Port Washington (Lake Michigan)

We left home at 1:20 to give us a little time buffer, picking up a friend Mike on the way to Port. Launched about 345 and headed about a mile south of the Harbor stopping in 70 feet of water enjoying some big sloppy rollers. There was hardly anyone around me until some Yahoo who pulled up right next to me so I turned immediately south west to get away from him. Finally got turned around and some other guy decides he had to go directly across my stern while we have a fish on so the day started out kind of exciting. I started fishing towards the north working 65 to 75 feet of water. We had bites immediately so everybody else kept going north and we turned around. We had the five color fire with an agent orange seven color fire with a mag Green Tiger, same  Green Tiger 66 feet out on a Dipsy three set. The big bite was a Downrigger down 20 60 feet back with number 4 extended glow homemade J plug. Don’t know why he came on buttoned when he did. 40 foot regular Sanburr Rigger took about an 8 pound king

The flurry ended, it was 6 o’clock and the fish stop biting. We had five in the box and we had four other bites one stuck and three were drive-bys. Decided to go south east because everybody else went north, and I didn’t hear any great results. I found a line on 120° heading that gave me the same speed at the probe as it did GPS. Got out to 170 and had a double!! Stayed there the rest of the morning. Marked quite a few fish around there. Going from 170 to 210 to 45 foot probe went from 46 up to 51 1/2. Spent most of the day going 3.0 at the ball on my DRX Dash 10.

Magnum RV sandbur 115 feet of cable out hit four times including a Laker. We could not budge. It was really heavy and don’t know if it was foul hooked or just big butt came on glued. Wire Dipsy 101 LOC three set 2 for 3 with newly designed green flasher as of yesterday plus a Green Willy fly. 46 down to 66 rigger with another new flasher 3 for 3 taking two rainbows and a Laker on some version of a bullfrog. Two color with Mike’s orange slender spoon a nice bow. 150 copper reg RV agent orange another rainbow. Homemade Rosta goose spoon 85 L0C three set a Coho.

Planned on fishing tomorrow with Steve pre-fishing for Brew city but that trip has been called off. Had I known I would’ve stayed for the one more fish to complete our limit. We were quite pleased to have 14 fish in theccooler with three kings, 2 Coho, 4 Lake Trout and 5 dandy rainbows averaging about 8 1/2 pounds. Unfortunately three had 3 with white flesh so they’re headed for a smoker.

What a grand day to have my grandson Cameron Bennett along. Probably 25 bites over the course of the morning. He was willing to clean up the floor of the boat, help pull in lines and of course was at the ready anytime he heard a rod go off. No naps for him today.
I see the full moon shows up around 1 August so not exactly sure what I will do next week. Do I go for a midday bite or do I start at 7 PM and go into the night. I’m kind of old for that one!
Grey Beard

Salmon A Rama for this year is over for me. Had some great times, lots of laughs, and a fair number of fish. None worthy of getting weighed.Dan and I launched today about 320 out of Port planning to head north. We were greeted by much larger rollers than anticipated but we wanted to go north because we knew there were some fish there. It was so dark I had no idea how big they were except when we would come down off of one, it was quite a bang. After plowing north 2 1/2 miles decided to fish into them which is not recommended, but I couldn’t see pounding another 3 miles!

I deployed a six color, seven color, 150 and 175 foot copper with all spoons, including magnum green tiger, regular Blue Jeans RV, and 2 mag Agent Orange because they have been hot lately. Opted for one downrigger with mag Agent Orange RV and one Dipsy with a dragonslayer both deployed on the same side of the boat so we had a place to net. We stayed between 50 and 55 feet of water finding 47° down 35. Speed was erratic at best but tried to keep it about 3 miles an hour at the ball on Depth Raider DRX-10.

It was a challenge to get set going into what turned out to be 5 to 6 foot rollers. Measured 5.8 at the Buoy! Fish were kind and waited until we got all the rods out and then proceeded to give us ample opportunities. Dan was fighting a nice fish on seven color with Mag green tiger and the downrigger fired and only about a 4 pound king so I just pulled it up over the gunnel without the net. Then netted his fish. Great way to start! 

