Early spring salmon fishing??

[rainman67]

Hello all

This warm up has me thinking about salmon fishing. I just started big lake fishing toward the end of last summer. I learned a fair bit for warm water fishing from being on the water and from the many generous suggestions I picked up from you guys. I've heard the cold water in spring is a dealing with a totally different animal.I fish mainly out of Muskegon. My questions would be. 1)How deep do you need to troll? 2)What temperature are you looking for?

3)What do you run, riggers,dipseys or boards? 4)What lures, spoons, flies, plugs, crankbaits ect.? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[jimbobber]

once the water gets around 40 deg the fishing will take off, as for how deep to fish that depends on were the fish are last spring we ran to 200 fow in march and slayed the cohos off holland , in tighter they get a few browns, down by st. joe they fish in tight for the cohos,

i use all the methods listed above , with spoons on dipseys to start with until the kings start to show up then go to spinnies and flie,small spoons, and body baits are a good start in the spring lots of guys like to run brads thin fin body baits on high lines and short lead cores on boards for cohos . Lakers can be taken in the spring now and those will take spoons with gold patterns ,or chartrueses they will also be in shallow looking for gobys keep this in mind when selecting paterns for them.Early on if the cohos arent around fish the first sandbars for brown trout and steelhead running high lines with body baits and small spoons. Hope this gives you some ideas . jimmy

[1mainiac]

Fishing out of Muskegon I seldom go very deep until June or July. 10 to 30ft for some Browns and fall back Steelhead. A little deeper will often find kings mixed in with them.

[King Salmon 1]

Hello Ray

We started out last year on April 1st out of Grand Haven in 150/180 ft. We were 58 for 74 on the first 5 trips in April - spoons and flasher flies on cooper, riggers, and dipsy's. Usually we start out in shallow chasing Browns and Steelhead with stick and body baits but was slow so we headed deep and did well. Had a great year on Kings in 150 to 200 fow straight west of the smoke stack. Same as Jimbobber - fishing gets good in the 40-50 degree.

[Casey II]

If you're willing to travel, St Joe can be awesome for spring coho. On a normal year, fishing starts down there in March in shallow, say 8-15fow. We run Thins fins on long lines and short cores. J-11 rapalas on the riggers. Oranges, golds and reds are good colors. As the water warms small orange/red dodgers and flies take off. You will get a pretty good idea on when it starts by watching the reports on this site.

Last year spring fishing was nuts out deep in Holland very early as Jimmy described. The lack of winter in 2012 influenced that. So far this year seems to be setting up in a similar manner. Best of luck.

[kingfish123]

A lot of time in the spring I like to run a little faster to cover more water because the fish are generally spread out. Last season in April the fish were really deep 150-250 fow. Usually I like to run almost all spoons but will always run 1 or 2 flashers or spinnies because u never now when that day will be when flies will be the hottest thing in the water. Greens, blues, orange and don't be staid to try all sizes of spoons, had a lot of coho hit mag spoons early in the year.

[Boss Hawg]

A lot of time in the spring I like to run a little faster to cover more water because the fish are generally spread out. Last season in April the fish were really deep 150-250 fow. Usually I like to run almost all spoons but will always run 1 or 2 flashers or spinnies because u never now when that day will be when flies will be the hottest thing in the water. Greens, blues, orange and don't be staid to try all sizes of spoons, had a lot of coho hit mag spoons early in the year.

You said run faster at what speed are trolling and is it SOG or off probe

[Nailer]

Only use the flasher/flies in the spring, when the fish are below 100'. Spring is generally a spoon bite.

[kingfish123]

It depends on the day but but in the spring I like to run 2.5-3.2 from my prob, usually 2.7-2.9 works best almost all season long.

[sherman51]

in the early spring we usely traveled to new buffalo. we had our best fishin running crankbaits on flatlines and off the boards. wigglewarts, flatwarts. thinfins, and just rebel stick baits always did the trick for us. this is coho fishing at its best. we would try to have lines in the water as we came out the harbor mouth and usely fish the 15 to about 40 ft. when in water over 20 ft i like to run a couple of riggers down about 15 to 17 ft with large broken back crank baits. these riggers would take alot of kings for us. we would even fish alittle deeper with the cranks on the riggers at times. but most of the time we ran them less than 20 ft down.

as soon as you get ice out is a good time to be fishing new buffalo in shallow water all the way to the power plant in michigan city. and just about any good crank bait will take some fish. from what i understand alot of baits work good but early in the year we always did good just running cranks.

sherman

[SUPERTRAMP]

Last spring was an unusual spring, March 31 in St Joe 19 fish in 2 hours, fished in tight to the dirty water and no further south than the pumping station, images in my gallery show baits and the catch. We started at 10:00 am and were off the lake by noon. The spring pattern is shallow water and speed about 2.5 mph anything red or orange catches fish. I don't think we will have another year like that for a while, the lake has already iced up more than in 2011-12, and the wind has been a lot worse. I slip in St Joe and will let all know as soon as we can get something going. I may take the small boat out before the ice is all gone if I can make it to the end of the piers there will be fish there. Note the flys shown with the red dodger are hommade red and gold crinkle copies of Siggs coho candy. They were hot all thru April. We never ran a line deeper than 8 feet and long lines were 1color or 2 color. small dipseys out about 20 feet set on 2. 4 riggers with long leads about 40 to 50 feet and from 2 to 8 feet down.

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[trail11591]

last march was crazy out deeper in the 130-150 fow range limited on kings in an hour...but we never got into a buch of shallow coho early even tho we were fishin in late febuary

[Just Hook'n]

Ah talk of spring...has be picturing "A frames", " Junk cars", .....

[SUPERTRAMP]

Ah talk of spring...has be picturing "A frames"' date=' " Junk cars", .....[/quote']

Not gonna be in march this this year, too much Ice but I bet we kill the Ho's same areas all the way to the plant. Usually good right in front on the edge of the dirt too.

[Just Hook'n]

I'll take the later start for a tradeoff for more water under the boat any day.

[Twill23]

Spring fishing can be one of the most enjoyable, or one of the LEAST enjoyable trips of the year, and it really has to do with what you want to chase. There will absolutely 100% for sure be a FEW fish out in front of the pier heads and on the beaches in the spring. Browns, steelhead, and the occasional king. If your after those spring kings that seem to be drinking rocket fuel, well the majority of those fish are schooled up in really tight pockets (in normal years) as they move from their winter resting grounds(150-200fow) to warming, shallower, bait-filled water.

Only use the flasher/flies in the spring, when the fish are below 100'. Spring is generally a spoon bite.

Ken said it 100% correctly. Spring is known for a spoon bite, but those kings below that 100' mark are "neutral" mood fish and thats what paddles are for!

I'm also going to hop on that St. Joe bus for spring time fishing. It truly is incredible when you catch it right.

2012 St. Joe look back