Sand Point Charters | Stannard Rock Lighthouse, not Standard Rock, Fishing and Sightseeing on Lake Superior in the Keweenaw Peninsula | Salmon and Lake Trout Fishing, Lighthouse Tours

Fishing Up-date out of Lac la Belle in Lake Superior

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:51:15 +0000

Lots of wind is causing delays and cancellations of fishing plans and stirring up the waters.
Last Thursday, I brought out a dad and son from South Eastern Mn who were here trying un-successfully to fish the local streams for brookies. I guess they’d have to talk to Jim Juntilla to find out where to go… if he’d reveal his hot spots!

We picked up a nice 3 lb Coho almost right away, circled around a few times, but no more Coho, so we went out deep for lakers… in 150 to 200 feet on the bottom. Ended up with 3 lakers and one Coho after releasing 3 small lake trout. It was a real nice day and a good time was had by all, with Calvin as my deckhand.
Friday and Saturdays fishing was winded out by gale force winds, so I took the opportunity to pull my boat to change oil in the out-drives. I ended up pulling off both of the drives to seal up the drive shaft bellows and to change one, which had a hole it it.
Sunday evening, we fished for 2 hours before dusk with Lynn and Larry and caught 2 steelhead about 75 feet below the surface a pink stingers.

Monday morning, Labor Day, was spent with a couple and their 19 year old son from Madison, WI, who is about to join the Air Force. We tried for the Coho or Steelhead in the same location as the night before, with no luck, so moving out near the Montreal River we fished in 150 feet for Lake Trout with very little action. Moving again to deeper waters (180 to 200), we were able to pick up some fish and come in with 6 after loosing one right at the boat and another at the surface just 30 feet behind. One was a very nice 8 pound laker that David successfully landed with my 10 foot eagle claw on a laker taker spoon.
Almost all of our summer fishing was done with spoons, with a mix of Diamond Kings, Silver Streaks and Bay de Noc manufactured laker takers. We run at 1.9 to 2.1 for lake trout and 2.5 to 2.8 for Coho and Steelhead. Wave action always helps no matter what you fish for as it gives the lures more fluttering action, in fact the action of the lures is the MOST important aside from fishing where the fish are.
Water temps are still running pretty high for this time of year with the surface at 65 degrees and 61 degrees at 100 feet deep.

Last 2 Fishing trips Including Windy fishing day on Bete Grise for Lake Trout and Coho

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:18:42 +0000

On Sunday, some of my older kids and their girl friends, along with my mother and wife’s mother went for a ride to Manitou Island for the afternoon. Surprisingly, at least to me, nobody wanted to fish, but fishing was part of my mission for the day. I was prepared to fish myself, but My wife, Margaret volunteered to come along. It was just a short stint of 1 hour, because after catching 2 lake trout, I got snagged up twice and lost interest. I don’t have any pictures, but they were 3 and 4 lbs.
Monday and Tuesday were off days so we spent one day in Marquette and the other doing maintenance.
On Wednesday, I we did a bumpy charter with 2 guys and 2 gals from the Green Bay area, Packer fans of course. Nobody got sick, but we bounced around a lot. The water was actually more friendly than the weather men predicted. 8 Lake Trout were boated and released 1, came home with 7. Lynn was the winner of the “largest fish” contest between the party, as she caught a 5.5 lb laker. Lynn and husband Henry also had a double header and landed both.
The next day, Thursday, I brought out a father and son from the south eastern farming country of Minnesota. Fishing was a little slow and difficult with the winds causing some releases and a few tangles. We fished with few lines and short leads behind the trolling balls, but still had some trouble with them. Our take-home was 1 coho and 3 lake trout, but also released 3 small lakers. The Coho was the first boated fish, not too far off of Bare Bluff in 95 feet of water. I thought we’d pick up more coho, but no such luck. After that, we headed out to 150 to 200 feet after lakers, since the lake seemed to settle down slightly, where most of the rest of the fish were caught.
It looks like Saturdays charter will be postponed due the the high winds coming… up to 50 mph winds. Well, I that’s the life of a charter boat captain!
See the Gallery page for more pictures.

Stannard Rock Sightseeing and Fishing the “Hot spot”

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:04:11 +0000

The two most recent trips were last Thursday and Friday…Yesterday was too windy to get out.
Thursdays trip was only supposed to be out to Manitou, but it was so nice and flat on the water, and my crew wanted to see the “Rock” so we decided on the “spur of the moment” to go there. In fact, we were only 5 minutes from Manitou when Vicky asked about Stannard Rock. I had my wife Margaret along as the first mate and Darlene, my 13 year old as the deck hand. My gas tanks were full and the weather was right, so I said sure, we can take you there and “…. it would add about 2 hours to the trip.
After taking lots of pictures of Gull Rock and Manitou, I set course for Stannard. 50 minutes later we were there taking pictures. I couldn’t bear the thought of not fishing, so I dragged a line around the light and casted a jig, but no fish there because the water temps were too warm.
The next day, spent the morning with a foursome from Minnesota and caught 7 lake Trout, released one. The first one came right away, but the rest were slow in coming. All smaller fish all caught at the bottom in 180 to 200 feet. Water temps still pretty warm and fish are deep. No coho although we had 2 dypsies out the whole time.

