Trophy Specialist

6/9/17, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report We fished the deepest water of the year on today's charter. We tried some suspended rigs, but all our hits kept coming off the spinner/crawlers close to bottom. We had to troll slow today too with speeds of 1.2 mph being best. The first area we fished this morning was pretty good for the first few hours, but then it really slowed down so we picked up and ran out a couple miles further out and set up on some promising fish marks on the sonar there. We then had good action for the last part of the charter and ended up keeping 31 nice walleyes up to 24 inches and also eight yellow perch in the 9-10 inch size range as a bonus catch. Lure color did not mater today with everything getting hit about equally. The weather today was a bit iffy with a 40% chance of rain and T-storms, but it ended up being a very pleasant day with light winds and even some sunshine too with near perfect temperatures too. Everyone on board certainly had a good time fishing today and they went home with enough fish filets to last a long time too. Capt. Mike Veine

6/7/17, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report We finally had a very nice fishing day on the Bay today with sunny skies and light winds. My clients from Indianapolis, IN caught their limits of walleyes today with a on and off bite that would come in spurts. Every time the wind would shift, which it did on many occasions, the bite would take a pause. We had a very light bite today with over a dozen fish that were pulled close to the boat still getting off the hooks, which did not mater in the end since everyone still caught their max of fish. They also caught a lot of bigger fish today too with several in the 5+ pound range and most in the upper range of being considered good eaters. We caught everything on meat/bottom bouncers trolled at about 1.3 to 1.5 mph. Color did not mater as we took about equal numbers of hits on natural colors and also bright, fluorescent harnesses too. The water is a bit stirred up from all the winds, but there are a lot of fish near Au Gres, so it was still pretty easy pickings today. With a good forecast for tomorrow we should have another very productive day and my clients for today were smart enough to book two days with me, so they will likely fill up the cooler tomorrow too. Capt. Mike Veine

6/3/17, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report The weatherman messed up today with his forecast predicting calm winds, but it turned out to blow fairly stiff from the northeast with waves to about three feet. Non-the-less, my clients from Mcomb, MI caught their limits of walleyes. The first spot we went to was where we ended up at the end of yesterday's charter, but the bite there was fairly slow with us only catching seven keeper walleyes and one catfish in a couple hours. We made a short move to another spot and as soon as we set up we hooked up with a quadruple header landing all of them. I thought we had really found a good areas, but after that first burst of action, it slowed down there to a slow pick. We eventually pulled lines and headed back past where we had done best for another pass, but this time we had all lines set when we trolled over that "hot spot" and it was none-stop action all the way through the 1/4 miles wide spot and shortly after that we netted our 24th, and final walleye for the day and that last fish was our biggest one today too, which was nice. We trolled with all meat today with a speed of 1.4 mph doing best in the still chilly, 60 degree water. Color did not mater today and we took most of our fish on or near bottom, but a few did come on suspended sets. Capt. Mike Veine

We had great action early today, but when the wind did a major shift, the bite slowed down. Still ended up with a good catch today though fishing close to port. The problem with fishing out front though is that there is a lot of algae and other slop from all the winds in the water that glops onto the lines and must be cleaned off every 30 min. or so to keep things running right. There are also a lot of dink walleyes there too. We probably caught 25-30 today and those two year old fish are just shy of keeper status so they are a pain too. They are a great sign for the future though and next year the fishing on the Bay should be off the charts good. Capt. Mike Veine

5/31/17, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report We closed out May in style today with my clients from the Grand Rapids area taking limit catches of nice walleye while fishing in tough conditions on a half day charter. The winds blew hard again today for the third day in a row with 20+ knot, south westerly winds forcing us to fish close to port. Thankfully we have decent numbers of fish close by since going any distance in those rough conditions would be nearly impossible. We certainly caught a lot of walleyes today with a lot of them being undersized fish, but we catch a fair number of larger fish today too keeping things interesting. Fishing in high winds and trying to keep the trolling speed slow, which was necessary in water temps in the 50s like we have now, means a lot of tangles and lost fish too with the light bite. Keeping hooks super sharp and using good fish fighting techniques is ultra important to minimize the hassles and maximize the catch rate. We caught all our fish today on spinner/crawler rigs fished right on bottom in deep water using long set backs to keep lures in the strike zone. I did mark a few suspended fish today, but they would not bite. A trolling speed of less than 1.5 mph was needed to get bites. Lure color did not mater today, which is normal for this type of fishing. I have an article out in the current issue of Woods N' Water News that details the spinner/crawler fishing we were doing today and also the rigs we used. Give it a read for 2,000 words of solid information. Capt. Mike Veine

