Fish deep in the warm water

[westrate]

9/14/2008

Warm water forced us to fish in deep water and fish deep in the water column. The fishing was fairly good with some 4 year old Chinook salmon, coho salmon, some very good sized lake trout and an occasional steelhead. Even though the dredging continued in front the piers, the warm water limited the number of salmon that are there. One could fish in front, and catch a few 4 year olds, however the number is limited. There are a few salmon being caught at the Allegan dam and a few are being caught trolling in the river or by back trolling through the holes up river, however there are not a lot of salmon in the river yet. The 4 year old salmon that we caught out in 140 foot of water where dark and ready to run.

This past week we fished 100 to 160 foot of water and we fished 70 to 130 foot down. The best method was 11 in. Pro Chip and Hot Chip flashers (Chartreuse/glow, silver, white/glow) with Rapture flies (green dude, green mirage, and wild fern) pulled on the downriggers at 100 to 130 foot. The wire divers produced with the same color 8 in flashers with the rapture flies pulled at 140 to 240 foot back. There were some fish taken on 300 and 400 foot of copper with flashers and flies pulled behind them.

I think that the salmon will continue to "stagger in" a little at a time, unless we get and keep some cold water at the piers. If we get the cold water, they will move in and up the river quickly, however we have seen only a small percentage of out 40,000 salmon that where planted 3 years ago. For information and charter reservations, email me at [email protected].