Saturday was an exciting adventure. The weather looked a little shaky, so I checked the Internet before I left the house and the radar showed the main front had gone through. My crew for the morning had arrived on time and we left the dock at 4:30am. As we approached the pier head, I saw lightning to the southwest. After another quick check of the boats radar, I determined that two new cells had popped up. One cell was north of the point and the one I could see was going to hit Ludington dead on. I made the decision to out run the storm. Headed for the bank (02’s). As we set lines the fish started biting in the dark right away. With the approaching storm, kept the rest of the boats were trapped in port. We continued to slam the fish, had 8 fish on at one time. Only got a few drops of rain, but what a light show. We filled 2 coolers with fish, best catch of the wear. Same program as last report.

Another excellent day of fishing. We left the dock early 4:30am. On the way out of the harbor and outside in 50ft I marked lots of fish, but I still don’t have confidence in the morning bite at the pier. It’s all too short and you can get burned. We headed back to the point. It was extremely foggy, I had to run the boat on Interments, couldn’t see a thing. We set up in the 01s in 80ft of water. The soon as we got the rods out the action started. We started the morning with 2 fish on, boated those and 3 more hit. The action continued for us all day. Today was the first day this year we filled 1 cooler and had to start the 2nd. We caught all nice 4 year old King Salmon.
Program: Riggers 41ft, 52ft, and 61ft down. Blue bubble glow spin doctor with a glow blue bubble fly on the shoot and moon shines on the out and downs. Wires: Highs with tuxedo and mirage fly and lows with blue bubble combo. Cores: Plugs and moon shines.

The fish on the bank took a pounding over the weekend, and on Monday I still had not heard any good reports. Got a hot tip from Pentwater boats and the wind blew out of the SE all night. This might bring in some cold water in down there. It’s a long trip, 16 miles down to the dunes at Hart. I decided to go for it. We left early again and ran in the dark. Got there at dawn, and started setting rods in 85ft of water. The water temp was 42 degrees at 44ft. The second rod in the water took the first fish. Mike was letting the core out and a big king salmon wacked in before he could get the board on. Had some new fisherman onboard. After a short learning curve we began to fill the box. They had several doubles and a triple, 21 bites in all. What a morning lots of action. Wild thing Charters called. They were taking big 4 year old fish in 60ft if water right in front of the harbor. I had seen these fish on the way out in the morning, but decided that it me a short bite. I was wrong, with the overcast skies kept the fish active. They came in with a great box also. Good job! Wild Thing! With the a few Kings sniffing around the harbor, it will not be long before there all here, about another week.
Hot baits from Captain Chuck’s: Dreamweaver- SS, Super Glow Lemon, and High Adv Hitman. Spin doctor Blue Crush with blue fly. Moonshine- Raspberry Carbon 14.

I knew that with all the boats in town for the tournament fishing might be tuff. So I rounded up my crew early and got out on the water (4:30am). Went to Big point Sable, and set all the rods in the dark. The tournament didn’t start until 6:00am. I figured we had about an hour and 15 min. before they all arrived. The fish started biting right away. By the time gun went off for the tournament we had already boated 7 fish. As the boats arrived we stayed out in front of the pack and continued to troll north of the point 4 miles. (07’s). we continued to take fish through the day. Our Fishermen went home with a very nice box of fish. Program: Riggers 38ft, 45ft, and 55ft down with Moon shine spoons on the out and downs, and a white on white crush spin doctor and glow fly down the chute. Wire divers with a blue bubble spin doctor and blue bubble fly. High wires had Moon shine spoons. This combinations were hot early. As the riggers slowed the Led core rods took over. We had steady action until we pulled rods.

Good news, the fish are biting again! We started fishing in 65ft of water in the dark, just north of the bath house. We just got all our rods out, and the fish starter biting. We had lots of action in the dark. There is nothing better than a beautiful sunrise with 3 fish on. We had some first timers on board. They caught lots of fish and, were very excited! Good job everybody. Our program was the same as July 11th.

After the last couple of days, today was somewhat disappointing. Went back to the point again, there was fish on the fish finder everywhere. We tried everything to make them bite. The fish had a good case of lock Jaw. I called on the phone to other captains from Pentwater to Manistee and the prognosis was the same, poor fishing. We still managed to take a few fish. I guess this is why they call it fishing not catching.