thanks again Eric!

[HotHead617]

Went out again last night...it was super slow until nightfall came then it slowly started to pick up...nothing on the skein bite last night just small little pecks (musta been from the little brownies they stocked)
Picked up two fish missed a few others seen a few more caught by some other guys...all fish caught were on frenzys.
May try to get out again on sunday...spending the morning now curing up some salmon jerky!!!!!Post a pic of the fish later (not the jerky)

[Gerry]

I see the skein bite is good right now... but does anyone think trolling crankbaits or spoons in the harbor would produce? I want to go out in the kayak and get some exercise...

Gerry

[Eric Haataja]

Skein bite is probably your best bet but you may get some fish on cranks if you troll? My buddy was down there today and they crushed the fish, I even heard Midwest outdoors was down there today doing a T.V show.

[deadeternity]

Some fish were caught today in Milwaukee, mostly on skein, we lost 3 and had 5 bites, slowest day ever for skein fishing, seen a total of 8 landed in 5 hours. Walked around the pier and harbor and did not see much else happening. Tried lures and skein, had 2 hits on the lures. Docks and wooden poles are annoying. Lots of fish jumping but something has this Fall in a weird pattern. It is not as action packed as in past years. Everyone around shore seems to feel that anyways and so do I. My friends who never caught salmon at least had a chance to battle fish when the 3 we lost hit right away around 2:45pm. It seems this season it is hit or miss, and the bit is on for short bursts. Good Luck, that is the best I have for a report.

[Gerry]

I did get out Sunday in Milwaukee harbor in the kayak, trolled rapalas and spoons around the south gap, up to the main gap and back. 7-10am. marked nothing at south end, marked fish in main channel and main gap, no hits. tried a variety of depths and lures. a few fish were there in the main channel, 10-20 down, but pretty scattered. and a few really hugging the bottom but again scattered. I didn't see any jumping or rolling etc.

Gerry

[NOBADDAYS]

here is a link to a letter that could help fishing here in the GLakes and if you fish big water that too. goes directly to all WI senate

http://capwiz.com/keepamericafishing/issues/alert/?alertid=14119696

[Grey Beard]

Despite a report from a buddy who didn’t have a bite fishing off Milwaukee yesterday I had to take advantage of the nice weather. I was chomping at the bit not having fished salmon since the 1st week of September.

The recent blow made for dirty water out to 70’ so I set lines in 85fow just south of the Filtration Plant and took a NE heading. When crossing 100’ the 2 color with a 3F org/chartreuse Evil Eye got slammed while Craig was hooking on the OffShore taking a 9# Laker. The 75’ rigger white Dodger and Siggs aqua/glow went off with another Laker while bringing in the first.

I was looking for silver fish so kept heading NE and 2yr old chin took a reg Raider Green Tiger down 105 in 135fow. Then a bow hit a 3set Dipsy white Opti flasher and Siggs aqua/glow 55loc. I couldn’t get turned around because then the 75’ rigger went again with another 2yr old. 105 rigger and Grn Tiger a nice 3 yr old that made some great runs. The Green Tiger had been the stud color this summer so I put another on a 70’ rigger with SWR and changed out the white blade for green/glow Opti flasher with Sigg’s Bluegreen Aqua crinkle as the sun was up. Both went twice with 2 yr olds. I put 6oz Snap Wt on my full core and mag Oz and 4oz Snap Wt on 45# copper and Mag Bloody Death to attempt to get down where the riggers were working and never had a sniff.

I wanted more baits deep without the 4 rigger tangles so I put a second OR-8 on my 105 rigger. I put another Grn Tiger on a small Dipsys and ran it out 4 passes and put it down 105 and changed to a SWR on same rigger with another Reg Grn Tiger. That paid off as both fired a couple of times each over the morning. Then the 2 color and org/chart Evil Eye took a dandy bow. I put a regular Raider Double Orange Crush on a 5 color and that took another bow. At one point we were 11for 11 and Howie had to say it so the 12th bite on a 3set Dipsy 55loc and reg Raider Orange Muffing pounded it good but escaped. 70’ SWR rigger and Green Tiger took a bow.

We were sitting on 14 a little after noon and said let’s give it another 15minutes to see if we can get out limit. Both SWRs fired, 70 & 105’ down. While we were boxing those the 90’ grn/glow Opti hooked up so throwing fish back. While clearing lines we found a small coho being dragged on the stacked Dipsy down 105.

Surface temp was 51.5 and down 90’ 49.2. Trolled 1.8-2.2 on the Depth Raider and most fish came between 150-185fow. Marked some surface bait and some hay stack pods on the bottom. We did have occasional suspend marks but not a lot. Certainly seemed like the biters were either in the top 25’ or deeper than 75’. We went 18 for 19 with 4 bows, 2 LT, 1 coho and the rest kings.

Weather looks great for the AM and despite throwing the Stabil in the tank today I’m waiting for a call back to see if I can get a crew for tomorrow. One never knows if we will get another day calm enough to venture deep.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[Eric Haataja]

Now that's an awesome report!!!!!!!!!!

Eric

[dkru15317]

Had a few hours to sneek out and fish with the wife today. Only tried skein and different colored spawn under floats. Missed a couple and landed a couple. This is my first steelhead so I was very excited. Fish were hitting very light. Had to be very fast on the stick. All hits were on spawn sacs and color seemed to matter. All in all, anytime you can hook into beautiful fish like this is a great day. Good fishing and tight lines to all.

[Dahji]

Grats on your first Steelhead!

[Needtofishmore]

Beautiful fish. Nice job!

[dub]

saw a break in the waves and managed to get out solo Wednesday late afternoon, fished from 4:30pm - 6pm. Thanks to Grey Beards report from 10/27, short on time, I headed NE out of McKinley directly to 135 FOW. 1.8 on the Depth Raider. Just set 3rd line and the 110' rigger SWR popped Magnum Green Melon with a small king. Just reset and the 35' rigger SWR went on a white spin doctor with powder blue Howie fly, boated a 12 pound brown. 35' rigger SWR went again 2 yr old king. Reset and it went immediately again, small king. Noticed a bump on the 110' rigger and pulled in a small king. didn't have a chance to reset that rod as the 35' rigger went again with a small king. No chance to reset that rod because the last of the 3 rods 25' rigger SWR Magnum White silver ladderback went with a beautiful bow that put on a nice aerial show, glad the lines were clear. ended 7 for 7.

