Test Drive For the Boat

Fished with Daryl. The object for today was to check out the big motor and make sure it ran OK. Ran it for 2 hours(20 minutes run time and 1 hour and 40 minutes trolling time) and everything checked out perfect. Temperature this morning was in the upper 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70s. The wind in the morning was out of the northwest 10 to 15 knots with waves around 2 feet and after a couple of hours the wind switched to the west less than 5 knots with a light chop on the water. The water temp is 78 degrees and there is sign of an algae bloom. Started trolling just past the E Buoy heading into the waves with wiggle warts set at 80 feet on one side of the boat and 100 feet on the other side. Made a long pass towards the River Raisin Channel and turned around and headed back towards the E Buoy. On the pass back we put dipsy's and spoons on one side of the boat set at 50 feet back. When we got close to the E Buoy (41 49 540 / 083 19 625) we caught our first walleye. Once we found the fish the catching was easy. Trolled in this area and we only caught 3 junk fish. Kept 12 walleye, lost one behind the boat and had 3 walleye that were under size that we put back. Turned out to be a great day on the water.

2012 Salmon Results

This years trip will be remembered as the year the boat broke down. Met a lot of great people from Manistee that went out of their way to get us back on the water. We hooked 47 fish and landed 39 of them which gave us a catch rate of 83%, which is very good. We lost 1 fish at the net, 1 fish got caught in the prop of the kicker motor and 1 fish broke the line because we did not check the fishing line after each hook up. We caught 37 king salmon, 1 coho and 1 lake trout that we released. We caught 21 fish in the morning and 18 fish in the evening. Of the 13 sessions we could have made it out, we made it 10 times, some of which were in 4 to 5 foot seas. The 3 missed sessions happened because the boat had electrical problems. We totaled 39.5 hours of fishing and landed 39 fish for an average of .99 fish per hour. The 39 fish weighed 469 lb. for an average of 12.02 lb per fish. Below is a list of the lures that caught the fish.

 

 

• Scarpace...........................................15 hits
• Black Mamba meat with red head....10 hits
• White Spin Doctor with glow squid...6 hits
• Splatter Back,green Silver Horde.......6 hits
• Happy Meal spoon.............................4 hits
• Ace High Silver Horde.......................3 hits
• John J meat rig...................................2 hits
• Purple Haze meat rig .........................1 hit



Last Trip on Lake Michigan

Fished with Joe and John. Temperature this morning was in the lower 70s and the wind was out of the southwest 15 to 18 knots. Waves were 4 to 5 feet. Started fishing straight out just of the shelf in 125 feet of water trolling with the waves. It was difficult to just stand up in the boat. We fished for about 3 1/2 hours and called it a day. It looks like we will not make it out to the big lake tonight so we might fish Little Manistee lake. On the way back to the harbor this morning the boat quit again. Got it running  and we made it back OK. Kept 3 fish and John caught the biggest fish of the trip.

No Fishing, Broken Boat

Fished with Joe and John on Wednesday morning and on the ride back to the harbor the boat broke down 3 1/2 miles from the harbor. Had to use the kicker motor to make it in. Worked on the boat Wednesday night and Thursday morning and we think we have it fixed. Going to try it out right now.

Tough Fishing for Us

 Fished with Joe, John and Daryl. Temperature was in the upper 40s this morning with a light breeze. We headed south to fish again and we did OK in the morning but only caught 1 for the evening trip. The fishing has been very slow up here so far. Had to work on the boat and a downrigger today so we stayed busy all day. Caught 7 fish today.



First Night of Salmon Fishing

Fished with Joe and John. Temperature was in the upper 60s with a light breeze. We fished south of the harbor around the 10 and 11 line. Caught most of the fish off the dipsy's set at 125 back with meat rigs. Went 5 for 8. More details later,I'm tired.

Long Boat Ride

The weather man called for a nice day so I went fishing. Temperature this morning was in the upper 60s and when I quit fishing it was in the upper 70s. The wind this morning was out of the north at 5 knots and when I quit fishing it was out of the northeast 15 to 18 knots. The lake was flat this morning and when I quit fishing at 10:00 AM the waves were 2 to 3 feet. The water temp is 78 degrees and still no sign of the algae bloom. Made a giant circle around the lake with the first stop just past the S Buoy fishing off the humps. Only caught a couple of white perch so I moved to the Toledo Light House. Fished for about 15 minutes with out a bite so the next stop was Buoys 17 and 18. Again no bites so the next stop was up the channel to McDonald's. Caught some perch but caught just too many white perch. By this time the waves were stating to build. Moved around here a couple of times with the same results so the next stop was to the dumping grounds just west of McDonald's. Caught a couple more perch but by now the waves were 2 to 3 feet. Decided to pull the anchor and head back to port. Kept 6 perch which will be just enough for mom to have for dinner.

Long Boat Ride and Big Perch

Fished with Captain Daryl and Mark. Temperature this morning was in the middle 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 80s. The wind was out of the south around 10 knots with waves about a foot. The water temp is 76 Degrees. Decided to make the long boat run (41 48 000 / 083 13 000) and fish by the International Buoy, which is a 15 mile boat ride one way. Had good reports that some nice perch were caught in this area. Set up right on these numbers and within the first 5 minutes we had a 10 inch perch on. We picked away at them for a while and then the action just quit. Made a move to the east about 300 feet and caught 7 fish real quick and then the bite stopped again. Moved around this area for an hour without any luck so we headed to the Turn Around Buoy. Fished here for about 20 minutes and only caught a couple of small perch so we headed to one of our old hot spots from 5 years ago that was nearby. Dropped the anchor and fished here for 20 minutes and we had one small perch for our effort so we pulled lines and called it a day. Kept 21 perch and most of them were pretty nice but the boat ride is just too far.

Tough Day Perching

Fished with Uncle Dan. Temperature this morning was in the lower 70s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 80s. The wind in the morning was out of the northeast about 10 knots and then it switched to the north about 5 knots. The waves in the morning were about 2 feet and on the way back to the marina they were less than 6 inches. The water temp is 78 Degrees and there is no sign of algae yet. Started fishing by the 17 and 18 buoys and the catching was slow but at least we were on some perch. The reports from a fellow fisherman from TBM was the fishing was terrible by the W and C buoys. We were picking away at the perch when a couple of boats anchored about 30 feet from us and the catching just stopped. Made one move in this area to avoid the boats but it did not help. Pulled the anchor and headed to the 13 and 14 buoys. We caught a couple of perch here but there were just too many white perch. Decided to head towards the dumping grounds and troll for walleye to see if we could locate some. Trolled here for about 45 minutes with jet 20s set at 50 to 60 feet back and only caught a couple of silver bass so we called it a day. Kept 23 perch.