3-18-19 - St Joe

[spieg]

I normally fish out of South Haven, but the amount of ice on the webcams didn't look very inviting. A friend and I ended up launching from the Benton Harbor launch to get the boat wet and give it the annual shake down. A dozen or so pier anglers were out. One of them said he had seen a few boats in the last few days, but that nobody was catching yet. We pulled out of the piers around 9am and ran a mile or so south and set up in about 30fow. There's still an ice shelf in about 20fow and the water was calm enough that the surface was freezing on and off throughout the morning. Surface temps were 32-34. We zig zagged south between 25 and 55 fow until we got a mile or so past the chalet's. Never had a knock. Searched around for warmer water all day but couldn't find any. At the pier heads it was 41f at the surface.  We fished until 2 or so and on our way back in one of the guys on the pier said he had caught two, but nobody else had done anything. Talked to a few guys at the boat launch and all had said they hadn't heard of anything being caught out of St. Joe yet. Should be soon though. Beautiful day on the water, lots of sunshine and a nice ride all day.

[Matt]

Thanks for the report. I'm way up in frankfort and am planning my first trip down to st. Joe this spring. Don't know much about the fishery except what I find online. Look like I should wait a couple weeks when I have my actual vacation.