Another nice fish on the Green Tiger but unfortunately, as we were trying to net it made a great dive maneuver between the two engines and escaped with my hot spoon. Then a downrigger bite with another four-year-old and I tried to keep the fish centered to avoid our other  board lines but that was not successful. When we got the fish in, we found a mass of copper tagging along. We put what we could get on old, spare, empty spools, and then put them aside because they were not salvageable. My friend John Curlee would say I made some great Lake Michigan macramé! 150 and 175 coppers need replacement lol.

200 foot copper screamed back and then stopped and we could not budge the fish. I assumed it was a fowl hook. Two charters on our outside kept us from turning out to put the fish on the side so we decided to just hang onto the fish until they passed. Another agent orange downrigger bite found its way around my friends mono Dipsy. So he’s standing there hanging onto his immobile fish and I’m trying to wrap the downrigger rod around the Dipsey rod and dropped the downrigger rod into the water! I thought there might be a chance that they were tangled together and by goodness they did. Tripped the Dipsy and brought in the Downrigger rod. Such a tangle of line I had to hand line another king. What a day! 

We continued to ride the swells south. Dragonslayer dipsy finally fired, capturing a nice Coho for our 10th fish. 2  Coho and eight kings, including 21, 19, 18, and 17. No prizes but a wonderful way to end fishing six days of Salmon A Rama. I wonder if I’ll keep waking up at 3 AM? Lol.


Grey Beard

The water is cold and the bite has been great the last 2 days close to shore spoons and flys both been good.  I have a give away going on and open dates posted on my favebook page if your intrested. ??https://www.facebook.com/nolanstopguncharters?mibextid=ZbWKwL???

Fished 100 to 150ft this morning with flasher flys 60 to 100 down. We have openings if you wana get out. nolanstopguncharters.com

Graybeard, we were a little south of you and stuck to 110 - 140 fow. Did a little better going 9 for 14 or so on the Mis-B-Haven with Scott Rice. Most of our fish were deep with the center rigger down 70 - 90 accounting for many fish with a black FF set-up. The wire dipsey on a 2 setting out 181 weith a chrome FF set up also was a good rod getting a few. Our copper lines took two hits but didn't stay hooked up. The 100 and the 300, with the 100 having a spoon on and the 300 a FF. The 7 color took a nice bow on a double orange crush. Ended with 3 kings (12 - 14 lbs), two bows, two coho, and two lakers. We left dock at 4 until 11. Last 2 hours were very slow.   Lots of fun when they are hitting.

Despite being on the water at 4 AM south of Port Washington in 80 to 120 feet I continue my long string of not landing on the fish. We were marking fish just couldn’t get bit with 12 rods. Finally, after a couple of hours we pulled a nice 5 pound Coho down 70 on a flasher and green fly. When I started pulling lines about 645 to run out deep, I found about a 3 pound king on my center rigger. We all talk about how that can kill your bite!

As we started our run east, I saw my gas gauge and remembered I forgot to fill up. Dumb! To compound it there was no gas at the gas dock and told me you could not go on the dock with a gas can. So we pull the boat and drove it to the gas station.
Headed east, and sat down in 300 feet of water south of town, we proceeded to make zigzag turns changed multiple baits and we’re two hours without a bite! I had fish going in and out of the Panoptix that drove me crazy!


