R3Fishing

So you see the title and you think..... I better read this. Well, it wasn't the fish we caught that made it great. Friday night had a doubleheader going, the same side of the boat on the rigger and the dipsey. Both fish tangled with each other and lost both fish. Not only that but the wire on the dipsey rod snapped and lost my dispy, spin doctor, and fly. No worries, 2 hours later, after we changed out our gear for the night fish the opposite side dipsy tripped and there was our dipsy, spin doctor, and fly from 2 hours earlier. We were fishing in 125 FOW, 80 down and our gear stayed suspended. I have caught fish with a lure in its mouth before but never caught the gear I lost!!! Couldn't do that again if I tried!!! On to the fishing, trolled from 5:30-10:00 pm Friday night and went 5-7. Two fish on a Kevin's GF SD with a green-blue fly (the one we lost) dipsy back 180 back on a 1 setting, one fish on an SS silver screwball on a slider, mainline down 90, one on an MS ratchet jaw down 90 and one on a dipsey back 160, 1 setting with a glow green dot SD and glow fly. Saturday morning fished from 6:00-10:30 am and went 3-3, two fish came on an MS Sliver down 90 and the last fish came on Kevin's GF SD and green-blue fly back 160 on a dipsy, 1 setting. Fished Saturday night and brought home the black and white kitty. Had a few too many beers Saturday night and didn't get out of bed to fish on Sunday. Good weekend, heading back in a few weeks.

Went 2-3, 22 and 23# king. First fish came on the rigger down 105, MS Hot Lips. Second fish came on a dipsey back 250 on a 2 setting, MS Sliver. Same set up kissed a dish as well. Trolled from 140-200 FOW. Both fish came right as the sun was coming up going 2.2 at the ball.

This week was the good, bad and the ugly but overall I can’t complain. Fished a whole week up here last year and caught 3 fish all week. This year was a bit better. Here is the good, bad and the ugly all wrapped into one: I am going to add a picture with GPS coordinates. We found abandon fishing nets between the center and west entrance outside the Les Chenieux islands. Trolled right through them, released a downrigger but never lost anything. Came up with a bunch of zebra mussels and a piece of a net. Talk about lucky, we could have lost everything. We found the kings, fished just south of Goose Island. There is a flat that comes up from 110 FOW TO 75 FOW. We caught all of our Salmon on dipseys, 1 setting 140 and 160 feet back. All fish came between 75-85 FOW. A green dolphin and another chartreuse and green spoon took all the fish. There is a shallow water buoy on the southeast corner of the island, our turn around was even with that buoy we trolled from there back west till the water dropped off Starting on Saturday 7/17, outside the islands we went 0-2, both rips came on a live wire SD and a UV fly. Sunday we were 2-4 with one small king and Lakers. Trolled north side of Mackinac Island. Monday we were 1-3 with a lake trout outside of the Lea chineaux islands again. Tuesday was a day off, Wednesday we fished the south side of Goose Island and went 5-7, four Lakers and a king. Thursday we went 6-8 with 2 kings. Both fish we lost were kings. Lost one fish that was at least 20 lbs behind the boat. My dad decided to tighten down the drag on a wire dipsey and the fish snapped everything off. Friday we went 5-5 with 3 kings. All kings were between 8-15lbs. Like I said above all salmon came off dipseys with spoons. Our paddles and flys never caught us a salmon. Our Lakers came off of spoons or a dodger and spin n glow close to bottom. The biggest laker we caught was 5lbs. Thursday we had 2 charter boats circle us so we must have known what they knew. Both Thursday and Friday those two boats fished with us. They appeared to do better than we did, I’m not sure if they caught more kings but the boats never stopped reeling in fish all day. I can’t wait for next year!!

100-200 on the 14 line

7/1 fished 5:00-8:30am went 6-6 we started the morning with a triple header. 15 lb Coho on a stacker down 70’ with an MS Ratchet Jaw, 5 color with an MS sliver took a 180 lb king and a dipsey on a 2 setting back 110’ with a green splatter paddle and a green glow fly took a 5 lb lake trout. A second laker came on a green and silver glow SS spoon (not sure name) down 52’. A second king cam on a DW Kevin’s girlfriend with a green and red fly, 18lbs and a small pink (throw back) came on 10 color with an MS Happy Meal. for the morning we went 6-6. Last night went 1-3 with 2 bumps off a stacker with an d school black and gold spoon down 95’ and caught a 2-3 lb laker on a dipsey , 2 setting on a green splatter paddle and a green glow fly. This morning fished from 5:00-7:30am and we went 3-4 with a 22lb king and a 3 lb pink coming on a 5 color MS sliver and a lake trout coming on a green splatter paddle and a glow green fly. We missed another fish on the DW Kevin’s Girlfriend and green and red fly. The fish broke off the fly. So far it’s been a good trip, two more days of fishing ahead of us still!!

