Trophy Specialist

I have no clue how to do a screen shot on my phone. When I try to access this site, the phone takes about 10 seconds and then give me an error. The message reads "This webpage is not available". Are you using Chrome on your phone?

It was a little breezy this morning with a southerly wind putting a nice "walleye chop" on the water. We ran a bit south from where we took our limits yesterday and trolled with the wind at 1.2 to 1.7 mph rolling with the waves. We had consistent action all morning and my four customers took their limits of some nice walleyes before noon, despite a late start. Most of the fish were 19 to 21 inches but we did take a few bigger ones for good measure too. The fish came mostly in doubles and triples today as they were clustered in pods all over our fishing area. The walleyes have been feeding on shiners as I had about 50 shiners left in my live well that they had barfed up. The shiners were two to three inches long. We caught all our fish today on a variety of spinner/crawler rigs trolled near the bottom. I didn't mark any suspended fish all morning so having lures up higher would have been a waste of time. No particular spinner pattern shined today as they hit everything I threw at them. I have a scheduled day off tomorrow, and it's a good thing too, because the weather is predicted to be very windy and stormy Tuesday anyway. I'll be hitting the water again on Wednesday with a three boat charter, which should be fun. After that, I have every day booked until June 21, which opened up after we got a cancellation. My July charters are starting to book up more and more. July has been the most consistently excellent fishing month for me on Saginaw Bay for several years in a row with limit catches on every trip. Capt. Mike Veine

We had another very productive day of walleye fishing on the Bay this morning closing out the month of May with a limit catch of nice walleyes. We headed back to the same area where we have been fishing for the last week and got into some hot action right away. I never actually got all eight lines in the water at the same time on the first trolling pass as we hooked up non-stop for better than one hour straight. That trolling pass covered about two miles of water and went over varying depths to 34'. We took about 15 walleyes on that first pass, but then the wind shifted to the ENE and it took us a full hour to land the last five fish on the second pass over the same waters, so that wind shift certainly slowed the bite some. It was still an awesome day as we were back to the launch by about 11:00. We caught walleyes of all sizes today for a nice mix taking everything off the bottom on crawler harnesses/bottom bouncers trolled at 1.3 to 1.4 mph. Harness color was not a factor today as they showed no real preference taking everything I put in the water about equally. We only trolled with the wind/waves today as the two foot chop was a bit too harsh to troll into those waves at the required slow trolling speeds that the walleyes wanted. The water temps are still in the low 60s at the surface and much colder on the bottom, so the fish are a bit lethargic still. Sharp hooks and a smart fish fighting strategy are needed in conditions like these for optimal success. Capt. Mike Veine

It works fine on both my laptop and desktop. My phone though will not pull up this site at all, which is odd.

I can't access this website with my smart phone. It comes up saying website not found. This is the only site I'm having problems with. I am using a Droid phone with a Chrome browser and am not using an App to access it. It seems to work fine on my PC. This seems to be a new problem as it worked fine on the same phone last year.

After two days off the water due to rotten weather, we headed out today with light winds and clear skies predominating We went to the area where we had limited out on Monday, but with a southeast wind today, we set up about one mile southeast of that location to troll towards that area. When I stopped the boat there, I immediately noticed a lot of fish on the fish finder and they were all located tight to bottom. I set lines with a spread of spinner/crawler rigs taken to the bottom with heavy bottom/bouncers. We hadn't even gotten half the lines out when we hooked up with our first fish and that's the way the rest of the morning went as we had steady action until we had taken a limit in no time at all. We caught fish of all sizes today too for a perfect mix of small walleyes, medium ones and also some lunkers too. The fish were not fussy this morning as they took a variety of spinner patterns showing no real preference. We caught fish in waters 27 to 34 feet deep with 27-29 being best. I didn't try shallower than 27', but I suspect it would have been good. The trolling speed was pretty critical this morning as they bit best at 1.4 mph. One tenth of a mph more or less and they would not bite. Sharp hooks are a must at those slow trolling speeds in deep water and even then, we probably lost as many fish as we caught. I just had two rare June days open up from an otherwise completely booked month. Give me a call if you want to fish on June 20 or 21 as those are prime dates and won't last long. Capt. Mike Veine

I have a A12, 10.5 P propeller that I had bought years ago for a spar for a 1999, Mercury 9.9 hp, 4-stroke motor. I never actually used it, but I did try it on to make sure it would fit, so it is in like-new condition. It has 8 splines and will not fit the newer Pro-Kickers. It will fit a lot of the older, small, mercury motors though from 15 hp down. I will sell this prop for $30.

