August 19th, 2007

It's been an interesting season, what with all the controversy about the tribe's trap nets in the "barrel", north of Onekama, and in front of the "saddle", north of Manistee, two of our favorite fishing locations. Those nets had been removed by the tribe several weeks ago as a favor to the local fisheermen, then, just last weekend, another net has been placed north of the Manistee channel. Personally, this captain has no problem with the nets as long as they are properly marked, and fished in accord with the treaty guidelines (no game fish). In fact, once the Ludington boats learned how to fish around the nets, it is my understanding that their catch-rate actually improved, because the fish in the nets attract other fish.

All that aside, the larger kings have been showing up and catches have ranged from one to a dozen. High winds have turned the water over several times, changing water temps dramatically. I've seen days when temps have been warmer at fifty feet below the surface than they are on top, other days when the cannonballs have had to be down 120 feet to find 52 degrees, and yet other days when it's only 38 degrees 25 feet down. It really makes fishing a challenge! As always, sunrise and sunset continue to be the best times to catch these fish.

Lately, we've caught a few nice kings on cut bait behind a blue "Spin Doctor" with 7 colors of lead line in the water. Black and gold "Pro King"s have been popular, and blue "Hoochie Mama"s with an aqua-blue glow fly have been producing behind "Dipsy Diver"s set out about 125 feet. Best location has been right out in front of the channel in about 120 feet of water, fishing 35 to 50 feet down.

Tight Lines & Catch-Em-Up,

Captain Dave