Quite hazy and gray out there, could not see shore. GPS and compass were a must have to get back. lack of quality pictures, too busy out there. Had a very tired small bird that ventured too far from shore land on my arm, moved it to the dash where it rested for about 30 minutes before it headed back out. Saw only 1 other boat outside of the breakwall on my way back in.

[deadeternity]

I have a question about the marinas around Milwaukee and Racine. Do they open the gates and let people fish off the docks once the boats are removed from the slips? I have seen pictures of people holding fish and video of people fishing off the side of the docks icefishing and in open water. And it was always for the browns and steelhead. I would really appreciate if anyone has thie answer to this question because, it gives shore anglers room to roam and find fish if we are allowed better access....

[Needtofishmore]

They don't necessarily open the gates, but in the winter you can walk around the gates and access the docks that way. Some of the docks you're seeing now aren't gated, but they get removed before the ice forms.

[Grey Beard]

El Niño is predicted for this year and must be true finding temps in the 70s in November and little wind in the forecast so we couldn’t resist heading to Lake Michigan. This time however it will be impossible to recall all of what got bite, where and when because we had in the neighborhood of 90 bites the last 2 days.

Last time we fished best action for us was over 150fow but we hoped the recent blow would change the temp and bring some colder water up higher so set in 70fow off the Filtration plant. The temp was down three degrees from last time at 46 down 70 and 2 degrees colder on the surface at 50. Marked an occasional hook and no bait as we headed NE. 90’ rigger with SWR and protype Raider Pink Tiger first to go with a 7# king. Then quiet and dropped the rigger to 105 when we got out to 155 and turning back the same new one took a 2 yo king. A drive by then a good rip on 300’ of 45# copper and Mag prototype Yellow Tiger. Those of us out joined in for the search and reported any action on the marine band. Sound like not any better in shallower so continued east to 200fow. Took an 15# Laker on a 90’ 1set wire Dipsy with a mag Oz. Still no bait and rare marks. Then the call from a friend around 930 in 35 fow with 6 nice browns in the box.

We didn’t hesitate and pulled and ran in setting up north of the filter. Then the action began getting 3 shaker coho and 1 nice brown while setting lines. We continued working that contour from north of the Filter and turning back around St. Mary’s seeing hooks and bait most everywhere. The best setups were reg Green Tiger 20’ SWR, Pink Tiger 25’ SWR, 25’ 15 pass rigger with #4 Andy Reeker blue/white polka dot. 50 1 set wire Dipsy with reg Green Tiger and #4 Andy Reeker blue Oz tape. 5 color with Prototype Double Purple spook and glow back, 2 & 5 color with reg Double Orange Crush, 6 Color with reg Raider Sister Sledge. We ended up boating around 40 fish boxing 11 kings with 4 three yr olds and 9 browns.

On the way home I was on the phone working on a crew for the next day. One of today’s crews signed up for a return along with a buddy for another 330AM departure. I woke up before the alarm excited by the prospect getting on the kings first light. Surprise surprise, we didn’t boat a boxable king until after 1030 but that was a nice 11# on a 6 color and reg Green Raider. Fortunately the browns were hungry and some nicer ones than yesterday up to 9#. We had an amazing number of bites that escaped using the same program as Sunday. We again released a lot of shorts both browns and coho. We tripled up a little after noon with browns and had to throw one back having boxed 13 at that point. Ended up with 3 salmon and 12 browns and more weight with these than the 20 from yesterday.

We trolled at 1.8-2.2 on the Depth Raider and mostly on the slower side due to the browns. Surface temp 50 and 47 down 25 in 35 fow. Stuck to regular sized spoons as that was the size of the baitfish being spit up. Left the flasher and flies in the box while in brown territory. If this weather holds will be looking for another crew soon.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[Grey Beard]

We seem to have acquired a case “shakeritis”. We boated 44 fish but only boxed 10. I've never run into so many small fish any time of the year. I thought they were coho because they don't have any spots on their tails. However Capt Rich thought kings. Maybe the spots develop later.

Recent trips have not had a no light bite so hit the water at first light and found some 2 to 3’ rollers out of the SE. We set up in 35fow just out of the North Gap finding a decent number of marks near the bottom and 46 degrees on the surface. Kind of surprised we got all the rods set before a hookup. Then the SWR riggers with prototype regular Pink Tiger at 15’ took its first of may be 10 fish for the day. Almost a double as the 20’ SWR and regular Green Tiger started bouncing.

Again I found it difficult to keep track of all the bites as there was almost constant action the first couple of hours. We actually warmed up enuf to take the jacket off. I think we released 8 small fish before we had a brown take a regular Broken Nose on a 6 color. The 3 color and reg. Cracked Ice Pearl had three fish early but no boxers. 3 color and reg. Double Orange crush the same. The 5 color with reg. Double Purple Spooks took a nice LT and a boxer brown and a few shakers. Reg Bloody Death was on the other 5 color and took a LT, a boxer brown and some shakers. Trying to get out some more pink I put a reg Pink Alewife on the 32’ SWR and more shakers.

The 15’ SWR with the reg Pink Tiger took our only 2 yr old salmon. Figuring the bigger salmon must be somewhere else I dug out the old reliable Blue and White Andy Reekers and put then on 50’ and 60’ 3 set Dipsys. They rewarded us with 4 boxer browns and a number of shakers. The 5 color reg Double Purple Spook took out big fish of the day, a 12# male brown.

The baitfish we had last week was gone. What we did mark was near the surface and best depth was 50’ but did catch fish as shallow as 35’ from St. Mary’s to the Filter. Trolled 1.6-2.3 on the Depth Raider and 1.8 seemed to be the best.

Sure would have liked to get a few more big fish today. However getting to troll this late in the year with enough action to break a sweat definitely shortened my winter. The tarp goes on Wednesday.


Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[yatch]

[B]We fished next to Grey beard on Monday and I now know how this guy gets his fish. About every 10 minutes I could see someone near the rear of his boat light something, then throw it in the water followed by a large explosion. He then circled around an netted the days catch. The jig is up you've been had.

We went 9 for 10 with 5 shakers, 2 lakers to 15# and 2 kings to 10#. All on spoons with the best rig a 6 color off a board line Great day on the water. And you guys went deer hunting!

Double E ;)

[deadeternity]

Glad to see more lakers showing up, good job on the catch....

[Grey Beard]

Double E,

I just ordered another batch as decided not yet time to tarp the boat as Sat wind, weather look fishable.

Sure would like to find some salmon bigger than all those shakers. Suppose they moved with the bait and not sure where that is. If the water is calm enuf and we don't get them going early may slide out to >100 fow and see what I can find.

Grey Beard

[BigMusky]

I just googled Dupont Spinners....it all makes sense now:D

[Grey Beard]

The weather was too nasty on Wednesday to winterize the boat and too nice on Saturday not to give it one more try. Set lines at first light in 35fow out of the North Gap finding some marks and temp down to 45.5 on the surface. Trolled that contour and no bites until a shaker on a 3 color and reg Bloody Death just north of the filter. Quite a flotilla of boats behind me so kept going north fishing water I don’t typically hunt for browns. I hoped that fewer boats would help us pick off the active biters.

The first nice brown came on a Dipsy on a Fishlander Green Easter Egg 1.5 set. Not sure exactly out far out because it was so cold the electronic counter on my Penn 875s would not turn on. It was back to how many passes, 4.5. Same set took another brown then went to sleep the remainder of the AM. 25’ mono rigger and reg Grn Tiger took a nice LT and then no more bites on that. Five color and reg dbl Purple Spook lost a boxer then captured one and another shaker. The reg Pink Tiger SWR down 15 was quiet for a change taking one boxer and one short. The other SWR reg green Tiger moving it around from 20 to 35 took two shakers.

The 4 color and reg Bloody Death took a boxer and a shaker. 65’ 3set Dipsy and Blue/white blk dot Andy reeker took out second Laker. 2 color and reg double Orange crush captured a leaping bow, the first one in the last 4 trips. Listening to the radio chatter it seemed that most were struggling compared to last weekend. I didn’t hear of any keeper size salmon caught. The only bait fish were puffs near the surface. About 1130 with 10 in the box tried to decide whether to go home or go deep looking for salmon. Considering the nice seas and probably last outing of the year we pulled lines and ran east setting in 100fow. We set the same as the productive spread from 3 weeks ago. Three boats working 100-145 fow for a couple of hours yielded one strike for the 3 boats and nadda for us. Marked lots of bait and some hooks and kept thinking should have been there earlier in the day.

My crew had no urge to go home so we pulled lines again and re-set in 45 fow off the Filter and trolled north. We decided we would fish from dark to dark and see if there was an evening bite. Not much happened until the last ½ hour of light and took three more boxers, 4 color reg bloody death, 5 color dble Purple Spook and 6 color Oz decorated Andy Reeker. Another shaker on 2 color Dbl Orange crush and 3 set Dipsy reg Sister Sledge.

We ended the day with 12 browns, 1 rainbow, 2 LT released and a dozen or so shakers. Trolled 1.8 to 2 on the Depth Raider 35-50fow and caught fish as far as 43.06.5 north. The forecast for the coming week looks like putting off winterization any longer would be a mistake. Will now have to switch to walleyes until ice up.

Tight lines and full coolers,

Grey Beard

[BigMusky]

fished Milwaukee harbor Saturday and it was pretty slow. Worked harder then I have ever had before changing each of my six lines at least three times...tried riggers, tried without, tried 2 planers and four planers, tried lead core and flat lining. No pattern at all. Caught a few small browns and one nice steelie...but otherwise pretty disappointing.

[yatch]

Got on the water at 7 am, all piers still in at Mckinley, harbor water a cool 36 degrees, outside the gaps a warm 43 degrees (relatively speaking). It was kind of cold and bumpy in the am but warmed up nice as the morning progressed. Running a 6 rod spread of riggers, dipsy and lead core board lines we went 10 for 14 working 35 to 45' just outside the wall. Browns to 10# plus and 2 nice bows about 6# were in the catch. Went home with 8 in the box. Great day for a Dec. morning. :D

[Eric Haataja]

Got out today and caught some steelies and browns, biggest brown was pushing 16 lbs on a jig. Brrr it was a cold one out there but worth it since she was dripping golden eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bite was good this past month, lots of steelies.

Eric

[Eric Haataja]

The harbor is in good shape but the bite has been a bit slow out there as of lately, although I have heard some good things about the bite at the boils and down at the power plant.

Eric

[brookiereleaser]

got out today with 2 buddies from alaska

fishing was "okay" we hooked into probably 10 fish today all on skein/spawn and all but 2 were steelhead that we could identify. My buddy got a real nice looking steely to the boat, CPR'd today and he was pretty pumped.

harbor is actually more iced over than it was before we got the warm weather, probably the west winds, it looked like all the gaps were completely frozen out.

tons of baitfish up river where the temp changes, coulda gone for a dip if i felt like getting some mutant powers but not today. still good ice out there too but i am very cautious when i go out there and don't really venture far from stuff i can jump/cling to if i were to break through.

was using rainbow skein today , minimally cured and this was the best offering we were able to produce

good luck all,
chuck.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee317/3snakes1charm/DSC02952.jpg

[brookiereleaser]

just uploaded a video of mine from this summer with another soon to follow including my buddies 26+ pounder from this summer on 8lb test line jigging.

sorry the vid is so loud, my motor is older than i am but it does the job until i actually get a job and can buy something nice.

anyways enjoy.

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

[brewcityfishr]

Back at it again! sucks not having a computer for a couple months! Gave the trout a rest and went down to fish open water carp. fished them 5 times in the last 2 weeks and managed to land 60 hogs on light tackle...lol. what a blast! basic river rig with sweet corn is all it takes to battle with these monsters. back to the trout for now....good fishin'

[Hunter5]

Did anyone get a baot out this past weekend?

[brewcityfishr]

yesterday afternoon it was all locked up. we need a quick warm up!

