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Check out our fishing reports to find out if the walleye, king (Chinook) salmon, steelhead, brown trout, lake trout or Atlantic salmon are biting where Trophy Specialist is running fishing charters. These fishing reports will cover the ports of Au Gres (AuGres) on Saginaw Bay, Rogers City on Lake Huron, Manistee on Lake Michigan and Monroe and the Western Basin of Lake Erie. We will try to update the fishing report regularly during the open water charter fishing season.
8/23/12, Manistee, Lake Michigan, Fishing Report
8/19/2012, Manistee, Lake Michigan, Fishing Report The weather has been a little crazy the last few days, but I've been able to get in my charters on the last three days at Manistee. I moved my boat to Manistee on Friday morning and ran an evening charter that day. It was rough early, so we got a late start, but still managed a decent box of fish with 15 hits. The crowds on Saturday were huge with I'd guess over 2,000 boats going out of Manistee. With all that fishing pressure, the bite was predictably tough. We had a thunderstorm pass through Manistee this morning, but by 5:00 it was long gone so we got out on time and the fishing pressure was extremely low for a Sunday. The bite started off rather slow but remained steady all day as we had at least 20 hits and boxed 12 fish. We have been taking fish on Moonshine spoons off the riggers and boards (Clip Weights) 30 to 60 feet down. We are also taking fish on meat rigs off the riggers 50 to 60 feet down. Dipsys have been loaded with flashers and flies and have been taking lots of hit fishing 50 to 60 feet down. Last year meat rigs off the Dipsys were hot, but this year I have yet to have any luck with those sets. The fishing should continue to improve as the weather stabilizes over the next 10 days as predicted by the weather man. I still have one open date left at Manistee from a cancelation on 8/24/12. 8/15/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report I'm wrapping up my Au Gres walleye charter tomorrow. I'll be moving my boat to Manistee Friday for two weeks of salmon fishing. I did have a cancelation on 8/24/12 for a salmon charter there, so I do have that one opening left. The walleye fishing this week has been fair to slow. We boxed 13 fish today with the largest walleye being about 24". The walleyes we are catching are full of shiners and we are marking tons of baitfish on the sonar. The walleye are very fat and well fed now and that makes them much harder to catch. Most of our fish today were taken in 30 to 35 feet of water fishing crawler harnesses 50' behind the boards at 1.6 mph. I had three ounces of weight ahead of the harnesses. I figure that we are running the harnesses about 20 to 25' down. Silver blades were best for me today. Most anglers are fishing for perch out of Au Gres as the perch fishing there has been phenomenal. There are still lots of walleyes in the area though, but the walleye fishing is tough on the bay right now. 8//12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report My customers took limit catches of today with some bonus yellow perch in the box for good measure. The day started out with a nice southerly breeze and a good "walleye chop." We had good action through about 10:00, but then the wind died down and the bite slowed considerably as a result of the wind change. We had to work hard to get hits from then on and managed to limit out by about 2:00. We trolled with crawler harnesses at 1.8 to 2.0 mph. With all the perch in the area, a faster trolling speed kept the perch from steeling the night crawlers. Small silver blades were best on the harnesses as that color attracts less perch than brighter colors. My whole strategy these days revolves around keeping the perch from hitting the crawlers, yet still putting lures in front of walleyes to get them to bite. With perch numbers way up this year, the perch fishing should be excellent as the summer progresses. Peak perch fishing occurs during late August, September and even October. I don't offer any perch charters, so please contact my friend Capt. Bill Carter for perch trips. 8/1/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report August is finally here on the Bay and the fishing this month should remain excellent. My customers took limit catches of walleyes today on a beautiful day indeed. With sunny skies, light winds and moderate temperatures, it was a near perfect day weather wise. The bite was a little sporadic during the morning hours but from 11:00 on to 1:00 (we limited out by 1:00) the action was much more consistent and the late morning and early afternoon fish we caught ran bigger too. The only down side to today's fishing was the floating weeds in the area we were fishing which kept fouling our lines. All the wind last week ripped up a lot of weeds around the fringe of the Bay and those weeds blew out to our fishing area today. We also caught a fair number of perch today too as the number of yellow perch appears to be up this year right along with the ultra strong walleye numbers. Again, today using half crawlers was the key to success and using more natural colors (silver) instead of brighter colors seemed to keep the perch from steeling the baits before walleyes could find them. 7/31/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We finished off the month of July with limit catches today for my customers. A storm blew through the region last night bringing lots of rain, lightning and thunder along with some high winds. I got woke up last night first from a big wind storm preceding the storms and then was kept up with all the rumbling of thunder for an hour or two. By sunrise thought the storms had marched away from the area leaving us with mostly fair skies. The winds today kept switching around and every time the wind would change, the fish would quit biting for 30 minutes or so. It made the fishing tough, but we still ended up with a good catch of mostly big walleyes today. We fished with crawler harnesses behind bottom bounders and color did not seem to make much difference. There were lots of perch in the area though (we boxed some of the bigger ones too) so we had to use just half crawlers and speed up the troll to 1.7 to 2.0 to keep the perch off the lures. Still, we had to constantly check the baits to make sure the perch hadn't stolen the crawlers. It was tough fishing but our high quality catch was worth the effort. Most of our fish were in the four to five pound range today. I only have two open dates left for the rest of the year. It has been an extremely busy and successful charter season and the best is likely yet to come. 7/28/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We've had some rotten weather this week keeping us off the water a lot. When we have been able to fish, we have been catching good fish. All the cool, north east winds though have chilled the water down, which will tend to keep the fish closer to Au Gres and that's a very good thing for us. The fishing over the next couple weeks should be awesome as a result. The fishing pressure has been very light the past week too, which also makes for better fishing. The size and numbers of fish have been outstanding this year and as we get into late summer, the catch typically runs bigger compared to what we get earlier in the season. 7/22/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report
7/21/12, Au Gres,. Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report After a couphere from 1.0 to 2.0 mph. There are millions of walleyes still in the Bay now and this awesome fishing will likely continue well into August, if not through fall too. This year has produced the best walleye fishing I've seen on the Bay ever in my lifetime (fishing Saginaw Bay since the early 90s). 7/18/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We extended my streak of limit catches with a huge box of fish today. We started out heading out to a spot that had been a consistent producer, but we only caught five fish in the morning, but that bite died when the sun popped out. We worked another spot in that same area, but to no avail. We then pulled lines once again and headed to a deep water spot that had yet to produce this year, but was awesome on many charters last year at this time in the season. Upon arriving there, I marked a lot of fish on the bottom, so I ran mostly crawlers with bottom bouncers, but also ran some plastic with some weights to take them to the bottom. We immediately started catching fish there and the good news was that the fish ran big. Most of the walleye were over 20 inches with some real bruzer mixed in too. It only took a couple hours fishing there before we had limited out, and that was just in time too, as the wind was starting to kick up and throw white caps over the bay. This trip today was a gift certificate to a father from his daughter and he said, "it was the best present he ever received". He also added that he really looked forward to this trip, which also included his son and another friend along with his daughter. We sell a bunch of these gift certificates and they never fail to provide the perfect present for Christmas, birthdays, Fathers Day or other special occasions. With limit catches taken on every trip so far this July, my schedule is really filling up fast. I am now completely booked for all of July dates and my August walleye openings are also booking fast too with only a handful of opening left. If you want to charter me for walleyes this year, now is the time to lock in a date as there won't be anything left very soon. 7/16/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report The outstanding fishing continues off Au Gres on Saginaw Bay. We took limit catches again today with some very big fish in the catch too. I took advantage of the bountiful catch today and ate some fresh walleye for dinner. I was planning on cooking some blackened walleye and had everything prepared, but when I check my Cajun spices container, I found that it was empty. I ended up improvising and it turned out wonderful. First I melted some butter and dipped the dried and cool fillets in the melted butter and then seasoned them with some chili powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper and Lowery's seasoned salt. I then heated a frying pan smoking hot and then put the two filets into the pan. I cooked them for just a minute on each side and that was it. I also had some Mexican style rice with melted Monterey/jack cheese on it as a side dish along with some Tostitos corn chips. The meal was washed down with some ice cold Labatt Blue beer. The fish was absolutely delicious. Saginaw Bay's walleyes are the best eating walleyes I've ever had, likely because they grow so fast that the smaller sized fish are so young, delicate and flaky beyond believe. 7/15/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We took an impressive limit catch again today. In fact, we limited out the last three days in a row continuing my streak of 100% limit catches for the month of July. I only have three open dates left for July, and with this extremely hot fishing now, those dates won't last long. We are still fishing deep water in the same area where we have fished since the cold front last Saturday (with big NE winds) cooled the water down and moved the fish big time. The walleyes we are catching now are chuck full of shiners. All that baitfish is hanging out near the surface over deep water, but the walleyes we are catching are hugging the bottom tightly. My theory is that the walleyes are feeding high in the water column at night and then holding on the bottom during the day. We are nailing them with slow trolling tactics pulling meat right in front of their noses. This week has served up some of the best fishing of the year with easy, limit catches daily and some big fish daily too. 7/12/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report The awesome fishing on the Bay continues as we hammered out another easy, four man walleye limit in about three hours of fishing. We have limited out every trip in July and this world class walleye fishing will certainly continue for weeks to come. I do have one opening next week on July 17, and a couple open slots later in the month, so if you want to experience some of the best walleye fishing available, give me a call. We took all our fish today trolling at 1.6 mph pulling crawler harnesses behind bottom bouncers. When the fish are all on the bottom, this presentation is typically the best thing going. Chartreuse/orange blades were best today. Because I often troll my harnesses somewhat fast, I use mostly small blades (#3) which work better at fast trolling speeds. Larger blades are not good when trolling over 1.5 mph as they tend to start looping though the water at those speeds. I use larger blades when I'm trolling slower, especially for suspended fish, which is when big blades perform best. 7/11/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report I organized a two boat charter today where we took a large group of people out on two charter boats on Saginaw Bay. Both boats limited out with a huge catch of dandy walleyes. My boat limited out first, so we then pulled lines and tagged along behind the other charter boat and cheered and honked the horn whenever they caught a nice fish. We also ate some venison sausage and drank soft drinks too in some of the most beautiful weather you could ask for, while we watched the other boat catch some fish. It didn't take too long before the second boat limited out too and then we headed back to port with two boat loads of very happy customers indeed. This fishing is super hot now on the bay and will likely continue for weeks to come. We caught our fish today on a mixture of crawler presentations. Some of the fish were taken on bottom bouncers and other were caught suspended using in line weights. I have two more multiple boat charters scheduled in the next week, which are always lots of fun. If you have a big group of people, then Au Gres is an awesome place to plan a charter excursion because there a few other good captains that I can partner with to provide an awesome fishing trip for you large group. 7/10/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report
7/9/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report The fishing was excellent today with fast and furious action this morning resulting in a limit catch of some high quality walleyes. We went back to the hot spot we found yesterday afternoon and started catching fish after fish right off the bat. We took mostly good eating sized fish today, but a half dozen of the walleyes were bigger ones with one being a real chunker. We also took one huge channel catfish today that weighed 14 pounds. We limited out this morning by 11:25 taking a nice box of fish indeed. We caught all our fish on crawler harnesses pulled behind bottom bouncers. I ran an eight rod trolling spread with six lines off Church Tackle Walleye Boards and two flat lines. The harness pattern didn't seem to mater today as everything I tried took fish. One tip I will give is that when the night crawler is long, I break it in half, thus avoiding walleyes from nipping off the end of the crawler. 7/8/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report
