FISHING REPORTS
Lake Michigan
Racine County, Wisconsin
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Finally the rain stopped and waves laid down. Saturday 7am - 9am solo trip Fished 35 fow - 50 fow with 2 DR's & 1 slide diver. Slide diver 4 set 55 - 70 LOC caught 2 and riggers down 20 & 22 caught 4. I had my 5 fish limit and while reeling in the slide diver a Coho hit it. I let that one go and headed in. If you can get calm seas, now is the time to limit out quickly on coho. Immortal UV slider fly and my hand tied green/gold/LBB slider fly literally has taken every coho caught this year. What channel are most guys using? 83, 86? I've got a new radio and didn't get a radio check response. I need to try again next time I'm out.
Did a short Solo trip today and will be solo again tomorrow. Set 2 riggers down 30 & 20, 1 dipsey 3 set 85LOC in 50fow off Wind point at 11:30 looking for coho. By 12:30 I was 1 for 3. Turned Due East and went out to 70fow with 0 hits. Pulled lines and re-set in 45 heading N/E and had the rigger down 20 get my 2nd coho in 52fow. Lost one at the net and had 2 more come off on top of the water 20' behind the boat. My hookup rate today was pathetic... ending 2 for 6. Waves were rough on the way back to ReefPoint. Hopefully tomorrow A.M it'll be calmer and my normal hookup rate shows itself again. I'm thinking about going deeper tomorrow. Sure would be nice to see more reports....I need help with what depth to start?
Racine 5/29 PM (Friday)
Had a 3-man crew for Friday night, so we decided to head north again to 42.47 to start off heading on an easterly troll. Ran a 9-line spread putting out more king baits to see what we could find. Temps were getting warmer with 54 on the surface in 60fow and about 52 degrees down 40. Set the riggers at 45 and 55 and ran wire divers a bit deeper than previous weeks out at 70 and 80loc. Also set the outside rods deeper with 6 color, 175 copper and 220 copper to starboard and 8 color and 240 copper to port.
We got our first 3 hits to stick with the first fish being a 6lb king on the deep rigger taking a Black Jack Brad’s cut plug. The marks were not heavy and we turned back west in 75fow not seeing any improvement on the graph. No real consistency to the bite as biters were coming anywhere from 30ft to 55ft down. We got up to 7 fish and then our track dried up taking no hits for about 45 minutes, so we worked north in 65fow and found a school of coho to get up to 12 fish as the sun hit the horizon, with riggers and divers providing most of the action. We pulled another small king on a rigger, then began pulling the wide lines in for the night. The 240 copper went off as we were doing this, taking another king on a Jeff’s green/cracked ice mag spoon. A rigger closed us out with a 3-man limit, finishing 15 for 23 on the beautifully calm night.
For such a calm weather night and good fishing, we only saw 2 other boats all night (unreal). Our best rod was a rigger down 45 with a Pro-King Stephs flasher and my Purple Ghost 4” fly. We only had 3 coho rigs out and they did take a fair amount of hits still pulling peanut flys. Good bait schools were seen in the bottom half of the water column as the sun got close to the horizon in 60-70fow. The winds picked up overnight, so we slept in and it appeared there were zero boats out off Racine in the morning. Next trip we will likely head out to colder water to search for some bigger kings.
See you out there,
Stosh
F/V Lord Willing
Had a 3-man crew for Friday night, so we decided to head north again to 42.47 to start off heading on an easterly troll. Ran a 9-line spread putting out more king baits to see what we could find. Temps were getting warmer with 54 on the surface in 60fow and about 52 degrees down 40. Set the riggers at 45 and 55 and ran wire divers a bit deeper than previous weeks out at 70 and 80loc. Also set the outside rods deeper with 6 color, 175 copper and 220 copper to starboard and 8 color and 240 copper to port.
We got our first 3 hits to stick with the first fish being a 6lb king on the deep rigger taking a Black Jack Brad’s cut plug. The marks were not heavy and we turned back west in 75fow not seeing any improvement on the graph. No real consistency to the bite as biters were coming anywhere from 30ft to 55ft down. We got up to 7 fish and then our track dried up taking no hits for about 45 minutes, so we worked north in 65fow and found a school of coho to get up to 12 fish as the sun hit the horizon, with riggers and divers providing most of the action. We pulled another small king on a rigger, then began pulling the wide lines in for the night. The 240 copper went off as we were doing this, taking another king on a Jeff’s green/cracked ice mag spoon. A rigger closed us out with a 3-man limit, finishing 15 for 23 on the beautifully calm night.