[Hunter5]

Thats for the update John

[brookiereleaser]

still locked up pretty good, large chunks/blocks everywhere, not sure what its gonna take to clear it up cuz the flows keep coming down.

[brewcityfishr]

Hit the river yesterday, fished 11-5pm. soaked spawn for 2 hours without a bump. moved down river a ways and we managed 4 nice browns and 2 bow's. lots of ice moving down. good fishin'

[Eric Haataja]

Yea the harbor is in horrible shape with a lot of thick ice out there!

[brookiereleaser]

talked to two guys that made it out in the boat today as they were heading back in,

they followed a barge out and barely made it back due to it locking up behind them, they also said the main harbor was pretty much locked up as well where they were , they ended up going up-river to try and fish and got a few hook ups apparently.

dont think this east wind is going to help us out, so much for gettin out this weekend, 7 footers expected by friday, yikes.

[brewcityfishr]

just got back form the harbor- still all locked up. looks like it will be awhile:(

[Hunter5]

Lets all hope for West winds, soon......

[Hunter5]

We tried to launch this morning and there was just to much ice in the river. East winds suck.

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks for the update Greg! You dah Maaan!!!

[Rempump]

Any one have a report on the ice conditions in the river? Itching bad to get off the hard water and back in the boat!

[Hunter5]

Still loy of ice in the river and the harbor

[Rempump]

I got my dad and brother coming up this weekend. They are really hoping to get out on the big pond. How is the ice and how is the ramp?


We have N, NW and West winds this week. The temps are looking to be in the high 20's and low 30's. I am thinking this blow open the river....

[luv2fish]

For what it's worth i did see a boat in the harbor today on my commute to school. I DON'T however know the conditions of the ramp itself. If you get out let us know how the fishing is!

Good Luck,

Ryan

[Rempump]

Thanks for the info, I think we will give it a try Saturday. Throw in a shovel or 2 just in case the ramp is iffy. Was the river ice free?

Thanks

[brookiereleaser]

if you go earlier morning you will have to most likely break ice, last time i went out, .... last weekend i was about to turn back due to the thickness of the ice but thankfully a barge went through, then by mid day with all the bright sun and mild temps we had it opened up but i think it typically freezes at night , so its just up to you if you wanna try and break through....

did see a northern caught last time out on the boat so that was cool.....

might try the powerplant soon to see how that pans out

[Eric Haataja]

Ramp is fine and the harbor is wide open and almost all ice free........and the fishing is good both from shore under the hoan bridge and out jigging the gaps and discharge, Gaps have lakers and browns in them, (Note* Lake Trout season is Closed!) Discharge has browns and steelies. Drop shotting spawn has been the best bet as of late plus the fish rarely swallow your bait so mortality is less. Give it a try!! Jigging gulp with 3/8 -1/2 ounce jigs with white gulp has also been good.

Good Fishing!

Eric

[deadeternity]

Wait a minute, so there is no ice down by Marina anymore or, is there still ice to be fished on outthere? It would be odd if all that ice is gone already but then again, it is a lake with a mind of it's own....

[fishinislife]

No, I think Eric meant the river underneath hoan bridge area is open. There's still plenty of ice in the marinas. Saw quite a few of people fishing the gap by hoan. Don't know how they did, but a few people on shore had success. Buddy of mine got a nice 7-8lb laker off of spawn. Fish was released off course. Hopefully these souteast winds doesn't effect the water clarity. It was a nice day out!

[deadeternity]

Thanks for the heads up, I hope this bite picks up and my friends and I get a few later today. All it takes is 1 hard battle to make me happy, but several wont make me complain either. Good luck to you and thanks again....

[Eric Haataja]

Yes I'm talking about in the boat in the main harbor all the ice is gone.....for now. It may all blow back in with the east winds forcasted. Fishing out there has been fantastic this week we averaged 30-50+ fish each trip I did. Caught fish jjigging trolling,casting, on spawn, minnows, plastics, blade baits at times it did not matter. The bite was very good for lakers, browns, and steelies. Note* Lake Trout season is closed and those fish can live to be 50+ years old so please releases those lakers guys so we can catch them year after year!

I'll get some pics and vids up soon......

Eric

[deadeternity]

That is where the majority of the trout are now! I was wondering why us ice guys are getting treated so poorly by the beasts. I wish I had a boat but, being stuck on shore does not give you much mobility. I left my report for the day in the SE WI Harbors thread. Only marked 2 fish at Summerfest, and had them 2 fish on. Good luck all.....

[Rempump]

Finally made it out on Saturday. We got on the water around 7:00. No problem launching the boat and got out in the river. There were some ice flows that made it a bit tricky to get out of the river.

Our first spot was the discharge. A few boats were there and they reported not much happening. Fished there for a hour or so, nothing. Tried jigs, cranks and spawn.

Headed to the river channel and under the hoan. Picked up a couple on spawn drifting along the bottom.

Then headed up to the gaps. Drifted spawn and jigged with gulp. Picked up 3 or 4 fish. Lost 1 very nice fish and a few other smaller ones. Most of the fish looked to be in real tough shape, had sores on them and some fungus looking stuff. Anyone have a idea of what that is?

Then headed back to the river and discharge area. Picked up a couple other little ones. The winds had switched and had blown several big ice bergs into the boat ramp. Had some work to get the boat on the trailer.

Overall not a bad day on the water. Ended up with 12 fish in the boat and lost a good 4 or 5 fish. All fish were released to fight another day( I hope, they looked pretty bad)

Thanks to all who shared river and water conditions. My dad and brother had a great time on the big pond. My brother caught his biggest brown to date and my dad lost the monster, as he says the fish will haunt him as the one that got way!

[yatch]

Saturday I fished from shore, 7am until 9am zilch. Only saw one fish netted.
clear water and no ice. Ice was down toward the Nat. Launch.

Rempump was out in the river in front of me boating fish. The ice near the launch looked a little heavy hope you made it back without any dents. Going to give it another try Tues. hope the ice is still gone.

If anyone knows, please post.

Maybe Bender later this week, comeon west winds.


