Trophy Specialist

4/2/15, Lake Erie, Bolles Harbor, Fishing Report We had unstable weather today from the get-go with two fronts coming through as we fished. The fishing was good through the first front, but when the second front blasted us, the walleye bite slowed. It didn't matter though as my customers had limited out by about noon with a impressive catch of walleyes including two that were 10+ pounds. We did take a few smaller males today for the first time this year, but even those were all over 24". Our average weight today was still about 8 pounds. I set up this morning with four Gray Scale Thundersticks on the starboard side and four gold/black/orange/green Thundersticks to port and did not change any lures all morning taking about equal hits on each. The fish were biting lighter today compared to yesterday as we lost more for sure, including some hogs. This is when very sharp hooks will add fish to the catch. There was also a lot more woody debris floating out there today, so we had to keep a sharp watch out for hazards. The best trolling speed today was 1.0 to 1.2 mph. When the wind kicked up, I had to drop in drift socks to slow things down and keep the fishing productive. I have a fair amount of openings over the next two weeks for Lake Erie trips and this fishing should continue to be very good for trophy fish with the unseasonably cold water temperatures delaying the spawn a bit keeping those hogs out in the Lake longer than normal. The water temperature where we fished is still in the 30s. Capt. Mike Veine trophyspecialists.com Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

After a successful shakedown cruise yesterday evening, I ran my first charter of the season today, and it was a very good one indeed taking 6 walleyes over 10 pounds, many in the 7-10 pound range and a bunch of lesser walleyes to fill the box too. Our two biggest fish were 11 pounds on this gorgeous, sunny day on the water. Some taxidermist near Kalamazoo will be happy when he gets a batch of those dandies to mount up from my customers today. We trolled with minnow imitating body baits at 1.1 - 1.2 mph today with 3/8 oz, rubber core sinkers and setbacks targeting trolling depths of 8-12 feet down over varying depths of water. The fish were scattered all over today and I marked fish over a huge area and really never found a concentration of fish with no double headers all day. It was just a steady pick from 8:00 until we pulled lines at about 2:00. The best lures today were Gray/Scale Thundersticks early and later in the trip gold/black/orange/green Thundersticks turned red hot. We trolled with six lures off Church Tackle Walleye Boards, one flat line and the eighth line off a TX-7 Stern Planer 200 feet behind the boat. That Stern Planer was the hottest setup taking a lot of the biggest fish today. I ran a Thunderstick 50' behind that TX-7. The water conditions are excellent on Erie right now and I expect great fishing for days to follow. Capt. Mike Veine trophyspecialists.com

4/1/15, Lake Erie, Bolles Harbor, Fishing Report After a successful shakedown cruise yesterday evening, I ran my first charter of the season today, and it was a very good one indeed taking 6 walleyes over 10 pounds, many in the 7-10 pound range and a bunch of lesser walleyes to fill the box too. Our two biggest fish were 11 pounds on this gorgeous, sunny day on the water. Some taxidermist near Kalamazoo will be happy when he gets a batch of those dandies to mount up from my customers today. We trolled with minnow imitating body baits at 1.1 - 1.2 mph today with 3/8 oz, rubber core sinkers and setbacks targeting trolling depths of 8-12 feet down over varying depths of water. The fish were scattered all over today and I marked fish over a huge area and really never found a concentration of fish with no double headers all day. It was just a steady pick from 8:00 until we pulled lines at about 2:00. The best lures today were Gray/Scale Thundersticks early and later in the trip gold/black/orange/green Thundersticks turned red hot. We trolled with six lures off Church Tackle Walleye Boards, one flat line and the eighth line off a TX-7 Stern Planer 200 feet behind the boat. That Stern Planer was the hottest setup taking a lot of the biggest fish today. I ran a Thunderstick 50' behind that TX-7. The water conditions are excellent on Erie right now and I expect great fishing for days to follow. Capt. Mike Veine trophyspecialists.com Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

Got out for a shake down cruise this evening. Everything ran great and worked well, so that is always good. The water conditions are very good on Lake Erie right now. We did set up for one, long trolling pass and had steady action for a few hours of fishing. All the fish we took were heavy, adult, prespawn, female walleyes. The bite was light though, so we lost more fish than we caught. It was a lot of fun though getting out for the first time this year. I have a charter scheduled for tomorrow, but I do have openings left for Erie trips up until 4/15. After that, I move my boat to Au Gres for Saginaw Bay walleyes. Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

The weather is looking promising for fishing starting Tuesday or Wednesday. If the Satellite images confirm that the ice is dissipated as i suspect, then I'll be phoning my on-call customers tomorrow. Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