For such a calm weather night and good fishing, we only saw 2 other boats all night (unreal). Our best rod was a rigger down 45 with a Pro-King Stephs flasher and my Purple Ghost 4” fly. We only had 3 coho rigs out and they did take a fair amount of hits still pulling peanut flys. Good bait schools were seen in the bottom half of the water column as the sun got close to the horizon in 60-70fow. The winds picked up overnight, so we slept in and it appeared there were zero boats out off Racine in the morning. Next trip we will likely head out to colder water to search for some bigger kings.
See you out there,
Stosh
F/V Lord Willing
After some frustrating boat maintenance, I Finally got the boat into my slip this morning and went out for a very easy, short, non high expectation hunt for coho. Set 2 riggers 32 & 35 down with yellow orange dot 00 Dodgers and my custom tied Coho flies in 40fow just south of Wind Point on a NE troll at 2.7 gps. Before I could get a dipsey out the Port rigger hit. First Coho of the year and nice size. Reset that rigger and a slide diver 4 set 118 loc, a #1 dipsey 80 loc, 3 color LC & 7 color LC. We decided to head in because it was a bit chilly since we decided to wear shorts & t-shirts when it was 80° at home but about 62° on the water. Ended with 4 nice size Coho after 2 hrs of trolling. Had 2 drive by's and lost one at the net. 3LC, Riggers and Dipsey took the fish.
Racine – May 24/25 (Sunday PM - Monday AM)
With great weekend weather and plenty of fish off the Racine shore, we planned two 3-man outings for Sunday night and Monday morning. We arrived Sunday at 3pm, but just as we left the dock a heavy fog rolled into the harbor. We fueled up and tool a peak at the river mouth, but you could not even see across the river, so we went back to the slip to wait it out. About 3:45pm the fog pushed out about a half mile, so we powered out towards wind point, but ran into a wall of fog halfway out and had to throttle down to a crawl. We decided to set lines and troll NE in hopes it would subside. After about 30 minutes of fishing water, we did not want to, the fog cleared up considerably and we continued on inside the south reef marker off wind point. We worked east between the two reefs and took a couple of hits that did not stay hooked. We were running 2 riggers with a Hud gold/orange spoon and a moonshine flounder pounder, two dipsys and five wide lines with Alderton coho rigs. The wide lines out on dual keeled Otter Boats were 2c, 3c, and 6c to starboard and 3c and 5c to port. As we popped out to the east side of the reefs, we took a few more hits and continued east now with an 0 for 4 start. We kept at it and finally boxed a nice coho in 50fow and then had a double out a bit farther in 55fow. We turned on that waypoint and worked E-W for the next hour without the hook up rate improving now at 5 for 12. A thick fog then rolled in on us again and an unusual lake effect was observed. The wind rose about 5mph to about 13 and instead of the normal lake reaction of white caps appearing and building waves to 1-3 footers, very large swells appeared immediately. They were very, very wide like ocean swells and rose to heights of about 4-5ft. The swells kept coming from the south for about 30 minutes until the fog cleared, then they stopped as quickly as they started, seemingly triggered by the fog (a very eerie scene). The waypoint bite dried up, so we went back inside the reefs and worked N-S in 40-50fow taking regular hits as we went. The best rod was the Hud spoon on rigger down 28-33ft. We pulled lines before sundown, not wanting to get caught out in foggy darkness, which I consider the worst conditions to navigate in. Closed out the night with 10 coho on 23 hits, all between 3 and 4.5 pounds.
Went below to get some kip and had a late arrival on Monday morning, so we headed back out after sunup, opting to start in the same area trying the shallower N-S troll we finished with the night before. Set lines about 6am adding in a couple of king baits, but keeping the gold/orange Hud spoon in the lineup. We made two passes inside of many boats that were working the water outside the reefs in about 50-60fow. Hits were there again and we boxed 2 coho and a brown trout about 4lbs on 6 strikes. We then turned east trolling into the bright sunshine (with no fog!!). I had noticed the 5 and 6 color lines were getting hit more frequently than the 2-3c sets, so once we had 50fow under the boat I dropped the riggers farther down to 40 and 45ft and extended the dipsys out farther to 45-55loc. I also added a Brad’s cut-plug onto the starboard rigger and a flasher fly to the starboard dipsy, which needed to get into the action. The set changes paid immediate dividends and we began taking more frequent hits in the 60-75fow range. Once we hit 80fow we turned back west and had continued action in that depth range working E-W between two waypoints. We finished up a 3-man limit about 8:45am landing a double needing only one of the two for our 15 fish. Two kings were also added to the box on the deeper side of our waypoints in about 75fow (4 and 5.5lbs). Closed out the morning at 16 for 24 with the hookup rate getting much better as the trip progressed.