All nice healthy fish and good tasting!

Fishing Lac La Belle for Crappy – Too rough on Lake Superior

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:45:05 +0000

Yesterday afternoon, we spent a couple hours fishing on Lac La Belle with 2 grandparents and grandson because it was too windy to fish effectively on Lake Superior. We tried near shore in Bete Grise for a short time, but the water temperatures have not cooled enough yet.
I had watched the data buoys west of Lac La Belle all day before our scheduled 2 pm departure and saw the wind was dying, but my party from Seattle did not have the time to wait it out… had to get back to their home base in Ontonagon after fishing. They were about to cancel, when I reviewed their options with them: 1. Fish near shore on Lake Superior in Bete Grise where it is sheltered from the strong west wind and 2. If it does not produce after a while, fish in Lac La Belle for smaller fish. I also said I just love to fish and that if they don’t have a good time, then they owe me nothing.
We tried the “Big Lake” for a while to no avail since we couldn’t get out to the good “holes” that were too far off shore. Afer pulling our lines, we went in to the sheltered end of Lac La Belle.
We dropped anchor at a few different spots that had been good fishing, even as recently as 2 days ago (with my boys), but the fish were not biting much. We did manage to land 3 nice crappies and 1 rock bass though.
Boy, I sure wish they had an extra day to default to this morning, because I had have it off and the wind and weather is beautiful. At least they had a good time!
I have another charter this afternoon with a party from Canada and one tomorrow with a party from Minnesota. I’m looking forward to calm water and much better fishing!!

Saturday night and Sunday afternoon Lake Trout out of Copper Harbor

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:09:30 +0000

Fished with Terry and his son-in-law on Saturday night near Horshoe Harbor near Copper Harbor. We could see some nice thermoclines on the sonar at about 140 feet below surface, so we fished below that. 3 Lakers in a couple hours of “rough seas” fishing was not bad. Mark, the son-in-law caught the first one and almost immediately after that he got sea sick, in spite of the dramamine that he took. Waves were big enough to wash over the bow a couple of times and nearly went airborne on the way back.

Sunday afternoon, Andy, my 8 year old and a family of two young boys fished near Horshoe Harbor again and caught about 4 fish. From there we fished a few places around the point and brought home 8 lakers, but released one small one… actually I lost it when trying to hoist it in without the net. It was so small that we would have released it anyway. Wow, what a lot of fun with the young boys, Zander and Josh, having so much enthusiasm for fishing. Check out the picuture of Josh holding his first fish like a teddy bear.

Water temps were around 66 on the surface and 55 at 100 feet below. The thermoclines were below that.

Fishing summary out of Copper Harbor for lake trout and coho salmon

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:09:02 +0000

Wednesday morning I was supposed to have a charter in Bete Grise, but the weather was not good, so we re-scheduled it for Thursday morning. Since I had several charters to do out of Copper Harbor later that day and Friday, I offered to bring them around the point and fish along the way.

Fishing has been slow lately for everyone, because of the 3 day high winds of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

On our way out, we stopped at a laker spot and caught a couple of small lakers, not even strong enough to trip the releases. We threw one back and kept the other for a small meal. There was no activity near the point where Calvin and I had caught a Coho the day before,so we motored around Keweenaw Point and dropped some lines just a few miles east of Copper Harbor. Pretty quiet there too, but I noticed a thermocline at about 150 feet below the surface. Below the thermo, at 165 feet we caught a 13 lb lake trout. The water depth was over 300 feet and surprisingly the water temp was even 65 degrees 100 feet below the surface! Surface water was 69 degrees.

In the next 6 hours, I took out 3 groups of insurance sales people and their spouses for Northern Mutual Insurance for 1-1/2 hour fishing spurts and caought 2 more lakers and one Coho.

Fridays sightseeing tours were “winded out” with small craft advisories and thunder storms.

See picts on the gallery page also.

Lighthouse sightseeing trip to Huron Island, Granite Island and Stannard Rock

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:47:43 +0000

I had several charters to see lighthouses, some with serious lighthouse enthusiasts and some casual tourists who just wanted to see the local sights. One was a 135 mile trip that I wrote a little about before, but I did not have a chance to post pictures until now, on this rainy morning.