Yatch :D

[fishinislife]

Saturday was a beautiful day with the snow coming down! Got 3 german browns, 1 small winter brown and a whitefish. Missed a smaller winter brown at the net and missed several hits! All on spawn off the bottom! 6:30am to noon. The fish would come in and then leave for an hour or so then come back. Hopefully it gets good soon!

Yacht it seems like you were there for the hours they weren't hitting :S

[fishinislife]

One of saturday's catch! Super fat brown! Not sure if she was full of eggs or gobies. She spitted out a total of 8 gobies as she was flopping around, well I mean we pulled some out too that was in her mouth/throat :D.

[Needtofishmore]

That is an awesome pic. I always thought the gobies went out to deeper water in the winter. Makes me wonder if that's why there are so few browns in the harbors and rivers this winter.

[Eric Haataja]

I made it out Sat AM as well for about 4 hours and we jigged up 11 fish. The bite has been fantastic out there all week, hopefully these East winds don't screw things up!!!!

I'll try to get some pics up sooooon!

[yatch]

Well today was a better day for me 3 browns to 30" all on spawn. Magic time was 7:30 until 9:30am. (I was the one waving at you this morning Eric)

Decent activity by others also. Lite West wind and clear water doesn't get much better than that. :D

[Eric Haataja]

Every trip I have done out in the harbor in the past 10 days has been awesome! The boat bite is really going well worst trip was 32 fish other than that we've had as many as 54 fish in a 5 hour charter. Lakers, browns, and steelhead. Today was alos excellent landing over 40 fish. Did not go more than 10 minutes with having a fish hooked up. Lots of fish being caught under the hoan bridge as well.

As usual all our fish were released as I think Browns taste like Crap!

Eric

[Eric Haataja]

Here come the pics from this past week jigging the harbor, dishcharges, river channel, and gaps...fish are all over out there....Had 40+ fish yesterday in the boat!!

Oh yea how about the golden eye caught and released.

[deadeternity]

how on earth did you manage to catch that bird? strange....

[Eric Haataja]

few more pics.......... It's a duck and it hit my bait and triggered the autofisherman, actually fought really well until it popped up in open water 20 feet from us.....

[Needtofishmore]

Did the bird take spawn, skein, or gulp? :D

[blitzfish]

Noticed the Adipose and LV clip on the first brown. Just goes to show how much these fish move up and down the shore! Its a 2008 stock which is great for that old (3 years old) of a fish size wise and it AT THE LEAST distance, came from the Root River. Great looking fish though Eric!!! Keep it up

[Eric Haataja]

Few more pics

[Eric Haataja]

Trying to catch up on pics..........

[Eric Haataja]

Few more pics..........

[Eric Haataja]

Few more pics....................

[Eric Haataja]

Pics.

[fishhooked]

Does anyone know if the launch at Mckinely is open yet?

[Eric Haataja]

Check out the camera downtown where there a link

[fishhooked]

Eric the north camera has been down for quite a while , just trying to same a trip driving down.

[trophy taker]

Those are some huge lakers Eric,I was lucky to get one earlier this year in the river floating spawn. Unfortunately the pizzaman burnt down,and i had all my fish in there freezer in the basement there "tear". Not a monster,but still was a nice fish.

[brookiereleaser]

that sucks if you were gonna mount the fish but , if you were planning on eating that fish then its not such a bad thing it got torched aside from the waste of a fish.................... those things are so nasty , i had one a couple years back from lake michigan from a charter trip and you could taste just how aged the fish was , nasty

[trophy taker]

Yeah i was gonna get it mounted,but every year i get a few lakers and sum steelies for fathers day and we smoke em,and they taste delicious. Everyone loves it and says they taste great smoked.

[BigMusky]

you could get a replica

[mplant1]

I've had smoked lake trout from Lake Superior, and they are always very tasty. The lakers are a very oily fish so they are ideal for smoking.

However, I wouldn't ever keep a laker from Lake Michigan. The wisconsin DNR has lakers over 27" on their DO NOT EAT list!!!

http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/consumption/FishAdv09PCBslo.pdf

[Hunter5]

Wondering if anyone has any Perch reports for the harbor? Also wondering if the peir is in at Nat?

[Big_D]

Got my boat out for first trip of the year for me. Ran 2 riggers and a dipsy all over the the harbor (Milw) for about 5 hours but did not find much action. Managed to dredge up one nice chunky brown on Orange Easter Egg spoon on a rigger down 22'... and that was it. Guestimating ~9lber (Released).

Water was pretty thoroughly stained inside the harbor. Clearer water outside the wall, but couldn't find any action out there either. Water temps (surface) ranged from 38F to 42F.

Piers are in at McKinley now... if anyone wasn't already aware of that yet.

Take Care!

D.

[yatch]

Well boys and girls this was probably the best day on the big pond I have ever had. The lake was flat calm with water temperature at 38 degrees plus. I did a little checking of some favorite areas then decided to head north out of the north gap working 35 to 45ft. of water. My presentation was 2 board lines, a 3 color and a 4 color both on church boards. I then send one rigger down with a SWR with 19ft. on the counter. All the lines had stinger spoons in a standard size with the nukclear veggie on the SWR. I fished from 7:30 AM until 10:30am with this setup. Best speeds were 2.3 to 2.5.

This was a "laker taker" day going 11 for 13 with every fish in the 10 to 12# range. I had 3 doubles. The two missed fish were drive buys on the 4 color. The last fish of the morning was a brown at about 10#. (were did he come from) I released all the fish at boat side, saves the fish and my floor. All my spoons are rigged with 1 hook so this is a easy way to protect the resourse. (I did bring one in for a photo.) (Anyone know a good doctor, my right arm is really sore) ( I heard that) The last photo is of Eric doing a filming with the North American Fishing Team, (let us know when it airs Eric.)

[Eric Haataja]

Glad to here it Gene nice job out there, ended up landing 20+ lakers jigging with the guys from North American fisherman, had Ben Kueng help me out with the extra tag along boat, Ben has also been (no pun intended) catching a lot of lakers! First few hours we did very well along the gaps and outside then we ran out on a few humps and also did very well jig fishing off shore for the lakers, finished up the days fishing for browns and we also did well on browns. Perch are showing up in the gaps in good numbers.