I have two new (never used) Lindy drift socks for sale. They are 18" in diameter and are pretty nice bags. I'll sell the pair for $20. I also have a few gallons of Optimax Oil for sale. This oil was bought at the end of last summer. I'll sell the oil for $20 per gallon. These items can be picked up at Au Gres.

My customers were a bit late this morning as we didn't hit the water until about 8:00 a.m. It didn't mater though as the nearly ideal conditions with a slight chop and overcast skies produced non-stop action as we took a four-man limit in about two hours of fishing. Most of the fish were 18 to 24 inches today with a couple bigger and a couple smaller for a nice mix of walleyes. We trolled spinner/crawler rigs with bottom bouncers between the points in varied depths taking fish whereever we went. Spinner pattern did not mater today as they hit various stuff with no preference. We trolled at about 1.4 mph today, but at times, we sped up and slowed down and still took hits, so speed was not much of a factor today. I talked to the DNR creel checker and he said that most anglers were taking limits over the last few days and the fish were coming all over. Most people are still fishing with stick baits, but the crawler bite is definitely on big-time too. This is perhaps the best spring fishing I've seen out of Au Gres this year despite the late spring and bad predominantly bad weather. We have limited out on every charter so far this year and there are a lot of nice sized fish this year too. The best is yet to come too. Capt. Mike Veine http://www.trophyspecialists.com

We hammered them again today in rotten conditions with gusty, switching winds and more squalls blowing through,. It was a double boat charter today and we did best in shallower water on meat. So far this year, we have limited on every trip, including fun fishing outings. It's going to be an awesome year on the Bay.

There are a lot of walleyes offshore from Au Gres right now. We again had challenging fishing conditions today with some muddy water and weather that basically sucked. We had winds from all directions today with this prolonged low pressure system spinning around Michigan and plaguing us with tough fishing conditions for the last six days in a row. We still managed to take 20 nice walleyes today though for a limit catch for my customers. We were delayed going out today with heavy rains in the early morning. After a great breakfast at H&H Bakery and Restaurant, we headed for the Bay. We also had another delay this morning too, so we really didn't start fishing until about 11:00. We ran north and tried to troll stick baits along the shorelines north of Pt. Lookout past Whitestone Point and only had a couple fish in the box from those efforts. We then relocated to the same spot, in deep water, where we had good action yesterday and limited out. I changed over to a crawler/bottom bouncer program as the fish on the fish finder were showing that they were tight to bottom. A slow trolling speed of 1.2 to 1.3 mph got the job done. Color of harness pattern did not mater as I ran a bunch of varied spinners and they all about took equal hits. When this weather finally stabilizes, the fishing here is going to be off the charts good. Capt. Mike Veine www.trophyspecialists.com

The fishing was excellent at Au Gres today serving up a limit catch of nice walleyes in short order trolling with smelt imitating, stick baits in fairly shallow water. All the walleyes caught today were on the big side. The smallest fish was 24" and the biggest was 28". Water temps today were in the low 40s. Trolling speeds of about 1.3 mph were best. All fish were caught on shallow diving, Smithwick, Limited Rouges set 60' behind the Walleye Boards with a 3/8 ounce rubber core sinker about 5' ahead of the lure. I did pull some Husky Jerks and had a couple hits on them, but they didn't stay on. I marked a lot of smelt in the area and lots of big fish too. The water was clear and I could see at least 10' down, so running the boards way out away from the boat produced the best in those calm, clear water conditions. My new Mercury motors are running great. I put a different prop on the 150 Four Stroke and it put the RPMs at 5,200 at full throttle doing 37.8 mph for top end with the 19 pitch, aluminum prop. It cruised very smoothly at 30 mph turning about 3,800 RPMs. My 9.9 Pro Kicker ran perfectly trolling down to less than 1 mph in calm conditions, which is great. At 1.3 mph, which was the best trolling speed today, it purred very quietly and ran as smooth as silk.

The motor was sold today.

