Salmon Fishing 2018-Manistee, MI.

Fished with Joe and John in Manistee, Mi. from 8-11 to 8-18. The weather looked good for the week and the report held true. We made it out fishing for every trip. We had a couple of the evening trips where the lake was a little bumpy but we managed. This years trip will be known for the large salmon. We heard a lot of reports of 30 lb plus fish caught and we had a few of them at our marina. We did not catch any fish over 30 lb. We lost more equipment this year than usual because of the large fish. Had a few minor boat problems but there was nothing that could not be fixed up north.



Saturday evening we went straight out and we were skunked, not a good way to start the week. One good thing was we spent some time setting up the salmon fishing gear and working all the kinks out. Sunday morning we went to the 16 line and trolled south and went 1 for 1, fish came off the bloody nose fly and spin doctor. Sunday evening we went to the 17 line and trolled south. We went 2 for 3 or 2 for 2. We ran a dipsy with a 25 foot leader with a meat rig that caught a fish. When we got the dipsy to the boat Joe went to grab the leader line to pull the fish in and the line snapped and we lost everything. A few seconds later the copper went off and when we brought that line in it had the meat rig and fish wrapped around the copper. With a little luck we landed everything, so I would say we went 2 for 2. Monday morning we went back to the 17 line and went 1 for 2 with the fish coming off a black mamba meat rig off the dipsy. Monday evening we went to the 12 line and trolled south and went 1 for 2 with the bloody nose fly working. Tuesday morning we went to the 14 line and trolled north and went 2 for 2 with the meat rig and the bloody nose fly catching fish. Tuesday evening the skunk found our cooler again for the last time. Wednesday morning we went to the 14 line and trolled north and we went 4 for 4 and caught our biggest fish of the trip, a 27 lb king off the bloody nose fly. The meat rig and ace high green splatter back also caught fish. For the evening we went to the 17 line and trolled south and went 1 for 2 with the green splatter back ace high catching the fish. Thursday morning we set up at the 17 line and trolled south and went 3 for 3 with the fish coming off the ace high light green splatter back and bloody nose fly combo. For the evening we went to the 19 line ( bad choice on my part ) and we trolled north and went 1 for 1 with the green splatter back . Friday morning we set up at the 17 line and trolled south and went 4 for 6. Caught fish off the ghost buster spoon, bloody nose set up, black mamba meat rig and Kevin's girlfriend with a meat rig.

                              The Tally for the Week

We hooked 25 fish and landed 20 of them, which gives us a catch rate of 80 percent, which is pretty good. A couple of the fish just came unbuttoned and a couple were just short strikes.We trolled for 39 hours and landed 20 fish which gave us a catch rate of .51 fish per hour. This is not very good, we would like to average 1 fish per hour. Of the 12 sessions we could have gone fishing we made it out 12 times, perfect, even though the guys like a blow day once in a while. The two times that we were skunked was my fault, I left fish to find fish. The 20 fished weighed 413 lbs. for an average weight of 20.65 lb. This is our highest average ever. The largest fish weighed 27 lbs. and the smallest fish weighed 14 lbs. 14 fish weighed over 20 lbs.




           Below is a List of Lures That had Hits

Bloody Nose Fly and Spin Doctor ..................7
Ace High Green Splatter Back.......................7
Black Mamba Meat Rig..................................4
Ghost Buster Spoon.......................................2
JJ Meat Rig...................................................2
Blue Meat Rig................................................1
Mister Green Jeans Spoon..............................1
Kevin's Girlfriend with Lime Green Meat Rig....1