I'll post some pics one of these days..........I caught a very large brown this past week, biggest for me so far this spring.

Good fishing!

[Ben Kueng]

The lake trout bite has been on fire for us these last 3 weeks! In a 6 hour trip we have been averaging between 10 and 30 lakers depending on the day. We have also been having some CRAZY days out there. yesterday we landed 70 lakers in 8 hours of fishing and had over 100 hooked!! Lots of fish in the 10-20lb range.

All of our fish are coming on jig/plastic combo, jigging with light tackle. The lakers are pretty much everywhere right now, but there are some key areas that are putting out huge numbers right now.

Ill be running trips 7 days a week until May 1st. if anyone is interested please give me a call for availability.FYI, The rates on my website are wrong. I just had my website refaced right before my webmaster went on vacation and I didnt have a chance to proofread it. Call me for pricing or you can check back on Friday.

headed down to fish skis in IL for a few days till the wind settles down.

Good luck and be safe out there!

[Ben Kueng]

Few more pics..

Every fish was released. Think of how nice it would be to catch these fish in numbers like this for years to come! They taste horrible and most places do great repos these days..

[Ben Kueng]

Last few pics

[yatch]

I agree with Ben, In my last two trips I have had 21 lakers in my boat both solo runs. Yesterday in less than 2 hours I went 10 for 10 all around 10#plus, All trolling with just two riggers. This is the best laker bite I have ever seen, I hope the coho bite develops the same way.

( Camera shots lack something when I'm not able to hold um up )

Tight lines

Yatch :D

[Eric Haataja]

Everyyear the lakers really pile in near shore when the perch run into the gaps as well, they are feeding now on perch and goobies mainly. Fished again today and the bite was very good until that wind really cranked up and kicked us off the big pond! The bite was very good with constant action jigging for lakers and browns mixed in. Clients had fun catching their first lakers along with some very big lakers!

This bite should last another few weeks or longer if the water stays cold. CPR those lakkers they can grow 50+ years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just think how big these fish will be in the next 10-20 years if we let them go...................

Eric

[jason miller]

had my son out today first laker 13#'s and first brown 15#'s 31 1/2"

[Eric Haataja]

Made it out this past week and filmed a great show with Steve P. From north American Fisherman. The day was perfect and fishing was incredible we crushed the lakers jigging it was non stop action. It's a ton of fun to film with these guys.

Lakers has been going strong and we're getting good numbers of fish out now on off shore humps and rock, the great thing is no one is going out and fishing the off shore stuff!

4 inch gulp minnow has been the best baits with 1/4-1/2 ounce jigs depending on the depth and current your fishing in. Some days chatruse and white gulp, other days smelt, or even my favorite plain white all will work fine!

Perch are also showing up in decent numbers in the gaps. Fat heads have been best for them!

Going to post a bunch of pics from the past few weeks so stand by.....

[Eric Haataja]

Pics from this past few weeks...

[brookiereleaser]

nice work guys....

today on gillespie Brian the guide said that there is maybe 1.5 more weeks left of lake trout bite,

do you guys agree with that or do we have more time .

based on the water temp right now i would think that there is a few more weeks at least of nearshore jig bite available for these lakers , but im just a hack and my opinion is worthless lol.

[blitzfish]

depends if the winds allow it to stay there, east winds could make it dirty in there and it could push the fish out.... you never know.

[Eric Haataja]

No I do not agree with that at all, more than likely most of April you can catch them down there but it depends on water temps the fish will still move in and out, I caught lakers out there in May already a few years back.

Actually in the spring the water temps remain really consistent until may/June also sounds crazy but East winds typically help the lake trout bite out a lot. Dirty water really gets that bite going!

Typically once the water hits mid to upper 40's the fish start to migrate out slowly but depends on the year.

Eric

[Needtofishmore]

On that same topic ... how long will browns normally hang around in the harbors / marinas?

[Ben Kueng]

I agree with Eric. We were jigging up lakers until may 1st last year and we probably could of caught them after that, but musky season was open.

One thing I should mention is that I dont think it was the best thing to air that show while jigging out of a "small craft" in 6 footers. I had a double booked that day and canceled due to dangerous waves..That is not anything that you should be out in. One wrong wave and your pretty much dead. Ive seen guys tied up to the end of the gap walls in 2-4 footers and other guys fishing out there in very small boats. Please be very careful!!

With that being said, the bite was slow for the last couple trips, but the fish are still there and will be till the end of April. It will eventually turn into a trolling bite as the fish start to scatter. This rain and east winds will prolong the bite and get the fish biting again.

The week staretd off really good for us..Pics attached

[Ben Kueng]

Good seeing you on the water yacht!

few more pics..

I also have videos at www.youtube.com/benkueng and will be adding more on a weekly basis.

[yatch]

Hit the water at day break on Monday pulling two spoons on riggers and a 5 color on a board. right out of the main a 7 - 8# brown on a SWR rigger, no more hits until St. Mary's then a 32" really really fat laker on the 5 color action continued ending north of the filter going 7 for 9 all big. Went in to the harbor to look for some perch and boated a beauty. Not a perch but another 31" laker on a spinning rod. There every where.

Tite Lines

Yatch :D

[yatch]

Got out Friday, we went 2 for 7, 3 where drive bys and 2 where lost during the fight, one laker and one 13# 32" king. Surface water is at 41 degrees, the rollers from the day before were still coming in. King on a 4 color and the laker on a naked rigger on the bottom. Lotsa muddy water out there but it is moving south.

Yatch :D

[luv2fish]

Prolly a dumb question, but what is a "naked rigger"...What, no flasher??

[Finseeker]

Trolling bite is getting hot and now you will have that option when the jigging gets slow. I was getting my fish shallow and heard of lots of activity 20 feet deeper than I was fishing.

Visit Finseekers Guide Service Facebook Account and sign up as a fan to see our picture library.

[brewcityfishr]

Hit the lake yesterday 6:30 - noon, trolling bite is still going good! managed to go 17 for 20, 3 browns 14 lakers. riggers with spoons worked well early and 7 color leadcores took over later on. stingers and pro kings with chartruse did the damage...be back tomorrow. good fishin'

[4fishys]

Getting blown off of a Lake Erie trip this weekend with my sons by 6 footers. I've been reading / seeing about this jigging bite in the harbor, and I'm thinking about heading up there instead.