Au Gres Marine

I got my two new motors installed today and got out on the Bay to do some break in this afternoon. There were icebergs still floating around and the water temp was in the 30s. We didn't even wet a line but we did mark a lot of fish. The Mercury four stroke 150 that I got ran extremely nice. It is a very quiet motor and it really came out of the hole quick with my boat. I will need to get a new prop for it though. I had a 21 pitch prop, but that one didn't turn enough rpms, so now I'm trying a 19 pitch prop that I have on it. The 9.9 Pro Kicker ran flawlessly today as that was the motor that I needed to put a couple break in hours on before trolling duties.

The motor is sold.

I am on Mercury's pro-staff and buying new motors just makes sense. I just had the motor put on the computer at Au Gres Marine and it checked out fine. There are no know problems with the motor. It has fewer hours on it than I have been telling people. It has 690.3 hours on it.

Selling a 2006, Mercury, 175 hp, Optimax, outboard motor with an extra long, 25 inch shaft. The motor is in excellent condition and was used on a 22' Lund Baron boat for Great Lakes fishing purposes. It will push this boat over 40 mph with four people aboard, and comes out of the hole very quickly too. It runs great, starts instantly, gets excellent fuel economy and is fairly quiet running too. On my boat, it gets up to about seven miles per gallon at cruising speeds which is outstanding. It can be shipped anywhere in the U.S. The motor does not come with a prop. Asking $5,750 [email protected] 734-475-9146

Selling a 2006, Mercury, 9.9 hp, four stroke, Pro Kicker outboard motor with power tilt and electric start. It has a 20" shaft. This motor is remotely controlled. It is in good condition and was used for a trolling and a backup motor on a Great Lakes fishing boat (Lund Baron). It will troll down very slow (below 1 mph) and will also push a 22' boat at 7 mph which is nice as a backup in case the main engine has problems. It even has a backup pull rope for emergency starting. This motor starts nicely, runs great, is a gas miser, runs very quiet (you can barely hear it when trolling) and it has been very dependable. It does charge the battery too when running. It comes with the stock, Mercury, four-blade prop. Asking $1,500 [email protected] 734-475-9146

The list price on the 150 four stroke is a tad over 12K. I'm sure though that if you give Rick a call at Au Gres Marine, he will give you a great deal. His prices are very competitive.

I just checked all the tournament schedules today to make sure I can avoid crowds at the ramps. I noticed that the MWT (Saginaw Bay Walleye Club) is not have any tournaments on Saginaw Bay this year, which is a first. I suppose one could run to the Bay from Port Austin though. The MWC is having a Detroit River tournament the next week on Easter weekend, which I also find a bit odd.

I always get a cell phone number and if they are not there at the scheduled time, then I phone them right away. If I can't get a hold of them, then I wait 30 minutes before leaving. If they are late, then it comes off their time. It's all spelled out in the policies that I send every customer before the trip. I also think that a $200 deposit should be minimum for a charter.

Yes, I already have that set for email notifications (I got one for this quoted post). The automatic posts though that are generated here from my Facebook updates are not sending me email notifications though when people comment on them.

This is just a heads up. All of my status updates on my Trophy Specialists Fishing Charters Facebook page are now being posted on here as as threads in the Saginaw Bay Fishing Reports section. This is a cool site feature here, but it will result in a lot of non-fishing-report threads. It will also result in some Lake Erie and even some salmon stuff being posted here too. I also noticed that I do not get any email notifications when people post on these threads, so if you post questions, I am not ignoring them, but just don't know about them. It might be a good idea to PM or email me a question instead of asking it in a thread where I won't know about it.

Lake Erie is still in rough shape and I still have yet to get my boat in the water. Most of the ice is now gone, however there were ice flows still in the Michigan waters this weekend as reported by other anglers. The big winds and heavy runoff we had last week really muddied up the Western Basin and especially the south/west portion where I like to fish this time of the year. Water temps are still in the 30s, which is way below normal. We got another inch of rain yesterday in S. MI and also in the Maumee River watershed. The Maumee River was flooding badly and was starting to recede, but those new rains may cause water levels to rise again spewing more mud into an already muddy Lake Erie. It's a wait and see game now. The weather is predicted to be nice this weekend, but it's the water conditions that will determine the quality of the fishing.