Trophy Specialist

My customers had an enjoyable trip today taking their limits of some real nice walleyes. We had blue skies, and a moderate breeze putting a nice "walleye" chop on the water. We had slow action for the first hour of the trip, but after that it was game on as we had steady action with lots of multiple fish on at the same time. Because of the slow start, it took us a bit longer than normal this year to fill up the cooler with fish, but no body was complaining. My party today consisted of a active duty Army officer with his two young sons. They are from Michigan and were accompanied by their Grandfather from the Lansing area. They had a gentleman's competition on who would catch the biggest walleye. At first the grand kids each caught some nice sized fish and were winning, but then the father caught an even bigger, but eventually their grandfather topped them all with a lunker of a walleye (see photo). I even got in on the action today and took my limit and just got done with a scrumptious grilled walleye dinner with moral mushrooms over rice on the side all washed down with Labatt beer. It doesn't get much better than that. All our fish today came on spinner/crawler rigs pulled behind bottom bouncers down near bottom. Fire-tiger patterns seemed to work best today. I did mark some smaller fish up higher today, and tried to target them for a while, but all I got was dinky walleyes up high. Trolling speeds of 1.4 to 1.6 seemed to work best today. The walleyes today were not biting very good early on. I was marking a ton of fish early, but they just wouldn't bite. We were patient though and just stayed over them until they turned on. We concentrated on deeper water today and were rewarded bit time. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

That's the same thing I did today. I just kept lenthening my setbacks as we got deeper and deeper. I had a guy follow me out this morning, but he was trolling faster than me (I was going 1.3 to 1.5 mph). He passed me as we trolled through the nets, but he did not pay attention where he was going and went right over one while trolling and got caught up in the net. Very few of those nets are legally marked in that area.

After three days off the water due to high winds and stormy weather, we tackled Saginaw Bay today unsure of what to expect. When we motored out past the Au Gres Jetties, the water temperature read just 62 degrees. The water temperature there had plummeted 10 degrees since my last charter. Walleyes on the Bay will migrate to warmer water in those conditions, so we headed south around Pt. Au Gres and continued in that directions in shallow water inside the many trap nets in that area. We crossed several harsh temperature breaks along the way, but eventually, when the water hit close to 70 degrees I started marking fish on the bottom, so I cut the big motor, fired up my Mercury 9.9 Pro Kicker and readied things for some trolling activity. Unfortunately, the wind was howling pretty stiff from the west at over 15 knots, so with those winds, the only option was to troll with the wind. I pointed the boat eastward and started trolling with a eight rod spread of spinner/crawlers rigs. We trolled in that direction from under 20 feet of water to over 30 feet of water, weaving through the nets and covering about five miles of water in one direction without ever turning around and we never went more than five minutes without hooking up with walleyes along that whole route. The action was extremely steady, but not overwhelming as we never hooked more than two fish at one time. The walleyes were scattered but 99 percent of them were near the bottom. The bite was fairly light too with lots of fish lost due to the lethargic mood of those post cold front walleyes. None-the-less, my customers from Atlanta and Waterford, MI had a ball catching their limits of nice walleyes. The walleyes ranged in size from three inches to about 24 inches long with many year classes of fish well represented. We also caught one large yellow perch too. Since I missed much of the moral mushroom season this spring, my long time customers today was nice enough to bring me a bag of dried morals, which was awesome. For dinner today I re-hydrated the mushrooms and sauteed them in butter with some onions. I made gravy by adding the re-hydration sauce and flour to the mushrooms/onions/butter and put that over hash browns and steamed broccoli. Served next to a juicy venison burger, it made a meal fit for a king and I had smoked salmon for desert too. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

