Boats headed in different directions this morning in search of king salmon with limited success. Jim caught a good king on the island and another in the afternoon in Good Harbor. Bill remembered that there is usually a short lull in the salmon fishing about now and we just have to wait a few days for the fish to return.

I had kids on this morning who wanted to catch lake trout. We fished the first bank where there aren’t as many fish, but they are big. we had to throw back several. It is a shame to waste a fish like the one pictured here because it was hooked deeply in the gills and was pumping out its blood. We put it back in the water and watched the crimsom surround it. It wasn’t long before the gulls found it and started their pecking. Still, the law is that the big ones have to go back and so they do, whether we like it or not.

When the morning was over the kids and grand dads had plenty of legal fish to take home for dinner.

Too big to keep

A friend caught this 14 pound steelhead this morning while trolling for salmon. This is an unusually large steelhead and reminds me of the fish we used to catch on the scum line at this time of year. No one goes out there any more because of the fuel expense, but if they did I believe other fish like this would be waiting.

Most of the boats fished for trout today and did well. It didn’t make a difference whether they used spoons or conventional lake trout gear. The trout were piled in and hungry. Many had to be released because they were longer than the 23″ maximum size the DNR has mandated. Personally, I don’t mind releasing the big ones as the smaller fish like these taste better, I believe.

Lucky Bob holds up two typical trout he caught.

Aaron holds a 14 pound steelhead.  Click to enlarge photo.

At first there wasn’t any bug activity at all. Daylight still had its say and I didn’t mind sitting there on the bank smoking cigar and thinking about very little . The sound of the current breaking around a log and motion of the river hypnotized me into a pleasant place.

Eventually a small mayfly hovered above the water and was soon joined by another and another until there were too many to count. A small trout cleared the water chasing one not far away and I wondered if I could catch it. I clipped off the big hex fly, added a piece of 5X and a small dry that matched the bugs in the air near me. It took about four casts to find that trout and it gulped the fly like little trout are wont to do.

Returning to my seat on the bank I put the big hex pattern back on and waited. Soon there were a few hexs in the air and they were joined buy a thousand more. Some of the flies coupled and others looked like they had egg sacs or something coming out. These flies dropped to the water and I saw at least one drop what I think were eggs. Other hexs simply dropped onto the water and were carried off with the current. The water was alive with fish taking flies off the surface; the late sky was full; the day was all but gone. I hooked several fish in that pool, one brook trout and the rest small browns. None were the big fish I hoped for, but a 12-inch brown is still fun to catch. Eventually it all stopped. I couldn’t hear fish feeding and I moved to another pool I scouted earlier thinking that I had spooked all the fish in the first place. I slipped into the current carefully and waited for the sound of fish. I heard one, maybe two gulps, but then it was silent for a long time and my casts into the night went unchallenged.

This morning the wind was blowing out of the north and at least three of the charter boats decided not to go out. A fourth had some hearty fishermen and they trolled for salmon on the first bank and caught maybe eight trout on spoons. There was another report I heard of a private boat that went to the island and came in with 6 or 8 good kings.

In the afternoon two boats went out and there was radio talk of fish being caught, but I didn’t catch all the specifics.

Not too exciting a report, but hey, there are those of you who read this and just want to know what the fishing results are.

Salmon or salmonella storyClick photo to enlarge

Salmon - salmonella story

When Eric and his family showed up at the boat this morning at a quarter to six he didn’t look very good. He had that sick appearance of someone who should be in bed and not going fishing. Glassy, glazed and sick, that’s how he looked. He said he thought he had food poisoning, but wanted to go fishing anyway. After all he had come all the way from the east coast for this and wasn’t going to let a near-death feeling stop him.

We headed to the north end of North Manitou island and set up. The first rod down had a hit, but the fish got off after a few moments of hard-bending the rod. My sense of it was that it was a good fish, but we’ll never know. The next bite was a good trout who liked the looks of a salmon spoon. After that three more kings came over the rail. None were monsters, but fun to catch while waiting for a real big one.

