Late Season Trolling off Port Sheldon, etc

[Luke Tuccini]

Been out a couple times lately, mostly just to learn where fish are and try some different tactics.

Marking VERY few from 60' to 180'. Trying downriggers, SWR (Downriggers with 90' lead), also planers with copper from 65' to 400', and 124mm wire dipsies on 2-3 settings.

Thermocline almost nonexistent. Mostly same warm temp from surface to 70' down at buoy.  Gotta be at 155' FOW just to see it break to 51 at about 70-80' down?

Every time we get another sheep, we go west toward deeper FOW, and deeper down in colder water.

Reel to Reel Charter on You Tube claims steelhead no problem off beach 30 FOW at Ludington, and lighthouse, etc? Obviously no major river here but same general patterns?

Anybody out there trying Muskegon or Saugatuck, or others?

Had a real good year with new Hewescraft, just trying to extend it as much as possible, ha.

 

 

[jdh]

Try going out to 220 and fishing into deeper water. Not sure how many lines you're running, but keep several lines in top 30 feet of water.  A couple 50-70 and a couple 90-120 down.  I mainly use smaller stinger or super slim spoons and troll 3 mph.  Can be good, and can also seem like the lake is empty.

[Wes34]

When fishing steelhead offshore in fall down temperatures aren’t as important as they are the rest of the season. At this time you can find some areas where the surface temp is 1-3 degrees cooler and the steelhead will be in those areas. You can cover a lot of water and suddenly stumble into an area hold fish. The fish out deep are usually feeding on small bait that usually marks in small schools in the top 50.


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