No Fish Story

WOW! WOW! WOW! is just a minimal description of today's fishing. I was once again on Grand Traverse Bay with a past client Bill and a friend of his Dave(two great fisherman). They were fishing up on Burt and Mullet over the last few day's and had been catching really nice smallies up there. They had no idea, nor did I of the fishing we were about to encounter today.

We left the dock at 6:45 and we were fishing shortly after. The first two fish set the tone for the day a 6 3/4 pounder and a giant over 7 pounds were the start of today's Malay! It was non stop action almost all morning. We caught fish from 12 inches all the way up to the 7 pound giants(aka SEA DONKEY). Over fifteen of the fish went over four pounds. We caught fifty four fish today in all. The best five would have went well over thirty pounds thanks to two seven plus pounders, two six plus and several in the five pound class. I have had several good days on the bay, but as far as big fish with numbers of them, today takes the cake!!

We fished in 20-30 feet of water today. We were using a Castaway Skeleton series dropshot rod with a WaveSpin DHxL spooled with 8# Vicious fluorocarbon. The preferred fish food was a Poor Boys Goby fished on a drop shot.

Bill and Dave will be sending me pictures of the giants that we caught today and I will be posting them when I get them. Until next time Good Luck and Happy Fishing!!

Capt Chris

Season of Change

Wow,what a blur the last three weeks have been. The last time I remember writing was when the fishing on all fronts was the best summer fishing that I have experienced in quite some time. The smallmouth and salmon were chewing on anything that you put in front of them! The action stayed good for me right up to the time I left for the BASS Northern Open on the Detroit River. There is not much to say about the time I spent there other than it was a huge learning experience. This was my worst tournament to date and the only thing left to do is learn and move on!

Now that I have returned home and started chasing smallies again, I have noticed a change in the air as well as on the trees. Although minimal, there are a few tree's starting to show the colors of fall(today's forcasted high of the upper 80's has me wondering though). The first real cool down of the season arrived Thursday and Friday mornings trip greeted us with temperature's in the 40's. The run across the bay was definitely an eye opener! We ended up catching over thirty smallmouth with the biggest about 2 1/2 pounds. Lot's of action, but not the giants the bay is known for. We had several laughs and had a great time catching fish.

There are a few salmon starting to charge up the river for there annual spawning run and several fish are still out in Lake Michigan waiting for Mother Natures cue to run the river. This is usually triggered by a huge North blow and rain. Until this happens the action will be fast and furious as the fish try to fatten up for there journey up the river.

It is definitely the season of change as fall begins to settle in the air. The honking of geese become more noticeable, the mornings are cooler, the color's begin to show, the fishing will heat up and the dust gets knocked off the bow case. These are all signs that I look forward to every year.

Until next time enjoy the changes and good luck fishing.

Capt Chris

Return of The Giants

Today was absolutely amazing!! The giant smallmouth that have been a little harder than normal to find, finally showed up today. The action was fairly steady with a couple dry spells. We caught 25 fish in five hours with several large fish, the biggest was a six pounder. Our best five fish would have weighed in at 23-24 pounds. One of my clients caught two 4.5 pounders and a 5 pounder today. Most of the fish were in the two to three pound range with a few smaller fish mixed in. All of the fish were caught on a drop shot in 15-30 feet of water. The smallies were chewing on a Poor Boy's goby and a Berkly Gulp 5" leech. I can't wait to get back out there and chase those giant smallies!!

Until next time, Good Luck and Happy Fishing

Capt Chris

8/5 & 8/6

The last two day's have been very good fishing considering the conditions. Thursday, I found myself fishing salmon out of the port of Frankfort. The big pond was once again all riled up and it was like being in a washing machine for the first few hours of the trip. The waves were 4-8 foot and coming from three different directions. We had a hearty crew and battled through it(even after a little chumming)! The action started slow, but finished with a bang. We caught 12 total fish with a real mix of species. The only one missing for the Great Lakes Slam was a Brown Trout. We did land a 9.5 pound Coho salmon, a real dandy. I hope this is a sign of things to come for this fall. Most of he action was on Silver Horde green splatter plugs(riggers) and a blue "Chilly Willy" Silver Streak spoon on a double core. The fish were starting to move up in the water column to the 75-95 foot range.

This morning we were fishing Grand Traverse Bay for smallmouth. We had really nice conditions to start with this morning. The fishing started of with a few bites here and there with mainly small fish. As the morning continued on we found some nice two to three pounders that were willing to cooperate. A front blew through around 9:30 and the wind picked up out of the North, churning the bay pretty good. The bite slowed for almost 45 minutes as we repositioned and fought the choppy water. Then the fish god's smiled on us and we found a few more fish that were willing to bite. In all we landed 34 smallmouth, not bad for a morning fishing trip. Today's gear consisted of a Castaway drop shot rods with a WaveSpin DHxl reel spooled with 8# Vicious fluorocarbon line. We fished drop shot rigs in 16-25 feet of water.

Until next time Good Luck and Happy Fishing!

Capt Chris

Big Waves & Good Fishing

The last couple day's on the big pond have treated the fisherman to some very rough water. The NOAA weather forecast wasn't what I would call spot on! However we still fished in 4-6 foot waves with the occasional 7-8 foot gorilla wave that would just show up out of no where. I felt like we were in an episode of "Deadliest Catch" minus the crab pots. OK, maybe it was'n that bad, but it was still pretty sporty.

The fish were still cooperating, but the big waves made it a little bit more difficult to keep them hooked up. Most boats have had catches fro 10-18 fish a trip. The fish have been hanging out in the deep water. Last night our best was a rotater with a Rapture Sour Apple fly on the center rigger at 105 feet. The deep program has been the ticket. The fish have been biting in the 85-150 foot water colum over 150-600 feet of water. For the best action get out the copper line and long lead core with plugs and spoons. The riggers and divers have been best with rotaters, paddles, flies and meat. Untill next time, Good Luck and Happy Fishing.

Capt Chris

Fantastic Fishing

Wow, what a last few day's! The fishing has been absolutely spectacular. From salmon to smallmouth, you couldn't ask for better action.

For the smallmouth action, I fished with a father son team that I have fished with before and it is always a pleasure to have the family aboard for some fantastic fishing. They made there way there way here all the way from California to enjoy the great smallmouth fishing on Grand Traverse Bay. Bart and his three son's have fished with me over the last couple years and have reaped the rewards that the bay has to offer for smallmouth fishing. They have seen the best and have had some tough day's, but they are always ready for what ever the day has in store. On this particular trip we fished drop shots and the always reliable tube. The fished seemed to enjoy the Berkley Gulp products as well as the Poor Boy's drop shot goby the best. We fished in 12-40 feet of water and found most of the action in the 18-30 foot depths. We caught 23 fish in a few hours of fishing that were as big as three pounds. The action was steady and as always a lot of fun when it comes to smallies.

The salmon action has been out of this world for the last week. I have been fishing out of Frankfort for the salmon. The last few trips for me have produced numbers in the high teens and last night we caught 20. We had to sit on the cooler to get it to close. This was a 150 quart cooler. The fish have been chewing plugs, meat rigs, and paddle/fly combos the best. All of the fish seem to be 12-18 pounds with the occasional 20+ fish. They have been feeding in the 75-150 foot depths over 150-275 feet of water. Meat has been the best producer overall. Three to five hundred feet of copper with the plugs and Moonshine spoons have worked as well.

Well it is off to fish again this afternoon. Looking forward to chasing the mighty Chinook. Until next time, good luck and happy fishing.

Capt Chris