Late August fishing

I fished five days in a row now and plan to be out there again tomorrow morning, weather permitting. Fishing has been on the slow side since we had the wind last week. (and off and on wind over the last few days.) I can’t complain, though…. Even a slow day of fishing is a GOOD day. In summary, 17 total fish, with a mix of lake trout (the majority) Coho, Steelhead and one Pink Salmon. The pink was caught on an orange herring dodger with a small fly behind it. One of the steelys on a spin and glow behind an 8 inch herring dodger and most of the lakers on chartreuse spoons, but my gold and green Diamond King has also been a producer.

By the way, I could not find any diamond kings ANYWHERE until I found that Luher-Jensen did not sell them anymore and I found them at Overstock.com on closeout for $1.79 each with 20% off of that! What a deal… I ordered a dozen of them although there are not many colors available, so I applied my own colored tapes to get the colors I wanted. I also bend the tail end for better action at slower speeds. (see my videos at youtube.com) The larger ones (#5) work the best, but the #4’s are not good. The #4’s are made from heavier material and do not have good action. Also, the hooks are decent (better than silver streak lures), but I still replace then with a lighter gauge hook that penetrates better for more successful hook-sets.
(anyone, please feel free to add your comments to my blogs.)

Experimenting with different lures and set-ups for lake trout

Calvin caught this 15 lb lake trout this morning on one of my “spots” in 135 feet of water on a pink lure on a slider line. We were doing some experimenting with different lures and set-ups. Just wish we had more time to fish. We got out at 8 am, but had to be back by 10:15, so that left us only 90 minutes to fish.
We tried a spinner, j-plug and pink Super Bait rigs, but they did not produce. Our fish were caught on greens and a pink lure.

Late Sunday night fishing with Bill D. for Lake Trout

Bill D. and I fished for a couple hours near South Point last night after he called late in the afternoon and said he’d be visiting. We got a late start around 7:30 from the dock and set lines in close with no action. We then pulled the lines and fished a hump that I found near South Point with John S. a week before. Even though the graph was showing many fish, mostly suspended, after several passes over the hump we had no fish. We pulled all but 3 lines before getting a hit on #4 downrigger dragging a black and red Silver Streak 17 feet behind my black 10 lb cannon ball. I set the hook and tried to pass the rod to Bill, but he refused it, so I had to fight it in. This one did not want to come up as he pulled hard and steady for a good 12 to 15 minutes, making me think he was snagged by the tail or belly. As it turned out, he was a 10 pounded legally hooked in the mouth… must have had some Finish blood in him though… SISU as they call it. It was a strong male, length was 30 inches and had a DNR tag in the dorsal fin area that said Bayfield, WI and a tag number. I wished it was one of the $150 fish, but did not have a chip in him.

Today, the boys and I spent part of the day at the mouth of the Montreal River goofing off. On the way back, Calvin fished Bruce’s hot spot with his fly rod and picked up his very first fish on the fly rod… a small rock bass. Pretty exciting to hook up with a fish on a light fly rod with a surface fly.

Fishing the Bumpy Waters of Bete Grise for Coho and Lake Trout

Calvin and I left the dock in the dark on Thursday morning with the Helm-n-Buoys, my 19 foot Harbercraft, to pick up our fishermen, HVAC Guy Scott and Jack of All Trades Shane to fish the slightly bumpy waters of Bete Grise. Soon after setting our lines we picked up a Coho in shallower water and circled 2 more times in hopes of getting more, to no avail. We then pulled the lines to head out to more productive waters. The lake was not so flat, but we were able to fish anyway with not too much difficulty. We boated one more Coho and 3 lake trout for a total of 5 fish for a slow day of fishing. My green and silver Diamond King spoon worked well as my Silver Streak glow. We dragged a deep sea pole for a while with a Herring dodger and fly, but it did nothing for us except cause a little tangle.

My afternoon was spent with a family of 5, including boys anticipating a fun day on the lake. Army guy Bill boated the first fish as his sons Sam and Chris tossed about getting sick. Young Driver Aaron boated a couple as I tried to keep the boat going in one direction with the wind working against me. The auto pilot could not work fast enough to keep the bow into the wind when we had to go that direction. We ended up coming in early with 3 lakers to try our luck in Lac La Belle. Unfortunately, I didn’t have crawlers or minnows, but I did have some crank baits, so we casted them for pike and bass from my “Big Lake Boat” the Fishin Mission. Nothing worthwhile on the inland lake though. Again, it was my green Diamond King, plus my black and red Silver Streak doing all the work. Lost a few due to slack lines, but I think by the end, they all had the system figured out.

Today, Saturday, we fished the Lac La Belle kids fishing tournament and the boys got some fish and won a bike, a fishing rod and some tackle. The boys all had fun while our girls shopped in Marquette.

