eastcoasttransplant

Ok guys, well I've come to the conclusion that I was missing one main point that confirms I'm an idiot..... Each time I looked for that "preferred" 42-46 degree water I would find it, drop the probe a little bit lower, see the temp drop to below that preferred 42 degrees and ASSume that the water all the way to the bottom must be colder. Obviously I knew that it wouldn't be 32 degrees but I failed to recognize the 39.2 degree rule. Now call ME dense but am I to understand that if I'm fishing 60 feet down over 130 feet of water, and at 60 feet down the temperature is reading 42 degrees, that the water between 61 feet and 130 feet CANNOT be colder than 39.2 degrees otherwise it would rise to the surface? If that is the case than it appears that salmon can really be anywhere in the water column. Although that 39.2 degrees isn't "preferred" it's not that much colder than 42 degrees. Thank guys.

Thanks guys. I really do appreciate all the insight.

This was my first year fishing Lake Michigan. I got the boat out in early July and fished until September. Not much time. I did utilize the surface water temp charts, along with the wind forecasts, but having an intricate knowledge of the lake I do not. Knowing what is a typical year, water temp-wise, I couldn't say. Based on everything I read, I simply looked for that 42-46 degree water and found it down anywhere from 30-60ft deep. Not that deep. My higher presentations did well and thus, I wasn't sure if that was typical on this side of the lake.

Thanks Josh. It;s real interesting because just when you think you might have things figured out, someone or something comes along that throws out the norm. Some guys brought up Michigan charter captain, Mark Chumura, who has stated he fishng a rod or two, 200', 300' and even over 400' deep for mature kings. Again, he's using specialized tackle to fish that deep, but it's interesting that he's pulling fish out of those depths apparently below the "preferred" water temps. I think your assessment is correct. Stick with the norms unless something on the screen reveals itself. That being said, we did mark a pod of fish last year close to 100ft down that I assumed were lakers. Maybe I should have seen if they were kings instead. My wife keeps telling me only 4 months until we get the boat back out but that seems a LONG ways away.

I've got Dan's two videos on Kings and have spoken to him at the marina. He's a great guy and a big help. Now as he address water temperature and "preferred" temps for kings, I just wanted to see if fishing summertime water below 40 degrees is just pointless. If you look at preferred temps for each salmonoid species, not one of the big 5 seem to "prefer" waters below a 40 degree temp. If I take that verbatim....I should never fish water below 40 degrees during the summer months. Just looking for a little reassurance on that.

Now my question with temp was regarding elimating water that just doesn't seem to hold fish. I know there are exceptions, particularly on the higher temp side, where fish will go and feed but are there any real exceptions on the low side (summer fishng)? In one of the fishing videos I purchased, which was produced on Lake Michigan and fairly recently, the captain stated that one of their most successful big king patterns is to troll a large 10-11 inch flasher and fly very deep during the mid-day hours. That got me thinking.....I would assume the captain is not putting that flasher and fly below the 42-44 degree "preferred" temperature for king salmon but I wanted to be sure. I guess in the end, I realize that fish will go out of their preferred temperature ranges to feed, usually into a higher temperature range than they "prefer" but if they "never" go below thier perferred temperature range, than I can eliminate a bunch of unproductive water right off the bat. Again, just speaking about summer fishing not the spring or fall. In my example from before, I fished last summer in a depth of 60 feet down over 130 feet deep. The temp at 60 feet deep was 42 degrees. Deeper than 60 feet the temperature dropped into the 30's. Therefore, I did not run my presentations deeper than 60 feet, assuming that no great concentrations of fish would be below that 60 foot depth due to the temperature.

Hey guys....well I'm keeping the boards busy. If you do a general internet search say for preferred chinook salmon temperatures, you'll get a range across the board. Some mention a 54 degree temperature, while others state 44 degrees. That's a big difference! Therefore, I was wondering if we can come to a general concensus as to what are the optimal temperatures to seek out the following species on Lake Michigan: -Chinook Salmon -Coho Salmon -Steelhead -Brown Trout -Lake Trout Perhaps if we can get a working range I can get a better starting point for targeting these species next year. Thanks all.