This was a classic Memorial Day weekend on the big pond! The weather allowed all boats to get out and take part in our time-honored Wisconsin tradition. Not sure how the bite was off the ports to the north and south of us (I assume very good), but it was an epic weekend off Racine with boat after boat coming in with limit catches. It was great to see many smiling faces around the cleaning station. Hats off to our fish management team…the lake is very healthy!!
See you out there,
Stosh
F/V Lord Willing
With great weekend weather and plenty of fish off the Racine shore, we planned two 3-man outings for Sunday night and Monday morning. We arrived Sunday at 3pm, but just as we left the dock a heavy fog rolled into the harbor. We fueled up and tool a peak at the river mouth, but you could not even see across the river, so we went back to the slip to wait it out. About 3:45pm the fog pushed out about a half mile, so we powered out towards wind point, but ran into a wall of fog halfway out and had to throttle down to a crawl. We decided to set lines and troll NE in hopes it would subside. After about 30 minutes of fishing water, we did not want to, the fog cleared up considerably and we continued on inside the south reef marker off wind point. We worked east between the two reefs and took a couple of hits that did not stay hooked. We were running 2 riggers with a Hud gold/orange spoon and a moonshine flounder pounder, two dipsys and five wide lines with Alderton coho rigs. The wide lines out on dual keeled Otter Boats were 2c, 3c, and 6c to starboard and 3c and 5c to port. As we popped out to the east side of the reefs, we took a few more hits and continued east now with an 0 for 4 start. We kept at it and finally boxed a nice coho in 50fow and then had a double out a bit farther in 55fow. We turned on that waypoint and worked E-W for the next hour without the hook up rate improving now at 5 for 12. A thick fog then rolled in on us again and an unusual lake effect was observed. The wind rose about 5mph to about 13 and instead of the normal lake reaction of white caps appearing and building waves to 1-3 footers, very large swells appeared immediately. They were very, very wide like ocean swells and rose to heights of about 4-5ft. The swells kept coming from the south for about 30 minutes until the fog cleared, then they stopped as quickly as they started, seemingly triggered by the fog (a very eerie scene). The waypoint bite dried up, so we went back inside the reefs and worked N-S in 40-50fow taking regular hits as we went. The best rod was the Hud spoon on rigger down 28-33ft. We pulled lines before sundown, not wanting to get caught out in foggy darkness, which I consider the worst conditions to navigate in. Closed out the night with 10 coho on 23 hits, all between 3 and 4.5 pounds.
Went below to get some kip and had a late arrival on Monday morning, so we headed back out after sunup, opting to start in the same area trying the shallower N-S troll we finished with the night before. Set lines about 6am adding in a couple of king baits, but keeping the gold/orange Hud spoon in the lineup. We made two passes inside of many boats that were working the water outside the reefs in about 50-60fow. Hits were there again and we boxed 2 coho and a brown trout about 4lbs on 6 strikes. We then turned east trolling into the bright sunshine (with no fog!!). I had noticed the 5 and 6 color lines were getting hit more frequently than the 2-3c sets, so once we had 50fow under the boat I dropped the riggers farther down to 40 and 45ft and extended the dipsys out farther to 45-55loc. I also added a Brad’s cut-plug onto the starboard rigger and a flasher fly to the starboard dipsy, which needed to get into the action. The set changes paid immediate dividends and we began taking more frequent hits in the 60-75fow range. Once we hit 80fow we turned back west and had continued action in that depth range working E-W between two waypoints. We finished up a 3-man limit about 8:45am landing a double needing only one of the two for our 15 fish. Two kings were also added to the box on the deeper side of our waypoints in about 75fow (4 and 5.5lbs). Closed out the morning at 16 for 24 with the hookup rate getting much better as the trip progressed.
This was a classic Memorial Day weekend on the big pond! The weather allowed all boats to get out and take part in our time-honored Wisconsin tradition. Not sure how the bite was off the ports to the north and south of us (I assume very good), but it was an epic weekend off Racine with boat after boat coming in with limit catches. It was great to see many smiling faces around the cleaning station. Hats off to our fish management team…the lake is very healthy!!