17' deep-v, so staying in the harbor should be O.K. I would think. I know the limits of what I can do in this boat, and maybe even heading out a little bit is possible.

My question is this. My first trip to do this. I don't have any trolling gear. I was really thinking of working in the harbor and the gaps for fish moving in and out. Also possibly tossing some cranks as is mentioned here often.

Is this bite still going on in the harbor, and do you think Sun. looks O.K. given the forecast. I'm not driving to Erie to not get fish, or even get out. I'd prefer to not take the trip up there, even though it's a LOT closer, if there isn't a decent chance of hooking the boys up with some action.

Just gonna be bringing my cranks, and jigs with 4" white gulp.

What do you thinkl? Go or no go? I really enjoy reading about the fantastic fishery there, and would love to turn the kids on and experience it for myself.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated if the trip happens.

Also, I'm coming from the south. Read about South Shore Yacht Club ramp. Is this the place for me to launch from? Are licenses available there, or where can I get one between the expressway and the harbor?

Thanks, Bill

[brewcityfishr]

Made it back to the big pond yesterdy. fished 6am til 10 and the wind/waves really picked up and got blown off the lake. trolled 35 to 48 feet. riggers,leadcore and slide divers all took fish. leadcore was the hot set for the day! managed to go 12 for 12 with 2 browns 10 lakers. ran 5 spoons and a smelt pattern xps stickbait. 11 on spoons, 1 on the stickbait. the jigging bite seems to be slowing down a lot in the harbor from what i seen. fish seem to be a lot more scatterd out now past the breakwall. I dont think the lakers will be around much longer with the warming water temps. get ready for the coho bite! good fishin'

[yatch]

Friday 6am till noon we trolled 35 to 45' from the filter to the south gap pulling lead core and a dipsy We went 12 for 14 with the last fish a 32" Brown the rest lakers, 10# to almost 20. Great morning.

Sunday 8am till 11am I got out again this morning solo and went 3 for 5 all browns. What a difference two days makes. I agree it is time for a coho.

tite lines

Yatch:D

[fishhooked]

could you tell me where the filter is or what it is .

[Big_D]

The "filter" refers to the Filtration plant. It's a landmark that folks will use to approximate where they are fishing out there. The filtration plant is just north of Milwaukee harbor. It's large fairly flat-looking building, brown-ish/red-ish in color, that is clearly visible even several miles from shore. If you're looking on Google Earth or Flash Earth or something like that... it's the first point north of McKinley marina and Bradford beach.

[Jason Woda]

Coho fishing down south is on fire right now. I am doing an on the water "instructional" coho class one on the 5th and one on the 6th of May. There is room for 6 people on each these trips. It will be a morning trip starting at 6am out of Waukegan harbor. Let me know if you are interested. Cost is $90 per angler and will include a few of our favorite coho flys for each person.
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[brewcityfishr]

Hit Kenosha today for the first time. trolled 10:30-3:30, set out the early season spread of dodgers/peanut flies. started out trolling 30-35' about 2 miles south of the harbor without a hit for the first two hours. pulled the lines in and made a quick run to the boarder. set up in 15' and that seemed to be the ticket. managed a quick 10 for 13 all coho's. purple/mirage? flies were hot! cant wait to get back there! good fishin'

[deadeternity]

QUESTION: I am not a big fan of trout or salmon when it comes to eating them at all. I like smoked fish if smoked the right way though. I only tried steelhead and chinook smoked, dont know which I prefer really. Are Cohos better then chinook and steelhead or, do all these fish taste the same in the end when they get smoked? I caught a released a few cohos last year and, always wondered if I shouldve had them smoked....

[BP1357]

IMO I think coho is the best tasting of the three..Either right on the grill or wrapped in foil, seasoning, some butta, and also on the grill...

No boat either so it's been a while since I've enjoyed some...

[brewcityfishr]

Yeah, grilled coho's are my favorite also.

give this recipe a try with coho's or smaller kings.


take 3-4 fillets skin off.

half cup olive oil.

2 tablespoons Zatarain's blackend fish seasoning.

1 tablespoon Tarragon.

1 teaspoon garlic powder.

1 teaspoon Old bay seasoning.

2 tablespoons brown sugar.

put your fillets in a gallon size zip-lock bag, mix everything above and pour mix over the fillets. mix well making sure the fillets are coated well. pop them in the fridge and marinate for 18-24 hours. pre heat grill for high heat and grill fillets for about 5-6 minutes per side. give this a shot with some fresh coho fillets or king salmon fillets. enjoy!

[deadeternity]

brew city and BP, thanks for the tips and, I will have to try that recipe. Cannot wait for the strike of a salmon or trout again, love when they clobber the spoons and jigs....

[Jason Woda]

Fishing continues to be a out of control down south. Cohos are biting constantly, and the perch have been around too. These fish are starting to slide north and out a bit so don't be afraid to creep out to some deeper water where there have been some early season kings!!!!! Get out there while the fishing is hot! Here is a pic of the hottest day of fishing so far this year. WOW
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[Hunter5]

That is a very nice pile of fish you have there Jason. Good job. Any reports for the Milwaukee area and Coho??

[Jason Woda]

Hunter, give it another week or so. Some reports are coming out of Racine. They are getting fish there too. Haven't talked to anyone who is chasing cohos in Milwaukee....they might be here, but you have to go after them with a coho spread to see if there are any real numbers of them here. It wont be long.
Jason

[Hunter5]

Maybe when the weather gets better, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks Jason

[brewcityfishr]

Anybody know if the coho's are still holding in shallow water out of Kenosha. I'm thinking they moved out deep with the winds we've been having. any info would be great! thanks

[Reel Addiction]

I'll be out tomorrow morning in Kenosha. I'm leaving Milwaukee at 430 so I figure I'll be on the water by 530-600. I'm going to start in 140fow and head SE from there. Last I heard 160-180fow was best on Thursday. I'l be listening on 68 (Reel Addiction) give me a call and we can talk. After the last few days of strong NW wind who knows what will be happening tomorrow.