Eric’s condition went down hill and he decided the a trip to the doctor was what he needed to do. So, after fishing just a little while we reeled in and quit for the morning.

The other boats that went trout fishing did well, as you would expect, and those that looked for kings had results like mine.

Fly fishing-

As I sat on the bank watching the river a small mink came by just a few feet from me. Seemingly oblivious to my presence and my lit cigar held motionless in my hand, it darted and poked exploring the bank.

Some small trout would occasionally take bugs off the surface, although there wasn’t a good hatch that I could see. I was waiting for the hex hatch or spinner fall with the idea of catching a big river brown. I couldn’t see any hexs in the air or floating and as it was almost dark and a few larger rises started happening. I decided to cast even though I didn’t think these were the fish I was hunting. I was tired after getting up early for a morning charter on lake Michigan. I had the big fly on an 8-pound leader and didn’t think the small fish would be interested. I was wrong. A little brookie wacked it and got hooked. This one was followed by a bigger trout, a brown, of 9 or 10 inches, still not the big brown I was looking for. After releasing them I waited longer thinking that I had chosen a good spot. There was a tree and log in the river covering a hole just a few yards down stream from my stand and up current there was a smooth run of about thirty yards; it looked good with both deep and shallow water and not so much river noise that I couldn’t hear a big brown slurping bugs in the darkness.
I waited past full dark hoping to see flies in the air and then waited a little longer. Finally, ready to go home I made some blind casts- just because - nothing. Slowly and carefully I worked my way back to the my haul out, walked the quarter mile back to the car and called it a night. I got home around midnight, fixed a burger and remembered how much fun it was smoking a cigar while watching the river as night fell.

Click photo to enlarge

About this time each year for the last several a group of women come to Lake Leelanau from Kentucky to hang out, laugh, eat good food, drink wine, and best of all fish with me. I like them because they are really into the fishing and often see the fish hit before I do. Today they showed up about 11:00 on a mission to catch enough fish to feed ten people. I was a little worried because, A. we werre starting at 11:00, B. a cold front had blown in from the Northwest, and C. It was going to be rough.

I stopped at the lake trout spot first hoping it wouldn’t be too extreme for the ladies and found I shouldn’t have worried. They all started drinking beer and we caught trout. When we had 8 or so I suggested that we go to the island where it would be calmer and where there might be a salmon. We didn’t mark many fish, and when we didn’t hook the first two hits I was concerned that maybe we weren’t going to catch one. Then, the fish in the picture chomped a spoon and a Kentucky girl handled it deftly. After I netted it I could see that the fish was just barely hooked!

I was part of a four boat charter Friday afternoon where there were lots of kids looking for a good time reeling in fish. We headed out to a lake trout spot and trolled for the better part of an hour looking for fish with only limited success. Finally, I worked into an area that was loaded with fish and we caught our fifteen fish limit in short order. After the last trout was inthe box we went trolling for salmon and picked up a couple, although neither was big. Final count 17 trout and two kings.

In the morning another charter went to the island and caught 8 or so kings and kept the four biggest. The others were small and they released them. The kept fish were pretty good.

A friend just sent these photos of some trout he caught here in northern Michigan last week. These are really big brookies. I’m sure the Coors can was there for measurement purposes only. 

A friend caught 14 salmon and a trout Sunday morning. The biggest was a 26 pounder - actual weight . He also caught a 19 pounder, a fish often called a thirty pounder by enthusiastic fishermen. We speculated on how old a fish like that had to be. I held that it wasn’t the usual four-year fish, and had to be one that stayed out in the lake for an additional year or two instead of spawning. We’ll never know the answer to the question, but hope to see more like it this summer.

Only one boat went out Friday and he wished there were more boats out to check out different areas and see where the fish were. Leland has so many places to find fish that it takes a network of people to stay on top of them. Still, this captain did alright by catching 8 or 9 fish. Most were salmon with half being big ones. He said he’d have done even better, but they got a late start after the best action was over. I think that many fish is a good catch any time.