See you out there,
Stosh
F/V Lord Willing
Racine 5/14 PM (Thursday)
We only had 2 on board for an evening outing leaving the dock about 4:30pm. When we reached the river mouth we met 4 boats in an east-west line heading south just off the river. We powered a bit south to set up and trolled past the boat launch gap without a pop. The temp was up to 54 degrees with 51 down 15ft and the water (although green) was a bit cloudy in close. I decided to turn east to get some clearer and a bit colder water heading for the south side of the reef. We had no hits for about the first 45 minutes, then we had two hits out near the SE corner of the reef. We turned on that spot and took another hit, then finally boxed our first coho. As we worked east of the reef, we noticed a white boat that seemed to be adrift with no one aboard. It was a row style boat about 16ft in length and as we got closer it was indeed drifting unmanned, so we called it in to the authorities, who eventually sent a boat from MKE to pick it up. We then turned west and found a big school of fish on the graph just north of the reef with occasional bait. We worked that school and started to box fish at a more regular pace. We eventually found another school to work between the two and finished up about an hour before dark at 12 for 21, tossing back 2 smaller fish. We ran 2 Hud spoons on the riggers with the gold/orange being the best performer down 18-20ft. We also ran another coho fly comparison with dipsys and 2 color lines to port and starboard. Port side had our Boom Baby Lime peanut (black/green/silver) which has been our hottest fly this season, and the starboard side had our Coho Copper peanut (see pictures). It was about a tie overall, but the Copper fly well outperformed on the dipsy taking about 6 hits to 2, and the BB Lime fly well outperformed on the 2-color taking 6 hits to 1.
Winds look to be picking up for the weekend, so I will be heading up north to the woods for awhile and will likely get back out later next week.
See you out there,
Stosh
F/V Lord Willing
We only had 2 on board for an evening outing leaving the dock about 4:30pm. When we reached the river mouth we met 4 boats in an east-west line heading south just off the river. We powered a bit south to set up and trolled past the boat launch gap without a pop. The temp was up to 54 degrees with 51 down 15ft and the water (although green) was a bit cloudy in close. I decided to turn east to get some clearer and a bit colder water heading for the south side of the reef. We had no hits for about the first 45 minutes, then we had two hits out near the SE corner of the reef. We turned on that spot and took another hit, then finally boxed our first coho. As we worked east of the reef, we noticed a white boat that seemed to be adrift with no one aboard. It was a row style boat about 16ft in length and as we got closer it was indeed drifting unmanned, so we called it in to the authorities, who eventually sent a boat from MKE to pick it up. We then turned west and found a big school of fish on the graph just north of the reef with occasional bait. We worked that school and started to box fish at a more regular pace. We eventually found another school to work between the two and finished up about an hour before dark at 12 for 21, tossing back 2 smaller fish. We ran 2 Hud spoons on the riggers with the gold/orange being the best performer down 18-20ft. We also ran another coho fly comparison with dipsys and 2 color lines to port and starboard. Port side had our Boom Baby Lime peanut (black/green/silver) which has been our hottest fly this season, and the starboard side had our Coho Copper peanut (see pictures). It was about a tie overall, but the Copper fly well outperformed on the dipsy taking about 6 hits to 2, and the BB Lime fly well outperformed on the 2-color taking 6 hits to 1.
Winds look to be picking up for the weekend, so I will be heading up north to the woods for awhile and will likely get back out later next week.
See you out there,
Stosh
F/V Lord Willing
Racine – May 6th PM
Got a chance to head out Wed night with 2 friends with high expectations on the coho bite. I decided to motor out of the river at 4:30 and head about a quarter mile north, then turn around and setup an 8-line spread for a south troll. We put smaller Hud spoons in copper/green and gold/orange on the riggers and set them both to 16ft. We then let out the Otter Boats and set out 2 lines per side with Alderton flashers in hot red with my Boom-Baby Lime peanut flies. These 4 lines were 2 color and 3 color on each side. Ran 2 dipsys on a 3 setting out 25loc also with the same coho rigs, but one had a copper peanut fly.
As we passed the river with 3 lines down, the hits started to come. We managed to get all 8 lines out after boxing 3 fish on 4 hits while setting up. Once we passed the green reef can the hits picked up even further. Once we reached the cove we turned around to the north now 10 for 14. By the time we got back to the reef we had our 15 fish limit at 5:45pm. Had 3 more released fish pulling lines, ending up 18 for 24 on a very short evening trip. The size was better then average for this time of year with most of the catch between 3lb 4oz and 3lb 14oz. Bait was seen all along the shore with the fish we pulled in spitting out alewife onto the deck.
