Headed to St. Joe, South Haven and Saugatuck for vacation.

[36Hatt]

The wife and I are bringing our boat up the Illinois Waterway to Lake Michigan for a couple of weeks. We will have 6-7 days (around the 14 -20th of July) on the west coast of Michigan before heading back. We are mainly doing the tourist stuff, but I would like to try to capture a few fish while we're there.

We have a couple of downriggers and outriggers on a 36 Hatteras Convertible. We also have pretty good electronics on board. I think I have most of the gear ready (flashers, J-plugs, spoons, flies, dipsys) and have chartered out of Wisconsin a few times so I know a little.

I am not looking for any secrets, just a few tips to get us started. I have been reading the forum posts for that area. Looks like they salmon are around 100'.

We are leaving here on the 11th, so I may not have reliable internet access for a while.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Blaine

[Just Hook'n]

not sure what you have, but a good spread for 2 people is:

2 downriggers, 2 dipsey divers, and 2 planner boards either running full, half or 3 color lead core.

More than 2 poeople you can add to your planner board spread.

Blue's and greens have been pretty good this year but so has lemon ice and yellow machine.

Start with reading the first three postings here for some good advice on setup:

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=48

You will also want to read "how fast are you going" on the same post, and "how colors are viewed underwater". Great knowledge on this site. Just have to know where to look, or poke around until you find it.

Best of luck.

[Satisfaxion_Gauranteed]

Some salmon are starting to show up in the 90-110fow range out of South Haven. Have your spread set during low light hours of dawn and dusk. Last weekend, a good temp break was about 40' down.

Good luck!

[36Hatt]

Mark,

Thanks for your input and link to the forum posts. I found them pretty good reading. I was a little surprised to read that a full core might only get down to 35’. I was hoping for 50’. Looks like I will have to get some snap weights.

I can do just as you described, 2 downriggers, 2 dipsy divers, and 2 outriggers running full core. I do have planer boards, but would like to use the outriggers.

Satisfaxion Gauranteed, Thanks for your reply. You mention that the salmon are starting to be found in 90 to 100 fow, then mention that the temp break was about 40’. Does that mean that you fish in 90-110’, but have your lures set in the 40’ range?

Thanks again to both of you.

Just a couple of follow up questions …

Should you always us a dodger or flasher in front of the lure?

Do you recommend using the same color lure and flasher, or try to mix the color combination?

Is there any thought that it is better to run one type of lure behind dipsys, riggers or lead core? Ie. flies work better behind a dipsy or downriggers, or spoons work best on lead core, etc.

When you talk about boat speed, are you referring to SOG (speed over ground) or STW (speed through water)? Depending on currents, there can be a difference.

The more I type, the more excited I am about fishing that area. I believe my biggest problem will be going slow enough for proper presentation. Even on one engine, I am running faster than 3 mph. Looks like I will be in and out of gear. I didn’t want to purchase drift bags for just one week of fishing.

Thanks,

Blaine

[Paulywood]

Welcome! You have gotten some good advice so far. I have a couple of hints for you. I personally only use flashers in front of flies or meat rigs. I like to change things up, sometimes I use the same colors, sometimes I try to contrast. Personally I usually run flasher/fly combos on dipsey's and in the morning on riggers. They can be a pain to run on core. But you can run any setup on any presentation. Usually when guys talk speed it is SOG. Unless you have a temp probe, then it would be speed at the ball. Instead of snap weights I would use Dive Bombs made by Stinger. They are cheap and made to use with core, plus achieve more depth. As far as trolling bags, they are also a very good safety device. If something were to happen where you lost power you could deploy the bags and keep your bow pointed into the waves. Much easier to justify when you think of it like that. Besides, they will last a long time and I have a feeling there might be more trips in your future. Good luck and keep asking questions, people are always willing to help.

[36Hatt]

Thanks Nick,

Our first day of fishing will probably be Thursday July 16th going from St. Joe to South Haven, then the 18th from South Haven to Saugatuck, then the 21st heading back south. I will definetly post our results from each day.

Blaine

[Fishwhisperer]

Do you have trim tabs? And have you tried using them to slow you down? Trimming the motor up, if you have I/O's or O/B's, can help too. Another option is to deploy a couple of five gallon buckets w/ holes in the bottom, to slow you down.

