Lake Michigan, Sheboygan

Report is from 8/06/17

Departed the pierheads at 4:30 AM headed straight east until we reached  200 FOW.

Had the six line spread by 5:00 AM

2 Downriggers:

75' down SWR with 8" white flasher UV Mirage glow Fly.

90' UV Spin Doctor with herring meat rig

2 Slide Divers:

300' loc white flasher uv mirage fly w/ glow beads

280' loc spin doctor with agua green frog fly

2 Leadcores:

10 color w/ Mag blue knight

8 color w/ Mag Atomic Melon

First hit at 5:30 on 300' slide diver in 225 fow. 4 lb Laker

Second hit at 6:15 on 300' slide diver in 270 fow. 3 lb steelhead.

Third hit at 8:00 am on 280' slide diver with aqua green frog fly in 220 fow. ~22 lb King (planted)

Fourth hit at 9:30 on 75' rigger with ff uv mirage glow in 235 fow. Nice 12 lb steelhead.

Fifth hit at 10:30 on 8 color Mag Atomic Melon in 250 fow, 6 lb steelhead.

Pulled lines at 11:30 AM. Ended up 5 for 5 with one drive by on the slide diver. Surface temp was between 67-70 degrees. Appeared to be a temp break about 70 foot down. 

Our best action was in 220-240 fow. Out deeper and in shallower we marked far fewer fish. Seems as though the stocked kings are working their way back over and are starting to stage near their home waters. The one we got was just getting slightly bronze but the meat quality was still good.

At the cleaning station most guys I talked to had 2-7 fish. The guys with 7 (5 of which were lakers) said they were out deep in about 450 fow.

Fishing seems to be picking up a bit, I'm looking to get back out Wednesday afternoon. Hoping to break the 30lb mark on a king yet this year. 

Good fishin'

-Skippy

Out this morning and set up at 4:45 East of harbor in 100 fow. Trolled south from 100-150 fow to about Black River. Went 1/3, bites were all on flasher/fly combos at 20-25 feet in around 120 fow ENE of shipwreck. All on slide divers. Marked a lot of fish in the 20-40 range and from 100 to the bottom, but they didn't seem very hungry. Water surface temp still at 67.

A brief and delayed report.

I heard a positive report from Sheboygan in 260 to 300 feet of water straight out with a boat capturing 19 of 40 bites on Sunday. Milwaukee has been incredibly slow so excited to get a chance to get a few more bites.

Set up in 280 feet of water with 68° on the surface and 56° down 55 feet. Marking lots of bait in the top 25 feet along with occasional hooks. Started with a double on Riggers down 50 and 60 with White flashers and little boy blue and Bullfrog flies. Then a 150 copper with Blue Jack Brad's and pearl glo Big Al fish flash. Missed one on a white flasher glow green fly wire Dipsy 140 LOC. Then nada for about 2+ hours. It seemed I could never get a second bite on a way point both days.

Late morning bites came on seven color green UV Mag spoon, 150, 200, 250 coppers with Brad's cut plugs, Blue Jack, Blackjack and Seahawk with big Al's. We went one for four on our last four bites ending 12 for 16. Five Coho, 4 rainbows and one LT and drowned 2 dink Kings.

Excited to get back the next day despite the longer drive. I figured I knew where they were and a little bit better about what they wanted. Wrong! You can cut the above report basically in half for action. More came on cut plugs than flasher flies and again only one spoon bite on the seven color. Both days I tried fishing the marks up high with three and five colors and they never had a sniff. Don't know where the fish moved and apparently either did the charters because it looked like the same group of boats was around that area both days.

Just like you I am waiting to see if West winds will bring fish back in. Apparently doing well on the Michigan side with good king action reported. Intrigued that they are slamming Coho and rainbow way out off of Winthrop Harbor with limit catches and they are not here.

Grey Beard

We went out to 170’ of water off of power plant on August 1 from 3 to 8:15 pm and worked our way slowly north with the waves.  It was rough for my 18’ boat with the waves far larger than the 1 ft. in the forecast.  No fish for the first two hours.  We picked up the rainbow on a dipsy, w/spoon in about 150’ of water around 7 pm.  The rest on the rigger.  We ended up going 5 for 5.  1-33” 12 lb. rainbow, 1 coho, 3 kings.  The largest at 33” and at 13 lbs. came on a Flounder Pounder RV moonshine magnum 5" 70' down.   All on spoons, nothing touched the flies or meat rig.

Went out to 280 trolled east to 310 found a few fish 2/2 bows marked fish high 20feet marked fish 120 down. Tried meat rigs, flasher flies, and spoons.  One came on moonshine blue jeans 7 color one on down rigger blue bubble pro king 40 down.  Both caught in a very small area right before the waves picked up.

Fished Friday and Saturday went 3 for 5 on Friday, and 4 for 4 on Saturday. Friday got a nice 20# king. Both days most of our action was between 100-120 FOW. Friday was all lead core, Saturday was all slide divers. Had to work for the 4 on Saturday, that was at least a 9 hour trip. All fish were caught on spoons. No luck on flies.