Salmon on the move in Saugatuck

[westrate]

July 24, 2006

This past week continues to produce some very nice salmon catches. We spent all week in 85 to 120 foot of water from the Dunes State Park south to 3rd tower. Some of the boats fished all the way to South Haven before finishing the charters. The water was beginning to stratify with the temperature break at 50 to 60 foot and then we got a couple of days of Northeast to Northwest wind and 4 to 7 foot seas we noticed the water cooling down on Saturday. On Sunday the surface temperature had dropped 15 degree from 76 degrees to 61 degrees and the temperature break was now at 35 foot. We still limited out on salmon in 90 foot of water, however there was some nice catches of 4 year old salmon in 50 foot of water and I suspect if the water temperature holds, we will be in 50 foot tomorrow.

The best combination was 100 foot of copper (early in the day) and 200 foot and 300 foot of copper with the Smash Mouth, Bat Man, Natural Born Killer, Bubble Bee, Legendary Produces Aqua Marine and the Glow Frog producing very well. Dipsy divers (wire) with Pro Chip Flashers (green glow, silver green and blue bubble) with green glow Gflies produced well at 100 foot and 180 foot of line. Downriggers at 45 to 80 foot and then on Sunday 35 to 60 foot produced with Hot Chip green flasher and Smart Fish white and Smart Fish blue flashers and Gflies. A few fish where taken on lures off the downriggers, however not many.

It will be interesting to see how long we keep the cold water. If the water temperature holds, we should see the fish set up outside the bait in 30 to 40 foot of water and fishing will get very interesting. Check back and keep track of the fishing in Saugatuck through out the year.