Mitch and I fished for 2 hours at Stannard Rock with a mixture of bobbing and trolling. Trolling was more productive and we came home with 4 nice lakers and released 3.

Nice laker that Mitch landed by jigging at Stannard Rock

Here are the lighthouses that we have done trips to see this summer.

Stannard Rock Light, 35 miles off shore

Huron Island Light

Mendota Lighthouse in Bete Gris

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

Manitou Island Lighthouse at the east end of Manitou

Gull Rock Light off the end of the Keweenaw Point, near Manitou Island

Copper Harbor Lighthouse

Past 2 Days of fishing on Lake Superior for Coho and Lake Trout

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:28:03 +0000

This is what came in on the lure after loosing big fish! Half Digested!

Yesterday we fished with a family of 4 from Traverse City and had a nice day on the water, with very flat seas. The weather was warm and sunny and although we fished for several hours, we only managed to boat 2 small lake trout.
My strategy was to go directly to one of my favorite spots, where we had been catching many lake trout,, and if successful, after a few hours, we would fish in closer on the way home. This way, I thought we’d have a chance to try for Coho after getting our fill of catching lakers. As it turned out, fishing was slow and the picture shows the whole catch.
Today, we changed it up a little, fishing for Coho near Bare Bluff for an hour, where we caught one Coho and one laker, then went to the same area as yesterday. On this outing, we got into pretty many fish… and coming home with 5 lakers and one Coho.
Things could have been even much better, though, because we lost some very nice fish. Bill Jr, fought one of them for about 5 minutes and got it up to the surface before losing it. As he was pulling in his line, about 50 feet behind the boat, I noticed that there was something white coming in with the lure. The weirdest thing is, his lure came in with a 12 inch, half digested herring that had gotten pulled out of the belly of the much larger fish that he lost. I never saw anything like it!
Later, we had a double header going, but only landed one of those 2 fish. There was lots of excitement and they went home with many meals of fish. The largest fish was a lake trout at 5.5 lbs and the Coho was 3 lbs.
I added to their “take home” with some of my own previously smoked fish.
More “single fish” pictures will be posted as I get them processed, but I forgot to get a final picture with all of them together… sorry.
Also, be sure to check the “Gallery” page for more pictures later on.
Brian

Trolling for lake trout on Lake Superior on 8/7/10 With Brighton Couple and Seattle Man

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:57:00 +0000

Departed at 8 am this morning with 3 “Golden Years” folks with the sun shining and fairly calm waters. Had a little chill in the air and heavy dew, but the forecast was good.
Fished out from Bare Bluff for a while with no action, but when we hauled in to move, we picked up 2 small lakers. We then moved out to our preferred area and caught 1 coho and 6 more lakers, one that was released. I promptly “bled” all of the fish as they were caught in order to preserve the good taste and put them on ice.
After fishing, we took all the catch and I filleted them at our cottage and put in zip locks for them to take home.
Surface water temp is around 70 everywhere out there now and the Coho seem to be scattered. A good time was had by all aboard with no sea sickness even though it was a little bumpy all morning.
Day off tomorrow and back at it on Monday with a couple from Traverse City.

Sightseeing with a little trolling for lakers mixed in near Keweenaw Point

admin — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:02:11 +0000

A couple of windy days kept us off of the water, but early today, trolled in close for Coho but had no luck. The boys wanted to try their “hot spot” in the channel, so we stopped therefor 20 minutes and they caught several rock bass. (I hope they remembered to empty them out when we got home)

Had a sightseeing charter to see the Gull Rock light, Manitou light and the Mendota this afternoon. After they got their pictures, we saw a big freighter coming toward the Gull Rock passage, so in orderto get a close look, I dropped some fishing lines and trolled around until the freighter passed. Quite a sight up close and surprising how big the wake is behind them.

We ended up trolling for a short time (about 1/2 hour) and picked up 2 lakers,one at 2 lbs and the other 3 lbs.

I forgot to take pictures today, so the pictures you see here are from last Saturday with the boys. At that time I also forgot to post anything about it. We caught 4 lake trout, and one was 12lbs, pretty unusual for fishing in close, but very common for Stannard Rock lake trout fishing.

On Wednesday, one of our windy days, I spent the day smoking fish all day. Anyone who charters now will go home with some smoked fish, if they want it. Everyone seems to love it, especially when it’s fresh out of the smoker and still warm. I usually heat it up in the microwave just a little and it seems to give it more flavor. My smoked fish is mild, light on the smoke and light on the salt with a sweet taste from brown sugar.

Going out in the morning for a 1/2 day with a party of 3 from lower Michigan and will report on our day tomorrow evening.