A lot of times out there the current seemed to be running from north to south, and we did do better running into the current (S to N). I found depths that I felt comfortable with, temp wise, and caught fish but was always left wondering how far do I go before turning around and trying to run through those areas again. As I stated before, very rarely did we mark a good number of fish or bait on the fish finder (I did install a dual beam unit with greater pixel quality before wrapping the boat up at the end of this year). We caught most of our fish out to the sides off of our dipsys and leadcores.....only a few fish on the riggers. So if we found 40ft down over 80ft offered a perferred temp and we were catching fish, we tried to stay over 80 ft traveling northward. We'd get a fish here and a fish there and after a couple mile troll we'd turn around and troll back towards the marina. Sometimes we get fish trolling back and other times it wasn't that productive. Hence my question.

Sounds good.

Thanks Josh. I actually spoke to you a few weeks back via e-mail about spring brown trout trolling. Truthfully, we didn't do that bad for our first 1/2 year on the big lake. Our best day was 17 fish between 2 people and our worst was 6 fish between 2 people. Largest king was 16lbs. Most of the summer saw me fish my two leadcores, two braid divers and two riggers.....all with clean spoons. Each and ever time I put out flashers and flies, I'd wash them for an hour or so and then pull them for the all spoon program. I kinda went that route because we fished a lot of days, mid-day, high sun and little chop on the water. I figured less was more in these conditions and dropped the flashers. I also fished relatively high 30-50ft most days based on water temp and seemed to do OK. Now next year I'll be making a real push to make those flashers and flies pay off. Now the time to get all my questions out there to try and reduce the learning curve.

I current own, two 6 core, two 8 core, two 10 core, three wire rods, 2 braid dipsys, two light downrigger rods and two heavy downrigger rods. Getting all this gear last year.....the wife told me absolutely no copper rods at this time. I have stacked the riggers before but ran into some issue when trying to run multiple diver rods on each side of the boat. If I correct that issue, I can run 2 braid divers, two wire divers and two rigger rods to get deeper. I just have to figure out how to keep my braid divers, set on a 3 setting out to the side, away from my wire divers set on a 1.5 setting. Theoretically they shouldn't tangle, but they did at times last year. I think my problem was trying to fish too much gear in the same small band of water between 42 and 46 degrees. That made me let out more braided line to reach depth versus less wire line and I'm assuming that during a few turns, I crossed the gear. If I get that figured out I'll be OK this summer.

Ok guys, I know this is an extremely loaded question, because there are so many variables, but what spread (different apparatus) would you say you run most often for summer kings? The real question is, during a normal year, how deep would you say you normally fish for summer kings? Now I'm not sure there is a real answer here but......last year was my first fishing Lake Michigan from my own boat. I moved from the east coast a few years back and after spending a couple season on the bank I decided it was time to join the boat crowd. I picked up my 17fter late in June, so I didn't really get in on a full year of action. The majority of my fishing this past summer was spent fishing off of Winthrop Harbor, IL north to Kenosha, WI. For the majority of summer, I would say that I fished between 30ft and 50ft down, over deeper water, most days. Checking my down temp, and looking for water in the mid to low 40's, I found those depths to be most desireable each time we went out. At those depths, I found I could utilize my leadcores (8 and 10 color), my braid divers and my downriggers. Once I started fishing deeper than 50ft, I really lost the effectiveness of my leadcore setups. So I was left wondering.....in a normal year can I expect to find salmon in that general depth range, or was it an odd year that kept those temps in the 40's higher in the water column? In the end, my boat typically has only myself and another person, leaving my spread at 6 rods maximum. While I didn't have the delimma, I'm already thinking that if the fish drop deeper than 50ft I need to have an alternative game plan to get deep and get to the fish. Should that happen, I'm thinking that I could run two wire divers and 4 rods stacked off the riggers, elimating the leadcores. So after my babble, what do you guys think?

