Reports from Doug's Birdsnest: Salmon Fishing 2016

Fished with Joe and John in Manistee, Mi. We fished from 8-13 to 8-19. The reports we received just two weeks prior to us leaving were not very encouraging. Most of the boats out fishing were targeting Lake Trout and we do not fish for them. The week before we left a large pod of salmon arrived on the east coast of Lake Michigan and the boats started to go after salmon again. There was a large pod of fish off Big Sable Point. We had a temperature break the whole week we fished, anywhere between 50 and 70 feet down.

Our first day of fishing was cancelled because of the waves. Sunday the lake was in great shape so we headed south and fished around the 9 and 10 line. We were 2 for 3 in the morning and 1 for 1 in the afternoon. We caught our largest fish of the week on the afternoon trip, a 22 lb King. Monday we stayed south and we picked up 2 fish in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. Tuesday the lake was pretty flat so we made the ride down to Big Sable Point, about 14 miles one way. We had our best trip where we landed 6 fish. In the afternoon we fished a little south and only caught 1 fish. Wednesday morning was a blow session so I worked on the boat. In the evening we fished south again at the 10 line and went 2 for 5. Not good. Thursday morning the lake was calm again so we made the ride down to Big Sable Point and we picked up 5 fish. In the afternoon we fished at the 9 line and caught 1 fish. Friday morning we fished at the 9 line again and we caught 1 fish. We were watching a large storm coming across the lake and when it got to the Michigan border we pulled lines and headed for port. Friday evening was cancelled because of the waves. We saw some large salmon at the cleaning station with the largest one weighing 28 lb.

We lost the auto pilot for the boat before our first trip. Called Garmin on Monday morning and after about 10 phone calls they over nighted a new ECU. That arrived on Tuesday around lunch time. Installed the new ECU for the afternoon trip and we tried to use it but the unit would not work. Called Garmin again on Wednesday morning and they said to try and hot wire the pump and see what happens. Nothing happened so I called them back and they said the pump was bad also, so we spent the week with no auto pilot. Also had a malfunction with the raw water wash down that was leaking at the pump. Tried to fix that but was not able to. And now the bilge pump. I installed a new pump before we left for salmon fishing and tried it at home and everything worked. We get up north and the pump would stick in the "on" position. Spent 2 days fighting with that and finally had to remove the bracket from the bilge and just let the pump lay in the bilge for the rest of the trip. As for me, I did not catch any fish, still recovering from surgery. Could not have made this trip without the help of the guys and I would like to thank them.

The Tally for the Week

We hooked 30 fish and landed 24 of them which gave us a catch rate of 80 %, which is pretty good. We lost one fish at the net, one broke the teaser on the meat rig, one broke the line and the rest just got off. We trolled for 29.75 hours and landed 24 fish which gave us a catch rate of .80 fish per hour. We would like to average one fish per hour. Of the 13 sessions we could have gone fishing we made it out 10 times. A couple of those times the waves were 2 to 4 feet and we could have gone out but we decided against it. The 24 fish weighed 307 lb. for an average weight of 12.8 lb. per fish. The largest fish was 22 lb. and the smallest was 4.5 lb. We had 3 fish over 20 lb.

Below is a List of Lures That Had Hits