After a couple days off the water we nicely got back into the fish again today fishing a new spot. Evidently the commercial fishermen have moved or removed a bunch of their trap nets, so we set up in about 24 feet of water in the area where just a couple weeks ago was littered with nets. It was raining off and on for the first couple hours of the charter and the fishing was fairly slow as we only took about five keeper walleyes per hour then. In the last hour of the trip though the bite picked up and my customers limited on with walleyes mostly in the 19 to 21 inch range. They also caught some nice yellow perch too which were about 9-10 inches long. Most of the fish were tight to the bottom today so we stuck with the bottom-bouncer/spinner/crawler trolling program that we have been using a lot this year. I marked a few fish up higher in the water column today, but I'd estimate that only 1/10, of one percent of the fish were up off the bottom more than two feet today. I did not see any color preference today as all of my harnesses got hit about equally. I'm using natural silvers to bright florescent colors all with #3 Colorado blades and no more than a three inch crawler (half of a big crawler or a full smaller crawler with the tail thrown away). Trolling speed was also not real critical today as we caught fish at 1.0 to 1.8 mph as the variable and swirling winds causes my speed to fluctuate a lot. I also trolled both with and into the wind with good success both ways. My customers today were from the Atlanta, MI area. He brought something on the boat that I had never had before, smoked venison tenderloin (filet men-yon). It was seriously delicious. It had been about 15 years since they fished with me before on Saginaw Bay. With this outstanding fishing we have here now, I doubt it will be that before his return trip. In fact, with the nice perch he saw today, he is considering a late summer perch trip this year. Capt. Mike Veine

We closed out the month of June maintaining my 100% success rate on limit catches for my customers for the year. I had a group of repeat customers today that are some pretty good fishermen who had a great time today catching lots of walleyes. We ran way south this morning and trolled back towards Au Gres in one, long trolling pass going with the wind over about five miles of water. The winds varied from 15 to 20+ knots this morning, so we had mostly three footers on the Bay, so trolling with the wind was the only, practical option. Right after I set lines, we got into a good bite taking a dozen good keeper walleyes in the first hour of fishing. After that though, the wind shifted to the south and the bite slowed to a catch rate of about five keepers per hour and when the bite slowed, we started to loose more fish too, which is normal, but no big deal on the Bay as a lost fish is quickly replaced with another fish. All the fish I saw on my sonar were tight to the bottom, so we trolled with the only logical choice in those conditions; all meat presented near bottom. I ran my typical spread with six Church Tackle Walleye Boards and also two flat lines right off the gunnels. No color preference was shown today as the walleyes bit all my harnesses about equally. My harness patterns ranged from natural silver blades to bright chartreuse and florescent orange patterns. Slow trolling speeds at 1.3 to 1.5 mph were best. We marked fish along a six mile stretch of water today, so the walleyes are very wide spread and super abundant in many year classes. We caught walleyes from four inches up to 20+ inches. There are a dozen year classes of walleyes that are showing up in the catch daily, which bodes well for the fishery. Taking limit catches on every single completed charter this year certainly demonstrates the world class walleye fishery Saginaw Bay is now serving up. This has been the best walleye fishing I've ever experienced, bar none. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

We had the heaviest fishing pressure I've seen in years today out of Au Gres. I ended up running to a spot I hadn't fished a while in an attempt to avoid the "crowds.". Unfortunately even at this distant spot, there were still a bunch of other boats in that area too. We started a bit earlier than normal today to avoid the tournament crowd at the launch, however the tournament organizers changed the start time at the last minute so we still ended up waiting in line at the ramp which sucked. The first hour or so of fishing was a bit slow as I am firmly of the opinion that walleyes do not bite real good early in the morning on the Bay. Eventually though, the walleyes started hitting better and better as the morning wore on and my customers from Martinsville, Indiana pulled in an impressive, four man limit catch of walleyes with several fish in the 26 inches range, but they also caught a some smaller eating sized fish too for a good mix. The fish were still holding tight to bottom, so we ran an eight rod spread of all spinner/crawler rigs with bottom bouncers. That spread consisted of six lines run off to the sides of the boat using Church Tackle Walleye Boards. We also ran two flat lines right off the gunnels too and those rigs caught a quite a few fish too. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

We certainly had an aggressive walleye bite this morning. After having a couple days off the water, we headed out today and were greeted by calm wind and flat water and partly sunny skies. It was a beautiful morning on the Bay indeed. We set down just a few miles out and began marking a lot of fish while I set lines. The action was fast an furious from the start and picked up in intensity as the morning went on. I had to trim down my trolling spread to just a few rods as any more was not necessary. The fish were biting good with many swallowing the lures completely and very few fish were lost too with the aggressive bite. We limited out with a nice catch of eating sized walleyes very quickly. All our fish came on bottom bouncers trailing crawler harnesses fished near bottom in 31-32 feet of water. No spinner pattern was preferred as they hit everything I put near their mouths. I trolled at about 1.3 - 1.5 mph in one, short trolling run heading south. I know of good fishing from one end of the Bay to the other right now. The fish are so numerous here now that it is likely the best fishing we have ever had on Saginaw Bay with widespread, easy limits from hundreds, if not thousands of locations. The good-old-days are now on the Bay. Also, I just got a cancelation on July 6 which is a rare weekend opening during prime time. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

Saginaw Bay is an excellent place to take kids fishing. Lots of action typically.