[Grey Beard]

Jason,

The way you have been whacking them down south makes me wonder how many will be left once they get to MKE!!!

Great job on the combo catch,

Grey Beard

[Jason Woda]

I think there will be plenty Mike. They pushed offshore now and are scattered a bit, limits are still happening, but taking 4 hours instead of 2. The wind this week will push em back in a bit, and move them a little further north. I hope i dont catch em all, I have another 5 months to fish. LOL
Jason

[brewcityfishr]

Sounds good. I'm going to give it a shot this week if the winds calm a bit. looks like theres a big pocket of 48 deg water just south of racine. we'll see what happens. good fishin'

[Big_D]

Late report from Sunday. Was out solo from ~6am to ~1pm. Tough start... was really expecting to be running coho-rigs all day, but started mixing it up to try to get something going. Finally got a hit on Cracked Ice Pro-King 95 down, 40ft back on a rigger. I fooled around with other options in that range, but that spoon was the only thing they'd hit... so eventually put the 2nd rigger down there with the same thing. That combo went 7 for 7, plus a couple drive-bys. 5 Kings and 2 Lakers. All in 115-125 fow between main gap and Bradford beach. One King was a 10 lber, everything else ranged from 3-4lbs down to fish-stick size.

[brookiereleaser]

got out with my buddy today around 630 am south of milwaukee

after our last skunking due to weather and just being clueless we wanted to try out luck again at the coho.

we motored out to about 50 FOW and set a few peanut fly rigs on dipsys, one flatlined with a snap weight 3/8 out , and a blue dolphin stinger spoon on my one downrigger ,

first fish hit spoon , coho, next two fish also hit this same lure all on the rigger , one coho , one big laker, both about 10 feet or so off bottom.

moved out to about 70 to 80 feet and the coho candy rigs started going off, green/silver took all hits but one on an aqua fly.

lake was dead calm and is the only way i get out there in my little boat.

overall was thrilled with the day , we lost a few fish , and probably coulda had more if we had gotten out around daybreak, guys were heading in when we were going out .

i have pics but its just standard issue coho stuff, but i did upload a short snippet of my new HD underwater cam of a coho being caught with a fly in his mouth under my boat, the clarity is awesome and looks really national geographic like on my high def tv............ cant wait to play with this some more.!!!!! tell me what you think!!!!

good luck everybody,
chuck .


coho clip underwater

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eInK1JElRSs

this gives you an idea of what you can really do with this thing, sorry so short but i didnt feel like sitting and uploading a big vid tonight.

peace.

[Gerry]

Chuck
I love the underwater video. What video camera are you using? I have a handheld now that is waterproof its ok for right at the kayak underwater videos... I've done a little research but not bought a real underwater camera system... I'd love to get something... do you have one you like?
Gerry

[Jason Woda]

6/8 Got a trip in before the hurricane SE winds showed up today. Left the dock at 9am figuring it would be slow....I was wrong. Went 15 YES I COUNTED THEM for 21. Mostly kings again with a few lake trout and 1 coho. No bait changes or depth changes from last report. White flashers and little boy blue flies again dominated the bites. Fished 75 to 95 fow with our tail into the wind most of the day. Lead core was somewhat dead with only 3 bites 10 color w/ Stinger blue dolphin, 7 color with stinger green dolphin, and 4 color w/ Stinger kevorkian. Ran 6 leads and only 3 bites. Riggers and dipseys did most of the work w/ falshers and flies. Fished today 6/9 with a 5 man limit in the morning and 12 fish in the afternoon. Time to get fishing....
Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[honda2w]

Nice!!

[Jason Woda]

Fised 2 trips yesterday 7:00am till 12 AND 12:30 to 5:30, and 1 this morning. Great results on all 3. 16,18 and a 4 man limit this morning. Water has gotten colder near shore and has sucked some fish in a bit, but the 75 to 90 foot band has been best. Thermocline is now down 14 feet so all high and low lead cores produced fish today. Michigan dolphin Stinger has been our best spoon on a 7 color. I haven't changed the flashers on my rigger and dipsey poles in a month. White and LBB still remains our go to bait. Wire dipseys out 110loc and 125loc. Riggers are set with the deepest down only 5 feet off the bottom no matter what depth I am in(constantly adjusting it) and high riggers down 28 and 45 have been best. Water will continue to cool off and pull some fish in tighter so have fun.Good luck and see you on the water.
Captain Jason Woda
Reel Sensation Charters
414-384-8096
www.reelsensation.com

[Eric Haataja]

Nice job Jason!!!!!

Eric

[TJPike]

What are those Jason, mostly smaller Chinook's ?

[luv2fish]

Jason,

Just wanted to thank you for consistently posting reports. Being a weekend warrior, it is hard to pattern these fish and the starting depths youve been giving have been accurate and helpful.

Was out the night of the big bang, went 6 for 8 90-100fow...(2) 4 year olds with the rest 2-3 yrs. Flashers and spoons did the trick...

[Jason Woda]

TJ yes those are smaller kings. We haven't seen many cohos the last week or so here. We aren't fishing in the right spot for cohos.

[Big_D]

Was out Solo this morning, went 5 for 6 all kings 3-8 lbs.

Fished out in front of the towers most of the morning, in 75-90 fow. All action came on spoons. I did give some flasher/flys a fair shake today, but as usual, the darned things are just poison in my boat. :mad: Can't complain about full cooler, though... Here's the breakdown:

~5:00 am, 75 fow, Wire Dipsy, 100loc 3-set w/Moonshine Mongolian Beef - 4lb King

~5:45 am, 85 fow, 6-color leadcore w/Moonshine Bloody Nose - 3lb King

~6:45 am, 80 fow, Wire Dipsy, 100loc 3-set w/Cracked Ice Proking - 8lb King

~8:30 am, 85 fow, Rigger down 55, back 40 w/Stinger Wonderbread - Broken Line (~8-10 lber)

~9:30 am, 90 fow, Rigger down 70, back 40 w/Cracked Ice Proking -4lb King

~9:31 am, 90 fow, Wire Dipsy, 150loc 3-set w/Fishlander Crab Glow - 3lb King