Charlevoix/Harbor Springs salmon?

[dogfish]

How is the salmon fishing out of the Charlevoix or the Harbor Springs area? Are there any kings around there? If so, what time of year do they usually start up? What general area do people fish around there? Any structure? Any info would be great. Thanks in advance!

[Nailer]

I have never fished the bay, but watched plenty Salmon going up the bear river there in the town of Petoskey

[Chummer]

In front of Bay Harbor resort is a local favorite. Years ago we also fished out from the nice homes on HS side of bay.

[petep]

Yes there are Salmon off of Charlevoix, and yes they are kings. Typically I consider Charlevoix to be three separate pieces of structure. An outer bank running from Fisherman's State Park North towards the Red can. Off of the cement plant, the area roughly from the red can to the Pine River. Lastly is the area from Pine River North towards McSauba ski hill/point.

For the outer bank we usually 100-200 fow in a north south direction. You need to be mindful because there were reports last summer a gill net in the fisherman island area that a couple guys lost tackle on. The cement plant area is an east west troll in 85-150 fow. The ski hill area is a north south troll from 80-150 fow. At the north end of the ski hill you will see a point running out you need to pay attention because it is easy to hang up your gear. There are a few of my cannonballs and a probe out there.

Run a normal spread of 4 riggers, 4 dipseys, 1 chute thumper, and 4-6 Cu or Pb rigs out to the sides. Spoons are typical blue/silver, green,silver, orange crush. Dodger fly combinations are typically 8" white or white glow, with green flies. J-plugs are chromes and glows.

Lake trout are usually found in the area year around. We start getting kings around early June and have them in the area until the water warms in early July. We have caught them in July but not with a consistent pattern as they scatter with bait/temperature. Occasionally we hook into a brown or steel head, but not with enough numbers to get excited about. Usually by the second week of August the kings start showing up around dusk. The fish numbers continue to build until spawn. Around labor day the after dark glow plugs bite starts to pick up. A lot of guys anchor and cast glow spoons on the thirty foot flat around the boat launch by the cement plant after dark. You can try to follow the fish up into Lake Charlevoix. The area around the Coast Guard station sometimes has fish. We've caught them off of Hemingway point and around Boyne City.

Try to fish the week days as much as possible after the middle of August Charlevoix gets packed with boats and starts to resemble combat fishing on the weekends. In my opinion it might be harder to fish Charlevoix in late August than any time of year. You have to scale back your program and you can't troll the shelf as effectively because of the traffic. At times you are better off to drop outside and look for a school of fish to target.

Listen to the radio as much as possible. There are a couple guys who will talk about their secret what ever, probably Vagisil? Most guys will talk to you if you ask. Pay attention to the boats working the out side areas a few hours before sunset. If they aren't moving or they keep passing through the same area it might be worth trolling out and taking a look. Come sunset though you will want to be around the river mouth. You can try to call the DNR office at Charlevoix or some of the charters.

[KJ pluggin]

Welcome to GLF petep, thanks for the info!

[Priority1]

Petep, Welcome to the GLF site. That is one detailed informative first post. Thanks for the Information. Just holler if you need any help. You will like it here.

[dogfish]

Petep, welcome to the site! Thanks for the generous amount of info, you pretty much covered all the bases there. I noticed that it gets deep pretty quick out of Charlevoix. About how deep of water is the red can in? I'm a little leery about heading out more than 10 miles because I only have a 17' rig, that will change next year.

[steeliebob]

If you want Lake Trout go to Petoskey & Harbor Springs lots of them in there. If you are interested in Salmon and less boats come up to St Ignace I will show you where to find them. On a good day you can pick up Kings, Lakers, and Atlantics. Plus a steelhead once in awhile. Just send me a PM if you are interested in St Ignace. I would be more than happy to go out with you

[petep]

If you are going to fish Charlevoix out of a 17 foot boat you need to be mindful of the Beaver Islander Ferry. The wake from that thing is hard on small boats; especially when you are already struggling with rough seas.

Pay extra attention to the winds. You can fish Charlevoix in a South, and East wind without any problems as long as you stay in the protected area around the mouth. The second and third areas that I described to you should be sheltered. A West wind or the prevailing Northwest winds can make it rough. If you want to get an idea how it is like on the fishing grounds. You can drive by the hospital and take the road towards Medusa Creek along the lake and get a good look at the wave heights before you launch. Sometimes it's better to realize that it is too rough from shore rather than clearing the pier heads. It does get rough out there, and it doesn't happen 10 miles off shore. If you do happen to misjudge the weather and decide it is too rough after you clear the pier heads you can troll towards the cement plant boat slip and make your turn after you strap everything down for the return trip. If it is really bad try to stay up on plane until after you are well into the Pine River Channel to avoid getting swamped at the mouth.

In case your trip becomes a total wash you can troll Round Lake along the coast guard boat and Beaver Islander and catch a few Kings. Lots of traffic but we have caught them during the middle of the day. If that seems too stressful then trailer to either Ironton, or Boyne City to launch and fish out of the wind. Same program but the Kings won't be there until later. You will find Lake Trout, Steelhead and an occasional Brown Trout in Lake Charlevoix. Some fishing is always better than no fishing.

If you are going to be launching, I would suggest that you use the Charlevoix Municipal launch and not the launch by the cement plant. The plant launch does not offer any protection from the wind and is prone to ice/wave damage.

If I remember the inside of the can is around 35-40 feet, and I think it was 45-50 on the outside? It didn't have any depth importance, so I never paid attention to it. The can serves as a reference point for fish location.

Yes it does get deep relatively close to shore compared to some ports.

I've been leery about being on the water a lot closer to shore than 10 miles so don't sweat it. Just pay attention to the weather and stay within your comfort zone. If it makes you feel better you will probably never be more than 2-3 miles from shore at any given time fishing off of Charlevoix.

The fish are going to be close to the near shore structure, unless the temperatures blow them away from shore.