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9-2-2006 Ludington

 

We went 7 for about 10 on my buddy's boat on an evening run up at the point, depending how many of the short hits you want to count.  This was one of those times I am pretty sure they were slashing at the twinkies, as the bait was fine after a bunch of the hits.

 

Once again the chrome green spin doctor and a green glow Shure Strike was the hot ticket, taking most of the hits.  Blue Bubble SD and a blue fly took some hits, along with a green white Spin doctor and Green bait rig.

 

We had a major goat you-know-what, and unfortunately it was me who was on the rod.  The fish took the diver into not one but 2 downriggers, and then tangle the hooks in two nets (don't ask) and we lost the final fish of the night simply because we had no net to bring it in.

 

9-1-2006 Ludington

 

I went 3 for 4 straight out from the lighthouse in 50-80 feet of water on an evening run.  The Orange "Flamethrower" Inticer with a clear/red 3-Fly bait rig was the hot rig with 3 of the 4 hits and 2 of the 3 fish 125 feet down on the dipsy, the other hit coming on a White with Blue Holo Inticer and a blue/glow 3 fly rig on a rigger 35 feet down.

 

 

8-28-2006 Ludington

I went 2 for 2 yesterday running 3 lines off of the bath house in 50-8- feet of water.  The lake turned over and scattered the fish.  If you got out there early enough the bite at first light was fantastic.  My advice for the weekend is get out there and set up by 5:30 and start shallow.  Glow spoons before light and bait rigs after.  The fish are up high so 1/2 cores should do well.  Bob's Radioactive Clown mag and a Chartreuse Inticer took the fish.

 

I saw some big catches on the rack so this is the time to get out there.

 

 

8-16-2006 Ludington

I got the autopilot working and headed out at 11 am, the "dead" time of day.  I set up in about 120 feet of water off of the point and went on a NW troll with the waves to set up, pretty much all alone.  We took 3 fish in an hour, all on Inticers and bait rigs.  The blue bubble Inticer with the Opti-Tackle Triple Threat Dk. Blue/Silver/Pearl took the big fish 200 feet out on a wire diver set on 1 and the other two fish came on the Inticer Green/Glow Crushed Ice/Silver Scale Tape with a green twinkie on a rigger 60 feet down with a Ridgeback.  The other rigger with a Inticer Black/Glow Crushed Ice/Silver Scale Tape and a Triple Threat Red /Silver /Pearl 3 Fly Cut Bait Rig took a hit but did not hook up.  We were on a tight schedule and I only ran those 3 lines for about 1 1/2 hours. The first two were a double for me and Sarah which made it very exciting.

 

8-10 to 13 Algoma  (Awesome fishing!) Elite Fishing Charters (Opti-Tackle)

 

What a weekend of wind and current, but the salmon are on the bite especially in the mornings. We had 19 Sat. (with 11-4 yr olds) and 20 this morning with (14-4 yr olds). We have been starting in 140 feet of water a bit south of town, trolling east or southeast depending on wind direction to about 220 feet of water and then working 180 to 220 back and forth. Before daylight riggers were 50' to 60', wire dipsys 125 to 135', at daylight 70 to 85' riggers and 150 to 165' wire dipsys, then 94 to 104', and 180 to 200' after the sun was up. Only could run 6 or 7 rods with all the current and wind, did not need anymore the way they were biting, especially today, had the limit and they still were hammering at 8:00 when we finished up.

Baits of choice were Green Inticers with glow, glow and chrome, and White Inticers with glow, glow and chrome. The Flies were frogs/Kermit, aqua's, and green hornet from Dragon Fly.

Speed was the key, we varied the speed a lot. Today a lot of the bites came when the speed changed.

Strong SW wind was puffing when we left, the fish should be back close in soon if that stays for a day or two.

Good luck and good fishing.

Capt. John Stieben
http://www.elitefishingcharters.com
Johns cell: (218)390-4522

I was fortunate enough to get some time to fish with John this weekend. I have been working too much and not fishing enough, so great to get out this weekend. My duty was "boat driver". The speeds that were working were much slower then we usually fish. 2.2 mph to 2.5mph on the GPS, the currents were so strong and the waves so rough, that the Fish Hawk wasn't working right do to that the probe wasn't aligning well with the receiver, in the rough seas. So actually bait speed, who knows. When the probe as working briefly, we were getting water temps of 51 degrees at the downrigger ball 84' and 94', while surface temps were at 71 degrees. Excellent cold water out in the 200' to 230' areas. We set up lines 140' to 160' and trolled into the 200' water. Most action was in the 200' to 220' range. Very rough water this weekend, but made for great bait action though!

Also, 23" Fly leaders has been working well behind the Inticers. We tried longer fly leaders earlier in the season, but now the 23" seem to be working great. Try 23" from the top of the loop to the bend in the hook. with 50 to 60 LB clear Mono or Fluorocarbon. The bigger line helps make a good "whipping" action at the fly.