7/6/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report Thank goodness that this is the last day of super hot weather we'll have to deal with for a while. This is the worst heat wave I can remember in a long while. We had super tough conditions today again with hot weather, shifting winds, mixed with calm conditions and bright sun shine. None-the-less, my customer took and excellent, limit catch of walleyes. They had a running bet going for the biggest fish of the day, and as the day went on that top fish was overthrown over and over as the fish got bigger and bigger throughout the day. About half the fish we caught today were big ones. We caught most of our fish today on crawler harnesses, but we did take some (three ore four) on Hot N' Tots. Green tots were best and florescent yellow and orange spinners got lots of hits. We fished in all sorts of waters today starting shallow, then when that died off, we moved deep, and when the breeze picked up, we moved shallow again. We had steady action all day, accept for one lull at about noon. My next opening on my schedule is July 17 and there are only a handful of opening left this month. Last year July was the most consistent month of the season for awesome walleye action and so far we have taken excellent walleye catches on every trip in July too . 7/5/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report This super heat wave we've been having hasn't shut down the walleye bite at all on Saginaw Bay. I fished today with some repeat customer and they enjoyed some awesome walleye action. We only caught one small fish today and the rest were all nice sized walleyes. My customers limited out in about two hours of fishing, but before I could catch a few fish for my dinner, a thunderstorm reared it's ugly head, so we pulled lines and headed for port easily outrunning the storm with my fast boat. We caught all our fish today on crawler harnesses. The Hot N' Tot bite was non-existent today. Our best harnesses were orange, chartreuse and silver blades. We pulled the harnesses behind bottom bouncers running six Church Tackle Walleye Boards and two flat lines. The flat lines out produced the planer board rigs today. We trolled at 1.8 to 2.0 mph. The faster trolling speed often works best in the near 80 degree waters we are fishing. 7/4/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report Even though we faced extremely tough conditions today with hot, calm, sunny conditions, my customers still limited out on some dandy walleyes. We caught most of our fish on crawler harnesses, but I did work in some Hot N' Tots into the trolling spread today and they took fish too. Tomorrow, we'll be focusing more on Hot N' Tots as bigger fish came on those lures today. The water temperatures are approaching 80 degrees in the inner bay, so the best fishing is moving north to the outer bay and with the continued heat wave predicted, that migration north will continue en mass. As the walleyes move north, they concentrate in predictable locations offering up the best fishing of the year. Last year, mid to late July produced the best fishing of the year and this year will likely yield similar results. 7/1/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We ushered in July today with an awesome catch of Saginaw Bay walleyes. After yesterdays charter, my wife and I traveled from Au Gres to my home town of Manistee where we attended the wedding of one of my oldest friends (congratulations Connie and Dan). Because of that commitment and our late return to Au Gres last night, we started my charter today later than normal at 10:00 a.m. A couple different friends of mine were already fishing when I departed onto the bay, and after talking with them on the cell phone, and learning that they were not catching may fish in the area we had been fishing the past week, I decided to strike out and try some new spots that typically produce well at this time of the year. The first spot I tried showed lots of fish on the graph, but produced no fish. We then moved to another spot and even though we were marking lots of fish there too, we only caught one fish. We pulled lines again and headed to another spot and hit pay dirt immediately. We then proceeded to haul in walleye after walleye non-stop until we reached our limits. We pulled crawler harnesses today and did best trolling them very fast at 1.8 to 2.0 mph. Bright colors were definitely best with orange/yellow being hit like crazy. This was the best action I've experienced yet this year and the fish today also ran larger than normal with only a couple small fish in the bunch. It was certainly another day of world class walleye fishing on the Bay. 6/29/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report The fishing off Au Gres has been phenomenal the last two mornings. Yesterday we limited out in one hour of fishing and today my customers took 20 walleyes in short order with some high quality fish in the catch. The fishing now is peaking out and the next week will provide some of the best walleye fishing of the season. We had a beautiful day today fishing with some long time, repeat customers and they had a great time catching all the walleyes they wanted. The fish were taken on all types of presentations in waters from 22 to 29 feet deep. The walleyes were hitting what ever I put into the water. Saginaw Bay is putting on a world class walleye fishery right now. 6/27/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report As we were getting ready to depart the dock today, another angler in a boat alongside us predicted that my customers would be out and back to the dock by 9:30. My customers, who had never fished with me or on Saginaw Bay before didn't think much of his comment. It was 7:15 when we pulled away from the dock. It took us 15 minutes to reach the fishing grounds and start setting lines. I deployed eight spinner/crawler rigs and enjoyed constant action and my customers reached their walleye limits by 9:00 with one bonus jumbo perch and we were indeed back at the dock by 9:30 as the clairvoyant fisherman had predicted. It was a beautiful morning on the bay with sunny skies and light winds. Our fish today ranged in size up to 26". The fish were biting very aggressively with most of the hooks finding their way to the walleyes' stomachs. In fact, we never lost one fish, which is a clear sign of a robust bite. I have anther charter scheduled for this afternoon and I'm optimistic that we'll have excellent success then too. With the predicted stabile weather pattern over the next week, this will likely serve up our best fishing of the year so far. I had a couple cancelations on July 4 and 5, so if you want to get in on this hot action, give me a call. 6/23/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report My customers took limit catches of nice walleyes today, which was the busiest day I've seen for fishing pressure on Saginaw Bay this year. There was a big walleye tournament at Au Gres today and that combined with fair weather, brought out lots of fishermen. We fished several different spots today in waters that ranged from 10 to 29 feet deep taking fish in all locations. We took all our fish on crawler harnesses. I watched part of the weigh-in at the tournament today and a lot of the competitors fished north of Big Charity Island taking plenty of nice fish there. I haven't fished that area yet this year, but it appears that walleyes have moved out to the outer bay now. 6/20/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We ushered in the first day of summer today with limit catches of some fine walleyes. We are fishing in waters 25 to 32 feet deep trolling with bottom bouncers and crawler harnesses. Silver blades have been productive as have been chartreuse/orange spinner rigs. The fish have been holding deep, near the bottom, so that's where are presentations have been best. We are taking a good mixture of small, medium and large sized walleyes for the perfect mix of walleye over the last week. All of our charters this week have taken some big walleyes. This has been some of the best walleye fishing ever on Saginaw Bay and this hot fishing will only get better during July, which has been our best month for awesome walleye catches over the past two years. I still have some openings during May, but they won't last long as we are getting lots of bookings, which are gobbling up the available dates. 6/17/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We had a weather delay this morning, but we hit the water at about 10:00 and got into some awesome walleye fishing right off the bat. My customers limited out on some nice walleyes with most of them being over 20". We fished with bottom bouncers using several different patterns of harnesses. We trolled for six miles in one direction and caught fish all along the way without ever turning once. The walleyes are so numerous in the Bay right now that the fishing is just plain world class. 6/14/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report The walleye fishing remains excellent on Saginaw Bay out of Au Gres. Today we kept 25 walleyes and released a bunch more trolling with spoons. Our best spoon was a Moonshine Walleye Spoon in Crab Cakes pattern (silver back), but we also caught some fish on Red Grape and Glow Purple Nose. We were pulling the spoons at 1.8 to 1.9 mph set 70' behind the Church Tackle Walleye Boards. I used 030 Jet Divers to take the spoons down to the fish. This was some of the best fishing we've seen this year and all indications point towards the fishing just getting better and better as the spring turns into summer off Au Gres. We took fish of many different year classes today, which ranged from 5" on up to some real chunkers. The future of this fishery looks outstanding with all the small fish coming up, which will provide world class fishing for the foreseeable future. 6/8/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report The fishing is red hot now out Au Gres on Saginaw Bay. My customers took limit catches this morning with most of the fish running over 20". In fact, we have limited out on every charter for weeks, but the fishing the last five days has been especially phenomenal. Yesterday, my customers took there limits of dandy walleyes in about two hours of fishing and since they invited me to a fish fry for dinner later that day, I also caught my limit and supplied all the fish for the meal. Deep fried Vidalia Onion rings, deep fried sweat potatoes and a pile of deep fried walleye put us all in deep fried heaven. Top that off with cole slaw, assorted veggies and water melon for desert along with a few beers, and it just doesn't get much better than that. The last few days we have been fishing in deeper waters (35' to 45') pulling assorted crawler harnesses both near the bottom and suspended. The bite has been pretty light this week, but the sheer numbers of walleyes in the area still result in a some great catches for us none the less. I am marking millions of walleyes on my graph, so I do believe that the best fishing this year is yet to come. We are still experiencing heavy bug hatches (mostly mayflies) and the walleyes are really feasting on that bountiful food supply making them harder to catch. Once the hatches die down the walleyes will really start snapping and the fishing will really go off the charts. 6/5/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report
6/3/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report After a few days off the water due to inclimate weather, we hit Saginaw Bay today and noticed right off that the water temperature had dropped about 10 degrees since my last trip. The weather this morning featured a stiff wind, but luckily it was off-shore and we were able to fish, but only close to Au Gres. We found walleyes willing to bite right away in waters 29-31 feet deep. My customers pulled their limits in about four hours of fishing, which consisted of walleyes 15" to 24", but a couple larger fish were lost close enough to the boat where we got a good look at them. We tried to fish for suspended fish today, but all our fish were taken near the bottom using crawler harnesses. Silver blades were definitely best today with a trolling speed of 1.3 to 1.4 mph being what they wanted. The fish were holding very tight to the bottom today and they were biting very light too as we lost at least as many fish as we caught, but only went through a little over a dozen night crawlers as most of the fish we caught didn't even pull and tug enough to damage the crawlers much. It was not easy fishing today with the constantly cooled down water, changing winds and varying barometric pressure. I didn't hear of anyone else that did much good today. With the predicted, stabile weather pattern this week, things should improve to awesome fishing here once again. 5/26/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report The walleye fishing out of Au Gres has been awesome this week on Saginaw Bay. My customers limited out on walleyes today in about three hours of fishing and also took one bonus perch too. No junk fish were caught in the last two days. With walleyes priced at about $20 per pound at the supermarket my customers really cashed in with a very valuable catch indeed. We took all our fish on crawler harnesses fished near the bottom. There was no preference in lure colors today as everything I ran took fish. I used blades in silver, chartreuse, orange and fire/tiger with good success. My speeds were in the 1.2 to 1.5 mph range and we trolled with the wind all the way today. We set lines in deeper water and trolled one, straight, five mile long trolling pass never turning once and taking fish all along the way until we pulled lines in 25 foot of water with limits in the box. The fish were widely scattered the last two days and holding tight to the bottom. The recent heavy bug hatches (Mayflies and Midges) are what the walleyes are feeding on now so they are holding deep during the day. 5/23/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report My customers limited out today in less than one hour of fishing. Then we took my limit and that was awesome as I got to enjoy another scrumptious walleye dinner this evening. I beat an egg and then dipped the filets into the egg-wash and then dredged them in Italian bread crumbs. Once coated nicely, the filets were plunged into hot oil and pan-fried until golden brown. Garnished in tarter sauce and served with a couple nice side dishes and a cold beer, I had a meal fit for king. The fishing off Au Gres is really starting to heat up as the fish are biting like crazy. We are still fishing with crawler harnesses but that will soon change as the walleyes typically start to come off the bottom and suspend by late May, which is when we switch over to spoons primarily. We took some good sized fish today along with plenty of smaller ones too for a good mix. My May and June dates are booking fast, so don't wait to long to book a charter as those opportunities will be gone soon. 5/17/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report
