Contrary to some peoples’ thinking, I am actively charter fishing and sightseeing here in the Upper Peninsula. Fishing out of Copper Harbor and Lac La Belle is as good or better than other seasons with some good numbers of trout, a few salmon and now steelhead and a brown trout.
I had a slow start with bookings because I lost my website for a while, and now, after getting it back up, I find that I’ve lost my Google ranking, so potential charters are not finding me in their searches.
This morning started off with a hit and landing a nice steelhead on a diver, then before the excitement settled down, a second steely came in on a surface line with a bloody nose silver streak. Then, as the morning progressed, there was hardly a slow time until the end of the morning. We had 4 different set-ups – 2 dipsy divers, 2 down-riggers, 2 planer boards running lead-core and one distant surface line with the bloody nose and caught at least one on each set-up. What a lucky day! 13 fish in all.
Even Lac La Belle has been producing some fish. Fishing buddy EJ called me last Friday afternoon… form my dock… and invited me to join him for some walleye trolling with bottom bouncers and crawler harnesses. The end tally was 5 (or 6?) walleye, 3 bullheads, 1 sucker and a fish that looked like a white bass.
We’ve had many good days out on Lake Superior already this summer, both with fishing charters and lighthouse cruises – including 2 trips to Manitou Island and many trolling and vertical jigging charters in Bete Grise.
Brian Helminen