[DIRTY DOG]

hey blaine, welcome to the site , i will be fishing out of saugatuck the tenth thru the fourteenth, and then again from the eighteenth thru the twenty first, give me a shout on the radio (chanel 68)and i will help you any way i can.

[GLF]

Blaine,

Welcome to Great Lakes Fisherman.

Like Nick said, SOG = GPS speed. Lots of good advice has already been posted. There are a couple of other things that will affect the speed of your troll.

Once you start setting your gear in the water, the drag created by your gear in the water will slow your boat down a little. ie....downriggers, divers, lead core, etc, etc, etc.

Another thing you can do is to leave the other engine in foreward/reverse(I forget which one it is. My boat trolls down slow enough, so I dont have to do it). The extra drag created by this will also help slow you down.

Leadcore

As a rule of thumb, you will get 4-5' of depth per color of lead. A full core will get down 40-50'. I believe this is at around 2.5mph(and I am not sure if this is speed at the ball or GPS speed). If you are going faster than that, it will not get down as deep.

If you are staying in South Haven, give Clementines restaraunt a try. It is within walking distance(less than a mile) of the Municiple marina. I just checked the link for Clementines I posted. They have one in St. Joseph also.

Sharpen your hooks! Even a brand new spoon or fly needs to have its hooks sharpend! Your landing percentage will be a lot better with sharp hooks. If you are going to put the time and effort into fishing for them, you might as well improve your odds of landing them. A couple of years ago on a fishing trip, we went 15 for 32. I sharpend the hooks before my next trip and went 16 for 18.

How do you know if the hooks sharp? I test the points on my thumb nail. A dull hook will slide across your thumb nail without leaving a mark. I like to sharpen mine with a 3 angle sharpen job until the hook sticks to my thumb nail with a very slight pressure. At this point, I call them "Sticky"

You should also put sliders on your rigger rods. This adds an extra bait to each line.

Mike

[36Hatt]

Thanks to all for your response. This appears to be a very good forum with members willing to share information, which is often rare when it comes to fishing. I do appreciate the input.

I do have trim tabs, but am running twin Cat diesels. It takes quite a bit to slow the boat speed down due to the higher torque. I will have one of the engines idle turned down trying to get to the target speed. I think I can get there. If not, I will use the gears to control speed.

I can read both SOG and STW on my GPS. I will compare both when I get there. On the river, I have seen as much as 2 MPH difference due to the currents.

Dirty Dog, I may just give you a call if we don’t seem to be having any luck. Just the same, If anyone sees us out there, feel free to give us a call. I probably won’t be much help to you, but would enjoy talking to you. I don’t know if there are many boats with outriggers, we should be easy to spot. The name of our boat is “Cats In The Hattâ€.

I am familiar with sharpening hooks. I fished bass tournaments for 20+ years. Got out of that because it was becoming more work than fun. I am really looking forward to fishing Lake Michigan.

As for restaurants and attractions, we are open to all suggestions. I want to make this as much fun for the wife as possible. I think the areas we have chosen look like fun for both of us.

We will be leaving Saturday, but on the boat Friday night. We won’t have internet access again until Sunday night

Thanks again,

Blaine

[GLF]

I am familiar with sharpening hooks. I fished bass tournaments for 20+ years. Got out of that because it was becoming more work than fun. I am really looking forward to fishing Lake Michigan.

I was hard core into fishing bass tournaments. I use to fish tourneys in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Then I got to the point where I did not enjoy bass fishing unless I was in a tournament. I sold my bass boat 5 or 6 years ago, and stopped bass fishing completely. This year I started taking my sons fishing in the neighbors pond across the street. We usually catch a couple of bass each time we go there.

Since I started bass fishing in the pond across the street, I am getting an itch to be on the deck of a bass boat flippin a jig-n-pig again. Time to give some of my old bass fishing buddies a call.

[Fishwhisperer]

Since I started bass fishing in the pond across the street, I am getting an itch to be on the deck of a bass boat flippin a jig-n-pig again. Time to give some of my old bass fishing buddies a call.

The "June slow down" is a good time to spend bass fishing.