5/28/17, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report My clients today from Greenbush, MI and Harrison, MI experienced an interesting day fishing on the Bay today full of ups and downs. We started out running to a spot where we caught fish yesterday, but after an hour with no action there, we pulled lines and headed to my plan-B spot. We started out there with some fairly slow action, but eventually it picked up there to a 10 walleye per hour catch rate with some nice sized fish hooking up too. After a good bite though, the wind died down completely and the sun came out slowing down the bite to a crawl. It took them about two hours to land the last four fish to fill out their limit. We caught walleyes of all sizes today from undersized fish to nice ones up to about 26". We were fishing in deep water trolling at 1.3 to 1.4 mph putting the spinner/crawler rigs right in their faces on bottom. There were a few other boats in the area we were fishing that were trolling much slower, and they were not catching nearly the number of fish we were. Color did not mater today, so speed and depth of presentation were keys. Capt. Mike Veine

5/26/17, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report We ushered in the Memorial Day weekend nicely today with my clients from the Grand Rapids area catching their limits of nice walleyes. With a fairly stiff NW wind this morning, we fished all kinds of depths from 12 to over 25' deep and caught walleyes in all depths too indicating that the fish are widely scattered, likely form the big, two day, NE blow over the past two days. All our fish were pulled right off the bottom today with meat. I checked the stomachs of a few fish today and they were all eating leaches and bugs, so it's no wonder our bottom program produced better than anything else I heard of today. Colors did not make any difference today as everything got hit about equally. Our trolling speed was kept close to 1.5 mph. We caught a lot of undersized walleyes today too; perhaps over a dozen, so we had lots of action indeed. Those small walleyes bode well for the future of the fishery too. Capt. Mike Veine

5/23/17, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report The weather was kind of gloomy today with heavy overcast skies and on and off drizzle, but the fish didn't seem to mind as they bit pretty good. If fact the fishing was outstanding as my clients caught a box full of fish in short order. We had a steady bite all morning from the time we set lines until we pulled out of the fishing spot with limits at about 11:00. We fished a large area today covering about three miles of water that had scattered fish all over it. We didn't find any tight concentrations of fish, but we also didn't go for more than five minutes without a fish on. All the fish we caught today were walleyes with most being nice sized eaters. We did catch a few undersized walleyes which are always nice to see for the future of the fishery. We caught all our fish today on spinner/crawler rigs fished near bottom trolled at about 1.5 mph. Color did not seem to mater. The water temperature had dropped to 54 degrees since my last charter from all the high winds. They are forecasting high, northeast winds for tomorrow, so I have already cancelled my Wed. charter. Hopefully I'll get back at them again on Thursday. Capt. Mike Veine

If you have your name and phone number on the boards you might get them back. Otherwise, you hopes up.

My clients had a beautiful day on the Bay today as they caught their limits of nice walleye, but he bite was anything but easy with the ever changing winds. This was their second of three days fishing with me, and we started the day with a good bite taking about 15 walleyes in the first couple hours of fishing right out in front of Au Gres. As the wind died though, the bite also diminished and with a lot of boat traffic in that area, we decided to pull lines and run south. We ran until I started to mark a lot of bigger fish with fewer baitfish in the area. Out in front of Au Gres, we have lots of walleyes, , but there are also tons of baitfish, so when the wind shifts (or any other change) the walleyes there ten to shut down. Therefore, areas with fewer walleyes and less baitfish are better bets during time of changing winds, or especially calm conditions like we had today. All our fish today were caught today on the bottom with heavy bottom bouncer and spinner/crawler rigs. Like always, I'm using half crawlers with a hook spacing (two hooks) of about 2-3 inches and small spinners (#3). Color does not mater when fishing the bottom in deeper (+25') water. Speeds did mater today with less than 1.5 mph being good, but less than 1.3 resulting in more lost fish. We caught bigger fish south today compared to the northern spot. Down south our walleyes were mostly 19-20 inchers, with some bigger, and few smaller. The bite was light today everywhere we went with about an equal number of fish lost vs. fish caught. Good fish fighting techniques were important, but from what I have seen, most anglers lack in that category. If you have ever seen boards flopped around roughly, less than a 90 degree angle of the rod towards the fish, slack given to the fish, or an unsteady retrieve (pumping or jerking the rod), then those are some good examples of poor fish (walleye) handling. We caught fish today in waters ranging from 27' to 47 feet. We are predicted to have good fishing weather on the Bay for the next week, so this might very well be the best fishing of the early summer in this next period. Capt. Mike Veine

