Salmon move to deeper water in Saugatuck

Our fishing continues to very good with catches of 9 to 20 fish per trip, however, you will have to move out to deeper water to get a consistent catch. After the big blow the weekend of the 11th, the lake turned over and we had water temperatures in the 40's. With the drop in temperature, the bait moved into the river water and out to deep water and the salmon and trout followed. There were steelhead caught off the Saugatuck piers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but trolling there produced very little action. Most of the fish were caught off the piers with shrimp under a cork. The best trolling success occurred out in 200 and 220 foot of water from the surface down to 100 foot. As the water began to warm, the bait started to collect in 150 to 170 foot of water and the salmon and trout followed and by this past weekend we were catching fish from 60 down to 160 foot. The catch consists of mostly chinook salmon (3 and 4 year olds) with a few lake trout, coho and steelhead in the catch.

The best method continues to be flashers and flies, however we did catch a few salmon and steelhead on the silver red head and green splatter back Ace Hi plug and on the mixed veggie stingray. The best combination of flashers and flies were:

11 in white glow Pro Troll with either the Illusion or Green Hypnotist fly
8 in silver fish scale Pro Troll with Green No See Um
8 in Super Frog with Green Hypnotist
8 in Green Wiggle with the Illusion
8 in Blue Wiggle white blade with Blue Bubble Rapture fly
8 in Glow Frog with Green Glow Hypnotist

For information and/or charter reservations email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.