The action is hot right now in tight off Racine. I may get out again in the next few days since the water clarity is currently cooperative.
See you out there,
Stosh
F/V - Lord Willing
Got a chance to head out Wed night with 2 friends with high expectations on the coho bite. I decided to motor out of the river at 4:30 and head about a quarter mile north, then turn around and setup an 8-line spread for a south troll. We put smaller Hud spoons in copper/green and gold/orange on the riggers and set them both to 16ft. We then let out the Otter Boats and set out 2 lines per side with Alderton flashers in hot red with my Boom-Baby Lime peanut flies. These 4 lines were 2 color and 3 color on each side. Ran 2 dipsys on a 3 setting out 25loc also with the same coho rigs, but one had a copper peanut fly.
As we passed the river with 3 lines down, the hits started to come. We managed to get all 8 lines out after boxing 3 fish on 4 hits while setting up. Once we passed the green reef can the hits picked up even further. Once we reached the cove we turned around to the north now 10 for 14. By the time we got back to the reef we had our 15 fish limit at 5:45pm. Had 3 more released fish pulling lines, ending up 18 for 24 on a very short evening trip. The size was better then average for this time of year with most of the catch between 3lb 4oz and 3lb 14oz. Bait was seen all along the shore with the fish we pulled in spitting out alewife onto the deck.
The action is hot right now in tight off Racine. I may get out again in the next few days since the water clarity is currently cooperative.
See you out there,
Stosh
F/V - Lord Willing
Racine - Friday, April 24 (afternoon)
My launch date was pushed off to Friday 4/24 and as it turned out we had favorable weather. When running up the river from Riverside Marine to Reef Point Marina we could see the river was loaded with alewife jumping ahead of the boat and hundreds of gulls diving the length of the river channel devouring as many as they could get to. Took a few hours to load up the boat and get her ready to fish, but we were able to get out for a shakedown cruise about 4pm. The harbor still has quite a bit of brown water and debris from the recent rains, so we decided to setup near the green can of the reef and take a loop around the reef to see what we could find. Set out an early season mix including a couple of stick baits, 2 smaller copper and gold spoons on the riggers and coho rigs with a few different color combinations. Took a shaker while setting up on a easterly troll and had pretty steady action on the south side of the reef, but no doubles or triples. Worked 28-40fow as we reached the east end of the reef turning west down the north side of the reef. Had a bit of a lull then had a triple about a third of the way down heading back towards the river mouth. Pulled lines as we reached the harbor mouth and muddy water. Went 7 for 12 in about 2hrs and certainly would have been able to pull a limit if we would have worked a few spots more specifically. The coho were pretty good size for this time of year, so we kept 5 for a cookout on Saturday. Best rod was a 2 color out wide with an hot red Alderton flasher and my Boom Baby Lime peanut fly (black/silver/UV Lime).
Shore fisherman were doing well and boats fishing in shallower water to the north and south were able to take limit catches in relatively short order.
See you out there,
Stosh
Lord Willing
My launch date was pushed off to Friday 4/24 and as it turned out we had favorable weather. When running up the river from Riverside Marine to Reef Point Marina we could see the river was loaded with alewife jumping ahead of the boat and hundreds of gulls diving the length of the river channel devouring as many as they could get to. Took a few hours to load up the boat and get her ready to fish, but we were able to get out for a shakedown cruise about 4pm. The harbor still has quite a bit of brown water and debris from the recent rains, so we decided to setup near the green can of the reef and take a loop around the reef to see what we could find. Set out an early season mix including a couple of stick baits, 2 smaller copper and gold spoons on the riggers and coho rigs with a few different color combinations. Took a shaker while setting up on a easterly troll and had pretty steady action on the south side of the reef, but no doubles or triples. Worked 28-40fow as we reached the east end of the reef turning west down the north side of the reef. Had a bit of a lull then had a triple about a third of the way down heading back towards the river mouth. Pulled lines as we reached the harbor mouth and muddy water. Went 7 for 12 in about 2hrs and certainly would have been able to pull a limit if we would have worked a few spots more specifically. The coho were pretty good size for this time of year, so we kept 5 for a cookout on Saturday. Best rod was a 2 color out wide with an hot red Alderton flasher and my Boom Baby Lime peanut fly (black/silver/UV Lime).
Shore fisherman were doing well and boats fishing in shallower water to the north and south were able to take limit catches in relatively short order.
See you out there,
Stosh
Lord Willing
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