I put fresh line on all my reels yesterday and everything is ready for fishing except for the ice still lingering on Lake Erie. I had to cancel my charters for this weekend due to ice-cover. The ice is going fast though and the lake should be fishable by next week. The extended forecast looks promising, so hopefully we can get out my next Wednesday. Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

With the nice weather of the past few days and the warm forecast for the next week, Lake Erie should hopefully be breaking up soon. Satellite images on the internet show openings forming at the mouth of the Detroit River and also out in front of Monroe. The ice in the Western Basin got to over two feet thick in places, so it will take some time to melt it all down. Hopefully, I will be able to get the boat in the water during March. We will just have to wait and see what Mother Nature has in store for us though. Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

I just ordered a new, state of the art, sonar and GPS mapping unit. This one will have side imaging technology where you can mark fish out away from the sides of the boat. Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

I added the 2015 newsletter in PDF format to my webpage at trophyspecialists.com Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

I folded and stamped most of the newletters today, but with 16" of snow on the roads, we did not have mail service today. I need to go to town tomorrow for more stamps, so I think I'll drop them off at the post office. I doubt that 500 newsletters would fit in my mailbox anyway. Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

The DNR just announced that they will be discounting non-resident fishing license by 10% for 2015. This will be a bargain for people traveling form other states to fish in Michigan. Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

I just finished updating the trophyspecialists.com webpage. I created a new news section for 2015 fishing prospects on my home page. I also enhanced the Au Gres Travel Guide and Saginaw Bay Trip Planner adding and changing a lot of the information in those pages. Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

I also published another video featuring some fast paced walleye fishing. We take quick limits fishing off Au Gres in deep water trolling with crawler harness, bottom bouncers and planer boards. There are also some photos from my 2014 charter season at the end too. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obu7pXOfW18&feature=youtu.be Walleye Fishing on Saginaw Bay We fish for walleyes on Saginaw Bay using crawler harnesses with bottom bouncers and planer boards. The fishing is awesome out of Au Gres and we catch our li... Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters

8/22/2014, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report This may be my last fishing report of the season. My wife is taking a vacation starting tomorrow for a week and we have all sorts of plans for much of the remainder of my charter season, so I don't expect that I'll have much free time to post fishing reports after my charters. Today, my customers were from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and they are vacationing and enjoying the Tawas area for a nice stint. Despite the prediction for storms this morning, we had a very nice day on the water with no weather issues at all and my customers caught their limits of walleyes without any problems. The wind was from the east all morning with a nice one to two foot chop on the water and the bite was steady all morning with no lulls in the action. We caught walleyes from 15 to 24 inches and also caught two channel catfish too as a bonus. For the first time in a couple years, we also caught two flathead catfish too, one of which weighed in excess of 20 pounds. The smaller one weighed about 15 pounds. Channel catfish are fairly common on the Bay, but flatheads are somewhat rare, so it was especially odd that we caught two in one day. We ran all red/silver harnesses fishing about 12 feet under the surface. Trolling speeds of 1.7 to 1.8 mph were best. This has been an especially awesome charter season for me this year with limit catches of walleyes taken on the vast majority of trips. I normally charter for salmon during this time of the year, but the spotty salmon fishing this year combined with the incredibly great walleye action on the Bay certainly convinced me that I made the right decision not to offer salmon charters this year and instead to focus on the ever world class walleye fishery out of Au Gres. At one time I ran far more salmon charters that walleye trips, but this year I ran all walleye charters and had the most successful year of consistent limit catches that I've had since I started running charters many years ago. I also had a lot of very happy customers this year too who enjoyed the super walleye fishing with me. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com Michigan Fishing Charters Saginaw Bay Walleye Lake Erie Walleye Lake Michigan King Salmon... www.trophyspecialists.com Michigan fishing charters for walleye and perch at Au Gres (AuGres) and Tawas City (or East Tawas) on Saginaw Bay along with king salmon (Chinook Salmon) at Manistee on Lake Michigan and walleye at Monroe or Detroit on Lake Erie. Our sportfishing charter boat targets the biggest, trophy sized, Greaâ?¦ Posted By Capt. Mike Veine of Trophy Specialist Charters on 08-22-2014 03:24 PM