Put out one of my Coho killer (flamethrower) orange tape OPTi flasher, Mountain Dew blade and small fly with spin n glo 40 down 40 back another nice Coho. Back to the same art of trolling and seeing multiple fish. Put out two more flamethrowers on a 200 copper and a Dipsy that should’ve been around 40 feet. Decent temperatures of 52 to 53 40 down trolling at at my typical  2.8 to 3.0 zigzagging via auto pilot. Had a drive by so fast we don’t know which rod it was inplus a drive by  seven color.
We were out as far as 410 feet of water then trolled back in wondering if I over ran the fish and should’ve started in the 200s. Clearing lines found about a 7 pound Lake Trout swimming along with our downrigger. At least it was the right size for eating. However, I wondered how long that one was on with a fat belly again to kill our spread.
Great company and great weather and lots of stories and very few flies. It was still quite a successful day.
Grey Beard

A few skirting the rocks and the gap, but not quite like what they were a few weeks ago.

Are the alewives still in the harbor? 

Nothing but great fishing all year so far.  Fished yesterday 100ft to 320ft back to 250 4hrs 4man limit came in early.  Rigers 60 to 100 flasher flys rest was leads and coppers with spoons. Thursday stayed inside of 200ft for kings had 12 fish mostly flasher flys on riggers 80 to 100 and weapons with flasher flys.  We have openings if you wana get out.  nolanstopguncharters.com

Fishing continues to be excellent out of Port Washington.  We are fishing 100-200ft of water down to 100ft with a mix of flasher/flys and spoons.  We the NE winds it has pushed the bait near the bottom and not much difference in temps from top to bottom.  I have a few openings during the week of Salmon a Rama if your interested.

We fished yesterday morning and had a 5 man limit by 8:15am.  Fishing the last few weeks is a good as it gets with a mix of Coho, Rainbows, Kings and Lake Trout!  We are fishing the top 50 feet with a mix of Coho rigs, spoons and flasher fly combos.  Fish can be located in a variety of depths from 90-300+ feet.  With the NE winds today I’m sure it will switch some patterns up.  I still have some openings in June if you want to get in on the action.

Setting lines around 420 about 2 miles north of port and 60 feet of water seeing lots of bait and hooks on the screen. Continue to troll north how to 80 and back to 60 with lots of marks and Bait and zero bites. Gave up after a well over an hour and headed east. Didn’t have a fish until 170 feet of water! Had two drive-bys and that one fish by  the time we got to 270 feet of water. Turned back to the southwest.Had a bite on a five color with a Ratchet Jaw 250 feet of water so I turned on that waypt. We would go from that point into around 235 feet NE to SW and just kept working that line. Of course the three biggest rainbows escaped but we got to see their aerial acrobatics and that was fun.
Temperature of the surface there was 58.7 and down 20 it was 46 and down 40  was 43. Kept trolling around 3 miles an hour picking up four rainbows, one pink salmon that came down 70’ Sanburr and  6COHO. We must’ve had at least seven Drive buys. Mark, just some scattered bait was hard to see, it was not balled up at all but enough to hold fish there.
Best rod was a five color that went 4 fish for five bites so eventually found my other five color put on the same Ratchet jaw RV reg and pulled one with that rod also. Agent orange RV regnon 2 color had the two biggest rainbows on but neither of them stayed hooked. Three color with a crab face took a rainbow. 200 copper with UV wonder bread took 2 fish. I put a Ratchet jaw RV reg on my 150 copper, and it finally fired. I think I had all that I own in the water lol. 
I think the only rigger bite was that pink salmon, which I was surprised to see. I thought they only came every other year and we had a bunch of them last summer.
So again, the damn full moon had those fish feeding in the night. A friend told me that in the same conditions at two Rivers charters on the evening Bites we’re getting four-man limits. However, we were grateful to have only one fish at eight and then rally to end up with 11 in the cooler. 
Grey Beard

Thanks Carpio and Blitz, I didn't think there was much i could do, but had to ask incase someone had a secret solution.
I fished milwaukee harbor for years, and we never had it gather on my lines like this.
Thanks again, good fishing to you all.

Correcto!    Round 2 starts soon.

It's not the spiny water fleas yet. It's cottonwood. Lots of it out there right now. There is no great way to keep it off to be honest. Sucks when it gets caught on in line knots and can't go through guides on the rod or line guide on the reel. Just have to try to get off as much as you can quick when you're fighting a fish.