Also shorter leads 10' or so behind the downrigger balls are working great. And short leads were needed in rough seas to prevent tangles.

Big Lake Tackles "Dragon Flies" Green Hornet #01, and "Froggie flies", worked really well this weekend behind Green blade and White blade "Inticer Flashers", by Opti-Tackle with ether Glow crushed ice on both sides and also the Glow on the front with "Flat Chrome", on the back were working very well.

We had excellent clients all weekend, great fishing weekend overall. We were honored to have Russ Fransisco who owns Marine General, along with son Corey, father Carl, and other family and friends of theirs on the boat for a few of the trips this weekend. We managed to get 19 Kings Saturday a.m. while they were fishing with us. They were a fun group to fish with.

Marine General sells the full Opti-Tackle line including Inticer Flashers in Duluth, MN.  (If you forget to order from me!)

A picture of Russ and Corey of Marine General with part of their groups catch is above.

Heidi Stieben
http://www.optitackle.com

8-12-2006 Ludington

 

I did not fish this weekend as my fishing partner was not feeling well.  A customer of mine from "D Dock" was in at 8 am cleaning fish, as he was done getting his 6 at 7:20 am.  "Spin Doctors and flies, spoons, whatever you put down".  He found the fish in shallow off the bath house in 55 feet of water.

 

There's a lesson there - the fish have been deep for several weeks now, but the east wind changed things.  What worked last week might not work next week, you need to adapt.  When in doubt, start shallow, troll west until you find them.

 

7-29-2006 Ludington

We fished the Flint Steelheaders tournament and we did not do very well at all.  We ended up with 4 smaller size Kings and I don't know what place we ended up.

 

Congratulations to Randy Gallagher on Trophy Hunter who pulled in a massive 96 lb. cooler including one of the two twin second place 21 lb Kings.  Greg Gumbrecht's wife on Reel Dream pulled in a big 21.4 lb hog for the big fish.

 

You can see the complete results here.

 

The fish are DEEP.  The only rigger hits we took were on 11# Ridgebacks over 100 feet down.  The Raider Blue Green Dolphin was the hot spoon, we took some hits on the Chrome Green Spin Doctor with a Blue Green fly on a diver.

 

You will notice that young man with the fish really needs a fish holder!

 

 

7-22-2006 Ludington

 

We went 3 for 4 from 6 am to 11 am in 60-120 feet of water off of the project.  Chrome Green Green Frog, Black Mongoose and the polecat spoon on 100 yards of copper took fish.  Everything was deep, off of diver out 250 and a lb ball out 225

 

7-15-2006 Ludington

My wife and I fished from 7-10 am before those *&%$ Flies and the heat drove us off the water.  We took 4 NICE fish, all Kings, one off of 62 yards (The equivalent of a full lead core) of copper and a polecat spoon, one off of the Chrome Green/Green Holo Spin Doctor and a meat rig on a wire diver 200 feet out, and the other two on a downrigger 80 feet down with the Black Mongoose Spin Doctor and a "Black Beauty" Twinkie (and a silver Ridgeback Rattler of course).

 

7-11-2006 Monroe

 

We took a limit of walleye in 20-25 feet of water just south of Fermi on spoons and 7# Ridgebacks

 

7-8-2006 Ludington

 

The fish are definitely back in Ludington!  We went 6 for 8 with 5 fish over 15 lbs!  This was the heaviest cooler I lifted in a long time.

 

We started out too shallow and lost about an hour trolling North toward the point and got most of our fish in 150-175 feet of water.  Full Core with a DW Monkeypuke took a fish and all the rest of the hits came off of Chrome/Green and Chrome Green with Green Holo Tape Spin Doctors and Meat Rigs, Glow Green Chartreuse Twinkie and Green Glow Opti-Triple Threats.  Riggers 100 to 125 feet down.  We had no luck on the Dipsys but we were more than happy with these hogs.

 

7-6-2006 Ludington

 

The fish are back in Ludington!  I have three independent reports of Kings and Steelhead being caught SW of the pier in 50-12 feet of water.  Several days of consistent west or southwest winds have set the water back up and the fish are schooling again.

 

I just got call #4 while I was writing this, 12 fish caught off of Little Sable last night, Kings, Lakers and Steelhead, "the most fish he's caught this year"

 

The word is, glow spoons before light, flashers and bait rigs/flies after sunup.

 

6-30 to 7-4-2006 Ludington

 

Not much to report I'm afraid.  We went out Friday and had one in the box when  the wind came up and blew us off the lake.  Through the weekend either the wind was blowing hard or thunder storms were on the horizon so the Sarah Ann stayed put.  I heard the same story all over, limit catches one day and skunks the next.

 

Don't necessarily presume that it's July so you should fish the point.  The one bright spot Monday was the boats who went south.

