Two Rivers/Manitowoc, Lake Michigan

Yesterday was another nice salmon fishing trip but not as good as the fishing trip before when we caught six salmon in an hour. Nice chunky fish for winter storage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAJwjMBCMBE

Footloose long passed away.  2ft. rollers from N.E. at least no chop to it Friday AM off Manitowoc.  Overcast, no fog as predicted, some wave action perfect King set up and they were very active.  I started setting in 75ft.; barely got a 62ft. rigger down and it went off - 15 minutes later off.  That slowed the set up.  A deep wire flasher fly took our first King in 92ft..  I ran double dipsy's and 2 riggers.  Fish were active 40ft. to 100ft. down where we took a King on a rigger set 96ft..  We found 110ft. to 115ft. best but boats were all over the place from 60ft. to 150ft.. All Natural Kings I believe no fin clips.  Three were 3 yr. old's and one a small 4yr. old.  Some alewife in the fish let's hope they have some big reproducing years to keep up with this Salmon population.  2019 is not that long ago and I netted 2 Kings that year in 15 outings.  Salmon eat alewife like  Like Joey Chestnut eating hot dogs. Anyway, Jim in pic and I were happy with the 4 for 8 trip.  Spoons worked better than fly's for me I even ran a Meat Rig deep for an hour - nothing.  Good Luck.

Long time since I've been on lake-link. Is Nessie or footloose still around? or does anyone know who they are? I've come a long way in the salmon world and really it all kind of started right HERE many many years ago. thank you all. good luck fishing. Josh

Lake Michigan had that ugly nasty 3 foot plus solid wave chop I call it from the Southeast on the way out Friday evening.  Waves just a few seconds apart and like  hitting a brick wall with an aluminum bow but I did eventually get set in 65ft. just South of town.  I had spoken with two fellows with a good catch at the Manitowoc launch Friday AM and my hopes were higher than what actually happened.  I had 3 riggers and two braided dipsies set about 6:15PM; later put down a wire dipsy with flasher fly while the other 5 rods had spoons.  No boards just too bouncy. We didn't get deeper than 77ft. and I started trolling into them but turned at 7PM to make things easier into the dark.  There was 49-50 degree water 50ft. down got this from another boater.  Nothing going into them but shortly after the turn a 38ft. rigger went but eventually was off.  About 7:40PM the wire mag dipsy loc 100ft. double aqua howie and white 8 inch bechhold took off.  30 miniutes later the male 4 year old found our net and I pulled shortly after.  Good number of boats out last evening.  One good thing was the current kept the rigger lines pretty straight with either a North or South troll.  The Salmon was tanning but meat was solid.  Appreciated the son keeping the boat on course for the two old men along. Good Luck.

Hockeyguy-

That wave forecast I posted is quite accurate within 24 hours and almost dead accurate within 12 hours. It’s pretty typical for a S or SE wind to develop in the afternoon during summer on sunny days. If I see that the wind is going to shift or build from any direction, I will intentionally motor to or troll in a direction that will put me upwind of the launch. Mostly for an easier ride back but also in case I need to flee quickly. It’s easy to troll with the wind and wind up way downwind of the launch, therefore making for a rough ride back in.

Well, that was disappointing. Saw two guys hanging four nice kings when we rolled into Seagull Marina so had higher hopes, and then reality slapped me right across the face lol. Started out with boards and the 7 color and two dipsies per side. Started in about 75 and worked out to 120-130 and back in.  No action at all. Wound up quite a ways north of TR, much farther than I thought we were which made the 5:30pm run back pretty interesting with the wind now out of the south and a pretty decent chop. Good thing I know how to drive a boat in conditions like that. Think I'll definitely be looking at REALLY calm days to try it again. While the boat itself can handle things well, the low profile of a ProV made moving around to tend to things a little challenging in the building swells. And slipping at the launch and bending my hip to a degree it hasn't seen in years really didn't help my abilities either. 
Maybe next time....

Thanks for the info! Looks like a beautiful day to be on a boat!  Really can't explain how excited I am right now. These last two hours of work are going to drag....
Per the replies to my small boat spread thread on the Great Lakes board, I'm planning on running two 7 color off boards and a couple dipsies per side, 3 and 0 settings most likely. I've always heard run something orange up high for bows. Will a 7 color (@35 feet, right?) be too deep for that surface action?  I have snap weights so could run those instead of lead off the boards. I fear I'm going to be paralyzed with indecision once we get out there lol

hockeyguy39     As of 730 am today Friday , the Marine forecasts near shore, {up to 5 miles out} look like less than 2 ft waves . Sat. after midnight , looks like waves building out of the south 4-7 ft. with a small craft warning possible after 6 AM. I would say go for it ,with the current forecast today ! I would try to set up in 90' depth, down 40-60 ft on your downriggers, and troll east to 130' depth , and see what is working ? With Westerly winds all morning, if your out later in afternoon, maybe troll west and see if the water temps have dropped enough to push fish in closer ! Watch the Charter Boats ,but keep your distance !!!
Wet Nets & Good fishing <(((<  

​Wave forecast ​​​

I’d expect 1-2’ in the afternoon but the morning looks pretty smooth. I run an 18’ glass boat and don’t particularly enjoy any wind much over 10 mph from any direction other than dead west. That summer afternoon SE wind is pretty tough to predict for wave height.