The waves were not big Sunday, but when they are coming from three directions at once, it makes for a rocky troll. We have not been catching many sheepshead and catfish with only a couple per day showing up in the catch.

The fishing continues to be red hot out of Au Gres. Even with winds switching several times this morning, my customers, from Cadillac, MI, still caught a fairly quick limit of nice walleyes and also a foot long perch too as a bonus fish. The wind started out from the northeast with two-foot waves rolling southwest as we headed out. Then the wind switched to the east, then 45 minutes later is switched to the southeast, then it went south and by the time we pulled lines, it was coming from the northeast once again. It was sloppy with waves coming from several different directions at the same time, which makes for tough, precision trolling. With a normal walleye fishery, switching winds like that will shut the fish off completely, however, thankfully, Saginaw Bay is not a normal fishery at all these days. With millions of walleyes in the Bay, there are always at least some fish that didn't get the memo to quite biting. The bite was a bit light this morning, but they still kept biting steadily regardless of the tough conditions. I marked tons of fish right on the bottom today, so we stuck with the same spinner/crawler/bottom/bouncer rigs I used yesterday. Slow trolling speeds were best in the 1.3 to 1.5 range. Spinner color did not mater as long as the lure was in their faces. We fished deeper water today as those deep holding fish typically don't shut down as much as shallow water fish do in changing winds like we had today. We spent most of the morning in 30 to 35 feet of water. For some reason today we caught more larger fish with only five fish under 20 inches and several real dandies too with the biggest being over 26 inches. We have still limited out on every completed charter so far this year, so this fishery is certainly world class. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

It was an absolutely beautiful day on the Bay today with blue skies, warm temperatures and light winds. With near perfect fishing conditions today, I decided to try a spot that I hadn't yet fished this year. I fished this area with the party I had today when they chartered with me last year and they had great fishing then, so they were happy to try that spot again today. We set up in 15 feet of water running a mixture of Hot N' Tots and spinner/crawler rigs trolling at about 1.7 mph. We got into some good action right away and took eight quick walleyes, then the wind died down and switched directions and the bite slowed up considerable and the ones that did bite mostly got off with the bite aggressiveness decreasing. This area also had a lot of floating weeds too, which made trolling difficult at best, so we pulled up and moved to deep water in another nearby area where I had yet to fish this year too. We had no boats around us at all when we set lines in 27 foot of water. We trolled out to 32 feet deep and then turned back shallower trolling in one long troll never turning around so we covered all new water all day. The action there was nothing short of fantastic everywhere we went with consistent walleye action in all depths running the same mixed trolling spread, but at 1.5 to 1.6 mph in that deeper water. I had to increase the weight on the lures to take them near bottom though. We ended up catching 25 keeper walleyes and everyone on board had a blast in the process with sunburn being the only downside to the day. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

I had four great guys from the Clio, Michigan area fishing with me today and it was a good thing they booked an eight-hour charter instead of a five-hour trip because we needed the extra time for them to limit out with today's tough bite. The weatherman had predicted sunny skies and winds from the northwest at 15 to 18 knots. What we got was mostly cloudy conditions with west winds howling at 20 to 25 knots and air temperatures that didn't even reach 60 degrees for a high. It was a good thing that we were fishing at Au Gres where deep water is close to shore and it was also a good thing that there are good numbers of walleyes close to shore there too. We ran out less than one mile, set lines and trolled out until we were about three miles from shore, then we had to pull lines, run back closer to shore and repeat that trolling pass four times today to max out on fish. We caught eight walleyes on the first pass, but after that, the wind increased and the clouds moved in and the bite slowed considerably. We then slowly picked away at them though until limits were caught. We caught about a half dozen nice sized walleyes, but the rest were smaller eating sized fish. We also caught at least a dozen undersized walleyes today too, most of which were just barely under 15 inches. We trolled at 1.4 to 1.7 mph today and had to use drift socks on and off to slow the boat enough to hit those productive speeds as the gusting winds were really pushing us along at times. We caught all our fish on spinner/crawler rigs with fire/tiger and silver/red being best. All the fish we caught and marked on sonar were tight to the bottom, so we used bottom bouncers to target those low-down fish. This was the toughest day of fishing I've experienced since my first charter this year, but even on a tough weather day Saginaw Bay's world class walleye population still produced limits. In fact, we have caught limits on every charter so far this year. It doesn't get much better than that. Capt. Mike Veine