I meet my customers every morning at H&H Bakery and Restaurant and tell them to follow me down to the launch and just park their vehicle where all the other trucks and trailer rigs are parked. This morning though, when I we got down to the DNR launch, the place was completely empty which was surprising considering it was a very nice day indeed. Needless to say, the fishing pressure at this time of the year is a lot lower than it is earlier in the season when the ramp is typically packed. The fishing is still excellent though as my customers from the Benton Harbor, MI area caught an impressive limit of walleyes today and also enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day on the Bay too. The fishing started off pretty slow though as we only caught four fish in the first four four hours of fishing. At mid-day though the walleyes turned on and it was non-stop action from 11:30 until limits were reached by about 1:00. We had trolled over that hot area earlier in the morning too, but the fish there then were not active, but we just kept after them until they went on the feed. We caught a lot of nice sized fish today too with most of the walleyes running 18 to 24 inches with only two under 17". We did the damage with red/silver spinner/crawler rigs trolled about 10' below the surface targeting suspended fish. A trolling speed of 1.7 to 1.8 mph was best. The floating weeds were not nearly as bad today as they were yesterday, so that was nice. I even got some fish today for my dinner too, which I will eat with a morel mushroom sauce and some fresh green beans with banana peppers that I picked from my garden yesterday evening. A meal doesn't get much better than that. Capt. Mike Veine

We did it again today on the same large area taking all our fish about 10' under the surface way up off bottom.

We had a gorgeous day today on Saginaw Bay. The wind stayed easterly all day, but it was light and the waves were about one foot, which was about perfect for trolling. We first went out to the area where we had limited out yesterday, but the bite there was slow and we only took four keepers in the first three hours of fishing. We then pulled lines and headed to another spot and set lines, but the fish were up higher there, so I just set the same bottom/bouncer rigs with spinner/crawlers just 18 feet behind the boards and went to town with some fast and furious action until my customers from both southern and northern Michigan caught a nice limit of walleyes. The fish ranged in size from 15 to 23 inches and they hit every pattern I had in the water as long as it was about 10' under the surface. I trolled at about 1.8 to 1.9 mph and the bite was hard enough where we didn't loose many fish too, which was nice. My customers had a blast today as they had never seen this type of quality walleye fishing before on the Bay. I have not fished for suspended walleyes much this year, but this fishing area had them up off bottom feeding on shiners. Normally, spoons, crank-baits or harnesses with inline weights would have worked better in that situation, but I honestly did not have time to change anything up as the action was non-stop once I figured out the depth they were at, so I just kept the same bottom rigs on there and they worked just fine even up high. The fish were not in one spot either, as we trolled for over three miles in one direction and never ran out of fish. It was just a mater of putting the lures up high in their feeding faces. Capt. Mike Veine

No numbers of perch in the area yet but there is still a lot of good walleye fishing to be had. We had a late start today due to storms not getting out until after noon, and had tough fishing conditions today, but my customers still pulled limits.

The bite was a little better today. It took us about five hours on the water to limit out.

It's a good thing my customers booked an 8-hour charter today because the first five hour of the trip were extremely slow, but the last couple hours saw Saginaw Bay cough up over 20 nice walleyes. My customers were from Chelsea, Michigan today. In fact, some of them live less than a few miles from me, yet I had never met them before. The Chelsea crew brought along a fourth person from Ohio too. The morning started off with a lot more wind than was predicted. In fact, the wind really blew all day yesterday and last night too from the northeast. Right about the time we launched the wind shifted though to the northwest. We ran out in rollers from the NE with the wind blowing at about 15 knots from the NW. as we got out into the bay further though, the wind shifted more to the north. When I got to where I wanted to fish, the water temperature had dropped five degrees since Tuesday, so I motored south about a mile and the temp started to creep up, so we set lines there and started a long trolling pass heading south. We caught a couple walleyes right away, but then the action died right when the wind died down to almost dead calm. We then trolled for hours only taking a couple more walleyes. We did catch two jumbo smallmouth bass though. I measured the first one and it was 22" and likely weighed close to five-pounds. The second one might have been slightly smaller, but it too was a trophy class bass. Eventually, at about noon, the walleyes turned on and we had non-stop action until we filled a five man limit. The Hot N' Tots that produced so well on Tuesday did not take one walleye today, so I put out a spread of all spinner/crawler rigs fished near bottom using bottom bouncers to counteract the tough bite. The best color early was fire/tiger, but later they really went after silver spinners big time. Trolling speeds of 1.8 to 1.9 mph did most of the damage and the fish seemed to bite best when I was making turns on both the port and starboard sides. They are predicting a light southerly wind for tomorrow, so if that prediction comes true, the fishing should be outstanding. The fish we are catching are prime eating size fish in the 16 to 22 inch range, which make fine table fare. My customers today took part of their catch to H&H Bakery and Restaurant where they will enjoy a very fresh fish dinner. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