We experienced an absolutely beautiful day on the Bay today indeed. Lots of sunshine and a light, south wind made for ideal fishing conditions and my clients from various parts of Michigan and Ohio caught their 32 walleye limit and some bonus perch too for good measure. We started out at the area where we ended the trip yesterday catching fish in about 40' of water off Pt. Au Gres, but that area only produced one walleye after about 45 minutes of trolling. The fish were in that area as we marked tons of fish there, but they just wouldn't bite. We pulled lines and ran in a looping, fish seeking boat ride that covered about 10 miles. When I found an area with lots of big fish marks and few bait fish marks, we stopped and set lines. We started hooking up immediately and never stopped catching fish there going back and forth over about two miles of water. Most of our fish were in the 19 to 21" range (a few bigger and a few smaller), so some good eaters with lots of poundage of filets for sure. I started off with some bottom and suspended sets, but it quickly became clear that the fish wanted spinner/crawler rigs on the bottom, so that is what we gave them. Color did not seem to mater as they hit everything pulled behind my 3 oz. bottom bouncers both off the Church Boards and also right behind the boat. A speed of 1.4-1.5 mph seemed best. Afterwards, I did go to the Doc. Harpham's tournament weigh-in and they had some catches with a lot of high teens and 20+ pound boxes. The winning weight was almost 26 pounds. Most of the best weights came from the steeples north of Big Charity but there was some good catches from Alabaster, Hat Point and some even ran as far as Grindstone City, but the top boats were by Big Charity (if you they told the truth on stage). One top guy was in the money jigging off the Pinconning Bar, but he had one real big walleye though that put him up there. Most of the competitors were pulling meat, but some top finishers did pull good weight trolling crankbaits. I think that had over 120 boats in the event, so it was a good turnout. Capt. Mike Veine

Today was a lot better fishing day compared to yesterday. Yesterday we had gusty, switching winds all day with downright rough conditions, but we still managed to scrape up 24 walleyes from the Bay with an all day effort. Today though, with light winds and a nice "walleye chop" the fish were biting much better as my four client from my stomping grounds (Manistee, MI) caught their 32 walleye limit in short order. We had non-stop action right from the time I started setting lines with a triple header before I even got all the lines out. The walleyes were all over the water column today, but most of them were near the bottom, so that is where we focused most of our lures. I ran my two outside boards 60' back, the middle boards 55' back, and the inside boards 30' back trolling at 1.2 to 1.5 mph in 28 to to 34 feet of water (slower in deeper water and faster in shallower). I also ran two flatlines 70-75' back and those two rods definitely had the most action off all the setups. All the rigs were spinner/crawler harnesses behind 3 ounce bottom bouncers. Fire/tiger was best at 30' back (up high) but color did not mater on bottom. We marked fish constantly and I believe that this massive concentration of fish extends from Buoys 1 and 2 all the way north for at least 10 miles on both sides of the shipping lane (50+ square miles of walleyes galore). I also marked lots of baitfish there too and the fish seemed very chubby and well fed there. Most of our fish were 16 to 20 inchers, but a few were larger and a few were smaller too. We probably had three or four throwbacks and no other fish besides walleyes were caught today. We did take one jumbo perch though yesterday. Capt. Mike Veine

After a very windy period that kept me off the water for the past three days, we finally got back on the Bay today and were met by light winds, sunny skies, but very cold conditions at 39 degrees this morning. We headed to the spot where I had been catching a lot of fish before the big blow, but the water temperature their had cooled down by almost 10 degrees and the fish apparently left that area as we didn't get a single strike in an hour of fishing there. We then ran over my plan B spot and sonared the area. I really didn't expect to find many fish there, and was really planning on fishing at my plan C spot a few miles from there, but I did mark a lot of fish on the bottom at as we cruised over Plan B, so I changed over to heavy bottom bouncers and set lines for a test run. It didn't take long before we started to get some action and that bite was pretty good there, especially considering the post cold front conditions. We had consistent walleye bites all morning and eventually limited out taking 24 nice walleyes mostly in the 15 to 20 inch range. We also did throw back some smaller walleyes and caught a catfish and a few sheephead for good measure. We also lost a couple northern pike today too. All our fish came right off the bottom and that is the only zone that I marked fish in as well. There is a major Mayfly hatch going on now on portions of the Bay, so until that is over, it will be a pure crawler bite for best results. Color of harness did not mater today as all rigs were hit about equally. A trolling speed of about 1.5 mph was best. The water temperature was about 65 degree this morning in the area where we found fish, which was about three degrees warmer than where we started out. Right now, higher water temperature areas are going to have more walleyes than colder spots. Capt. Mike Veine