5/11/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We took limit catches the last two days on Saginaw Bay fishing just two miles from the Au Gres river mouth in 29 to 31 feet of water. Yesterday it took us six hours to take my customer's limit of 20 walleyes and it was a very fun trip indeed with some regular customers from my home town. Today we limited out in about four hours of fishing taking walleyes up to 27". In fact several of the fish today were real dandies. We've been taking all our fish over the last two days on crawler harnesses fished right on the bottom with bottom bouncers. The bite continues to be extremely light with the fish barley latching on and often times just swimming with the troll with very little pulling. We hooked one six pounder today that didn't even move the planer board at all and we didn't even know she was there until we checked than line. It's taking two to three bites for every fish we are landing but they are biting so lightly that we are only going through a couple dozen crawlers per trip: They are hitting so light they are not even ripping up the crawlers much. I have trips scheduled for the weekend and the weather is predicted to be good, so I anticipate good catches. 5/9/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We limited out on walleyes again today fishing in 26 to 33 feet of water off Au Gres on Saginaw Bay. It was kind of a crummy day today with a lot more wind than the weatherman predicted along with spitting rain and winds that switched around; not real good fishing conditions. The walleyes have been extremely lethargic and picky and the bite has been tough, but by being very precise with presentations along with employing correct fish fighting techniques, we have been doing pretty good anyway. Most of the fish that hit are just latching onto the lures and swimming with them without pulling much at all. It's been hard to tell when even the big fish have hooked up. Trolling speed has been especially critical with 1.2 to 1.4 mph being the best speed. The bite has been changing a lot too with the fish preferring different colors at different times of the day. Chartreuse/orange spinner/crawler rigs behind bottom bouncers have been the most consistent presentation for us. We have also taken some fish, and bigger ones, on perch pattern Hot N' Tots pulled within a couple feet of the bottom. The fish seem to be scattered in deeper water. Almost all the fish I'm seeing on my sonar are hugging the bottom with very few suspended fish or baitfish being marked yet. 5/8/12, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report I've been able to fish three days this week on Saginaw Bay with several days off due to bad weather. All of the trips were successful taking walleyes of all different sizes (big, medium and small). Our biggest walleye taken on Saginaw Bay so far was 28". Today my customers limited out taking most of their fish on bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses, but a couple fish did come on crankbaits. All fish were taken on presentations on or near the bottom. We fished right out in front of Au Gres in 25' to 32' feet of water. It's nice to be able to fish so close to the harbor with the high fuel prices these days. This is looking like it's going to be a great season on Saginaw Bay with this many fish in the area this early in the season. Things typically get better and better as the spring progresses into summer. 4/27/12, Monroe, Lake Ere, Fishing Report
4/20/12, Monroe, Lake Ere, Fishing Report We took excellent catches of walleyes the last two days on Lake Erie with over 20 fish each charter. Yesterday, our best spot was in 10-12' of water off Little Cedar Point in Ohio waters. Gold blade baits worked the best there in that dirty water. Today, despite the high winds and pounding waves, we managed to jig up a quick Ohio limit out near the Toledo Harbor Light House with silver blade baits being most productive in those more clear waters. The fish we caught jigging today were some real dandies with some going over five pounds. After catching and releasing fish today until our arms hurt, we decided to troll some in Michigan waters. We caught some real nice walleyes on Rouges set 60' back behind the boards with a 3/8 ounce rubber core sinker one rod length ahead of the lure pulled at about 1.7 mph surging with the waves. We made one, long trolling pass from about one mile north of Turtle Island and pulled lines when we were about two miles out in front of Bolles Harbor taking hits all along that stretch. 4/18/12, Monroe, Lake Erie, Fishing Report The wind kicked up a bit more than predicted today which made the fishing tougher, however my customers still managed to limit out on some quality sized walleyes none-the-less. We caught our fish jigging in Ohio waters. Our best lure was a gold Laser Eye blade bait. We also did a little trolling at the end of the trip and picked up two nice walleyes on Smithwick Rouges fished about 10' below the surface. The water was a little riled up from all the wind over the past few days, but the jigging bite is often best in stained water, so that's what we focused on today. I have charters scheduled for the next five days straight and I'm anticipating some awesome fishing in the next week to come. 4/14/12, Monroe, Lake Erie, Fishing Report
4/12/12, Monroe, Lake Erie, Fishing Report With bluebird type weather conditions today, my customers took limit catches of dandy walleyes. The only downside to today's charter was possible sunburn. We took fish that ranged from 15" to 28" today trolling in the open waters of Lake Erie. Our top five fish today weighed a total of 35 pounds. We started out with the plan to do some jigging out by Turtle Island, but the water looked too clear there to me, so we went right to trolling. We had good action in the morning, but when the wind switched, the bite died down some, but we still managed to pick away at them all day long. Our best presentation today was a #7 Shad Rap in Natural Shad pattern set back 45' feet behind the boards, taken to depth with a 3/8 ounce rubber core sinker, pulled at about 1.5 mph. We also caught a lot of white bass today, so there was lots of action. 4/7/12, Monroe, Lake Erie, Fishing Report
4/4/12, Monroe, Lake Erie, Fishing Report We hit Lake Erie today heading out to Ohio Waters. We had a lot of fun limiting out taking fish using both trolling and jigging tactics. Our best trolling lure was a gold/black Jr. Thunderstick with gold sparkles fished 65' behind the Church Tackle Walleye Boards. Our best jigging lure was chrome Laser Eye Blade Bair with holographic finish fished on the reef on the bottom. We took a good mixture of big, lunker sized walleyes along with some smaller and medium sized fish too for the perfect mix. I'll be running charters daily out of Bolles Harbor at Monroe, Michigan until the weather turns sour. The forecast is great though at least for the next week, so I expect some good catches in the next charters to come. We still have a lot of openings left Lake Erie walleye charters, so don't miss out on this world class early spring walleye fishery. 3/22/12, Monroe, Lake Erie, Fishing Report
03/20/12, Monroe, Lake Erie, Fishing Report
9/7/11 - Au Gres, Fishing Report I wrapped up my charter season early as some truly rotten fishing weather engulfed Michigan over the last five days. I'm talking storms, big winds and cold conditions that moved in behind some super hot weather, which really scattered the fish and shocked them into a negative mood. The 48 knots winds that came up quickly and without warning on my last charter were higher than most of the winds that came ashore with "Hurricane" Irene. Our weather costs me plenty of money every year, but I doubt that FEMA will be sending anybody in Michigan a check any time soon. I bet Michigan's annual storm (snow, ice, wind, rain...) expenses far exceed that caused by Irene yet we rarely get any disaster release. It's certainly not fair. Regardless of the poor finish, my 2011 charter season was still excellent. We had excellent catches of fish on most charters and the future looks good for the 2012 season too. Saginaw Bay has had two huge year classes of walleyes in a row and even though it was a pain in the rear on some days having to sort through a bunch of undersized fish this year, we know that we'll have tons of keeper sized walleyes on the Bay next year. I predict the best fishing ever on Saginaw Bay for 2012. It's said that every cloud has a silver lining: Due to the poor spring conditions on Lake Erie this spring, very little fishing pressure was put on the trophy size walleyes that show up every spring. This means that 2012 should provide more big walleyes than ever on Erie. Salmon sizes were way up this year on Lake Michigan and that trend will likely continue into 2012 as the DNR's management plan is producing the largest salmon we've seen in years. A new state record Coho was taken this summer along with a bunch of kings that topped the 30 pound mark. I'm already booking trips for 2012. My schedule filled up pretty well this year and I expect the same thing for 2012. We turned away dozens of people this year that failed to book early enough. Making your reservations well in advance in the only way to guarantee that you'll get the dates you want. Have a good fall everyone and good luck to the hunters. 8/27/11 - Manistee, Lake Michigan, Fishing Report We've been taking 4 to 10 salmon per trip the last week out of Manistee. We fished today, but got blown off early as a stiff north wind kicked up some impressive waves indeed. We did best today in 260 to 300 feet of water taking our fish there 40 to 75 feet down mostly on spoons. Blue Dolphin was best today. Yesterday we caught most of our fish in 90 to 100 feet of water fishing near the bottom with meat rigs off the riggers. A modified Moonshine teaser rig was best yesterday and we also took a couple on that rig today on the Dipsys too, but it did not work today off the riggers. Tomorrow is my last day at Manistee as I'll be packing up and heading back to Au Gres after my Sunday charter and will be fishing there through 9/8/11 fishing for walleyes on Saginaw Bay. After that I'll be at the Woods N' Water News Weekend. If you have never been to this hunting and fishing sports show before, it's very good and lots of fun. I highly recommend it as a great pre-hunting season primer. 8/21/11 - Manistee, Lake Michigan, Fishing Report For three days in a row the National Weather Service showed their incompetence by totally screwing up the marine weather forecast for the Lake Michigan Waters off Manistee. Today they predicted waves less than one foot in hight, but Mother Nature blew a tad bit more than predicted kicking up five footers by the end of our trip today. They did the same horrible job for the last three days too. The fishing has only been fair on recent trips due to the unstabile weather. Were getting 10-15 bites per trip the last few days and are only converting about half those fish to fish in the box due to their less than aggressive striking habits recently. We've been taking some jumbo kings though with fish over 20 pounds on most trips, which is nice to see. We've been fishing mostly in waters 60 to 300 feet deep inside and outside of The Shelf. The boat traffic on The Shelf proper has been intense the last few days, so that area has been nearly impossible to fish effectively. The crowds should thin out during mid-week though, so the fishing there should improve. I always tell my customers that weekend crowds typically reduce the catch rate a lot due to all the fishing pressure. Weekdays are usually much more productive at Manistee during August. Moonshine, Magnum Flounder Pounder and Nel's Limit spoons have been best in low light conditions (and down deep). Fishlander Blue Dolphin spoons have been best when the sun has been out in the top 70 feet of water. We also took five hits on the Dipsys today fishing them about 75 feet down with white and green Spin Doctors and jumbo homemade flies that feature green, blue, iridescent and glow mylar. The best rigger depth today was 75 to 90 feet down. I haven't been running much off the boards over the last three days to heavy boat traffic. I just added the 2012 Charter Schedule to this website so people can now more easily book their charters for next year. 8/18/11 - Manistee, Lake Michigan, Fishing Report The water conditions continue to fluctuate like crazy off Manistee. The nearshore waters have warmed back up to the mid-60s, so the salmon have moved offshore more to the The Shelf and beyond. During these types of conditions, it often pays to head way off shore and that's exactly what we did the last two days. We fished in 500-700 feet of water targeting the top 50 foot of the water column. We had 19 strikes yesterday morning on a five hour trip and at least 15 hits on today's morning trip. We took a mixture of kings, coho and steelhead on each of those charters with kings over 15 pounds each day. The coho are running above average in size this year with those silver salmon weighing a chunky 7 to 10 pounds. We've taken dandy steelhead on the last several trips too up to 10 pounds. We took three chromers today and lost several more. We are taking fish off the Dipsys set on 2.5, 80 feet back using Spin Doctors and Flies. We've had lots of hits off the riggers set 40 to 50 feet down, but half the strikes are coming off the sliders. I'm running spoons on the riggers with a mixture of Moonshine Half Moons (Silver Beef and Silver Anchovy) and Blue Dolphin Finlander spoons. The boards are also producing well at times. I'm running Dream Weaver Ruby Red spoons and Moonshine Half Moons (Worm) off the Walleye Boards using Church Tackle Clip Weights to take them down 25-30 feet below the surface. Trolling speeds have been 2.5 to 3.2. Trolling into the current has been most productive. The bite on the Shelf has been picking up over the last few days. If it's not to crowded tomorrow, I may set up there at first light, otherwise, I'll run offshore again, especially if its calm. 8/16/11 - Manistee, Lake Michigan, Fishing Report The weather and water conditions have been extremely unstabile the past three days. On Sunday the wind cranked up all day and I had to cancel both trips that day. It turned over the water big time. The water at the harbor mouth went from about 74 degrees to 50 degrees on Sunday. This type of weather event normally brings in a lot of salmon into the harbor and shallow areas, so I fished that area on Sunday. That charter was very slow with some fish coming into the harbor, but not mass quantities like I had hopped for. We did catch jumbo salmon that tipped the scales at 22 pounds though. We fished deeper today and had fair success taking coho and king salmon along with one dandy steelhead. We also took a couple fish trolling back in towards the harbor in 35 feet of water. Most of our fish came on spoons today off the boards fished about 25 feet down with Church Tackle Clip Weights. Hot patterns featured lots of silver with green and blue Moonshine Half Moon spoons being best. We also took a nice king off the riggers at 35 down and had a few rips on the Dipsys set 50 back on number 2.5 setting with Spin Doctors (white and green) and trailing Moonshine Flies (green). The water should be warming up tomorrow with the predicted southerly winds. That should stabilize the water conditions and hopefully make the fish more patternable. I booked my last charter for my 2011 charter season yesterday, so my calendar is now full. We are booking trips for 2012 though, so if you want a prime date for next year, now is the time to make your reservations. Waiting until the last minute to book typically results in disappointment as we turn away lots of people every year that fail to book early enough. 