What a change the last few weeks have brought to the entire fishing community here in Northern Michigan. We went from the best fishing some of us have ever seen, to the worst fishing that I can remember. Mother Nature has not been very friendly to either big lake or inland lake fisherman. The bite has been extremely difficult.
Over the last week I have been chasing the mighty bronzeback with little success. We did catch fish, however nothing like it was three weeks ago. The fish in the bay have moved to the deep haunts and hideaways. Most of the Smallies we found were from 35 feet to 60 plus feet of water. The average size was down as well. I did switch gears and go inland for a couple days. The fish that were caught were dandy's, just not many. These fish were found in less than 12 feet. The water temps are still in the low to mid 60's and it won't be long before the fall Malay begins.
The salmon bite on the big lake has been extremely poor to say the least. I have talked with several charter captains that say the same thing 1-5 fish a trip if your lucky. I did run a salmon trip last week and for the first time ever in four hours of trolling never had a bite!!!!!!!!! not even a sniff. The up side to the salmon bite is there are several fish in the river ready to do battle with any angler that wants to chase them.
The other up side is walleye's and perch have begun to put the fall feed on. As of yesterday there are scattered reports of decent perch and walleye action on a handful of lakes in the Traverse City area.
I will be back at it next week after a quest in the land of Oz for a giant whitetail. There early muzzle loader has presented me with a tag and I am going to take full advantage of the early season. Until next time Good Luck and Happy Fishing.
Capt Chris