My repeat clients from the Indianapolis, IN area enjoyed a memorable day on the Bay today for sure. We had beautiful weather conditions from the get-go with a light chop on the water, sunny skies and what seemed like a perfect air temp too. Unlike yesterday when the bite was pretty slow early in the morning, today we started hammering them right off the bat and that steady action continued all morning until we had caught limits of nice walleyes mostly in the 16 to 20 inch range. I used the exact same rigs as we used yesterday consisting of 1/2 oz. bottom bouncers on the middle and outside boards, 3/4 oz. bouncers on the inside boards and 2 oz. bouncers on the two flatlines, all set 25' back. I ran a mixture of red/silver and chartreuse/orange spinner crawler rigs and color did not seem to mater much today a everything in the water caught multiple fish. The heavier weighted rigs did catch onto more weeds, but since they were closer, it was easier to clean them off. Those slightly deeper rigs did seem to get hit more though making the extra effort worth it to me. A trolling speed of 1.7 mph seemed best. We caught a lot fewer sheephead today compared to yesterday, so that was certainly OK with me. Capt. Mike Veine

My wife bought me some beer yesterday that had a drum photo on the cans and I saw that as a bad omen. Sure enough, we got into more freshwater drum today than we have caught all year. My clients, who have been fishing with me for years, also got into a lot of walleyes too catching their limits of 32 walleyes with steady action all day. We caught a lot of fish today on Hot N' Tots, but we probably caught more on spinner/crawler rigs with our mixed spread of cranks and crawlers. A chrome/green tot was the only one to catch any fish of several that I tried. I also tried Shad Raps, both original and rattlers, and they did not produce any fish. Most of our fish were caught up off the bottom today. The best crawler rig was a 3/8 ounce rubber core sinker to take the harness about six feet below the surface at 1.7 mph. The two spinner, flatlines that I ran were our best producers. We also caught some on bottom bouncers, but I only ran two down low in the afternoon today since the bite was more suspended. Spinner color did not seem to mater as various colors all seemed to produce fish. We had to make trolling passes today with the fairly stiff wind, and we made three long runs over about three miles of water where the fish were spread out pretty far and wide. I had some friends that were catching them deeper and some others that were catching them shallower, so water depth was not all that critical today. We probably caught a dozen sheephead today, plus catfish and some perch too, all as bonus fish for a 50+ fish day, which is some pretty good fishing indeed. Capt. Mike Veine

We had a nice day on the water with my clients from S. Michigan and West Virginia taking their limits of dandy walleyes by noon. I had a day off yesterday, but instead of working around the house like I probably should have done, my wife, a friend and I went out fishing to scout out a bunch of spots on the Bay other than where I had been fishing previously, which seemed to be petering out. When I scout, I don't stay in one spot too long regardless of how many fish we catch there. We just keep spot checking to hopefully compile a good A, B, C.... plan for my next charter. We only found one good spot yesterday though in all the spots we checked and that is where we went first thing in the morning today. They had been predicting a chance of rain today, but we did not get any in Au Gres and we had pretty good fishing conditions all morning with light winds and mostly overcast skies until late morning when the sun finally broke out on and off. We had fairly steady action all morning except for one lull when the sun first popped out and the wind died down to nothing for a short stint. Today the fish were picky with orange/chartreuse harnesses being preferred. All the fish we marked and caught were tight to the bottom, so that is where we put the crawlers, behind bottom bouncers. The trolling speed needed to be under 1.6 with 1.2 bring best trolling into the wind and 1.5 doing the job best with the wind. There was a current in that area, thus the difference in trolling speed preference. There were also lots of floating weeds and debris floating in the area which required constant lure maintenance to keep them running unfouled. Most of the walleyes today were 18 to 22 inches, with only three below that range. We also caught two bass too, with one being a master angler qualifier by 1/2 inch. The bite was light today, but the number of fish lost was minimal. Most of the fish would just latch on to the lures without much pulling. I had some good fishermen on the rods today though, so that helped them limit out for sure as they made no fish fighting mistakes all morning long. We caught all our fish off the Church Walleye Boards today with not one walleye hit being recorded on the two flat lines, which tells me they were spooking from the boat today. We were fishing in 15 to 20 feet of water, so the fairly calm conditions in that somewhat clear water probably caused their spookiness and bottom hugging. Capt. Mike Veine