8/13/11 - Manistee, Lake Michigan, Fishing Report I moved my boat from Au Gres to Manistee yesterday for some salmon fishing. I have a full schedule for my entire stay at Manistee. We did have a cancelation today, but that opening was snapped up within hours. In fact, as of this writing, I only have one open date left for the the 2011 season at Au Gres on Sept. 2. It's been a very busy season indeed. I did run a five hour charter yesterday afternoon and a full day charter today. This fishing has only been fair so far with some rather crummy weather conditions. Once the weather stabilizes, the fishing should pick up big time. The good news is that all the fish we have caught so far have been big, fat kings (accept for one big steelhead today) with all but a couple being over 15 pounds. The fish have been scattered in both location and in depth of water. We've taken fish from just 20' down to over 90 feet deep. Most fish have been taken on spoons off the riggers with both standard and regular sized spoons both producing. Moonshine Happy Meal and Smitty have both taken fish as have Yellow Tail and some old, worn out dolphin spoons too. We've also taken 10 or so rips on the Dipsys and those have been loaded with Spin Doctors and home-made flies. White/glow Spin Doctors with a green fly is what I'm running. We've taken some hits on the boards too running spoons taken to depth with Church Tackle Clip Weights. So far plugs have not produces at all despite having been run plenty. We fished straight out yesterday and more to the south today with 90 to 130 feet of water producing best. 8/7/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We fished in many different areas of the Bay the last two days and ended up by Buoys One and Two today taking limit catches in 23 to 26 feet of water. All the fish came on crawlers with our best presentation being 50' behind the boards with 1.5 ounces of weight trolled at about 1.5 mph. If the lures got too close to the bottom, then white perch became real nuisance bait stealers. Keeping the crawlers up higher kept the meet on the hooks resulting in more walleyes in the box. The walleyes ran decent sized by Buoys One and Two with only a couple small fish in the lot. The biggest walleye was about 24". I only have a few open slots left for the 2011 fishing season. I'll be moving my boat to Manistee later this week and returning back to Au Gres to finish off the season over the Labor Day weekend. 7/31/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We finished off the month of July in style with another highly successful charter on the Bay. We hammered the walleyes today taking limit catches in just 8 to 10 feet of water out by the Charity Islands. We started out where we had good action yesterday in 15-20 foot of water, but those fish moved. We trolled in closer to the Island and found a good school of active walleyes in shallow up close to the Island. It's a tricky area to fish with all the rocky, shallow stuff in there, but I know the area very well as I've fished it many times before. We caught all our fish on crawlers/bottom bouncers. I only ran five rods today as that was all I could keep in the water with the hot action. We trolled at about 2.0 mph. The next few days are open on my schedule, so if I don't book any trips then, I'll finally get to deal with some of the chores I've been putting off. 7/30/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We limited out today on walleyes in just a couple hours of fishing. We trolled in the same area as we fished yesterday afternoon. Yesterday we took 20 walleyes, but it was a slower bite taking us much longer to limit out. We are fishing out by the Charities in 13-20 feet of water. We took walleyes today on crawlers, Gulp Worms, Moonshine Walleye Spoons and Hot N' Tots. They were not very picky. We've also been taking some dandy smallmouth bass daily. Two were at least five pounds. This fishing is red hot right now and for the first time in months, I actually have some opening this coming week. 7/28/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay Fishing Report After a scheduled day off to catch up on my writing assignments, we hit the water today. A bunch of storms rumbled through all night long to our south, but the Au Gres and the Outer Bay didn't get any rain at all out of that system. The wind was light and south/west all day with 1-2 foot waves. We started out a little slow, but found some good action later in the day. My customers limited out on some nice, eating sized walleyes by 1:00. We only took a handful of undersized fish today. We caught our fish on a mixed trolling spread of Hot N' Tots and crawler harnesses off bottom bouncer. We started out in 10-15 foot of water and had sparse action there. We had our best luck today in 15-20 foot of water out by the Charities. I only ran one harness all day today and that was Mr. Consistent (red beads/silver blades). Chrome tots put fish in the box too fished 42' behind the boards with a 1/8 oz. rubber core sinker one rod length ahead of the lure. Our best trolling speed today was about 1.8 mph (in 15-20 FOW and faster in shallower). We didn't have another boat in sight all day today (except a freighter). 7/22/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report We had a fun day on the Bay today chasing walleyes. We started out hitting a spot in deeper water where we had been having good, consistent success for the past several trips. We marked a lot of fish on my fish finder there, but could not get them to bite. We then moved to shallower water south of Little Charity Island as plan B. The water temperature was 81.5 degrees, so I didn't think that there would be any walleyes there, but I was wrong. We started catching fish right away and put 10 in the box in about one hour. Then the wind shifted from east to south/east and the action slowed. Then after an hour of slow fishing things started picking up again, but then the wind shifted to the south/west and once again the bite slowed. Walleye just don't like wind changes. After an hour of slow fishing, the walleyes turned on once again and we were able to fill out our limits on some dandy fish indeed. We caught them on Hot N' Tots 40 feet behind the boards and also on crawler harnesses fished with bottom bouncers right on the bottom. Our trolling speed was about 2.0 mph. We took fish in waters from 10 to15 feet deep. 07/17/11, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report The hot, dog-days of summer are upon us big time, and the walleye fishing is really starting to heat up on Saginaw Bay too. We took good catches of fish the last couple days. Today we limited out taking 20 walleyes in about five hours of fishing. I ran a double yesterday and we limited out on the morning trip in very short order taking limit catches in about one hour of fishing. My afternoon trip yesterday yielded a mess of nice walleyes too. We've been fishing in 28-32 feet of water over a vast area South/West of Au Gres out in the middle of the Bay. When there has been some wind, the fish bit like crazy, but when the wind was calm, the bite was slower, but still decent. We've been taking the fish right off the bottom using crawler harnesses behind three ounce bottom bouncers (75 feet behind the Church Walleye Boards) and Hot N' Tots with 1.5 ounces of weight (100 feet behind the Church Walleye Boards). Trolling speeds have been 1.4 to 1.7 mph. The best harness color (the only one I've used in two days) is red beads with a silver blade. My best Tot has been green and silver. If there is some wind tomorrow, I'm going to try further north near the Charity Islands as I know that area produced well today. With the warming water temps, the Islands will be full of walleyes now. 07/15/11 - Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report Once again, the weatherman showed his incompetence when his predicted light winds turned into a stiff NE blow complete with plentiful whitecaps and steady three+ footers. We first went to where we had been taking good catches south of Little Charity, but overnight the water temperature had dropped there six degrees and those fish had vamoosed. We then proceeded to hit spot after spot in a progressively southerly search pattern until we finally found a bunch of active fish in 30-33 feet of water some eight miles south from where we started. We then took 15 fast walleyes to top off our limits with some dandy fish never taking one small fish in the bunch. The fish definitely favored crawler harnesses with red beads and silver blades fished right on the bottom, but we also took a good number of walleyes with Hot N' Tots with 1.5 ounces of weight back 100 feet behind the boards. Those Tots were also right near the bottom too. Another guy I know (he bought me a beer this evening - "thanks Jerry") fished that same area today and fished harnesses about half way down in the water column, and he only took a few fish. Obviously you needed to be on the bottom in that area. Incidentally, there was tons of baitfish marked on my fish finder in much of the Bay, but the best fishing location was where there was less bait, but still lots of bigger fish marks. 7/12/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report I just finished a scrumptious dinner that consisted of fresh walleye fillets, hash browns and a cold beer: Not exactly health food, but really delicious none-the-less. Here's a good recipe for walleye that's simple but awesome: Preheat a frying pan with ample olive oil. Wash and pad the fillets dry. Beat an egg and dip the fillets in the egg wash and then dredge them in Italian bread crumbs. Then put them into the hot frying pan and cook them until golden brown. I season with a little salt and pepper and wash the fish down with cold beer. It doesn't get much better than that. Now the Fishing report. As you probably guessed, when the captain is eating fresh walleye, the customers probably got their share too. They limited out today taking 20 walleyes in about four hours and then we caught my fish in short order after that too. We fished south of Little Charity in 10-13 feet of water. I trolled with Hot N' Tots today on the outside boards and crawlers with bottom bouncers on the rest of the rigs. Everything took fish. We had to troll fast today to keep the catfish and sheephead from latching on, and doing so resulted in only caught an few of those beasts being caught. Most of our fish today were 16-20 inchers with a few larger ones thrown in for good measure. 7/11/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay, Fishing Report I finally had a day off today after a very long stint of continuous days chartering on Saginaw Bay. I called off today's charter due to storms in the area and it turned out to be a good call too with a storm coming through the area at 10:00 a.m. The last three days I was fishing north and north/east of Big Charity Island. That area is loaded with structure with humps and shallow reefs intermixed with deep areas galore. We caught all nice sized walleyes on all those trips with some real dandies up to eight pounds. We even got a tagged fish yesterday too, so it will be interesting to learn the history of that walleye. We have been trolling with crawler harness up high in the water column basically targeting the top 15 foot of the water column over depths of 15-38 feet deep. Productive harnesses have been red beads with silver blades, chartreuse beads with silver/chartreuse blades and rigs with a mixture of chartreuse and orange too. Trolling speeds have varied but have generally been on the slow side for best results with most fish coming at under 1.4 MPH. Depending on the wind/water conditions, I may try by Little Charity Island tomorrow. We'll see. 7/5/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We ran our first charter out to the Charity Islands today and had a banner trip. We took 25 keeper walleyes with only five of them being under 20 inches. The Charity Islands are my favorite place to fish on the Bay and I know every nook and cranny in the area like the back of my hand. I've been fishing the Charities for over 20 years. It's a beautiful area to fish with scenery that is breathtaking and tons of walleyes too. We'll be fishing there a lot over the next month as the period after the Forth of July through August typically brings lots of walleyes to that vast area. 7/3/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay The fishing on Saginaw Bay is red hot serving up the best fishing of the year so far, and it will only get better as I move out to the Charity Islands any day. We limited all my charters the last three days. The good news is that we are taking some dandy big fish on about every trip. We've been fishing out in the middle of the Bay in waters that range from 30-36 feet deep. The fish have moved a little each day, but they have been in the same general area in a massive school. I'm still using bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses (chartreuse/orange was best today) as that's the only presentation I've tried that has worked well on those bottom dwelling fish. What's happening is that there is a huge baitfish population of shad and shiners in the Bay right now. The walleyes are likely feeding at night on the plentiful baitfish up high in the water column and then holding on the bottom during the day. Putting crawlers in their faces is like force feeding them. Most of the fish were are catching are full of half digested baitfish. These walleyes we are catching this year are the most chunky I've ever seen anywhere, so obviously that are eating very well. 6/30/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay What a beautiful day on Saginaw Bay today. Light winds, blue skies and lots of walleyes. It doesn't get much better than that. On the run out I didn't mark many fish until I was six miles from the harbor. I set lines there and trolled south with the wind. We picked up some fish right away, but when the wind died, so did that bite. Still marking lots of fish there, we plied those waters for a little longer waiting for them to turn on again, but they didn't, so we pulled lined and ran to deeper water out towards the middle of the Bay. We started catching fish there right away and it didn't take long to limit out in those walleye infested waters. Most of the fish I marked were really tight to the bottom, so it was no surprise that our fish were all caught on bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses fished on the bottom. The morning bite preferred silver blades, but later on in that deeper water, chartreuse and orange colors were best. 6/28/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay I've been very busy the last four days. I had an eight hour charter on Saturday and they limited out in short order on some high quality walleyes and also caught and released a bunch of fish too. On Sunday morning the fishing was slower but they did manage a decent catch anyway with one particularly large walleye, which was nice. The afternoon charter was a bit better with a limit catch in the box. My customers took 15 bigger walleyes along with a bunch more small walleyes Monday morning. I was thrilled to have a World War II Purple Heart recipient, veteran on board who got to catch his first walleye of his life. He also got the biggest fish of the day too which was especially cool. My afternoon half day charter got a limit catch in short order. I had to cancel today's charter due to high winds and I've also already cancelled tomorrows trip due to predicted high winds too. I'll be back on the the Bay again on Thursday and have charters scheduled ever day up until July 14 (I do have a couple half day slots open during that period though). The 10 day forecast after tomorrow is looking awfully good, so the fishing should really break loose this coming two weeks. The late July charters are starting to fill up quickly too, so don't wait too long to book your walleye trips for 2011 or they will be gone. I still have six days open for Lake Michigan salmon charters at Manistee, which won't last long. They are already having a good season on Lake Michigan for kings, so that should be some awesome fishing during the prime time of mid-August. 