I'm the same way with that question on setback. If you tell someone how far back you are setting a lure and that person copies it and doesn't catch anything, then they think you are BSing them when in fact there are so many factors in determining the proper running depth that books have been written on the subject. Line diameter, trolling speed, current, direction of troll, leader, weight, type of weight and many other factors all go into the setback equation.

Nice job Frank. We fished in that area yesterday morning and did well, but we lost a lot of fish in the big, surging waves. We also found good fishing in shallow water near Au Gres yesterday too, but there were some sheephead and white bass mixed in there along with more undersized walleyes than we found out deeper. The shallow water bite did keep us busy though yesterday.

Fog greeted us this morning, however it quickly lifted on the Bay and we were able to depart on time and on flat waters too. We motored out to the deep water area where we fished on Tuesday and had no action at all for the first half-hour, but then we finally trolled into some fish a bit shallower and had to switch things up a bit shortening the setbacks and then it was game on. Once we found them, it was non-stop action and my party from Texas got to enjoy their third, straight limit catch of dandy walleyes. Today's fish ran on the chunky side as most of them were above the ideal eating size. Our biggest fish was about 25 inches. We did take some smaller fish too though to round out the catch and we even caught some sub-legal sized walleyes, which bodes well for the future of this fantastic fishery. We trolled in one direction until we found a concentration of walleyes and then we circled around on them and really loaded up and finished up tossing back some nice fish too since we had five on at one time at the end of the trip when we only needed two more for our limits. I varied my trolling speed a lot today as the winds were variable. We caught fish at 1.3 to 1.8 mph. We used varied harnesses patterns featuring red, silver, chartreuse, orange and glow and all took hits, so there was no color preference that I could tell. The fish are still tight to the bottom feeding on emerging bugs, so the presentation had to be very close to the bottom to take fish in that area. Capt. Mike Veine http://www.trophyspecialists.com

I tried to fish yesterday and it was nasty. We went out front and set up in about 32' and trolled with the waves. We marked a lot of fish on the bottom there and managed to catch five walleyes in about 30 minutes, but the waves were building. I then pulled lines and went in tighter to shore out from North Port but even there the waves were bad, so we bagged it and headed in. It was a lot nicer today for sure, but tomorrow's forecast is not good.

I have a family from Texas fishing with me Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday who had never fished Saginaw Bay before until today. We set lines with a two foot chop, which build into twos and threes pretty fast as the weatherman missed the mark on the wind forecast once again. The predicted 8-10 knot winds ended up blowing at about 15 knots. Never-the-less, the walleyes didn't seem to mind as they started hitting right away and never stopped attacking our lures until we pulled lines. We did one, long trolling pass, in one direction (southwest) this morning. That pass covered several miles of water and we caught fish all along that route which took us over varying depths. We trolled at 1.3 to 1.7 mph in the surging waves. Harness pattern did not matter as they hit everything about equally well. We caught fish today of all sizes from small ones to some dandy chunkers. At the end of the trip, when we only needed a couple fish, every line in the water hooked up with six fish on at once. It was a fitting end to a excellent day of fishing. The weather is iffy for tomorrow with predicted storms and strong Northeast winds, so we may not get out again until Thursday, but you never know with the weather. Capt. Mike Veine http://www.trophyspecialists.com

Buoys 1 and 2 are about 15 miles, but you don't need to go that far for some good fishing. There are a lot of fish between the points now. I fished there for a short time this morning and marked a lot of fish and caught four before the wind/waves blew us off the Bay. The east side of the shipping channel also has a lot of fish too which would be an 7 to 12 miles run depending on where you want to fish.