Over the last three days I had clients from Nebraska and Indiana scheduled to fish all three days in a row with me. Tuesday was a blow day though with east winds to 26 knots, so we had to cancel that trip. They ended up fishing for steelhead on the Au Sable River as a fun backup plan. Yesterday we did fish all day, but the big winds from Tuesday ended riling up the water and the bite was very slow for Saginaw Bay standards as they ended up three fish short of their combined walleye limits. The bite was also very light too with more fish lost than caught. We had to troll very slow to get them to bite on Tuesday, which was made hard by the stiff northeast wind blowing well up into the teens pretty much all day long. I had to deploy two driftsocks at times just to slow us down to the 1.3 mph speed that they wanted. We started out today trying a trolling pass right out in front of Au Gres starting off in 35' of water and trolling towards the river mouth. We marked a lot of fish there, but after a long stint with no bites, we pulled lines and ran to where we had been fishing yesterday. The bite there was better than yesterday, but it was sporadic. We would catch a few fish quickly, but when we trolled through that same spot just a short time later, the fish there would be gone. Then it was a guessing game to troll towards where I thought the fish might have swam off too. Fortunately I guessed right most of the time and my clients pulled their limits before noon. I even got to catch some fish for dinner too. We did best in waters 20 to 25 feet deep fishing near two poorly (illegally) marked commercial fishing nets. We pulled spinner/crawler rigs with red/silver being the preferred pattern today . We caught most of our fish close to the bottom, but some did hit suspended rigs too. The bite was very light as we lost about as many as we got today. Today the best trolling speed was on the slow side as anything over 1.4 mph did not produce any hits. The water had cleared up some today, so that helped the catch for sure. I will be taking some time off the water to compete in the USAF National Arm Wrestling Championships in Atlantic City. I'll be back on the water next week. Capt. Mike Veine

typo..sorry...meant 20

My clients today from southeast Michigan enjoyed a beautiful day on the Bay today catching their limits of nice walleyes. I even got to catch my limit at the end of the trip too, and just enjoyed a fresh grilled walleye dinner, which was delicious. We started out the morning in the same spot where we fished yesterday, but after no bites there, we picked up and moved to another spot. We caught a couple fish in the second spot right away, but that bite died as we trolled with the wind into the area where I expected to catch fish. We then headed back further south and had slow, but steady action there until the wind picked up a bit and then the fish really turned on there big time. We caught about 20 walleyes from 10:30 through 12:30 so that timeframe saw the best action. Our fish today were all 18 to 25 inchers with most being over 20" for a big pile of filets at days end. We fished in water temps of 47 to 48 degrees and caught all our fish on spinner/crawler rigs trolled near the bottom with bottom/bouncers. Both bright and natural colors all worked well with no real preference shown. We did best with a trolling speed of 1.6 mph and caught them going both with and into the wind going back and forth over the school My new electric speed control on my Mercury 9.9 ProKicker is really helping me to dial in the exact speed, which I'm sure boosts our catch. My clients today were great on the rods too, bringing in the fish like pros, which also really helps to boost the catch. With the super generous, eight fish limit this year, anglers that do well on the rods stand a lot better chance of limiting out, especially with the light bite that is common during the spring. Smooth reeling, keeping the board from bouncing around, maintaining a constant 90 degree angle of the rod in relation to the fish after board removal with constant pressure (no slack) are the main ingredients to success there. Capt. Mike Veine

