Lake Michigan Salmon trip

Last week's trip was good, but fishing was a bit slow most of the time.

Reports where talking about a great evening bite and most fish on spoons. Both of those seemed a bit out of the ordinary, but what the heck.

Put out spoons on the lead core and riggers with flasher/fly combos on the dipseys. Very quickly observed a slow evening bite, and a strong preference to the flasher/fly rigs. Changed out most of the gear several times a day. This was the best spoon we had.


Our dock neighbor made us look really small!


Had few issues out there. Nothing terrible.
First the handle fell off the downrigger and over the side. Fished the rest of the evening with just one rigger. Still managed to have all 9 lines in the water. Had 2 leadcore behind boards, 2 dipseys, 4 lines on the one rigger that we had working (ball, 2 stackers & a slider) & one flat line with a 2oz sinker. We where able to borrow (and repair) a rigger to keep our trip on track.


Next up was another downrigger issue. Broken swivel base. Common problem with Cannon Downriggers. A trip to Howie's Tackle shop for parts and a few hours making new spacer rings & back on the water.

Last issue was we found the bottom of the gas tank. We started Monday with a full tank. Planned to fill on Wednesday, but missed the store hours. Ended up Thursday sputtering right at the breakwater on the way in. Was able to throw the valve to "Reserve" and motor to the fuel dock. Total gas in the boat for 10 trips out was 48 gallons of gas. Not bad feeding that 200HP for 20+miles/trip.

Fish total was 13 keepers, and released a few little ones. 62lbs of fillets came home.