Starting Point

[Salmon Assassin]

One area where I know I need to develop in is picking my spots. The draw back in Milwaukee is the people here wouldnt help you if you were drowning so getting some intel on fishing is a pipe dream.

The end of last season I was fishing deep water 275 FOW+ and had good results. I started deep water and getting good catches starting in Mid August, before then however it was a crap shoot. Do I pick up where I left off, start deep and work from there?

The thing I am lacking is experience on the water, so I am curious when you guys go to spots what are you basing your decisions on. For example, I always come out the north gap and head north to the "towers" and kick off from there. So there would be my general start point. I never had any real luck south or by the "green can". What should I be focusing on from there. Should I be exclusively hunting changing water temps, should I focus on the lake structure (humps, dishcarges, intakes, wrecks,etc). Just drive around and try to find bait.

I havent seen a good scum line since 2009 when we had such a strong west blow that never seemed to end (not complaining).

What should I be looking for as far as conditions, where I stopped dead in my tracks and say "whoa, this is where I need to set up and begin"

I am kicking myself for not keeping a log last year. This year I plan on getting a SD card for the Lowarance, and downloading my fishing patterns on a regular basic to my computer in addition to keeping a journal on the boat.

Again, your feedback is very much appreciated.

[Nailer]

This year I plan on getting a SD card for the Lowarance, and downloading my fishing patterns on a regular basic to my computer in addition to keeping a journal on the boat.

What program do you use to do this?

Thanks

Ken.

[jimcr]

Hey Adam , I would be glad to help you out where I can , I have been fishing out there only one season . I dont' find that people won't help you , They just are not going to put you on the fish. You will get a general area of where to go and fish. I saved all my way-points from last year and put them in my new Lowrance , and I can see why certain areas held fish. You are right keep a log it will help and it may not be this year, just get as much information as you can on the log.

Have you joined any of the clubs locally? GLSF will be having there meeting on the 12th I believe . If you are interested let me know . I will get the info to you. Its going to be Vendor night. I think there will be a ten or more vendors there.

Most of the time I didn't follow the pack and head North to the towers. I started out in 75-85 feet tried to stay either south or east of the towers when I could. You may find it better deeper or just outside of the area rather than at the towers. You don't have to go deep , but that is where the fish were later in the year. From what I have been told is that the fish were scattered and deep . It had a lot to due with the strong west winds bringing tons of cold water in.

[j1musser]

Sorry not familiar with area but its often best to stay clear of the pack. Sometimes the best fishing is away from them. Less headaches and more fish!

[DarkBlue]

Before I go out if I don't have a report from a credible source, or have missed a few days is to check the water temps and currents which there are links to on this site. If you find the right water you will find the fish, and then it's a matter of running the baits in the most optimal way regarding the current. Thermocline (temp. break) is also important and sometimes changes rapidly.

I'm no expert, but I hope this helps.

Chris

[killerbe20]

this link can be very helpful, especially early in the year. if you find a good looking surface temp break, it can usually lead to some fish.

http://www.coastwatch.msu.edu/michigan/m4.html

[SUPERTRAMP]

There are always people here at GLF that will help u out, just fire off a question here and the local fishermen will give u some really good info. There aren't any secrets out there, more than enough fish to go around. I was however watching Babe Winkleman on Saturday and he was in Milwaukee harbor in late September and the guide was saying that the returners dont reproduce, but in Michigan we get good reproduction in a lot of our rivers.

[eastcoasttransplant]

Send me a PM. I don't fish Milwaukee a lot but i did do some research on structure within the area that could affect salmon fishing.

As for your situation, I would NOT start out running to 275ft as you are running past plenty of fish before you get that deep. Let's get this figured out.

[adrenalin]

One area where I know I need to develop in is picking my spots. The draw back in Milwaukee is the people here wouldnt help you if you were drowning so getting some intel on fishing is a pipe dream.

The end of last season I was fishing deep water 275 FOW+ and had good results. I started deep water and getting good catches starting in Mid August, before then however it was a crap shoot. Do I pick up where I left off, start deep and work from there?

The thing I am lacking is experience on the water, so I am curious when you guys go to spots what are you basing your decisions on. For example, I always come out the north gap and head north to the "towers" and kick off from there. So there would be my general start point. I never had any real luck south or by the "green can". What should I be focusing on from there. Should I be exclusively hunting changing water temps, should I focus on the lake structure (humps, dishcarges, intakes, wrecks,etc). Just drive around and try to find bait.

I havent seen a good scum line since 2009 when we had such a strong west blow that never seemed to end (not complaining).