We had a good bite going for the first few hours of the charter this morning taking 20 nice walleyes in about three hours of fishing. Then the wind did a quick, 90 degree shift and the bite slowed considerably. My clients from the Frankenmuth/Saginaw area still amassed a bountiful catch of walleyes though that were all chunky, 18 to 25 inchers. We did take one pre-spawn female, but the rest were an assortment of post spawn males and females. We caught all our fish today on spinner/crawler rigs trolled at about 1.4 mph near the bottom. Color did not mater as all rigs I had out were hit about equally. The water was riled up from the big, northeast winds over the last couple days and the water temperature is still pretty cold for this time of year at just 46 degrees. Oddly, I have a Saturday opening in my schedule for tomorrow, but after that I am booked solid for several weeks. If I don't book a last minute charter, I plan to fix or enhance a couple minor things on the boat and also give it a thorough scrub job since they are calling for some sunshine tomorrow. Capt. Mike Veine

We had to delay our departure on today's charter until about 9:30 am due to high winds. It blew very hard the last several days with winds yesterday over 40 knots at time. I didn't know what to expect when I headed out having not been able to fish in days. We did go through a lot of riled up water in patches, but the area we fished was not too bad with visibility about 3-4 feet down into the water. The first four hours of the charter were pretty slow with only 4 or 5 walleyes making it into the box. The second half though was better as the wind died down and things settled down a bit. At first we had to make west to east trolling passes, but when it died down and switched to the southwest, we were able to circle around in an area where we found some semi-active fish. The bite was very light today with all fish barely hooked. My clients from Pinckney, MI though did very good on the rods today and as a result they went home with their limits of walleyes. We only caught two undersized walleyes today and all our keepers were in the 19 to 26 inch range for a nice sized box of fish. They also caught one yellow perch (kept) a couple catfish and one sheephead (thrown back). We did get raided some by white perch today that stole a lot of crawlers. Most of the fish were marked on the bottom today, but with all the perch down there with the walleyes we had to keep the lures a few feet off bottom to keep things running efficiently. Trolling speeds of 1.7 to 1.8 mph were best. I pulled all 3 ounce bottom bouncers with spinner/crawler rigs. The color did not mater as everything got hit about equally. We fished in 25 to 30 feet of water and did not have another boat fishing within sight of us all day. This will likely be my last fishing report of the season. I only have one open date left this year and half a lot of writing assignments to complete before the end of the month. On top of that, we are closing on a house in Au Gres next week and need to get a lot of projects done on that place before the snow flies. We will be moving to Au Gres next spring permanently and will be selling our house and 38 acres near Chelsea. We will also be selling our 20 acres near Au Gres next year too. This will be a very busy next month for me indeed. Capt. Mike Veine

My clients today from Grand Blanc, MI, enjoyed a nice day on Saginaw Bay while catching their limits of walleyes. The day didn't start off so great though with winds in the 20 knot range from the southwest, but it died down to the upper teens by the time we departed and about mid mourning the winds died down to the mid-teens bringing the waves down from threes and fours to twos and threes. The bite today started off pretty decent with six in the box on the first pass. After that though, when the winds died down, the bite stalled for a while, but then picked up and my clients were limited out by a little past noon. Yesterday my clients from the Hillman/Atlanta, MI area, only managed 11 in the box on an all day charter, so today's bite was certainly better. We caught all our fish today on spinner/crawler rigs trolled a few feet off bottom at 1.7 to 1.8 mph. We were the only boat going out of the Au Gres ramp this morning and we only had one boat fishing near us, who was a buddy of mine. We fished in 25 to 29 feet of water. The color did not mater at all today as everything got hit about early from natural colors to bright florescent. We caught most of our fish off the six Church Walleye Boards, but the two flat lines I ran probably contributed 25% if the fish to the box too. This is not easy fishing now, but it is still pretty good none-the-less. I am also hearing reports of some yellow perch being caught now too, so those golden gems are starting to school up near Au Gres too. Capt. Mike Veine

