2014 Lake Simcoe Fishing Trip

We left Michigan for Lake Simcoe, Ontario on Friday, January 17, 2014. Fished with Dwayne, Fred and Dan. This year we stayed at the Whispering Pines Bed and Breakfast in Sutton,Ontario. Cost was $50.00 per person per night and included breakfast and coffee for the thermos. Temperature Saturday morning was in the lower 20s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 30s, pretty nice for this time of year. It got so hot in the hut that we opened both windows and had the door propped open. We were fishing in 14 feet of water and you could see the fish cruising along the bottom of the lake. It sure makes it fun to sight fish for jumbo perch. Our best setup was jigging a slab grabber about a foot off the bottom. The fishing was slow but we just pecked away at them. Sunday was a different story. The temp in the morning was in the lower teens and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 20s. The wind was blowing 20 to 25 knots and we had a few snow storms during the day. I started off with a slab grabber and Dan used a new jig called a Williams spoon tipped with a Jensen egg. I did not catch a fish off the slab grabber while Dan was doing pretty good using the new spoon. Dwayne was fishing by himself because Fred was sick with the flu. He did real well using a small jig tipped with a plastic body and a spike. For the weekend we kept 102 perch and 2 bluegill. The largest perch was 13 1/2 inches and we caught quit a few jumbos.

Last Trip for 2013

Fished Bolles Harbor with John. Temperature this morning was in the upper 20s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 30s and sunny. The wind was out of the west 10 to 15 knots but we were in the harbor so it did not affect us. The ice is 3 to 4 inches thick and the water was dirty from all the rain we had last week. We only had two bites and caught no fish. Talked to some other fisherman and the only one's that had any fish were fishing further up the harbor and they were catching bluegills. It was nice to be on the water again!!!

The End Has Arrived

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the upper 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. The wind in the morning was out of the west northwest 15 to 20 knots with waves 2 to 3 feet.
Around 11:00 am the wind and the waves laid down. On the boat ride back in the waves were less than a foot. The water temp is 64 degrees. Started fishing at 41 48 200 / 083 08 150 which is between Sputnik and West Sister Island. We set up and only caught 1 perch so made some moves in this area. After 3 or 4 moves with only 4 perch in the cooler we moved out to another pack of boats just to the southeast of us and the water was a lot cleaner. Stayed there and only caught a couple of fish so we moved back to the mud line and started to catch some perch. Stayed here for the rest of the trip catching a lot of small perch and a few keeper perch. Finally we started to catch some nice perch to make the trip a success. Kept 76 perch, cleaned them up and went to Trappers for a perch dinner. Always a good way to end the season.

It Doesn't Get Any Better

Fished with Norm. Temperature this morning was in the middle 40s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind was light out of the east with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 65 degrees. Headed back to where we have been fishing and the water was dirty so we kept going to the east. We set up at 41 49 800 / 083 11 650 which is just north of Sputnik and we never had to move. We were catching some nice perch so we decided that we would not keep anything under 8 1/2 inches. The catching was fast and furious and the majority of the fish were in the 10 inch range. Only caught a handful of white perch and 1 smallmouth bass. Kept 62 perch. We were fishing for about 20 minutes and it got so nice out that we had to take off our coats. Just a great day to be on the lake.

Just Another Nice One

Fished with Milan. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70s. Just a perfect day to be on the water. The wind in the morning was out of the west southwest around 10 knots with waves about a foot and after a couple of hours the wind laid down and so did the lake. The water temp is 66 degrees. Headed back to where we have been fishing and the water was dirty and there were no fish. Started making some moves to the east and we finally found some clean water. Moved back to the dirty water and we started to catch some white perch. Made a few more moves in this area and we finally found some perch(41 49 950 / 083 13 750). Once we found the fish the catching was pretty steady and we caught some nice fish. Kept 65 perch and a lot of them were about 10 inches.

Just a Great Day to be on the Lake

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the upper 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind was out of the west southwest less than 10 knots and the waves were less than a foot. The water temp is 66 degrees. Started fishing where we left off on the last trip and we caught nothing. Marked a lot of fish but the water was very dirty. Made a move to the east about 1/2 mile (41 49 650 / 083 14 950) and the lake was a little cleaner but still no fish. Made a couple of moves around here and we only had 1 perch. We pulled the anchor and were heading for Sputnik when Captain Bob called on the radio and said he was on some perch in the area we were leaving. Made the U turn and headed back to where he was fishing and dropped the anchor. Started to catch some perch and everything was going good until we caught a smallmouth bass and then the perch fishing quit. Made a move to the west about 300 feet and we were on the perch again. The fishing was good until we caught another smallmouth bass and then nothing. Hard to believe that this happened 2 times. We caught mostly perch today and a lot of them were just under 8 inches that we put back. Kept 45 perch between 8 and 10 1/2 inches.

The Fish are There

Fished with Norm. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 60s. The wind was out of the north northeast all morning around 10 knots. The waves were just over a foot. The water temp is 66 degrees. Started fishing about 2 miles east of the E buoy 41 49 325 / 083 18 100 (Michigan waters) and we were catching some perch but we also caught a lot of white perch. We made the decision to move further out and fish at 41 49 300 / 083 16 225 (Ohio waters). We ran into the same problem, to many white perch but the perch that we caught were nice size. We probably should have stayed at the first location because we caught most of our fish there. Kept 41 perch. One of the problems today was we had very small shiners.