The weatherman really screwed up today. He predicted 8-12 knot winds from the northeast, but when we headed out those winds quickly increased to over 20 knots and the wave height made it very rough to fish in, so we headed in shortly after our first, short, trolling pass. We fished right out in front of Au Gres in 30 to 32 feet of water and marked a lot of fish on the bottom there and actually did catch four walleyes, in those rough conditions. Had the winds been a little less as predicted, I'm confident we would have gotten a good catch, but it's not much fun to fish in five foot waves, so we did the wise thing and headed for port. In situations like that I prorate the trip so my customers only paid for the short time we spent on the water. They have rescheduled for anther day, so hopefully they will get a decient day for fishing when they return.

I had a group from the Columbus, Ohio area fish with me today and besides having a great time on a vacation here in the Au Gres area, they also got to experience world class walleye fishing today too. The weather was a little iffy this morning with a rain storm making its way across Michigan, but by tracking the storm on my radar, it became apparent that the storm would miss us to the south. We ran back to the spot where we ended yesterday's charter. When I saw on the sonar that the bottom there was still covered with fish, we set lines and immediately got into some walleyes. From then on we caught fish practically non-stop taking an impressive limit catch of chunky walleyes in very short order. Only a few of the fish were under 20 inches with most of them being in the 20 to 22 inch range which are excellent eating size, but still big enough to put up a good fight for some fun fishing indeed. We caught them on the same spinner/crawler rigs I've been using for about two weeks. These rigs are a variety of colors like fire-tiger, silver, red, pearl and glow and they all got hit today with no color preference shown by the walleyes. We put the harnesses right on the bottom with a long setback for the bottom bouncers. The trolling speed today was about 1.5 mph. When the wind kicked up, I had to put a drift sock in to slow the trolling speed. We are still fishing a massive school of walleyes on the east side of the shipping channel. This school stretches from Buoys 1 and 2 all the way to Sand Point in deep water and I'm sure there are a lot of fish further east in shallower water in that area too, but I haven't fished it yet. This fishing now is some of the best I've seen on the Bay and my customers today are already planning a return trip to experience it once again. Capt. Mike Veine http://www.trophyspecialists.com

As recommended, I downloaded the GLF App, and that didn't work either. When I start the App, it pops up for a second, then gives me a message "Connecting to server..." and does nothing else.

You are the only person I have ever heard of that ate a Gar. I have only caught a few of those in all my years and eating one nevery really crossed my mind. The fishing continues to be great. We took a nice box of walleyes very quickly this morning. We had 15 keepers in 65 minutes of fishing. Most of the fish were over 20 inches today with the biggest being 25". I fished a new area for most of the trip that was chuck full of fish. Same program as yesterday. I did hear of a couple quick limits straight out from Au Gres in 30 to 35 feet of water this morning, so that is good news with the predicted possible storms the next couple days.

Today was one of those "Pure Michigan" commercials kind of days with clear, blue skies and a nice breeze to put a nice "walleye chop" on the water. We set the same hot program as the previous day in the same general location and the walleyes hit practically non-stop until we had caught our limits very quickly. This is a massive school of fish we are fishing that likely encompasses over 20 square miles of water and ranges from shallow water to depths over 35 feet. Today we did a three mile trolling pass and never ran out of fish. The fish ran bigger today with most of our walleyes measuring over 20 inches. In fact only a few were under 20". We lost some dandy fish too but when you are hooking fish constantly, it really doesn't mater in the end how many fish are lost. We were trolling with the same variety of spinner/crawler rigs that I've had on my poles all week and the fish showed no color preference today as they hit everything we put in the water. I only ran six rods today and that was more than enough to get the job done. Our trolling speed varied a lot as we were trolling with the wind in two foot waves and our speed was in the 1.3 to 1.7 mph range. The weather is predicted to be very nice for the next few days, so this world class walleye fishing should keep going for the foreseeable future. Capt. Mike Veine

I haven't seen you or your rig around yet this year Frank. Hopefully all is well. I was off the water for a couple weeks in mid-May when I got sick and then my wife got sick. I'm fully recovered, but Donna is still recovering from pneumonia which she likely got visiting me in that cesspool St. Mary's calls a hospital.

I cleared my phone's cache and still no-go. I regularly turn my phone off, so that is not going to help. I have a Bionic phone and this is the only site that is having an issue (that I know of). Last year I did not have a problem accessing this site with this same phone. Incidentally, to access the internet with my PCs, I tether through a wifi hot spot from my cell phone and this site works fine that way.