6/24/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay My customers limited out this morning in just a couple hours of fishing. The trolling program changed yesterday as the walleyes moved to the bottom. Before that we had been taking them up higher in the water column. We caught our fish this morning using spinner/crawler rigs fished with bottom bouncers in 27-35 feet of water just a short distance from the mouth of the Au Gres River. I set up in 27 foot and then trolled with the wind towards deeper water taking fish all along the way and limiting out by the time we hit 35 feet deep. Spinner color today did not matter as they hit everything I put down there. Yesterday though they showed a preference for silver spinners with red beads. We took walleyes today from 10 to 26 inches long and the walleyes are running noticeably chunky this year as the average weights definitely up from last year. 6/18/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay My last two charters limited out in short order on a bunch of dandy walleyes. We are fishing close to Au Gres too, which makes it nice with fuel prices so high. We were about 3-5 miles out from shore in 32-42 feet of water taking all our fish in the top 20 feet of the water column. We are trolling with crawler harnesses and all patterns I've tried the last few days have been productive, so they are not being picky. My best trolling speed has been about 1.4 miles per hour. This fairly stabile weather pattern will keep the fish located close to port for the near future, so this red hot fishing should continue there well into July. After that the walleyes will typically move out in the bay further, which is when the Charity Island area turn on with consistent walleye catches. That's all for now; it's tie to fry up some tasty walleye felets, which are my favorite fish to eat. 6/15/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We had an awesome day out of Au Gres today. My charter customers limited out on fish up to 26". We pulled a lot of fish off the bottom yesterday and the day before, but today the fish were up high and we caught the 10-20 feet down over 32-42 feet of water. The fish are widely scattered all over the central part of the Bay. We made one six mile trolling pass down wind that started 8 miles from the breakwalls and we caught fish all along the way. We fished crawlers today and I think anything up high would have worked but I have a bunch of crawlers to use up so we stuck with that program. I tried a dozen different spinner patterns today and everything I tried caught fish, as long as they were fished 10-20 feet down. Our trolling speed was 1.3-1.8 as we bounced in the waves. Crawlers were taken to depth using bottom bouncers and rubber core sinkers. The best fishing time today was from 11:00 to 2:00. We pulled lines at about 2:00 p.m. The morning bite was decent, but not nearly as good as later on. 6/11/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay For once, the actual weather today turned out much better than the predicted forecast. The weatherman said we would have storms and high winds, but the day instead turned out to be quite nice. We started out with slow action with some morning showers and wind switches keeping the fish negative. The fish finally turned on though at about noon and we limited out on some dandy walleyes with the biggest ones being about 25 inches long. We started out pulling spoons and didn't have much luck. We had been taking good catches on Moonshine Walleye Spoons all week fishing in the top 15 feet over 30-35 feet of water. We switched over to a combination of Hot N' Tots (outside boards) and crawlers (inside, middle boards and flat lines) and moved in to 15-18 feet of water where we found active fish that gobbled up our offerings. Everyone had a great time today and the sun even came out at the end of the trip as and unexpected bonus. 6/6/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We caught a bunch of walleyes today on Saginaw Bay. We started fishing with spoons on yesterday evening's trip and found fish high in the water column in 27-33 feet of water. We started out today with a red hot bite on spoons fishing about 10 feet down in deep water. There is a major hatch going on and the walleyes are feeding on bug up high. We caught about 50 walleyes today trolling 1.9 - 2.2 mph on Moonshine Walleye spoons fished behind Jet Divers. Hot patterns were Red Grape and Crab Cakes. I was timed today cleaning fish. My customer informed me that I completely feleted walleye in 30 seconds. I've been getting a lot of practice cleaning fish lately with the fishing really turning on. I finally have a day off tomorrow, but I'll be back on the water Thursday. The water has been warming up a lot the last few days, with all the hot weather. I think I'll go swimming on my day off. The fishing should be awesome for the weeks to come with the warming water temps. 6/5/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay Today was a beautiful day on Saginaw Bay indeed. We limited out today taking about six keepers per hour of fishing. We also caught a quite a few walleyes that were just undersized, which is a great omen for next year. We've had two great years in a row of natural walleye reproduction and those fish that are just undersized this year will be keepers next year and there will be millions of them according to biologists. We fished in 12-18 feet of water today and caught most of our fish on spinner/crawler rigs fished on or near the bottom. We also took some fish on crankbaits today too, which is the first good action I've seen on those lures this spring on the Bay. We caught our bigger fish on Hot N' Tots today the largest being about 6-7 pounds. The crankbait/spoon bite is right around the corner as the water clarity and temperature are almost there. 6/2/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay My last two charters were very good ones. We limited out this morning in short order on some very fine walleyes. We were fishing in 12-17 feet of water trolling with crawler harness. The walleyes were all located on or near the bottom. Early this morning chartreuse/orange spinners were best, but then later on silver spinners were better. We probably hooked up with over 30 walleyes this morning in the first few hours, then the fishing slowed some with a major wind shift. As I write this report, I'm between charters as I have another trip this afternoon, so I had better get at some chores on the boat. Good luck to all you anglers. 05/28/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay After taking a few days off to take care of chores at my U.P. hunting property I hit the water this morning with mixed expectations. My customers had never caught a walleye before and would have been happy catching just one each. Due to the high winds, I couldn't fish the area where we did well a few days earlier, so I was forced to fish the more protected area to the north. We got into a decent bite right off the bat and my customers ended up limiting out in about 3 hours of fishing taking walleyes of all sizes from tinny throw backs to dandy sized ones. We trolled with crawlers in 12-26 foot of water and the fish were all taken right off the bottom. Because my customers had such low expectations, they were especially thrilled to take such a fine catch of nice walleyes. With walleyes selling for over $15 per pound at stores these days the value of their catch was all the better. Even though we have been taking some great catches lately, the fishing on Saginaw Bay will only get better when the water warms up and the weather stabilizes into something that more resembles summer weather. Right now the water temperature is only 54 degrees in the Bay when the normal temps for this time of the year would be pushing 70. 5/22/11 - Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We found good fishing on Saginaw Bay yesterday and today. On my typical charters, when we catch the first few fish, I'll comment to my customers that they now won't have to worry about a fish dinner any more. When they box another half dozen fish I'll comment that they won't have to worry about fish for dinner for some time. Then when they catch their limits, I comment they they are now officially successful fishermen. Today, I got to announce all those comments as we limited out on Saginaw Bay on some dandy walleyes. It started out kind of slow today as my number one spot produced a big goose egg. My number two spot though resulted in some very good fishing as we caught a bunch of fish in short order. We were fishing in shallow water out of Au Gres and the hot lure was a crawler harness trolled behind bottom bouncers. Small blades trolled fairly fast (1.8-2.0 mph) worked best for the last two days (color did not matter). The key on both days was to fish the dirty side of clear/muddy water lines. Much of the Bay is still very muddy from all the floods and high winds over the last week, but the fish are still there and willing bitters as long as the right presentation is used in the right spots. 5/12/11 We couldn't fish on Tuesday due to high, east winds. I had my dry-dock charter boat inspection done Tuesday afternoon. This is the first inspection I've had done by a private contractor that the DNR hires to perform these rigorous inspections where they look at all aspects of the boat from stem to stern. The inspector was quite thorough but he didn't find any problems with my boat accept for one wire that needed to be rerouted and only took me a couple minutes to fix. We did fish yesterday, but the winds kicked up out of the east and blew us off the water just before we could top off our limits of walleyes. We fished this morning for four hours and saw the weather change from clouds and showers to beautiful, sunny conditions. The winds were calm all morning too for a change. We took an excellent catch of walleyes and actually landed every fish that hit this morning, which is a rare occasion. I had a dock-side charter boat inspection scheduled for 1:00 today which is performed by the DNR. Conservation Officer Nick Atkin performed that inspection which covers all the safety equipment on the boat and took about one hour and I passed that inspection too with flying colors too. With all my inspections completed, I can now focus more on some serious fishing. There are tons of walleyes stacked up just out from the Au Gres River and the fishing will be phenomenal as long as the weather is half way decent. I've been wanting to head up to Tawas to try that fishing there this week, but the fishing has been so good off Au Gres that it's hard to pull myself away from that awesome fishery to try somewhere else. I do hope to hit Tawas though for a mixed bag of salmon, trout and walleyes on Saturday, weather permitting. 5/10/11 I moved my boat to Au Gres yesterday and we fished for walleyes on Saginaw Bay in the evening for a few hours just to check things out. In that short amount of time, we caught more walleyes than we did on my last three trips on Lake Erie combined. Saginaw Bay certainly rocks and I'm glad to be fishing here as the walleye fishing is certainly much better than on Erie or anywhere else in Michigan for that mater. We had 25 fish on in just a few hours of fishing and the good news is that most of the fish were good sized ones too. We fished very close to the mouth of the Au Gres River so that was another big plus as we don't have to go out very far to get to the fish. Even with the bad weather conditions yesterday the walleyes still bit well. I didn't fish this morning because I had to get my charter boat inspected, which went off without a hitch. I have lots of May walleye openings and this fishing here at Au Gres will only get better and better as things warm up more. 4/16/11 Our last trip was on Thursday, 4/14/11 and it was a good one. My customers limited out on walleyes in Ohio waters in just a couple hours of fishing and they caught and released fish from there on all day long. The morning bite was good, but the afternoon bite slowed when the NE winds picked up. The winds increased in velocity through thursday night and the predicted 25 knot winds turned into gales to 50 knots with giant waves. The result was that Lake Erie got all riled up and is now muddy throughout the entire Western Basin. A internet viewable satellite image of the Lake showed the lake conditions. It will take several days for the muddy water to settle out and for the lake to become fishable again. I had to cancel all my charters through Tuesday and will hit the water again towards the end of the week. The good news is that this cold front will keep the water cool. There is also a massive amount of baitfish (shad) in the southern end of the Wester Basin (where we fish). All that cold water and abundant baitfish will keep all those fish in that area for an extended period this spring. We will experienced a prolonged big fish bite in our fishing area likely well into May. The best is yet to come.
The fishing action on Lake Erie is heating up for sure. We took an impressive catch of walleyes using both jigging and trolling tactics today. The morning trolling bite was a bit slow, so we went out to the Turtle Island area and jigged up 16 fish that ranged from 2-7 pounds. Then we headed into deeper water and tried trolling once again and the bite was red hot. We caught some monster walleyes including several true whoppers in the 31 inch class. We jigged with Bass Pro blade baits and had our best success trolling was using Thundersticks 60 feet behind the Church Tackle Walleye Boards at 1.7 mph. We also took a couple fish on Deep Husky Jerk Baits. There are massive numbers of walleyes stacked up in the waters of Bolles Harbor. There is also more baitfish than I've ever seen there before and that will draw in the fish after they spawn. This next couple weeks will serve up some world class walleye fishing for sure, as long as Mother Nature cooperates. The Jigging bite at the mouth of the Maumee River north of a line from Turtle Island to Little Cedar Point will be on fire the next week, then it will peter out as the peak spawning period ends. This next two weeks will provide the best fishing on Erie for the year so don't miss out.
The lingering East winds have caused the walleye bite on Lake Erie to remain challenging, but we are still taking some big walleyes and even caught a musky today as a bonus. We caught two walleyes over 10 pounds and all our fish came on either Thundersticks or Rouges trolled slowly (1-1.5 mph) out of Bolles Harbor on Lake Erie. The wind is predicted to shift to a southerly direction tomorrow and bring in some warm air. If that happens, the fishing will be phenomenal as warm spring weather really spurs on a hot walleye bite.
Our 2011 charter fishing season got a late start this year due to the cold, nasty weather we've experienced over the last couple weeks. The late spring is delaying the walleye spawning activity this year. The bad news is that the fishing has been spotty, but the good news is that springs like this typically offer prolonged fishing opportunities for lunker, trophy class walleyes as they will stay in our fishing area well into April and even through early May. In fact, I would predict that the best fishing for trophy walleyes on Erie this year will be during the last two weeks of April. We did fish the last two days and while we haven't been tearing them up, we did take some decent catches of large walleyes. In the last two days only one of our fish has been less than six pounds. The average size of our walleyes has been a very respectable 7-8 lbs. with some of those big jumbo walleyes in the catch too. We have been trolling stick baits (Thundersticks and Rouges) in waters 10-20 feet deep off Bolles Harbor. There are a lot of fish stacked up in that area and also a lot of baitfish too. The fishing will only get better and better as the water warms up some. We'll be fishing every day we can to take full advantage. We still have some openings left for the last two weeks of April, so give us a call and we'll hook you up with some awesome fishing.
