Horseshoe

Spikes, like in maggots? I've never tried them for anything besides ice fishing. So were you just running these on a bare hook or what? You have my curiosity piqued!

Nice recap and good work on the fish!

There were a fair amount of perch taken out of St. Joe this weekend. I got 20 Friday and 40 yesterday. Very spotty though. Some steelhead were caught Friday and Saturday, but the water warmed up and pushed them back out. I think salmon fishing is still tough, but haven't been myself. One friend fished yesterday and landed one king in 65' of water.

I was out perching on Saturday morning. We fished in 52' a little north. Five hours for 31 keepers, but a lot of people weren't doing much good at all. It's very spotty out of St. Joe. Eight of our keepers were over 12" though, with a couple at 14". There were steelhead jumping all around the boat and masses of alewives under the boat for most of the morning. Wish I would have brought a rod to chuck out with a bobber and shrimp. I'll have to try that one of these days.

Thanks for all the reports you put up. Really helps us guys that only get out once in a while. Jon us my brother. He had a great time fishing with you.

Good job on the salmon. I made it out perch fishing twice over the weekend, but ended up going south down by Chalets. Saturday we got a very nice two man limit in 34 feet. Sunday we only managed 20, but they were nice quality perch in the same area. Sure don't see many St. Joe reports for the number of boats out there fishing!

I went solo this morning for a few hours and only landed 1. Set lines at 5:45 SW of piers in 58'. Lots of bait marks. About 6:15 the 200' copper got hit and landed a 13# king in 65'. Rigger at 48' released while I was fighting that one, but nobody home. I fished until 8:30 with no more bites. Worked water from 60 to 80 and ended up by Rocky Gap. Still beats working!

Here is a pic of the big one of the evening.

Got out for some trolling last night for a few hours. Took a friend and his boy out at 6:00. Lake was flat when we got out but quickly turned once i got lines set. It went from flat to three footers in a half hour. We missed a screamer on a rigger down 48 on a lemon ice and boated 2 steelies before we headed back in. One on a 10 color, magnum purple dragon. The other on a jerry lee slider at 55. Fished 60 to 65'. By the time we got in and up to the Jail, it had calmed down. I guess we could have stuck it out. We went back out and it looked like we had a half hour before sunset. Ran back out to 60' and set up with the wind. Got my six lines set and then it was game on. First hit was a steelie on a 10/c on a blue dolphin. Got that about half way in before it came off. A 200 copper went while that was going on. A coho on a frosted veggies. Hoisted that in while my friend battled the steelie. Right about when the steelie came off, a 2/c fired. Another steelie was jumping all over. Got that right to the back before it came off. A minute later a rigger at 55 fired. Another coho on a standard size purple dragon. We had four bites in about 15 minutes. The sun was now down so i put down a moonshine spoon at 55. About 10 minutes later that one fired and it was a good one. We pulled all the port side lines while my friends boy fought his first King. It was a nice 12 or so pounde to finish up the night. We only got to fish about an hour and a half, but had great action. Five for eight, and my friends son landed his first steelie, coho and a king. Fun times!

Friend of mine was out yesterday afternoon out of St. Joe. Him and a friend went north and tried several spots with no luck. A few small ones was all they were able to find in three hours of fishing.

Similar results here. I cleared the pier heads about 5:45. Set up in 50' on a SW troll. Got two riggers set and was putting out a 5/c when a fish grabbed it before I could put it in the holder. Fought that one a whle and a rigger popped. My brother grabbed that one and the fight was on. I lost my fish about 20 yds behind the boat, but my bro landed a nice King. We were marking big schools of bait and thought we were going to hammer them. Not so much! We fished until 10:30 and ended up with two big Kings and two Coho. Deepest fish we got was the 2nd king in 70'. A UV lemon ice got both kings, 50 and 60 down. One Coho on a purple dragon slayer 45 down, and the other grabbed a uv blue dolphin on a 200' cu. Lots of good marks but not many takers. Nice morning on the water though.

Bought those riggers for $20 a piece back in '90 when I bought my boat. Figured they'd be temporary until I upgraded. I guess "temporary" is a relative term!

I stopped in at a local tackle store last night and there were a couple of young men saying they got some Steelhead off the pier. I got to thinking that the NE wind must have turned the water over, and with the hot weather on the way that I better get out while they were in. I ran home and grabbed my boat and gave my brother a call. We were set up and trolling by 7:30. There were about 8 or so boats our working the pier heads, but action seemed pretty slow. Over the next hour I only saw one fish boated. The boats thinned out at 8:30 and the fish turned on. We hooked four and landed two in the next hour. Gold / Orange thin fin back 65' took three of the four hits, the other hit a Orange thin fin back 35'. He took that one with him. Beautiful evening on the lake.