Onekema Information

[TheKingfisher]

Hi guys - I'm heading up to Onekema this weekend, we've got a slip at Portage Lake Marine and I'm looking for information on fishing from there. I'm reading the posts for Frankfort, Manistee and Ludington, are these close to what I should excpect in Onekema?

We've fished Manistee before but we've never fished this far north. Anyone with any information?

What channel is the fishing fleet on up there? Anyone going to be out in thoes ports I can communicate with on the water?

[Priority1]

We fished as far N. as the 20s out of Manistee. That is not that far South of Onekema. We were doing well in 130-145 FOW 40-60 down on the riggers, and 150 back on 3-1/2 with Dipsys. A number 5 Glow Ghost J plug was HOT. Other offerings were glow squid behind white hootchie off the dipsys, and a meat rig behind a hootchie off the dipsys. GL. Wishin I was Salmon Slammin. After Sunup don't hesitate to run a rigger or 2 down to the 100 FOW range.

[tltorrice]

There is a set of nets (3) just south of Onekema as I remember 100-120 fow. We fished to the outside of the nets and just a little south and did pretty good. I don't remember what baits were hot. There was very little boat traffic as well. I have hit this spot several times and had good luck. It sounds like the same area Frank is talking about.

Good Luck and have fun

TT

[JWheeler]

Fishing right outside of Onekema should be as good as anywhere else in the area. Have fished Onekema a few times, to the north of the piers is a spot they call the barrel. It comes from shore, drops from 50 - 140fow and then goes back up to like 70 fow then as you head west is the shelf. A friend of mines dad lives up there and he fishes it all the time with good success. Last time he was up the just circled the barrel, using canadian plugs, and moonshine glow spoons, I would also recomend putting out some meat rigs, and this should be a recipe for a good morning. Good Luck...

Radio chatter is 68 - 06 -07, 6&7 seem to be more locals.

[TheKingfisher]

Hey guys thanks for the information. We had a great time in Onekema, we primarily fished the barrell. The fish were hanging on the shallow shelf there. Saturday we took a 4 man limit of nice kings, Sunday was a little slower with 5 fish coming in just a couple hours in the morning before it was time to head home.

The most productive rig was white attarctors with silver and little boy blue flies or blue bubble spoons. We used Spin Dr.s, Opti's, Hoochie's, Big Al's fish flash, didn't matter as long as the colors were correct. Presentation didn't matter either, we were running these combos on riggers, dipseys, full cores, half cores. We also did take some fish on Green Glow Silver hordes on the fill core and several on a Pink Panties on a 2 color. It was a lot of fun, we had a lot of fish strike and get off, and many of the fish we did land had a big hook and hard mouths, so I'm gussing that was part of why we dropped a fair amount of fish. Had 3 fish that were unstoppable; one ran a dipsey out to over 1000 feet, as we started battening the drag down he broke the leader on the fly. Second one unspooled a full core and straightened the hooks when we tried to turn him, and we had another one break the line and lost the Flasher Spoon on that one.

Overall it was a great weekend on the water! Great weather, beautiful lake and shoreline.