 

6-24-2006  Manitowoc

 

The Fourth Annual Red Hook Tackle Outing on Lake Michigan was a big success, even if the fishing was kind of tough.  We went 4 for 10, a lot of soft and missed hits, and some Rainbows who shook hooks by jumping twice their body length into the air.  The radioactive clown took three hits before light.  The Opti-Tackle Inticer Green/Glow Crushed Ice/Silver Scale Tape took a couple and the Raider "Bruiser" took a King.
 

 

Bob Uecker's Great Lakes Invitational in Racine, June 17-19 (By Mike Orr - Five Orr's Charters)

 

First my team and I would Like to congratulate team BIG FAMILY on there first place win at this years Bob Uecker
make a wish tournament!! After a 5 1/2 hour boat ride in fore footers from Racine on 6/17, We fished 6/19 49-17 were my best numbers.

NICE KINGS and Cohos on Meat rigs dodgers flies and spoons off of riggers dipsy lead core and copper.

 

MEAT RIGS: Fish On cut bait, R&R 13" assassins black/onyx, blue/purple shad, white/gold/glow. OPTI three fly rigs red/raspberry, blue/Silver, green/white/glow.

Dodgers: OPTI smoke, flat green, chartreuse, glow/green, red, white.

Flies: Eddie blue/mist, blood nose, Kelly green/LBB, green crinkle.
Spoons: Fishlander jelly bean, modified blue dolphin, lemon ice, glow/blueberry muffin.

Riggers:8'-10'back dodger/flys,30'-40'back spoons,30'back Meat Rig,35'-80'down.

Dipsy: meat rigs only #3setting 4'leader 180'-200'on the counter.

Lead Core: full core 10 colors spoons.

Copper: 300' 50'mono leader OPTI Inticer green/cracked ice tape blue/mist fly (hot).

A lot of short hits at first switched all my rigger releases to OPTI heavy pinch pad releases and did much better!! See ya on the lake.
Fish On! Capt. Mike

 

6-16-2006 Monroe (Lake Erie)

 

We went fishing with Chip Greene (Ridgeback Rattlers) again and had a good time.  We ended up with 10 nice Walleye.  It was my daughter Sarah's first time Walleye fishing and she had a great time.  You might notice that she needed a fish holder to have anything to do with holding that fish.

 

Fishing was tougher this time.  We tried some drifting with little success.  We did a lot better with trolling and a mini-streak off of the Ridgeback was the ticket again.  The fish were further out this time in 25-26 feet of water, which is much further out in this area.

 

6-5-2006 Monroe (Lake Erie)

 

I went fishing with Chip Greene (Ridgeback Rattlers) and John Geer (Bulldog Charters) on Chip's boat off the point south of the Fermi plant in about 22 feet of water.  We caught 15 Walleye from about 5 pm to 8 pm, mostly on riggers down 17 and 19 feet with mini Streaks off of Ridgebacks (of course). 

 

6-2-2006  South Haven

>

 

We had a pretty good day.  We went 6 for 6 in about 155 feet of water, Raider Hey Baby Magnum 90 feet down on a rigger with a Ridgeback Rattler was our hot lure taking 2 fish,  a regular size Blue Green Dolphin took a fish on a free slider on that line took another, Chrome Green Holo Spin Doctor with a Chrome Green Twinkie on a full core took one fish and later the same rig on a downrigger 110 feet down took another, and a Blue Chrome Holo Spin Doctor with a Blue Glow Twinkie took a fish on a diver 150 feet back on a Dipsy set on 3.

 

Fishing started out pretty good, we set lines at 6:30 and had 5 fish at 8:30, but the last fish did not come until 1 pm as we were pulling lines.  Many boats were struggling all day, I think if you did not find them early it was tough sledding.

 

5-26&27-2006  South Haven

Went 7 for 9 over 2 days, fish were in 120-160 feet of water, Dipsys 90 to 225 back with a Chrome Green/Green Holo Spin Doctor/Green Glow Twinkie and blue dolphin spoon 80 - 90 down

 

5-20-2006 Ludington

 

 

 

5-20-2006  South Haven

 

We fished from Noon until 5 pm Saturday to avoid the crowds from the big Steelheaders tournament.  We went 5 for 9 with the hot rig being the Chrome Green Holo Spin Doctor with a Glow Green Twinkie, which took five of the hits on a diver out 125-175 feet.  A couple of the fish came on the White Spin Doctor with a white glow Twinkie.  We could not get anything blue going, they just did not want it.  The Road Kill and Lemon Ice Raiders took some fish also.

 

These spring fish are real fighters.  A lot of the missed fish were on the bait rigs with dipsys and the fish turned and charged the diver, giving it enough slack to get off.  You just need to keep on the fish and resign yourself to a high miss rate.  With plenty of fish and plenty of fight, in some ways this is the best fishing of the year.