Steelhead at the piers in Saugatuck

[westrate]

A good week of fishing that started out in 250 foot of water and ended in 15 foot of water. The first part of the week found us 9 miles out in 250 foot of water fishing Coho, Chinook Salmon and Steelhead. Creel numbers varied from 8 to 15 fish per trip however strong north, north east and north west wind during the week produced some rough conditions and ultimately cooler water. By Friday the surface temperature had dropped into the low 50 degrees and bait and steelhead had collected at the pier heads. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we fished 10 to 20 foot of water and caught 8 to 13 steelhead per trip with an occasional Chinook salmon thrown in.

Out deep the pattern was flashers and flies on 200, 300 and 450 foot of copper, dipsy divers and downriggers. The best combinations included Hot Chip flashers (silver and silver and mountain dew) with Rapture flies (green mirage and oceana). Once we move inshore, the pattern was all spoons on 2 color and 3 color lead core, and dipsy divers and downriggers. Any spoon would work as long as it had silver and orange on it and was the size of the stinger lures. The best lures for us were the stinger fruit cocktail, double orange crush and jaw breaker. On Friday we were 11 for 35, on Saturday we were 6 for 24 and today we were 13 for 26. On Saturday, fishermen were walking off the South Saugatuck pier with stingers full of steelhead.

New report on the perch fishing: Limit catches of perch were reported Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The problem is that the location is 9 miles south of the Saugatuck piers off of Glenn. I talked to boats that caught 75+ perch last night and got their limit again today and the perch were running 7 to 12 in. in length.

I think that the shallow water pier fishing is probably going to end soon with the wind and current now out of the south and the water temp beginning to increase. I suspect we will be moving out into deeper water and hopefully the salmon will begin to stage in the 60 to 120 foot depth were they have that last couple of years. For information or for charter reservations, email me at [email protected].