What should I be looking for as far as conditions, where I stopped dead in my tracks and say "whoa, this is where I need to set up and begin"

I am kicking myself for not keeping a log last year. This year I plan on getting a SD card for the Lowarance, and downloading my fishing patterns on a regular basic to my computer in addition to keeping a journal on the boat.

Again, your feedback is very much appreciated.

I'll try to answer your questions the best I can having fished milwaukee all my life. First no don't start out deep, I'm assuming you'll start in April. Next keep track this year of the days you fished good or bad results. Just write down coordinates of spots you did good in, the date and water temp. You can right down some notes about conditions and other things you think might help. Here's where I would fish if I were you and you will be the most productive this way.

April fish in and around the harbor, your just catching browns and Lakers.

May, don't fish Miwaukee again until the 2nd weekend in June, go to Racine as soon as you hear people getting coho in Kenosha, they are already in Racine. Fish Racine until AFTER the lake sets up, then go back to Milwaukee and you should pound the kings. Usually between the second and third week in June. Then stay in Miwaukee the rest of the season. If you do the log thing and fish Milwaukee and Racine at the right times of the year I would bet you can catch atleast twice as many fish as you would have if you stayed in Milwaukee all year. Other than that you will start to put some patterns together about what time of year certain spot are hot or dead. Main thing that is hard to do when you first start out is fish away from the pack. When you find a good spot and nobody else is there you do have to keep that to yourself. Lakelink is great for the guys that don't get out much but it has ruined alot of good spots for the guys that hads the guts to fish miles from the rest of the boat pack. I've had it happen to many times where I went to a spot on Saturday and a few other boats showed up that normally don't catch alot of fish, but the fish were stacked on a spot so they had their best day of fishing. Then on Sunday instead of 3 or 4 of us on that little spot their were 30 of us and nobody did well.

[eastcoasttransplant]

Small pic I know, but if you take a look, here's what you can see:

-a few twists south of Milwaukee in 65ft of water

-small bend north of Milwaukee in 105ft of water

-a few bends in both 145ft and 165ft almost directly out from Milwaukee Harbor

-large twisting bends out straight and north of Milwaukee in 265ft of water

-large twisting bends in 305ft of water straight and north of Milwaukee

Obviously the contours run basically parallel to the shoreline but where you have changes in the contours you have places that deflect underwater currents and hold baitfish and salmon. Now obviously it's not to say fish will not sit along the straighter contour lines but here are definitely a few interesting areas to look at.

[jimcr]

I like what you did with your map.

[eastcoasttransplant]

Thanks.

I took the NOAA chart from Milwaukee to Waukegan, marked some "interesting" structure, transferred data to Navionics NavPlanner 2 software, and finally transferred that into my Lowrance HDS-5M chart plotter.

We'll see if it's a historic waste of time or actually lead to more bites during difficult times.

It is interesting to see the general contours and the way they run along that stretch.

Can't wait to get back out there.

[Salmon Assassin]

I dont know if this sounds snotty or not, but I think lakelink is more of a bragging board than anything else. This is my first season on this board, and so far I have been impressed with the amount of people who help out. This is going to be my third year tackling the pond.

The only hang up fishing in Racine is that my boat is kept in Dry Stack at skipper buds and with gas prices running two testicles a gallon I dont know how many times I can make that trek, but if I am willing to power east 14 miles for deep water, going 14 miles south isnt unrealistic.

[eastcoasttransplant]

Well there are plenty of places right out in front of Milwaukee Harbor that hold fish. The NOAA chart approximates structure and contours and it's up to us to hone in on the specifics. I know a lot of guys fishing up that way that will normally fish shallower than 100ft and do pretty well.

When the bite slows or you're having problems dialing in, trying running a wider trolling spread with a few LC's off boards, two dipsys and maybe two riggers.

I also ran clean spoons a good deal of the time with 15lb flourocarbon leaders last year because we had issues getting the flashers and flies to fire. I ran faster than most guys, 2.4 to 2.8mph at the ball (Depth Raider) which allowed me to cover water and search for active biters. This pattern worked well during the calm, sunny days we found ourselves out there searching for fish.

Stick at fishing in front of Milwaukee and you will get things figured out. Feel free to pm me with any questions you have and best wishes for a great season.

[adrenalin]

I dont know if this sounds snotty or not, but I think lakelink is more of a bragging board than anything else. This is my first season on this board, and so far I have been impressed with the amount of people who help out. This is going to be my third year tackling the pond.

The only hang up fishing in Racine is that my boat is kept in Dry Stack at skipper buds and with gas prices running two testicles a gallon I dont know how many times I can make that trek, but if I am willing to power east 14 miles for deep water, going 14 miles south isnt unrealistic.

makes sense, thought your boat was on a trailer. Good luck