8/16/10, Tawas, Saginaw Bay/Lake Huron
8/9/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We've been limiting out on about half our trips over the last week on Saginaw Bay. Actually, we have been fishing outside Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron proper lately. The extraordinarily warm summer has caused the bay to warm up to un-normal levels and the walleyes have moved out to the deeper, cooler waters of Lake Huron as a result. We've been running 12-17 miles out fishing waters from 50-80 feet deep. Today we came within one fish of taking limits, but the weather killed the bite for the last few hours of the charter. We took all our fish on crawler harnesses with a red bead, silver blade rig being best down near the bottom and a chartreuse bead, silver/chartreuse splash blade being best up higher in the water column. The average size of our walleyes has been good this week with almost all fish being over 20". It's fun fishing the vast open waters of the lake, but still a stark difference from last week when we were taking fish in shallow water around the Charity Islands. The long runs make half day charters out of the question to reach the good fishing area. Customers that want to take good catches fish need to book 8 hour charters until the fish move back into the bay, which won't happen until the water cools way down and that may not happen until fall. The good news though is that the fish are concentrated well in that deep water region and on decent weather days will will be taking easy limits of nice sized walleyes. 8/1/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay I just had a scrumptious meal featuring fresh walleye in a high octane chowder along with some fresh bread. This is a recipe that I haven't cooked in quite some time, but I've been eating so much walleye lately that I'm looking for variety with my three to four walleye meals per week, so the chowder was a nice change. Walleye is awesome fried, gilled, broiled or baked. It's a fish that eats well no mater how you cookm' up. My customers limited out today with a nice catch of walleyes and a couple trophy class smallmouth bass thrown in for good measure. We had our best success in 20-25 feet of water just west of the Charity Islands. The bite started off pretty good, then slowed, then we found them in deeper water and finished the job there. Chartreuse crawler harnesses were the best lure today. We've been taking some nice bass every day though and they have mostly been caught on Hot N' Tots. 7/30/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay I'm keying this fishing report in after a delicious meal with fresh walleye as the main course. We limited out today on walleyes fishing out by the Charity Islands out of Au Gres (AuGres). We had our best action this morning in about 15 feet of water. Most walleyes were caught on my homemade crawler harnesses. We also took a fair amount of fish on Hot N' Tots too trolling them 50' back behind the boards. Early in the trip, we had cloud cover and 2-3 foot waves and we took most of our fish off the gunnel rods during the early hours. It was like the walleyes were attracted by the boat then. Later the wind died, the waves subsided and the sun came out. That's when we started taking all our fish off the boards away from the boat. In this captain's opinion, walleyes are the best eating fish I've ever eaten. Getem' while their hot. 7/29/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We had a beautiful weather day on Saginaw Bay today. We caught 21 walleyes (biggest two were 26"). We also caught two trophy smallmouth bass that were 20" and very fat. We started out fishing near Little Charity Island, but that bite there never materialized. We then ran out north of Big Charity island and fish in deeper water over the some humps in an area commonly called the Steeples. We took most of our fish off one hump, but there were scattered fish all over that area. Most of our fish came on crawlers fished near bottom, but we did take a couple on crankbaits. 7/27/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay My customers limited out again today on walleyes with a beautiful fishing day out by the Charity Islands on Saginaw Bay. The fishing started out rather slow with the dead calm sunny conditions, then the bite picked up for a couple hours to a decent pace, then the bite slowed and we started missing most of the fish that bit. Most of our fish came on crawlers fished near the bottom today. We did take a few suspended fish on crankbaits, but crawlers ruled the day. A harness with red beads and silver blades was best today, but we did take fish on every harness I had down there. Overall, it was a very nice morning on the Bay. 7/25/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay My last three charters took limit catches and all of those trips were carried out near the Charity Islands. Today we boxed 20 keeper walleyes in about two hours of fishing. The trip before that one was a little slower with limits being taken, but it took the entire duration of the charter to max out. With the ever changing weather the walleyes have been moving around a lot. In fact I've not been able to fish the same spot once from one day to the next. I've even noticed a lot of fish movement from morning to afternoon on the same day. It takes a lot of experience to know where to go and how to consistently catch fish during unstabile weather/water conditions like we are experiencing. I've been fishing out by the Charity Islands for over 20 years, so I've learned over those years how to catch walleye in about any type of conditions the Bay can serve up. Today we caught our fish on a mixture of crawlers and Hot N' Tots. I fished a light spread today only having six rods or less working at any one time. 7/22/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We are still catching walleye limits on every trip since we started fishing near the Charity Islands a while back. Even though we had tough, dead flat, sunny conditions today, we still limited out in just a few hours taking some awfully nice walleyes of all sizes. Most of the fish were 19-22 inches, but some were bigger and a few smaller. All the walleyes we caught today were keepers too. We are also taking some big (5 pounds) smallmouth bass too on most trips as a bonus. I've been running a mixed program of crawler harnesses and crankbaits with very good success. My trolling speed is 1.5 to 2.0 mph. I ran two different crawler presentation: I ran crawlers behind bottom bouncers and we also took some suspended fish today on crawlers as well. We caught a quite of few walleyes on Hot N' Tots today too and I also ran a Shad Rap for a short while today and it took a couple hits as well. All of our bites today came off the Walleye Boards as the sunny, flat conditions made the fish especially spooky of the boat and those board presentations way out to the sides were mandatory for any degree of good success. 7/19/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay The walleye action continues to be outstanding out of Au Gres on Saginaw Bay. We took limits today; in fact, we've taken limits on every trip this week. The fish are stacked up big time all around the Charity Islands, which is where we've been pounding them all week. We fished three different areas the last three trips and found good concentrations of fish everywhere we dropped lines. Today we trolled with two different crawler presentations, Hot N' Tots and also Moonshine Walleye spoons. Every lure we put in the water took fish too, so it seemed like the fish were hitting everything we put in their faces. This red hot fishing in the north end of the bay will likely get better and better until the water cools off and the long range forecast is calling for above average temperatures all through summer, so I expect the fishing out of Au Gres to stay fantastic until fall. The Charity Islands are located in the middle of the outer bay about 10 miles from Au Gres' harbor. These islands are a real gem with emerald colored waters surrounding the unspoiled islands, which are teaming with one of the highest populations of shore birds around the Great Lakes. Fishing trips to the islands features views of two light houses and the cool breezes in that area are a real breath of fresh air on hot summer days. The Charities are world famous for some of the best late summer walleye action anywhere with a reputation for serving up trophy class fish and lots of them. This hot summer has caused a massive migration of Saginaw Bay's walleyes to that region and savvy anglers will be having a ball the rest of the summer taking advantage of the massive fish concentration. 7/16/10, Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We took limit catches of walleyes today out of Au Gres fishing near the Charity Islands in waters 8-25 feet deep. The fish were scattered and moving around a lot, but we did have consistent action all day. We took most of our fish on crawler harnesses, however we also had some luck in shallow water with Hot N' Tots. I also heard from multiple people that fished north of Big Charity in deep water that took limit catches too. There seems to be a big concentration of walleyes around the Charity Islands since the inner bay has warmed way up and the fish have moved north to their typical late summer hangouts. I expect some of the best walleye fishing of the year over the next month as we exploit this walleye fishing bonanza to the fullest. This is also a time when we often catch some true lunker walleyes too as the bigger fish usually school up around the Charities at this time of year big time. 7/3/10 Au Gres, Saginaw Bay We continued our winning July ways by limiting out on both 7/2/10 and 7/3/10 catching most of our fish on crawlers presented near the bottom; however we also took some fish on spoons and our biggest fish both days were taken on Moonshine walleye spoons. Productive spoons were Moonshine Red Grape and Crab Cakes; both patterns have silver backs. My best harness colors were red with silver blades and chartreuse/orange. We trolled rather slow on both days with 1.4-1.8 mph being best. It was windy both days though so trolling speeds varied greatly with the swells. We also took a few catfish and all of those cats were trophy class fish in 7 pounds and bigger range. The walleyes have been coming in all sizes. We caught our fish in 26 to 35 feet of water. They were scattered and we basically trolled long passes with the wind covering as much as 7 miles of water catching fish all over. No great concentrations but steady, fun action none-the-less. 7/1/10 Au Gres, Saginaw Bay Well, July ushered in with a very good day on Saginaw Bay indeed. We limited out in about 3 hours taking an awesome catch of walleyes. The post cold front conditions necessitated trolling crawlers slowly on the bottom. We caught all out fish on crawlers behind bottom bouncers. The fishing should get even better in the next few days to come and the month of July and especially August tends to yield bigger walleyes on average. I'm booked up until mid-July, but after that I have lots of openings. 06/28/10 Au Gres, Saginaw Bay The walleye fishing on Saginaw Bay is heating up to nothing short of fantastic. We limited out today in short order (three hours) fishing off Au Gres in 28-31 feet of water. I'm running a mixed spread of crawlers behind bottom bouncers along with Moonshine Walleye Spoons behind jet Divers (8 rods, 4 of each, 6 off boards, and 2 off the gunnels). The lures are being taken to the desired depth using heavy 4 ounce bottom bouncers (crawlers) and 030 Jet Divers (spoons) putting the lures right on or near the bottom, which is where most of the fish are being marked on my sonar. My best trolling speed is 1.7 to 1.9 mph. The combination spoon and crawler trolling program seems to be working better than anything else I've heard of as we often go through schools of fish that favor one rig over the other thus giving us more consistent, non-stop action. My best spoon pattern this year is Moonshine's Crab Cakes. My best harness has been chartreuse/orange with small blades. We've been taking walleye of all sizes from 4-30 inches. There are so many walleyes of all kinds of age classes in Saginaw Bay right now that the fishing is better than I've ever seen it before. A few things about Au Gres: The best lodging is at the Harbor Inn Motel as they are well set up for fishermen with good boat parking and a fish cleaning station among other amenities. My four favorite eateries in Au Gres are H&H Bakery and Restaurant, Bees, Dunleavys (Killians on tap) and Town and Country (Oberon on tap). The city launch (formerly DNR run) is the best place to put in and is close to the best fishing on the bay. The City has a good campground right in town not to far from the launch. The best swimming areas are north of Point Lookout at several public access sites along US23. The best fishing has been in 26-40 feet of water right off Au Gres and to the south. I'd guess that 90% of the fish taken this year have been hooked within a couple feet of the bottom. Once the weather stabilizes, I'll likely be going with an all spoon program as good weather will likely cause the fish to suspend a bit and turn on even better to spoons. Spoons are also the easiest most efficient lure to use when the bite is red hot. Good Luck. 6/25/10 I finally got my boat out on the water after a week of dealing with a boat breakdown. I had to replace my lower unit on my Optimax. Unfortunately I was booked up pretty busy during that down time. Thankfully Capt. Bill Carter was able to help me out and we run some of those charters together on his boat to salvage those bookings for my customers. It was good though to get back in my boat today. We enjoyed a very nice weather day Saginaw Bay today for sure. We took limits of walleyes today ranging in size from 4 inches to 27 inches. We fished about six miles out from Au Gres starting out with an all spoons program and then later mixed in some crawlers behind bottom bouncers running four of each presentation side by side. We took about half our fish on spoon and the other half on crawlers. Colors didn't seem to mater that much, but they definitely bit best with a trolling speed of around 1.8 mph with the lures right on or near bottom. I'm booked solid out to July 10, but after that I have lots of openings. July is often a very good walleye month on Saginaw Bay. We do tend to take more big fish during late July, August and September too. 6/14/10 Moonshine Walleye Spoons trolled behind Jet Divers remains the top producer in the last two days. My best spoon pattern is a new one for 2010 called Crab Cakes. Today we limited out trolling a vast area picking up a fish here and another fish there for some steady action. There was no real hot action in any one place though. We fished 27-33 feet of water. We probably caught about 25-30 walleyes today. Yesterdays morning trip started out a little hairy when I ran into a floating, unmarked commercial fishing net first thing in the morning. I reported the net to the authorities and luckily (thanks to some quick reactions) no apparent damage was done to my boat or equipment. The net was in 26-27 feet of water right off Point Au Gres. We went on to catch limits after the net incident in about 3 hours of fishing. The afternoon trip yesterday was a somewhat slow though as we came up short of limits, but still got enough action to make it fun none-the-less. The ever switching winds and unstabile weather patterns still persist and it tends to limit success on some outings. Walleyes usually don't bite very good when the wind shifts and changes sharply. We are still managing to limit out though on most trips despite the challenging weather conditions. 