Where we fished we found 44 degrees of water 80 down in 120 FOW, the surface temp was 56 and it was 52 degrees down to that break. We would troll in and out of the thermal break all day. We actually caught our fish when the water was 52 degrees and we were running 2.0 at the ball. We tried just about everything but J-Plugs and my son was trying to talk me into it for for the heck of it.

Well, we went out and gave it hell! Got the boat in the water about 6:30 and set up in 70 FOW, trolled out to 160 FOW and barely marked a fish. Trolled back in south of the harbor and marked a ton of fish between 120-140FOW. A lot bait balls and a ton of fish. We marked fish at times from 80 down to the bottom. After changing lures 5 times and fishing everywhere from 40 foot down to the bottom we figured we should try something new. Trolled out to 170FOW and completely stopped marking everything. Then 124 down picked up an 18# Laker on a white flasher/white fly. Trolled around there for a few passes and called it a day. thanks to tkat1000 and jdh for the responses back to my original post. I’ll be back for sure next year!!

We run out of Quanicasee however we are running almost 6 miles north to fish. There were a few people at the docks that took their limit in 12 FOW but they battled weeds, and scrap fish more than we did. they are catching fish on the east side of the bay all over the place. By the end of the month if the water keeps warming up find 20 foot plus of water and you’ll be fine.

Another great weekend fishing walleye on the Saginaw Bay!!! Went out Friday with my dad and brother and caught our 3 man limit. Brought home 24 walleye, threw back 6 small ones, 4 sheephead, 4 white bass and a catfish. 39 fish on the day in about four hours isn't bad. We set up in 18 FOW and trolled out to 20 FOW. Put our first line in the water at 7:30 and didn't get all 8 lines in the water till almost 11:00. We had 3 lines in the water when we had a double header and it never stopped from there. We ran flicker shads all day, #7s 60-75 feet back going 1.5-1.7. We also marked what looked like a thermal break in the water 7.5 feet down so that's where we set our lines and it worked. Also marked a ton of bait from 7 foot down to the bottom. When we cleaned our fish all of them but one had empty bellies. Went out on Saturday and added my father-in-law on the boat. We brought home 16 walleye lost 7 at the net (I no longer let my father-in-law touch the net) and threw back four small ones. We also caught about 15 white bass, 2 pike (25 and 33 inches), 2 sheephead, and a little 7 inch catfish. Same program as Friday, we had our bait in the water with nothing (or we thought) for about 40 minutes and we did a bait check. Pulled up 5 white bass and a keeper walleye, we had no idea they were there. After that the fishing got better and we had a good day. It wasn't as good as Friday and we got hot and the bugs got bad around noon so we packed up and headed in. When we cleaned both pike they both had small walleye in their bellies. That's the first time I've cleaned a pike with a walleye inside it.

I have signed two of them to end her and two more to end the quarantine on 4/30.

Complete bullshit for sure. The governor of Michigan has to b worst ever. If I am on boat with my dad, brother, wife or kids; I can promise everyone here I will not be within 6 feet of your boat other than at the dock. This shows how stupid she really is.

I need some help and expertise on where to mount my fish hawk. I have a 23 ft Crestliner and I'm not sure if it's better to mount my FH display by my fish finder or if I should mount it near my down rigger? I do a lot more walleye fishing than I do salmon fishing so I can mount it on my track with my rod holders close to my down rigger or I can buy a new mount for my fish finder and attach it there. it would be a lot easier to buy a mount and put it on my track closer to the down rigger but not sure if it would be in my way.

I am aware of the new regulations, they are being enforced on the East side of the state where I am as well. My two boys want to come with me, it would be a day trip. Looking at heading over for a day next week if possible. If anyone is going to be out next week let me know and we'll see if we can team up and find some fish.

Good morning and I hope everyone is staying safe. My brother just moved down to the south west corner of the state and I would like to bring the boat over and do some salmon/trout fishing. When does the fishing really pick up in the St. Joe/Benton Harbor area? I have never fished that far south for Salmon but it looks like I will have A LOT of free time over the next 30 days and would like to fish (and even keep 6 feet between me and the next boat, HAHAHAHAHA). Also do guy typically run spoons, meat, flies or something different this time of year? I have never fished Salmon this early and would like to get the heck out of the house for a weekend and fish. Especially before the walleye heat up on the east side of the state. Again, please stay safe and thanks in advance for some reports!! Ryan