Sea Eagle

Fifth trip out this year, first report. Construction projects associated with my move into a new house have really hurt my fishing this year. But based on how many fish we have caught in those five trips, it does not sound like we have missed too much. Only two or three fish each trip. Even got skunked trip before last and that has not happened in more than a decade. Don't really have much to report this trip either, but thought I would post anyhow since there have been very few reports out of SH this year. Fished from 7:00 to noon with fishing buddy Denny (Sea Hawk). Went 3-3. Two lakers and a nice steelhead. Trolled northwest of pier head shallowest around 90 ft out to 160. All three fish came in around 125 ft of water. Caught one fish just about every two hours. First laker came on full core with a special mixed veggies looking spoon from an out of production SS pattern that Dirty Dog had made up for me this winter. A big laker came on the DR down 65ft with a Mountain Dew/pearl spin doctor- green fly and the steelhead hit on the other DR down 85 ft with a UV blue dolphin spoon.

Thanks for the report. Best report I have seen in a while. I was beginning to wonder if the fish were gone. Heading out in the morning. Now I'm a little more encouraged. I thought maybe were were just going out for a boat ride. I will post if we get anything.

Good job. Going to give it a try tomorrow. First trip of the season.

Great job Terry. Got my boat out of storage yesterday. Going out to start getting it ready. Looks like it is GO Time

I agree with the advice to keep a short lead on your DR presentations unless you go with a SWR set up. Too long of a lead does not allow your presentation to run correctly. However a Secret Weapon Rig (SWR) is usually 2-3 colors of leadcore + a mono leader that allows you to run your presentation back further and the leadcore stabilizes the presentation to allow it to work correctly. I like to run one two color SWR on one down rigger and one three color SWR on the other down rigger just to put some separation between them.

Wish you could have joined us Shawn. Need to get you out on the Sea Eagle sometime soon now that you are boatless.

Fished out of SH this AM with good friends Denny and John. Went 6-9. Two Kings a real nice Coho, a Steelhead and two Lakers. Fished between 110 to 140, with most fish taken around 110 ft mostly north of the pier. 11" Pearl dodger/green fly meat rig on a Mag DD set on #2 back 145 took one and lost one. UV blue dolphin spoon on a DR/SWR down @ 65 ft and 75 ft took two. Mixed veggies SD/green fly on a full core took one and lost a real nice steelhead. Pink alewife spoon on 200 ft of copper took one. Carmel dolphin spoon on a Mag DD set on #2 back 120 took one. Denny said we lost another, but darned if I know on what. I just drive the boat.

Outstanding job. What time did you set lines? Were you fishing before sun up or catching the fish on the moonshine stuff after the sun came up? Or was this a night trip?

Nice steelhead. Always a challenge to get one to the net. Good job.

Went out with Sea Hawk (Denny) Saturday morning. Went 5/5, two kings, two lake trout and an undersized coho that had to go back. First time out in a month. Fished straight out from the pier to the south and then north. Tried to stay outside of the pack for the most part. Set lines and trolled in an out between 70 and 120 ft. First fish (king) came on a DR/SWR @ 55ft down with a UV blue dolphin spoon. Next king in hit 200 ft of copper with pink alewife spoon. Went thought a dry spell between 8:30 to 10:30 then we got the first laker on 300 ft of copper with a pearl SD/green fly combo. Had the last laker hit the other DR/SWR with a UV blue dolphin spoon @ 75 ft down as we were pulling lines. Found the undersized coho on the other 200 copper/pink alewife spoon rig. Sure was neat to see all of the boats out for the Operation Injured Soldier event. Great job South Haven Steelheaders.

Thanks for the report. Have not been out in a month. Looking forward to getting out this weekend.

Great job. We fished in SH on Saturday and could only scratch up two fish. We fished between 85 to 160 ft of water. Sounds like we should have went out deeper.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=7084&catid=member&imageuser=319 Not the best photo, but it filled the fish box

Not too bad for most of the morning, but they were getting real annoying by 11:00. My fishing buddy had even said "knock on wood, no flys today" right before the first few showed up, so you know who got the blame.

Fished out of SH this am. Went 2-2. 8 lb steelhead on orange NBK on a 1/2 core and 15 lb laker on a SWR on the DR down 75 ft with a UV blue dolphin spoon. Fished to the south of the pack from 85 ft to 160 ft. Both fish were caught somewhere around 100 ft of water. First time out in three weeks. Have been hearing better reports better lately, but slow day for us.

Friest decent report out of SH in some time great job on the Hos. How deep were you fishing?

Came over to Erie from Southwest Michigan last weekend to chase some walleye since the salmon bite has been real slow. Put in a good 8 hours on Saturday and a few more Sunday morning. Fished out of turtle creek around the L can and them out to north east of west sister island on Saturday and around the K and L cans east on Sunday morning. The best bite was running west on a line between the monument on put n bay and west sister island. Marked the most fish in this area as well. Lots of dead mayflies out in that area. Ran hot and tots in anything that looked like an emerald shiner and later in the day the larger tots in wonderbread and pink/white/gold. Picked away at them with an average of one walleye per hour, but 3 sheepshead for every walleye we caught and a couple of white bass.

We did better than that we must have caught 20 sheepshead today. Of course we were on Lake Erie. Got tired of the slow bite on Lake Michigan and decided to give walleye a try. Caught 8 walleye, but a heck of a lot more sheepshead.

Every one of us addicts started with that first fish. Welcome to the club.

That was one more than we caught on our last trip. Heading over to Lahe Erie this weekend to see if we can scratch up some walleye.

Played hooky from work on Friday and took a co-worker, his step dad and step brother fishing in South Haven. The day got off to an auspicious start when we pulled up to the gate at the boat launch only to find it "out of service" and the attendant missing in action. To make a long story short, thanks to the efforts of the good folks at Pyles Porthole and one of South Havens finest, the attendant was located and let us in shortly after 7:00. The short and sweet of it is in spite of being "all in" (all 12 lines in the water) with a mix of DR, DD, lead core and copper, running a mix of mostly spoons with a few SD/fly combos tossed in, we were only able to scratch up one 10-12 king off of the DR/SWR with a UV blue dolphin spoon. Might have missed a couple more since we had a tripped DD and found out we were missing the spoon on the other DR when we pulled lines. The late start might have cost as a couple of fish, but we put a long 6 hours on the water fishing between 70 ft of water to 170 ft of water, North and South, with most of our time spent between 85 to 110 ft. Here is the most disturbing aspect, in spite of spending six hours on the water we only marked a couple of small fish and one big fish. We only saw a couple of very small bait balls and only one decent bait ball. In more then ten years of fishing the big water, I have never seen the sonar screen so blank. Heck even on other days when we were not catching fish the sonar at least said there were fish to be had. Where are the fish? Seems like we should have at least snagged something with all of that claptrap dragging behind the boat. Are all of the dire predictions about the health of the salmon fishery coming home to roost?

Went 5-5 this morning out of SH with Fish Hawk. 3 kings, 1 coho and 1 lake trout. All fish came in 90 ft of water +/- 10 ft. Fished out to 110 and back in to less than 60 ft on the way in. Straight out down to the south and back. 1/2 core with an orange killer spoon took two. 10 color with a carmel dolphin spoon took two and 200 ft of copper with a pink alewife spoon took the last fish. Down riggers running as deep as 75 ft and as shallow as 55 ft caught zip as did the sliders on the down riggers. Could not get the 300 ft of copper to fire either.

Great job

I always find it neat how catching one big king will turn a slow day into a good day. Nice fish. Enjoy the new boat.

Good job guys