6/12/10 This unstabile Michigan weather is causing all sorts of challenges for the fishing on the bay. For three days in a row we haven't been able to make it through a charter without a major change in the wind direction, which almost always slows the fishing. None the less, we are still limiting out on most charters. Yesterday marked a big change in the walleye's feeding behavior on the Saginaw Bay waters near Au Gres (Augres). The walleyes changed from a diet of mostly bugs to minnows and shiners. Not too surprisingly the spoon bite has taken off big time as a result. In fact we caught most of our fish on spoons the last two trips. Moonshine walleye spoons are my favorites with patterns featuring purple and pink being best the last two days. Spoons with silver finishes are always best on Saginaw Bay. I'm fishing the spoons close to the bottom where the walleyes have been the most concentrated. Today's charter was curtailed due to heavy winds switching to the northeast. I've got two trips scheduled for tomorrow, so I hope the weather cooperates a little for a change. 6/10/10 It was limit catches once again today. We had to start the charter late due to high winds, but our noon start time didn't impact our catch at all. We caught walleyes all through the trip and I was able to show some folks from New Jersey some fine fishing on Saginaw Bay indeed. We fished shallower water today taking all our fish in waters 25-29 feet deep. They are still favoring crawlers on the bottom. Check out the June issue of Woods N' Water News to read an article I wrote about fishing Saginaw Bay with crawlers for all the detail. With the changing weather conditions, the walleyes are moving around a lot. We set up shallow today to trolling with the strong NW wind. About half way through teh trip, the wind switched 180 degrees and blew from the east. Anywhere else, the fishing would have died, however Saginaw Bay is so fantastic that even with a huge wind shift, we were still able to keep catching fish. Saginaw Bay is the walleye capital of the world these days for sure. There's no where else that you can go out day after day catching limits about every trip despite crummy weather conditions. We are blessed to have such a fantastic walleye fishery in Michigan. 6/9/10 Yesterday's charter ended up being curtailed due to high winds. We still managed to take just one shy of limits though, so it wasn't too bad at all. We probably had 30 hits, but they were biting very lightly and we lost about half of the fish we hooked. Today we had to delay the start time for the scheduled 8 hour charter. We started at about noon and caught about 30 walleyes by 5:00 which isn't too shabby at all. Everyone had a great time catching all the fish they wanted. We are catching most of our fish still on crawlers fished right on the bottom in waters 25-31 feet deep. The colors of the harnesses has not mattered much. Our best trolling speed is about 1.5 mph. 6/7/10 Yesterday's charter was cancelled due to bad weather. We did fish today, but the conditions were not very good with ever changing winds and a severe drop in the water temperature since the last time I was out. The early morning was a bit slow, but we plugged away at it and managed to take around 30 walleyes in seven hours of fishing. We fished about four miles off Au Gres (breakwall) in 30-33 feet of water. We also managed to catch one of the biggest catfish I've ever seen on the bay today. It weighed almost 16 pounds, almost double the Master Angler qualifying weights. We missed a lot of fish today too. We probably lost about half the fish we hooked, which just shows how light they were biting today with this cold front slowdown. We are marking a bunch of fish though, so it's just a mater of time before the walleye bite explodes on the Bay. 6/5/10 I've been extremely busy over the last two weeks running charters on Saginaw Bay and also working on my new property that I bought near Au Gres. I've got most of the tasks completed on my humble abode, so I should be able to post fishing reports more regularly from here on out. Basically, we've been taking limit catches of walleyes on Saginaw Bay off Au Gres. I ran two charters today and we limited out both trips despite the crummy fishing conditions (shifting winds with a front coming through). We've been catching them in waters 28-35 feet deep. Due to the fast water warm-up this spring, we had a major bug hatch last week and the walleyes have been feeding on bugs near the bottom big time. As a result I've had to resort to fishing with crawlers on the bottom using bottom bouncers to take most of our fish. We started catching some fish finally today on crank baits, so I'm hopping the hot spoon bite will develop shortly as I'm getting tired of messing with night crawlers. I always run a couple crank baits along with crawlers and when the cranks start getting hit regularly, I switch over to from crawlers to spoons and crankbaits. During bug hatches though, walleyes will usually favor meat over plastic or metal, so I'll be patient. June is a very good time to fish for walleyes on Saginaw Bay as we limit out on the vast majority of trips. I still have a few June openings, however from past experience, those openings will not last long as demand is high for June charters. 5/21/10 Despite a rather stiff, east wind this morning, we still limited out on trout and salmon in short order. Yesterday though we started out with very good action in the first few hours of the morning, but then the wind died and the fishing slowed a lot. We still had a decent catch though with only one fish short limits for my customers. This spring fishing at Rogers City is nothing short of phenomenal overall and the fishing pressure here is next to non-existent as most days I've had only one of two other boats within miles of me. We are still fishing in waters 35-60' deep and attractors like cowbells and dodgers off the riggers are taking lots of fish. Yesterday we took most of our fish though off the planer boards on spoons trolled about 30-35' down. Today the riggers were best. I've got two more days of fishing left here at Rogers City before I head to Au Gres and it looks like the weather will be cooperating as I should get both of them in. I've had a nearly two week stretch of being able to fish every day without any blow days, so this spring is turning out to be very good indeed for my charter business and my customers as well. 5/19/10 I've been fishing every day this week and saw the fishing change big time with this fast warm up we've experienced. We were hammering the fish in shallow water until the two dead calm, sunny, warm days skyrocketed the water temp up to the point where the fish mostly moved deeper. The last three days we've been fish in 35-60' of water. We took 18 fish today, which was outstanding fishing in anyone's book. Yesterday was slow though, but Monday was easy limits with fantastic fishing. We've been limiting out about 2/3 of the the time here in Rogers City. Basically the dead calm days are not good while a little wind has been getting the fish bitting more. We took about half our fish today on spoons off the Church Walleye Boards. I'm adding 4-5 ounces of weight with Church Clip Weights to get the lures into the fish. My best spoons have been ones I painted myself that are green/golden yellow with green glow tape diagonally across the spoon. We took the other half of our fish off the downriggers. Productive rigger rigs were Moonshine Moonbells on one rigger and a Lure Jensen Dodger on the other both fished within 10' of the bottom. I'm using peanuts and spin glows as lures on those rigs. I've got five more days on the water here in Rogers City before I move my boat to Au Gres for some walleye action. So far this has been one of the best springs for fishing that I've experienced in at least a decade. I've heard they are hammering the walleyes at Au Gres already, so I can't wait to get there. 5/13/10 We only only got to fish for a few hour today before the big East wind came up forcing us to vacate the lake curtailing the charter. Even with the bad weather, we still managed to catch just one fish short of limits. We started out trolling in shallow water and the fishing was somewhat slow as we only caught three fish in the first couple hours. Then we moved deeper to 50 feet of water and started getting better action, however the wind came up before we could top off the cooler with the last fish. The weather is predicted to stabilize by the weekend and the next week after that is looking real promising for some outstanding fishing here at Rogers City. I filled my last open slot here, so I don't have any more openings for Rogers City May trips, however I'm already booking these trips for 2011. These spring mixed bag trips are extremely popular with my customers as we almost always take good catches of trout and salmon. We mostly fish close to shore too, so you get to see some nice scenery up close as you fish. 5/12/10 We finally got out on a charter at Rogers City today. Yesterday the wind blew like crazy from the east, which is bad for Rogers City, so I was forced to cancel. At day break today, the wind was still blowing up waves that looked like five footers, which were too big for us to fish with any degree of fun. So we waiting a few hours and the winds finally died down. We hit the water at noon and by 1:00 we had 10 fish in the box. Then the wind switched to the SE the action died down for a couple hours. The fish began biting hot and heavy again later though and we ended up with a great limit catch of trout and salmon. We fished shallow water trolling a mixture of spoons, body baits and I even ran a cowbell too witch took a couple fish. We were primarily targeting Atlantic salmon, brown trout and lakers, but we also caught a bonus king and a beautiful steelhead to really round out a true mixed bag. We didn't take any huge fish today, however none of the fish we caught were small either. They ran for 5 to 10 pounds. My customers had a great time enjoying a beautiful afternoon on Lake Huron and said it was the best fishing they had ever experienced. The best part is that they get to do it all over again tomorrow, weather permitting. 5/9/10 Sorry for not posting any reports the last couple weeks as I have been extremely busy working on my new place I just bought up in Au Gres. I've also been running some charters too. My last two charters at Monroe were canceled due to bad weather, so I'm now done on Lake Erie and will be moving my boat to Rogers City for a two week stint after a mixed bag of primarily brown trout, Atlantic Salmon and Lakers. I only have one opening at Rogers City for May charters, so book fast for that one. After Rogers City I will be moving my boat to Au Gres for some Saginaw Bay walleye action, which I'm really looking forward to as that fishery is absolutely the best walleye fishing I've ever seen. Back to the fishing reports: My last trips on Erie were somewhat tough because of the unstable weather patterns we had over the last two weeks. Our fishing was what I would call decent meaning that we limited out (or came close to limiting out) but we really had to work to catch them and all those charters took the fully allotted time to get the job done. We fished off Bolles Harbor, but had to run way out in deeper water (Ohio) to find bigger fish. We took most of our walleyes on crawler presented close to the bottom, but I did run a combination trolling spread that included crankbaits and on some of those trips, the take was about an even mix taken on crawlers and cranks. Shad Raps were the best crankbait and I caught walleyes no every pattern of spinner harness I tried, so that was not as important as the correct trolling speed and an accurate presentation. The best fishing on Erie is now behind us, so I'll be focusing my walleye fishing efforts on Saginaw Bay for the rest of the season where the catch rates will be much higher and the average size of the fish a log bigger. 4/19/10 The last few days on Lake Erie were simply phenomenal. We took limit catches of high quality walleyes on all charters. The fish consisted of walleyes ranging in size from 17" to 29". We are trolling out of Bolles Harbor and the hottest bait by far has been Shad Raps. I did run some crawlers today and we had a few takers on them as well, but the white perch managed to steel those crawlers a lot making them a lot more of a hassle. The crank bait bite will continue for another couple weeks and should produce bumper catches through mid-May. This has been the best spring walleye action I've seen on Erie in many years and I still have some opening left if you want to take advantage of this tremendous bite. 4/12/10 Caulk up another banner walleye fishing outing on Lake Erie today. We fished out of Bolles Harbor and managed to troll up limits once again of some really nice walleyes. We even caught a 4 pound smallmouth bass today as a bonus fish too. Our walleyes ranged from 3 to 9 pounds with our top five fish (for you tournament guys) weighing about 40 pounds. We trolled with crank baits and Shad Raps were the top producer. We pulled them about 10-12' down for suspended fish. I've caught more walleyes on Lake Erie on Shad Raps than on any other bait bar none and I have decades of experiences fishing on Erie with them too. Shad Raps are simply my top, post spawn walleye producer and they work great typically from early April through early May. I decided to cancel my scheduled trip for tomorrow (Tues.) due to the predicted high winds. I'll let the lake settle down a bit and then his it again later in the week. The Lake Erie jigging bite typically peaks out during the middle of April, so I'll be torn this weekend between trolling and jigging for our catch then. Both are super fun ways to spend a day on the water and both should also be very productive this week. 4/11/10 We had another fantastic day on Lake Erie today taking limits of very nice sized walleyes. We fished out of Bolles Harbor and most of our fish were 4-6 pounds with some bigger and only one smaller than four pounds. We caught most of our fish on Shad Raps, be we also had some luck with Rouges. We tried jigging today for the first time this year and only had marginal success and only stayed at the jigging technique for perhaps 10 minutes before going back to our productive trolling presentations that have been working so well for us this year. Trolling typically takes much larger sized walleyes than jigging does, however jigging is fun when the action is fast paced, which it was not today. Jigging typically peaks during mid-April, but this year the tolling bite has been so red hot with jumbo sized walleyes, that I've not had much impetus to go after the walleyes on the reefs with jigs. This year is serving up some of the best trolling walleye bite for trophy sized fish than we've seen a several years. I'll be out there again tomorrow and with the predicted week long, stabile weather forecast, the fishing should be even better as the week goes on. 4/6/10
4/5/10 More Lake Erie walleye magic today. We limited out in four hours on walleyes that ranges from 4 to 10+ pounds. We took three walleyes that were 31" that I didn't weigh and a bunch of other trophy class fish too. We had lots of fun today and I had my first ladies out on the water for the season. Everyone did fantastic though catching almost all the fish we hooked. Our catch today filled my 30 gallon well to the top with solid walleyes. Here's my tip of the day, if you fish now bring a very big cooler. My customers brought along a 40 quart cooler to bring their fish home with but it only was able to hold about 1/3 of their catch, so if you book a trip, bring along a big enough cooler to take you're haul home with. Here's a photo of a couple of the nice walleyes we caught today.
The walleye fishing on Lake Erie was fantastic once again. We had a big wind blow through with a cold front yesterday, but even though the water riled up some, the walleyes were still hitting good today anyway. We took limit catches of big walleyes that ranged from 5 to 10 pounds for an average wight of 7 to 8 pounds. This fishing is some of the best trophy walleye fishing for true lunker eyes' you'll find anywhere in the world. The action has been hot and heavy all week. Today we were limited out in less than three hours and customers can also catch and release fish too if they really want to fight big fish until your arms hurt. Here's a photo to the left of a couple dandy walleyes from today.
