Fishing Report, Whitney Charters

Hello,

More news from the Big Pond but first I want to apologize to all of  you and Amanda for missing Amanda's last fishing report in my email last week, I promise to keep a better eye on my messages. And now back to Lake Michigan where the fishing is still excellent. Even better though is that people fishing from the pier with ale wives are able to enjoy the fishing too as abundant baitfish around the piers have pulled hungry salmon in towards shore over the last week. Trollers using bright spoons in patterns like the Hog Wild, Hitman and Jager Bombs have enjoyed excellent success in and around the muddy river water but good success is being had in the 40 to 60 foot depths away from the piers too. If either of those options let you down fishing has continued to be very good around the 200' mark with the biggest fish still holding from 90' - 150' down and preferring Paddle and Fly combinations. White Paddles with either a Blue Bead Mirage Action Fly or a Hypnotist Rapture fly have been very steady producers for the last few weeks and the Kevorkian Paddle with the same Mirage fly has been a fixture at 115' down on our starboard outdown since the season started. 450' copper rigs with the magnum Modified Blue Dolphin and Alley Cat have been deadly lately too. With the temperatures and winds bouncing around like they have and are forecast to continue to do, this incredible fishing will hopefully continue a little longer.

Perch fishermen were able to celebrate a little late last week also as reasonable success was had by those willing to put some time in. There's not a lot of bragging about the size of the catch but tastey 8 and 9 inchers moved back in and were the favorite target of a number of boats this last weekend. Other panfish have remained a bit on the slow side as the unsettled weather has kept them moving making success a little more difficult. Catch and release bass fisherman (my two sons and a rig they call a wacky worm) fishing around marinas have found plenty of fish to keep them entertained even with the cooler weather. Catfish are biting well on the Grand right now and the sandwhich ham from our boat seems to be the preferred bait.