Manistee - The Final Tally

This years trip will be remembered as the year of very few fish but large fish. We put in a lot of hours fishing for the few fish that we caught. We hooked 33 fish and landed 28 of them which gave us a catch rate of 85%, which is very good. We lost one fish at the net and 2 broke the line and the rest just got off the lure. We caught 25 king salmon and 3 coho. We caught 14 fish in the morning and 14 fish in the evening. Of the 13 sessions we could have made it out fishing we made it out 11 times, some of which were in 2 to 4 foot seas. Wednesday was a blow day. We totaled 51 hours of fishing and landed 28 fish for an average of .54 fish per hour, which is slow fishing. The 28 fish weighed 452.25 lbs. for an average of 16.15 lbs. per fish, which is very good. The largest fish weighed just over 26 lbs. and the smallest fish weighed 6 lbs. We had 11 fish that weighed over 20 lbs. Below is a list of lures that caught the fish.

Silver Horde - Green Splatter Back..............................................6 hits
John J Meat Rig............................................................................5 hits
Black Mamba Meat Rig with a Red Head....................................4 hits
J Plug - Grey Ghost.......................................................................4 hits
Scare Pace Meat Plug....................................................................4 hits
J Plug - Light Pink and Green(lost)...............................................1 hit
Silver Streak Spoon - Light Purple(slider)....................................1 hit
Mountain Dew Meat Rig with Green Head...................................1 hit
J Plug - Glow Wonder Bread.........................................................1 hit
J Plug - Bloody Nose Glow...........................................................1 hit

End of the Trip

Well, the week went by too quickly. Daryl showed up on Wednesday and was able to fish on Thursday and Friday. After the blow on Wednesday the fishing was very tough on Thursday morning. We only caught 1 king in the morning. We were hoping the lake would stabilize for the afternoon fish. We headed back out and the first 2 fish we lost and then we finally caught some nice fish. We only caught 3 fish but they weighed 71 lbs. Friday morning the harbor water temp was 68 degrees so we headed south and the catching was pretty good. We kept 6 fish and 4 of them were over 20 lbs. On the way back to port the big motor quit about 4 miles from port, it sounded like the same problem that I had last year. We got it running and made it back safely. We made an adjustment to the gas line and were hoping that would solve the problem. Went out fishing for the afternoon fish and we headed right back to the location we fished in the morning. There were very few boats around and things were not looking good so we started to troll north towards the harbor. Well as my luck goes the kicker motor quit running and we could not get it started again (figured out it was a broken gas line) so we trolled with the main motor. Right before dark we started to catch some fish and we ended up with 3 nice kings for the trip. Over all the catching was bad but the fish were large. I should have a final tally in a few days.

Salmon Fishing, Part 2

Fishing with Joe and John. The temp was in the upper 40s Monday morning but the winds were light. The surface temp at the harbor is 65 degrees so we decided to fish in front of the harbor long lining silver hordes and J plugs. The fishing was pretty good until the sun came up and then it shut right down. Caught 4 kings and 2 of them were pretty nice size. The wind was starting to pick up out of the southwest and the water is starting to warm up. For the afternoon trip we decided to run south and make one long troll back towards the harbor with the waves at our back. It makes for easy fishing and an easy ride back to the harbor in 2 to 4 foot waves. The dipsy's were hot with the meat rigs on them set at 150 feet back. We caught 5 kings and 4 of them were pretty nice. We had 82 lbs. of fish in the cooler which made for a good evening.

Tuesday Morning the wind was still blowing but fishable and the water temp at the harbor is 69 degrees. We headed to the shelf and dropped the probe down and got water temp at 70 feet so we thought we were in for a great morning. We only caught 2 kings but they were nice sized again. For the afternoon fish the lake was still bumpy and we were on some fish, but we also had some bad luck. On the first fish the line broke right in front of the second treble hook so we lost that fish and another fish broke the line. We caught 1 coho and one small king around 12 lbs.

Wednesday the waves were 4 to 5 feet, so we had a blow day. We went up to Manistee Lake and tried jigging for salmon but we had no luck.

Salmon Fishing Manistee

Fishing out of the Port of Manistee for salmon with Joe and John for the first four days and then Daryl is going to show up on Wednesday. When we arrived at the harbor the lake was calm and we were eager to go fishing. As we were getting the boat ready we talked to the DNR person taking surveys of the boats coming back from fishing and he said most boats are catching 1 to 2 fish and a lot of boats are coming back with no fish. Not what we wanted to hear. Got the boat ready and checked into the motel and away we went fishing. We headed south to start fishing because that is where we had our best luck in the past. We caught 1 king Saturday night. Monday morning we went straight out and fished the shelf with no hits so we pulled lines and headed for the shallow water. Caught 1 nice king (25.5 lb.) and that was it for the morning fish. This afternoon we went back out to the shelf and fished until dark and caught only 1 king. Things are not looking good. At our marina the boats are coming back with 0 to 2 fish. Hopefully the lake will started to stabilize as the week goes on. So far we have in 3 trips and 3 fish.

Weather Person did it Again Today

Fished with Captain Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the middle 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. The wind was out of the northeast 10 to 14 knots with waves 1 to 3 feet. The forecast was for winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 knots with waves less than a foot. That makes back to back trips with bad weather reports. The water temp is 73 degrees. We made the run to the other side of the Toledo Light House (41 43 125 / 083 16 600) and started trolling with wiggle warts set at 90 to 100 feet back. We started to catch some walleye at the 90 foot setting so we put all the poles to 90 feet. We caught the first 9 fish pretty fast and then the catching slowed down. We started to switch some of the poles back to the  100 feet setting and we caught the rest of our fish. Kept 12 walleye and had 1 walleye that was undersize that we put back. We caught nothing but walleye and most of them were pretty nice fish.

The Weather Person Got it Wrong Today

Fished with Norm. Temperature this morning was in the middle 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. The wind was out of the north northeast 16 to 22 knots with waves over 3 feet. The weather report for today was light winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 knots with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 73 degrees. Our game plan was to walleye fish for about 2 hours and then perch fish for a couple of hours. When we arrived at the bait store this morning to buy some minnows the wind was blowing pretty good so we decided to go just walleye fishing. We made it out to the E Buoy and trolled with the waves running wiggle warts set at 75 feet back. We had a tough time setting lines with the wind and the waves so after one short pass we called it a day. One of the few trips on Lake Erie that we caught no fish.