Did the Impossible

Fished with Doug E. Temperature this morning was in the upper 40s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind in the morning was out of the south less than 10 knots but the waves were still coming out of the east around 1 foot. As the day went on the wind and waves laid down. The water temp is 67 degrees. Headed back to where I have been fishing but we did not mark any fish. We still dropped the anchor and tried anyways. No bites so we moved around a couple of times and still nothing. Made a move to the #1 buoy off the River Raisin and again nothing. Went back out to the Michigan/Ohio boarder and tried again but the same results. Made one more move here but nothing again. Packed up and headed for the swamp to try a different area. Caught 1 catfish and that was it for the trip. One of the rare times that we did not catch a perch on Lake Erie. One of the boats came back from fishing and he had about a dozen perch fishing by the E buoy. Just after that another boat came back from fishing and they had a cooler full of perch. They were fishing between Sputnik and the #1 buoy off the River Raisin.

Nice Day on the Lake

Temperature this morning was in the middle 40s and when I quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind in the morning was out of the south less than 10 knots with waves around a foot and by 10:00 am the wind started to come out of the east less than 10 knots with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 68 degrees. Headed towards the #1 buoy off the River Raisin until I saw a small pack of boats just south of the buoys. Made a pass through the pack off boats and did not see very much activity so I kept heading south until I came to an old perch waypoint about 1 1/4 mile south of the #1 buoy (41 50 900 / 083 14 925). Dropped the anchor and spent the whole trip right here. Had to sort threw a lot of fish but at least some of the perch were pretty nice size. Kept 25 perch between 8 and 11 inches.

Unexpected Call from Daryl

Got a call from Captain Daryl and he had the weekend off so we went fishing. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. The wind in the morning was out of the south 15 to 18 knots with waves around 2 feet. When we quit fishing the wind was out of the southwest less than 10 knots with waves less than a foot, which made for a nice boat ride back to port. The water temp is 73 degrees. The fish finder and GPS did not work so we fished like the old days. Started fishing about 1 mile south of buoy #1 off the River Raisin. Caught nothing but junk fish. Made a move further out and we caught a lot of junk fish and 1 perch. With the wind blowing we did not want to pull anchor too many times. Once the anchor grabs its hard to break loose. Made another  move to the pack of boats fishing east of the # 1 buoy and we caught a few perch. Made one last move about 200 feet and that was it for moving. Kept 18 perch with the largest one 10 inches long. Tough day of fishing for us.

First Perch Trip of the Year

Woke up this morning and the winds were light out of the east but the waves were around 2 feet so I did not go fishing. Checked the computer again around 8:00 AM and the winds were still light but the waves were starting to lay down so I packed up and went fishing. The temperature this morning was in the middle 60s and when I quit fishing it was in the upper 60s. The wind was light and variable and the waves were less than 1 foot. The water temp is 74 degrees. Called Huey on the radio and they were fishing by the Toledo Light House and not doing very well, so I headed towards the #1 Buoy off the Raisin River. Started to mark some fish on the graph so I dropped anchor .8 miles due south of the #1 Buoy. First fish was a catfish, then I caught about 6 white perch, then 2 small perch and I thought about moving. Finally caught a perch just over 8 inches. The catching was slow and the large pack of boats by the #1 Buoy were starting to break up so I just stayed put and pecked away at the fish. Had to do a lot of sorting and threw back a lot of sheep head and white perch but I was catching some keeper perch. Pulled lines around 12:30 and headed for port. Kept 22 perch and most of them were between 8 to 9 inches, the largest was 11 inches.

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.

Flat as a Pancake

Fished with Norm. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. There was no wind today so we had no waves and surprisingly there were no bugs. The water temp is 75 degrees. Started fishing north of the E Buoy trolling towards the Toledo Light House running wiggle warts 70 and 80 feet behind the boards. When we got to the E Buoy the weeds were very bad. Once we were past the E Buoy by about 1/4 mile there were not very many weeds so we cleaned the lures and kept on fishing. We found a small school of fish and we tried to stay on them but the boat traffic was getting bad. We would try and make some passes to our waypoint, but we could never get back to where we wanted to fish. The boat traffic started to clear out a little so we were able to get back on our spot and pick away at the walleye. Kept 12 walleye on a flat lake fishing on the dumping grounds.

Tough One Today

Fished with Captain Daryl and Joe. Temperature this morning was 51 degrees and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60s, and yes, it is the end of July. We all wore long pants and coats. The wind was out of the southwest 17 to 24 knots with waves 2 to 3 feet. The water temp is 74 degrees. We decided to go fishing because the wind was off shore and the waves would not be too bad. We ran towards the Toledo Light House and made a pass to the E Buoy. We ran wiggle warts 75 and 85 feet behind the boards and 2 large dipsy's set on number 3 - 25 feet back with spoons. The dipsy's caught the first 2 walleye and that was all that they caught. On the first pass we caught 2 walleye and on the second pass we caught 5 walleye. We went and made a 3rd pass and the wind was picking up. It was hard to control the boat with the wind and waves and we only caught 1 walleye so we decided to call it a day. Kept 8 walleye and 1 nice perch. We caught most of the fish by the E Buoy.

Turned Out to be a Nice Day

Fished with Norm. Temperature this morning was in the middle 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. The wind in the morning was out of the northwest 12 to 15 knots with waves around 2 feet and about 10:00 AM the wind laid down and so did the waves. The water temp is 78 degrees and the algae bloom is getting worse. Started fishing by the E Buoy trolling with the waves with wiggle warts set at 75 feet back and 80 feet back. The first fish we caught was a muskie 18 inches long. It jumped out of the water as soon as it was hooked and then it jumped about 3 more times. With the 2 foot waves we would troll with the waves through the dump, pull the lines and run back into the waves and make that same pass again. On the second pass we changed all the leads to 80 feet back. The plan worked good until the lake calmed down and all the boats came out, then we had to dodge all the boats. Kept 12 walleye and only caught a few junk fish. The weed problem is starting to get a little worse but it is still fishable. Just need to check the lines frequently.