As I was running back to port today, I declared today to be the most beautiful day of the year and my clients from Grand Blanc and Brighton, MI agreed. We had blue skies all day over the Bay with puffy, fair weather clouds over land to add contrast to the picturesque day. The temperatures were cool in the morning, but with a high of about 75 degrees, low humidity, and a light easterly breeze for most of the day, it was comfortable to say the least. We started out heading back to where we had been fishing north of Big Charity Island, but the water temperatures there had taken another nose dive and after an hour or so of trolling there, we only had one catfish strike to show for our efforts. Some of my other fishing buddies that I was in contact with also had not found any fish in that area either, so it became apparent that the walleyes there had gotten tired of all the constant water temp fluctuations and had left the area. I pulled lines at about 9:00 and ran to my plan B spot, but only caught a couple walleyes there in an hours worth of fishing. We then pulled lines once again and headed to my plan C spot and started to take some walleyes there right away. Once I figured out the best pattern, it was pretty steady action until we limited out with 20 walleyes by about 12:30. We had to sort through some undersized walleyes and perhaps a dozen sheephead too, so the action was pretty good in that spot. The keeper walleyes there were perfect eating sized fish in the 16 to 23 inch range. We caught them by pulling meat behind bottom bouncers right on the lakebed at 1.7 to 1.9 mph. The faster speeds helped to reduce the occurrence of sheephead and also kept the gobies from steeling the crawlers. When I bumped the speed to 2.0 though, the action stopped. The fish hit everything I had in the water today, so no pattern or color preference was noticed. We did take a lot of fish off the flat lines though, so those were certainly worth the extra effort to run. Even tough the bite was tough to find today, we still enjoyed an awesome day on the Bay and with ideal weather conditions, it doesn't get much better than that. Capt. Mike Veine

My clients from Hale, MI, Ann Arbor, MI and Illinois enjoyed some fun walleye fishing on the Bay today. We started out heading onto the Bay with fairly stiff, northwest winds combined with pretty big rollers from the northeast for some sloppy conditions. The early morning bite was good though as we had 15 walleyes in the box by 11:00. After that though, when the wind died down and then started switching this way and that way, the bite was very slow and also turned light. Before 11:00 we caught most of the fish that were hooked, but after that, we lost far more than were caught. When the walleye bite slowed, the gobies got a lot more active and started coming up and steeling crawlers exacerbating the problem. If we had gotten a bit earlier start, we would have limited out early, but instead we fished all day and ended up with 19 walleyes, one short of my clients limits. At least my clients got to enjoy a full day of fishing though. The only real complaint that I get on my boat is that limits are caught too fast. Today they did not have that problem. Next year, when the limit is doubled to 10 walleyes on Saginaw Bay, hopefully that complaint will be a thing of the past. We caught all our walleyes on spinner/crawler rigs with bottom bouncers. I did run some crankbaits and did not get any action on them today. Our hottest rig was the starboard flat line with a red/silver pattern harness 60 feet back with a three ounce weight. We trolled at speeds of 1.4 to 2.0 mph depending on the depth. We fished north of Big Charity Island once again. There are a lot of fish there for sure, but there are also a lot of baitfish there too, so the bite is not as consistent as we experience in other areas earlier in the season. Depths fished ranged from 20 to 30 feet of water today and the walleyes were scattered over a wide area with pods of fish here and there that were moving around a lot making them hard to peg down. If we get stable weather, then the fishing there is fantastic, but if the weather is unstable with changing winds, then the fishing is tougher. Hopefully tomorrow will bring stabile weather. Capt. Mike Veine

For the second day in a row we had to curtail the charter due to squalls blowing through the area. Also for the second day in a row, my clients caught two fish shy of their limits and likely would have limited out if we could have concluded the charter much like yesterday too. The bite today was extremely light as we lost probably as many walleyes as we caught. They were just nipping at the lures and not hooking up solid. We fished again north of Big Charity Island taking a trolling pass in shallow first, but coming up empty there. We then moved deeper and found some action there, but it was pretty slow through the morning hours with the wind switching from west to southerly. When the wind picked up though, the fish turned on and we had one very good trolling pass taking about 10 walleyes in short order, but then a squall popped up right over us and when it passed the wind switched back to the west and the bite slowed down to a crawl once again. We then had another squall pass to the north of us, but when we saw another menacing looking squall line developing on a course towards us, we pulled lines and called it a day. Besides walleyes, we also caught one nice smallmouth bass, one catfish, and several sheephead. I pulled mostly spinner/crawler rigs today, but I did do some experimenting with other stuff, which did not produce at all. I pulled 3 ounce bottom bouncers just off bottom adjusting the running depth by slowing down and speeding up as we went over the varied depths of that rocky, structure laden area. I ran both natural and bright florescent spinner patters and everything got hit equally so no real color preference was evident. We trolled at speeds that ranged form 1.3 to 2.2 mph and caught fish at all speeds. Despite the challenging weather conditions my clients from various parts of Michigan still indicted to me that they had a good time. They are waterfowlers so today probably seemed like a very nice day to them. The weather is predicted to be more stable tomorrow, so that will be a good thing though in my book. Capt. Mike Veine