Well, I'm doing my research, trying to become a better troller for next season, my second on Lake Michigan. Most trips out this past summer, we didn't mark a lot of bait or large groups of salmon on the fishfinder. We'd mark a fish here or there, a smaller bait pod here or there, but nothing that blacken the fishfinder screen so to speak. Most times, running my usual spread (2 leadcores, 2 dispys and 2 downriggers) we'd hook up on a fish or two, then keep trolling "s" turns at a similar depth. After 1/2 hour to 40 minutes with no action, we'd go shallower or deeper searching for new pods. Which finally leads me to my question.....when trolling how often will you guys turn around and run back through the area you just got hit? How far do you normally travel before turning around and trying to run back through? Sad to admit, but because I usually run a wide spread, with the leadcores and dipsys far back and out to the sides, making a sharp turn without reeling in lines in not really feasible. Do to tht fact, I usually keep trolling in the direction I was headed, trying to search the same depths as those which drew hits. If I do decide to make a turn and run back through where I just got hit, it normally takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes to complete the turn and run the opposite way. When do you guys decide to turn around and run through areas you already caught fish? Thanks all.

Thanks Nailer. I have the white, green and chartreuse flashers and am in the process of tying up my trolling flies for next season. just can't wait to get back out there.

The reason I thought to run the Mag divers out to the side was the increased surface area would get the diver out even farther away from the boat and away from the other devices. The regular size, running on wire, would just dive straight down and keep away from the high presentation out away from the boat. I believe my problem may have come from the fact that I was trying to run everything say at 40 ft or 60 ft, etc. therefore I might have had say 150ft of wire out and 220 ft of braid and eventually they tangled up. Maybe I made a sharper turn along the way or something but I know I don't want to duplicate that again, hence my question. As for not running flashers.....much of the time my wife and I got out after prime low light conditions. She's not really into waking up at the crack of dawn. I would say that 95% of our summer on the water was in high, mid-day sun and little chop on the water. I tried flashers and flies briefly but just had the hunch that a less aggressive presentation, such as all spoons would out produce flashers and flies. Each trip I'd run the flashers and flies for roughly an hour and after no hits on them, and getting hits on my leads with clean spoons, I would change over to a 100% spoon spread. We never got skunked and out worse day was 6 fish. This year I want to become a better flasher and fly fisherman and have been doing my research on how to become more accomplished at that. I also want to learn how to run my gear even more efficiently than last season. I've got a good basis but want to reduce the little issues that can be bothersome while out on the water.

I have lots to learn. Can't wait for my second season on the big lake.

Hey Nailer, I'm running out of Winthrop Harbor, IL, right on the border of IL and WI. I did lots of my fishing around Kenosha. I have a bunch of posts on GLA and other regional sites about why I think we had more success trolling clean spoons over flashers and flies but I'm making a real push to become a better flasher/fly fisherman this coming year. As for the tangles, I was running the #1 Dipsys and 107 Walker divers and trying to run them both at 40-60ft deep. Therefore, I had my braid divers out at a three setting with more line out and my wire divers at 1 to 1.5 out trying to fish the same depths. I thought of running mag divers on the outside to get more distance in between the high divers and low divers but haven't tried it yet. Therefore, I thought of picking up a few extra large walker or Luhr Jensen mag divers and giving that a shot. Just hope that will solve the tangle issues. Thanks again.

Hello all, Last year was my first year fishing Lake Michigan, as I purchased my boat late in June. We messed around with a lot of presentations, but most often ran 6 rods (2 leadcores off planers, 2 diver rods and two downrigger rods). Now a few times during the day, I noticed the leads weren't firing and I opted to work two braid divers and two wire divers. Now I would fish the braid divers on a 3 setting off a 10 ft dipsy rod to the outside and the wire divers off of 7 foot rods at a 1 setting on the inside. I didn't make any drastic turns but sometimes had the rigs tangle. Perhaps my critical mistake was trying to get them to fish close to the same depths but can anyone else help me avoid this next season? BTW...all dipsy rods were fishing clean spoons. Thank all.

I have some older reels spooled with Monel wire...am I living in the dark ages? The wire seems alright, and I know it must be kept tight to avoid blacklash, but any other reasons why I should switch or can I keep fishing the Monel with confidense?