8/5/15, Saginaw Bay, Au Gres, Fishing Report

[Trophy Specialist]

My clients from Hale, MI, Ann Arbor, MI and Illinois enjoyed some fun walleye fishing on the Bay today. We started out heading onto the Bay with fairly stiff, northwest winds combined with pretty big rollers from the northeast for some sloppy conditions. The early morning bite was good though as we had 15 walleyes in the box by 11:00. After that though, when the wind died down and then started switching this way and that way, the bite was very slow and also turned light. Before 11:00 we caught most of the fish that were hooked, but after that, we lost far more than were caught. When the walleye bite slowed, the gobies got a lot more active and started coming up and steeling crawlers exacerbating the problem. If we had gotten a bit earlier start, we would have limited out early, but instead we fished all day and ended up with 19 walleyes, one short of my clients limits. At least my clients got to enjoy a full day of fishing though. The only real complaint that I get on my boat is that limits are caught too fast. Today they did not have that problem. Next year, when the limit is doubled to 10 walleyes on Saginaw Bay, hopefully that complaint will be a thing of the past. We caught all our walleyes on spinner/crawler rigs with bottom bouncers. I did run some crankbaits and did not get any action on them today. Our hottest rig was the starboard flat line with a red/silver pattern harness 60 feet back with a three ounce weight. We trolled at speeds of 1.4 to 2.0 mph depending on the depth. We fished north of Big Charity Island once again. There are a lot of fish there for sure, but there are also a lot of baitfish there too, so the bite is not as consistent as we experience in other areas earlier in the season. Depths fished ranged from 20 to 30 feet of water today and the walleyes were scattered over a wide area with pods of fish here and there that were moving around a lot making them hard to peg down. If we get stable weather, then the fishing there is fantastic, but if the weather is unstable with changing winds, then the fishing is tougher. Hopefully tomorrow will bring stabile weather.

Capt. Mike Veine

[Priority1]

Mike, Nice work again in tough conditions.