steeliebob

In the UP we call the spawners soup or mush meat. The reason they are called soup is because if you cut into them their meat turns to soup. I see people harvest them all of the time. Some might be okay to eat but others definetly not. When I see those fish I wonder what kind of beef goes into a fast food burger. I appreciate the nice silver salmon and trout and venison more. You buy a fishing license to catch fish wether they are good or bad makes no difference to some people. Enjoy...just don't invite me to dinnner

I don't understand why somebody would want to eat a spawning steelhead. It is fun to catch them and all but the spawners are not the best eating fish in the river. I will eat a few in the summer, fall & winter but never in the spring. I live to fish steelhead, please release the spawners

I will post a pic tomorrow, another 25 pounder was caught the same night in another boat. The pic is on the slab at the cleaning station. It is kind of hard to get someone to take your pic at midnight.

Fishing in 90 feet of water last night solo in my boat I had my second hit of the night at 9:40 and had my hands full until 10:50 when a 25 pound king salmon finally after 7 tries found the net. I had a free slider on the same rod and had a small salmon on the other spoon at the time the big one was hooked but lost the smaller fish on the ride of its life. This fish I assume was a three year old salmon male but when i cleaned the fish it was not going to be a spawner this year. In May I caught an 18 pounder, June 22 pounder, and July 25 pounder I am waiting for a 30 pounder and I believe that I have already hooked into at least one that big. I think that August and Sept will produce some really big fish up here, we will see. At 4 years old that fish would be 30+ pounds easy so next year should be fun.

I have had my issues too. My fishing partner cut a tire on the dock backing the boat into the water. The same guy dropped the trailer off of the ball (now i keep a lock on it, after kids lifted the hitch) he slammed on the brakes and the bow of the boat went through the back window of my Jeep Cherokee and did a little bumper damage. I put the boat in the water and pull it out now, my boat my truck If I screw it up then I blame myself. That back window just exploded.

Way to pass on the tradition. Great idea to let her pick the lures and the fish cooperated

I forgot to mention the interesting one. Once the marina in town fills up, the cruisers park at the launch ramp to spend the night. Sure just tie that $300,000 boat to the ramp dock and not pay a fee. Then bolck the am fishermen from launching their boats. After a few calls to city hall and the police this problem is somewhat resolved. Now we have fireworks on the bay every sat night which means that the tourists take over the boat launch...more fun.

Alright now catch his daddy. What a screaming pig. What made the most noise you or the line peeling out of the reel. You will need to rent a pig roaster to cook that one.

You have to love the guy that has to make all kinds of adjustments to the boat while he is parked in a launch lane. That and the person who has to fill their cooler one item at a time while parked in a launch lane. Do this stuff before you leave the house so that you don't look like a fool.

The March of Dimes Salmon Slammin Tournament will be held Sat July 10 6 am to 12:00. You can register at 6 Spring Street in St Ignace or at the launch site on Sat am. Call Bob Holmes at 906 643 8630 for more information

Try putting vasaline or crisco on a section of line. If it works then grease up the 50 or 100 feet that you have exposed. Be careful not to get any on your rod handles or other equipment. It would not make a good day to throw a rod in the lake.

Good Luck.Hang him high. If he is really big just hang him up and send a pic

Good Job!!! A salmon only sees two lures in its lifetime. One that goes by and one that is a fatal attraction.

We should have put a 12 pack of budweiser on one of those cannonballs. Were they ever cold.

Rick, like I told you on Sat night we do not get the presidential motorcade of DNR hatchery trucks in the UP like they do in SW Michigan. We have to wait it out and their fish will migrate up this way. Give it another week or two and you will be surprised at the amount of action that you will have out there. I had 5 skunks in a row and now after Sat I am back to one skunk again. They will be there, soon I hope. Unfortunately the DNR trucks more fish out of the UP hatcheries to be planted in the LP then what they plant in the UP. To me it does not make sense but that is the way it is.

Look at my post about J Plugs. It sounds like we need to attach a J Plug to the lead core. The fish were pretty well scattered over the weekend due to the high W wind. Things will get back to normal about mid week. We were lucky to get two in the cooler on Sat night. The guys that caught fish on Sun am were out by the green bouy in the warmer water. Several boats were on the thermocline but I did not see any nets up in the air.

Thanks for all of the info on the J Plugs guys much appreciated. A green ladderback with a yellow belly produced a nice 11 pound king for me on Saturday off of a #0 dipsey. I like the J Plugs because you don't get too many releases where the fish aren't there. If they hit it off of the dipsey diver they are as good as in the cooler.

I don't know if it will help or not but once you know the water that you are in and your headings turn the fish finder off. I know the pro walleye and bass guys do not ust their finders at tournament time but they are in shallower water. My question is why do all of the salmon and baitfish hang around the buried cable that goes to Mackinac Island if a fish finder scares them? If you go out this weekend there is a net about 1/2 mile N of the tanks. It looks like it is a salmon net by the way it is marked. I have been out with guys who have similar fisfh finders and had very good luvk so I don't think that the fish finder bothers them that much.

I know that somewhere somebody prefers J Plugs over flies and spoons. I have had a little bit of luck on the J Plugs. I would like to know if there is a special way to rig them or do you just clip them on the ball and go? Also how far back do you recommend to run them? Any information will be helpful as i have about 100 of them collecting dust.

Look for people who want to get out of great lakes fishing. I bought a nice boat w a 120 I/O and trailer w 2 big John elec riggers for $2000 and it came with about $2000 worth of rods reels and lures. This kind of deal does not happen every day. But I have learned to shop for end of season deals at sporting goods stores. When you have to have something right now you are hooked. Some of the guys who go out in my boat will buy lures and such too, but I do have the cheap ones who expect you to cater to them. Those ones I am not afraid to leave them at the dock if they are 5 minutes late.

Get them lakers and let the clients put them on ice for the ride home. Still getting a few salmon out of St Ignace no more big ones like I caught the last of May first of June. I lost one yesterday that felt like it was over 15 pounds.

Know this!!!!! If it was not for the USFWS bringing them into this country their would not be a problem with Asian Carp. They need to find a way to chemically sterilize them so that they cannot reproduce. That or Rotone the whole river system.

If you look at the salmon on the lssufishcam you will notice that about half of the fish have fin clips. The fish that do not have the fin clips are natural reproduced fish. These salmon are reproducing on their own quite well and are not uncommon to catch from Rogers City to Sault Ste Marie on L Huron.

They are back....google LSSUfishcam. If you have never seen this it is something that you have to do. This is so awesome. Now in the next few weeks it just keeps getting better. These atlantics are 5 to 12 pounds and have been planted in the St Marys River for about the last 20 years. A big thanks to LSSU for a big improvement to out great lakes fish.

Good Job I can't wait for the weekend so I can get back out there. I guess after the dental work the one king did not learn a lesson. If you get a steelhead with a ludington melon and a dipsey you will know where it came from.