4/3/10 We took limit catches again today of big walleyes ranging from 4 to 10 pounds. The winds came up at about 1:00 p.m. but we had limited out before noon. We trolled in a variety of areas and managed to catch fish where ever we went. The bite was excellent all morning with most of the fish weighing over 7 pounds. Here's a photos to the right of a couple fish taken by a classy young man that turned out to be a very good fisherman as well. 4/2/10 The fishing was awesome again today on Lake Erie. We took limit trolling very close to Bolles Harbor. Rouges and Thundersticks were the hot baits. The fish were ran big again today with only a couple under five pounds and a bunch over seven pounds with some true lunkers as well. We caught 25 fish total and threw back some of the biggest ones. This is some outstanding fishing and it will likely stay good for at least another 10 days too with the mild weather forecast predicted. I still have some openings over the next week, so contact me if you want to catch a bunch of big walleyes.
4/1/10 We've been fishing the last two days on Lake Erie and have been taking decent numbers of fish with most being true trophy class fish. The best fishing has been off Bolles Harbor trolling with stick baits. Today we took 14 walleyes and yesterday we had a similar bite rate. Most of the fish have been over 5 pounds with about half being over 8 pounds. and some much bigger yet. This is the time of the year when trophy class fish are staging prior to the spawn and the biggest walleyes of the year are taken on Lake Erie. I run these charters from an "on-call:" list. The next week of fishing promises some awesome fishing with the predicted mild, stabile weather forecast. At this point, the on-call list still has room to fit in some more charters during this hot bite so call now if interested. This photo to the right is from yesterday. Unfortunately, my camera lense got a water drop on it and my photos from 4/1/10 were not of good quality. We caught some impressive fish both days.
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We
are continuing to catch some dandy salmon on every trip out of Manistee.
The water has warmed up a lot in the last two days pushing the fish to
the bottom We have been having our best luck during mid morning to
early afternoon fishing just off the bottom with meat rigs. An all
white rig with white teasers and bait head trailing behind a white Fish
Catcher has been catching most or our fish. All but a couple fish
the last few days have come off the down riggers. We are fishing
in waters 90 to 150 feet deep and tracking the balls along the bottom.
Trolling speeds have been about 2.6 mph (lure running speed).
There has been a consistent south to north current in the Manistee areas
this week, so the surface trolling speed has needed to be adjusted
radically depending on the direction of the troll. I'm running
about 3.3 mph heading north and 2.2 mph trolling south.
We fished during a beautiful morning on Saginaw Bay today. We had a
light, south wind to start the morning, so we ran out to where we
hammered the walleyes yesterday. The weatherman had predicted a
northerly wind, so the south wind was 180 degrees off the mark. We
set lines at about 8:00 in the morning and my customers had boxed their
limits by 10:15. We took a nice catch of fish with seven walleyes
in the four to five pound range. Only two of the 20 keepers we
boxed were under 20 inches so the fish ran bigger today compared to
yesterday. We trolled with the same harnesses I had used
yesterday, but color did not seem to mater today. The trolling
speed was critical today though with a 1.5 mph speed working great while
going slower or faster did not produce much action. The spot I'm
fishing will likely produce good catches for the next several days to
come until the conditions cause the fish to move.
Well,
we took limit catches once again today on Saginaw Bay near Au Gres.
This has been some of the best walleye fishing we've seen here ever with
fish of all sizes from small throw backs, to big lunkers and everything
in between. As good as the walleye fishing is on Saginaw Bay, I
want to change the subject to salmon briefly. I only have one open
slot left for Lake Michigan Salmon fishing, so in a couple days, I won't
have any openings remaining at all. This is likely going to be the
best salmon fishing in years as there has been bigger salmon showing up
in the catch this year and lots of them. I expect some of the
biggest salmon this year that we've seen in years. 20+ pounders in
August will likely be common place. As good as the walleye fishing
has been on Saginaw Bay, the Lake Michigan salmon fishery should also be
outstanding in August. With only one salmon opening left, you
don't want to wait to book your salmon trip or you'll be SOL.
Today
was a perfect example of why I only offer 8 hour charters during July
and August out of Au Gres. This time of the year provides some of
the best fishing of the year, but the fish often move around a lot with
the changing weather patterns. I had to cancel yesterday's charter
due to strong winds, storms and big waves. That strong Nor-Eeaster
yesterday cooled down the water temps by 12 degrees where we had been
taking good catches. When I checked that spot this morning, the
fish had completely vacated that area. I then went to by plan-B
spot, and there was nothing there either. My plan-C spot yielded
only two fish, but when we set up on my plan-D spot at about noon, we
had non-stop action with some of the best fishing of the year on Saginaw
Bay. Among the limit catch were seven fish over five pounds with
some of them being true lunkers. Had the trip only been a half day
charter, we would have done poorly, but the extra hours on the charter
resulted in some awesome fishing indeed.
We
had a beautiful day on Saginaw Bay walleye fishing today. It
started out a little choppy with 2-3 foot waves, but it eventually
calmed down to smooth seas and nearly calm conditions. We started
out fishing off Point Au Gres in 30 feet of water trolling with the
north/east wind. We picked up 10 keeper walleyes in four hours of
fishing with the walleyes in that area holding tight to the bottom.
We then moved deeper for the second half of the trip and found suspended
walleyes in about 40' feet or deeper waters. We hammered filling
our limits on those fish and all of them were chunky walleyes in the 20
to 26" range. Fire/tiger or chrome/chartreuse blades on the
crawler harnesses were best out deep fishing with three ounces of weight
30 to 40 feet behind the boards trolling at 1.2 to 1.4 mph. We
also took fish with 1.5 ounce weights 70 feet back on the outside
boards.
The
fishing has been good for walleyes on Saginaw Bay. Today, my charter
customers took limit catches fishing in waters 25 to 32 feet deep. We
caught all our fish on crawlers on the bottom. We took a lot of
smaller fish today, but we did manage to catch plenty of bigger ones too for
a nice mix. After we found the fish, which took an hour, we never went
for more than five minutes this morning without "fish-on" action. They
seemed to be biting better today with the warming water temperatures into
the high 50s now. The fishing will likely continue to get better and
better this spring as there seems to be more fish than ever this year. 
I finally got back out onto the water today after waiting out a prolonged
period of rotten weather that kept me shore bound. We headed out
to the Toledo Harbor Light first thing in the morning with jigging rods
ready to rock today and the walleye bite there was fast and furious for
the first hour with some bigger than average walleyes, then the bite
slowed down as the sun rose up. It took us a couple hours of
fishing to limit out in Ohio jigging with blade baits, then we slid over
west across the boarder and broke out the trolling rods. I
deployed a mixed spread of crank baits and spinner/crawler rigs.
The white bass there were quite a pain in the rear, but we were able to
sort through them and take a half dozen more walleyes. All the
walleyes caught trolling came on crawlers/bottom bouncers with
chartreuse/orange being best. The trolling bite was slow for
walleyes because of all the white bass fouling our lures constantly.
I have two more days scheduled on Lake Erie, then I move my boat to
Saginaw Bay. I'm looking forward to heading to Au Gres as we don't
have to deal with the trash fish like we do on Erie.
My
customers limited out on walleye the last two charters taking some big
fish along with some good eating sized too. We have been
trolling in waters from 13' to 20' deep using a variety of crankbaits
and body baits. Large size (three hooks) Rouges have been best
lately trolled 30'-60' behind the boards taken to depth with a 3/8 ounce
rubber core sinker. Trolling speeds of 1.2 to 1.4 mph have been
productive. I'm taking a few days off to let this storm system
blow through, then I'll be back on the water again on Wednesday for a
five day stint at Monroe. I still have some openings left for next
week for Lake Erie charters and the fishing should be excellent at that
time, which is when millions of post spawn fish really start putting on
the feed bag. This has been an outstanding year so far for big
walleyes on Lake Erie with every charter taking lunkers. Time is
running out for Lake Erie charters. I'll be moving my boat to Au
Gres for Saginaw Bay walleyes on May 1.
It
was an absolute beautiful, enjoyable day on Lake Erie today with good
people, blue skies, calm winds and plenty of fish on the lines. We
took limit catches of some outstanding walleyes fishing mostly in Ohio
waters, but we did try one trolling pass in Michigan waters too at the
end of the charter. We took most of our fish trolling in water
20-23 feet deep with our best lures being gold/black Thundersticks 60'
back and a Rattling Shad Raps 45' back behind the Church Tackle Walleye
Boards. I had 3/8 ounce of weight 5' in front of the lures.
We found some good trolling water about 15 miles southeast of Bolles
Harbor. We also did some jigging and pulled six fish off the reef
in about 45 minutes, then we went back to trolling which always produces
bigger fish. We did take some jumbo walleyes today to top off an
impressive box of fish. I'll be taking the next few days off to
let this predicted weather system blow through and then I'll be hitting
the water again when fair weather returns mid-week. I everyone a
happy Easter.
We limited
out today on some dandy walleyes on Lake Erie. The fun part was that
we were successful using both jigging and trolling tactics. We started
out jigging on the Turtle Island Reef and after hauling up walleyes there
with spinning rods until our arms and wrists hurt, we then switched over
to trolling equipment and brought in some more walleyes with a stick bait
trolling program. This early spring weather has been the warmest I
can ever remember. Today we fished under blue skies with 80 degree
air temps. The wind was light and it just couldn't bet much better
weather or fishing success wise. The water temps are already in the
low 60s, which is more like May that mid-March. The walleye spawn is
way ahead of normal this year as the fish are stacked up on the reefs and
super aggressive biters. I'll be taking a couple days off the water
to let the predicted stormy weather pattern pass through, then I'll hit
Erie again. The weather over the next week is predicted to be very
warm and mild, so this outstanding fishing should continue right into early
April and beyond. This is already shaping up to be an outstanding spring
walleye fishery this year.
My 2012 fishing
charter season is well underway on Lake Erie. The super warm weather
has allowed us to get off to a very early start indeed. We started
out on Saturday, 3/18/12 with a beautiful fishing day with calm winds and
temperatures into the high 70s. The trolling bite was very slow that
day, but the jigging bite on the reefs was halfway decent, so that was where
we focused our efforts. I was able to limit out on some nice sized
walleyes in about one hour of jigging on the Turtle Island Reef using Laser
Eye Blade Baits. Early spring trolling typically yields a much larger
average size of walleyes though and that trolling bite has really picked
up big time in the last couple days. My trip today yielded limit catches
for my customers of some really big walleyes. These walleyes averaged
over seven pounds and consisted primarily of ultra-chunky, pre-spawn females.
Four of those brutes are heading to their taxidermist. We trolled
in Ohio waters in 20-24 feet of water. Our best bait today was a gold
Jr. Thunderstick, but we did take one lunker on a Tennessee Shad Deep Husky
Jerk Bait. I am running all my charters now from an On-Call List and
there is plenty of room left on that list to accommodate more anglers for
some of this prime spring walleye fishing.
4/13/11
4/9/11
4/7/11
We are still taking good catches of walleyes fishing the outer
reaches of Saginaw Bay on the edge of Lake Huron Proper. My last trips
have all been launched out of Tawas. The fish seemed to be getting
bigger and bigger on average as the summer progresses. Today the strong
winds necessitated a cancelled trip, however previous trips this week were
very productive. The photo at right shows yesterdays catch, which consisted
of a bunch of nice walleyes along with a 7 pound steelhead to spice thing
up a bit. We are fishing 7-10 miles out from Tawas in waters 50-80
feet deep. Most fish have been taken within 20 feet of the bottom.
Slow trolling with crawler harnesses has been most productive. I'm
using 3 to 4 ounces of weight to take the crawlers to the active fish.
Harnesses with smaller sized silver and gold blades have been best.
Bead color has not been that important. There are huge schools
of smelt in that area that are attracting the walleyes. With Saginaw
Bay water temperatures still very warm, the area off Tawas seems to be holding
a massive concentration of walleyes because of the cooler water there along
with an ample supply of baitfish for he walleyes to eat. I expect that fishing
to stay good off Tawas for several more weeks to
come.
I finished
up my first stay at Monroe with style limiting out on walleyes that weighed
up to and over 10 pounds. My customers limited out before noon on mostly
big fish with a couple smaller ones thrown in for good measure. We
trolled off Bolles Harbor again today and for the charter we caught walleyes
on crank baits. We had some action on Shad Raps, Deep Husky Jerk Baits,
Deep Thundersticks and Deep Rouges. I'll be taking a few days off to
take care of some other business and then hitting the water again after this
predicted cold front blows through Michigan. With the predicted nice,
stabile weather forecast for next week, we should be taking limit catches
of jumbo walleyes once again. This is proving to be a world class spring
walleye fishery and I have a couple openings left so don't miss out.
Here's a photo of a hog walleye from today.
4/4/10