Jason, I had a good time out there yesterday as well. Your folks are good people. I especially liked talking about global warming. We fished that same area as yesterday setting lines about where we pulled lines yesterday and trolling with-the-wind northward. We had about a 10 knot wind this morning. It's amazing how a little wind will improve the bite. Today we limited out in about one hour of fishing and just made it to where we had set lines yesterday morning by the time we boxed out. We were back early enough today to get breakfast as H&H:thumb:

We had another gorgeous day of the Bay today for my customers hailing form Pennsylvania. It was the first time they had fished on Saginaw Bay, but I doubt that it will be their last. We started out heading back to the same location where we fished the last few trips and started catching fish right away, but then the wind died down and the sun popped out of the clouds and the bite slowed to a snail's pace. Eventually though a friend of mine that I share fishing information with a lot called me on the cell phone telling me that he had trolled into some active fish, so we pulled lines and ran towards that location. We set down about one mile form him and we were the only boats in sight in that area. We immediately started to hook up with walleyes with four on at one time to start things off there. It only took us about a half hour there to fill out our limit of 20 walleyes. A close-to-bottom presentation of spinner/crawler rigs was the hot ticket today again. Crank baits were not working nearly as well. The color of the harness was immaterial as they hit all of the patterns I ran, but a trolling speed in the 1.7 to 1.9 mph range was definitely preferred. This nice weather pattern is predicted to last for another couple days, with a bit more wind tomorrow, so the bite on Monday and Tuesday should be phenomenal as walleyes sure do like a nice "walleye chop". Capt. Mike Veine

I had some customers today from Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was their first time fishing on Saginaw Bay and it will be a day they remember for a long, long time to come. We had mostly clear skies this morning with a light east wind, but for the most part it was pretty calm. We ran out to the spot were we fished yesterday and set up in the same location as yesterday and trolled along the same line. We started catching walleyes right off the bat and it was non-stop action until we limited out on good eating sized walleyes that ranged from 15 to 21 inches. We never did turn the boat all morning while we were fishing. I just set the autopilot in one direction and trolled for about four miles in one direction never running out of fish. They also caught a nice catfish too, but that was the only non-walleye taken this morning. We ran the same program as yesterday with spinner crawler rigs trolled near bottom at 1.8 -1.9 mph. The faster speeds keep the non-target fish off the lines, but the walleyes are now willing to chase down a faster meal. Like yesterday, when we reached our limits, I still had a couple lines left in the water, so I bumped the speed up to 3.5 mph to keep more fish from hitting, but a walleye still grabbed one of the lures even at that scorching speed. Silver/red and chartreuse/orange harnesses were both working wonders today. The next days to come will likely serve up similar, world class walleye fishing as the stable weather pattern usually keeps the bite going big time. Capt. Mike Veine

It's not unusual for the weatherman to be wrong, and he certainly was today, but for Monday the forecast had predicted stormy weather when I looked at it yesterday, but instead it turned out beautiful. It started out a little rough for the ride out, but the winds died down by 9:00 and after that it was absolutely gorgeous with lots of sunshine, a nice gentle breeze and plenty of walleyes biting on our lures. We went back to the same area where we left off yesterday, but had to troll in nearly the opposite direction due to the southeast winds today (west yesterday), so we set up south of the area where we had our best luck yesterday so we could troll downwind into the fish. We started taking some sporadic action though right off the bat though with four fish on at the same time to start things off, however three of them got off and the one landed was undersized. That's the way it went for the first hour of fishing: We would troll into a school of fish, hook multiples and loose most of them. When the wind died down though, the bite improved and we started landing more walleyes than were lost and my customers from Canton, MI had a blast limiting out on a nice mess of walleyes and also one, big catfish too. I tried to run some Hot N' Tots today, but had no takers on them, so all our fish were caught on spinner/crawler rigs trolled near bottom at trolling speeds of 1.7 to 1.9 mph. Our best rod was a flatline (no planer board) fished right off the port gunnel. For some reason that one rod caught probably half of our fish today even though I had three other identical silver/red harnesses fishing at the same depth. Sometimes walleyes can be finicky as they were today and sometimes when the weatherman is wrong, it isn't so bad after all. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

Sadly, I have pretty much given up on reporting the illegal nets. I have reported them a bunch of times in the past and the DNR seems glad to get the reports and says they will do something, but year after year the same crap goes on with the illegally marked nets all over the Bay. They just keep giving the warnings I guess. Most of those commercials should have had their license pulled a long time ago, but for some reason, the DNR just doesn't stick it to them. I doubt the DNR would be so leaniant on sport fishermen if they caught them repeatedly breaking laws, so it baffles me why they keep getting away with it year after year. And what really irks me, is that those poorly marked nets are a hazard out there that could easily cost lives. What should happen is a huge fine on the first offense and losss of license on the second, but instead nothing seems to happen.