Sightseeing and Lake Trout Fishing combo

Our family attended a potluck at brother Davin’s on Saturday evening, then stayed the night in town before going to Marquette for grandbaby Liza’s baptism and a picnic at the park. Some of our kids and I did some rock climbing with son Dan and his bro-in-law Lani after the picnic.
Did some maintenance on the Fishin Mission on Monday, then a little moonlight fishing on the Helm-n-buoys with Margaret and Calvin. We got out too late though, after the bite and saw MANY fish on the sonar, but could not coax a bite from them.
Tuesday morning everyone was too tired to get up to fish, so I fished alone on the 19 footer for a short time and boated 4 nice lakers, totaling about 24 lbs. What fun, having to land and net them alone. Also, the last 2 hit almost simultaneously, so I had to set the hook on the 2nd one while fighting the first.
Tuesday afternoon, a family from Portage, MI chartered to Gull Rock and Manitou with some fishing beforehand. The first 2 lakers were in the 16 and 17 inch range and would have released them except for the fact they were our very first fish and their largest trout ever caught… they had only caught much smaller warm water fish before. The next 3 were boated from deeper water and were much larger, so a good time was had by all. “Book Reader” mom (Kelly) hardly noticed when we boated fish as she was so engrossed in her book and not really interested in fishing at all. “Mathematician” dad (Martin) was focused on the rods and waiting for the bite at all times, except when getting a bite to eat and “Computer Guru” son (Nathan) had his mind on driving, girls and computer games. He did not tell us this, but what else does a 14, going on 15 year old think about when he’s not saying anything?
Today is too windy to fish, so we’ll pick berries this morning and go to town this afternoon and hope for better weather tomorrow.

Anniversary outing with a family from Poplar, WI

Calvin and I took out Millwright Don, Cardiac Nurse Brenda and their 3 beautiful daughters the morning after they drove the 200 miles from northern Wisconsin and pulled into Fort Wilkins (Copper Harbor) late last night.
Fishing was a little slow, but we came in with 4 lake trout and one steelhead after releasing one laker. We lost at least one other due to in-experience, but it was all fun anyway.

I think the youngest daughter missed nearly the whole trip because she was catching up on some zzzzzzz, but I think she was wide awake by the time we took our final photo at the dock. Enjoy the fish, dad and girls!

More fishing on Bete Grise for Lake Trout

On Monday we had both of my boats out with a large family from the Detroit area. Glenn, Coleen and kids. Did a little agate hunting on Manitou besides some fishing.Ended up with 5 lake trout, one was a 7 pounder and the rest were average for this area. The big one was boated on a dypsy diver with Silver Streak spoon with white glow on the back.


There have been a lot of suspended fish lately. My glows still seen to be doing well when fishing deep.
Tuesday was a little windy and we trolled on my Harbercraft for only 35 minutes or so before architchural engineer Moranda got sick and said she had enough. We then fished the rest of the morning and into the afternoon on Lac La Belle and caought many small mouth bass, pike and perch. We kept the perch for bait and used them later to catch and release several smallies and pike. Moranda and environmental engineer Glenn enjoyed the day on the water even though we had to cut the pursiut of trout short.

The next day was too windy to fish effectively, so had to postpone a trip. Thursday morning was spent on Bete Grise with student from the quad cites Chris and fiancee Elaina. (his dad, Coast Guard Auxillary man Don) was not able to fish due to an over-active bowel. After a guarantee that we would catch fish, we came back with only 2 after throwing one back. Lost the big one (9-5/8 lbs.) just 29 feet behind the boat! When Chris was having a hard time reeling in, I coached him on pumping the rod and winding in as he lowers the rod, but fish must have gotten slack just as he broke the surface.

Neighbor (investment rip) John and I fished the evening and caught 4 lake trout. I tried to recruit a few more guy on short notice to no avail. (all weak excuses, but hey, if you don”want to fish, that’s ok too)

This morning I was able to scare up 3 guys to do some exploratory fishing. It was a little slow, but came in with 5 lakers after releasing one.
No steelies or Coho. One of the boys is askeing about fishing, but I have the feeling he wants to fish lac la belle and I’d like to troll the big lake.
Going out to see lighthouses and mix in some fishing tomorrow with a family from Poplar Wisconsin… should be fun!

See more photos on my “Gallery” page.

Summary of the last few days on the water and otherwise.

Thursday we got a later than usual start with some Detroit guys that called me recently. Retired U.S. Navy submarine man Lewis and High School IT computer guy Marshall had a good day on the water as we came in with 6 fish, one of which was a nice steelhead. Submarine man, Lewis, is an experienced fisherman who has fished ALL of the coastal states except Hawaii. He knows how to hook a fish and keep it hooked so he was coaching his partner Marshall who has very little, if any fishing experience. Without going into the details, we lost a few fish due to insufficiently tight lines (better known as slack), but it did not matter, as they got plenty to bring home and had a grand time on Lake Superior. We saw action on the planer boards, dypsies and downriggers, but NONE on the deep sea rod with a herring dodger and spin and glow… figure that one out! (we even tried 2 different size dodgers with different baits.)
Did not get an after picture with all the fish.

Fishing lately

Fished with baker Julia and nurse Kaitlynn on Monday morning for a couple of hours and got 7 lake trout total, most of them suspended. It was Kaitlynns first time on lake superior fishing for lakers, but Julia has been out before.
In the afternoon, Margie and I took out a couple, interior designer Lynne and Atty Tom from Madison who are looking for property on the lake. showed them our empty lot for sale (and Carl’s) and went down as far as Hermits cove and back on the 91 foot Helm-n-Buoys. Very nice and flat and we all had a good time on the water.


On Wednesday, I had a party of 4 guys from lower Michigan and came home with 8 lake trout, some pretty nice size to a couple of them. It seems that all lines were active, with fish caught on the dypsies, planer board and downriggers… or was that on Wednesday?? I can’t remember, I guess I will have to blog more often before I forget the details.