Weekly Michigan DNR Fishing Report: Southeast Lower Peninsula Fishing Report Detroit River: Walleye have been caught in the lower Trenton Channel including the area near the Edison Plant. Some jumbo perch were caught in the weeds around the Horse Island Flats. Lake St. Clair: Walleye fishing is good near the shipping channel and also in the deeper water off the Mile Roads. Bass fishing has been good with more fish showing up in deeper water. St. Clair River: Walleye fishing has been spotty with some fish coming from the Port Huron Area. Lexington: Some perch are starting to show up south of Lexington coming off the weed beds but you have to work to find them. Pier anglers are mainly getting rock bass and white bass. Port Sanilac: Trout and salmon fishing is slowing down a bit and are scattered. Pier anglers are reporting rock bass and white bass. Harbor Beach: Look for lake trout in deeper waters when using dodgers and spin glows on the bottom. Good colors were purple, pink, yellow, green or black. For salmon, use medium or large spoons 40 to 70 feet down in 70 to 150 feet of water. Steelhead were hitting on bright colors in 80 to 150 feet of water. Try 25 to 50 feet of water near the cemetery for perch when using minnows. Walleye fishing will be slow until the waters clears up. Try off the north wall in the early morning or late evening when casting small body baits or spoons in green, purple, silver or blue. Inside the harbor is good for bass and pike. Grindstone City: Those trolling are taking walleye and whitefish on small spoons in 30 to 40 feet of water. Salmon and lake trout were caught in 120 feet of water. A few smallmouth bass were caught in the harbor. Port Austin: Salmon and steelhead are scattered in 40 to 70 feet in depth but lake trout can reliably be found near the bottom in 70 to 100 feet of water. Start shallow early in the morning and work deeper as the sun comes up. Walleye fishing is slow. Saginaw Bay: Excellent walleye fishing in a lot of locations this past week such as in 24 feet of water north of Gambils Marina near Pinconning, as well as in 12 to 14 feet of water off of the Pinconning Bar. Other locations were Northwest of Buoys 1 & 2; Two miles east of the Spark Plug and in 25 to 28 feet of water near the Spark Plug. Other anglers reported walleye catches in six to eight feet of water off the mouth of the Kawkawlin River very early in the morning as well as in four to 14 feet of water on and along the Callahan Reef. Crawler harnesses are the go-to bait, but crank baits and spoons are also taking fish. Best spinner colors are green, anti-freeze and chartreuse. It its cloudy, try gold, silver, or copper. Best crank bait colors were chrome with blue, orange or gold backs, purple or fire-tiger. Southwest Lower Peninsula Fishing Report St. Joseph: Perch fishing picked up this week. Anglers were catching perch in 30 to 50 feet of water. Salmon anglers were making good catches of fish. Trollers should target 80 to 120 feet of water and deeper. Steelhead fishing from the piers is slow. St. Joseph River: Smallmouth and Walleye fishing have been good but after all the rain the river is high and muddy. South Haven: Salmon fishing has slowed down a little this week. There are a few fish being caught in 100 feet of water. Anglers are taking freshwater drum on the pier. Still fishing night crawlers on the bottom is working best. Perch fishing continues to be slow. Grand Haven: The fog, weather, and wind have made fishing very difficult. Salmon anglers have been fishing in 85 to 110 feet of water, 40 to 90 feet down. Spoons are still the main bait of choice in colors of blues and yellows. Pier fishing is slow. Mostly caught have been catfish, sheephead and bass. No perch reported. Grand River at Lansing: Continues to provide fair to good fishing for channel catfish, smallmouth bass, rock bass and even some bluegills. Lake Jordan: Nice catch rates fishing for bass and crappie and bluegill using live baits. Muskegon: Salmon anglers have been fishing in 90 to 100 feet of water, 40 to 50 feet down. Spoons were used in the colors of blues and greens. No perch reported. Whitehall: Fish are most likely out in deep water due to warm water temperatures. Anglers should try traveling north to the flower creek area as the water temps are cooler. Pier anglers caught catfish and bass this week by casting yellow and green body baits and with cut bait. Northeast Lower Peninsula Fishing Report Rogers City: Has had great lake trout fishing with plenty of limits. Anglers targeting them are using spoons, cowbells or dodgers with spin-glos. The lakers have been suspended all up and down the water column within 10 feet from the bottom. The best depths have been in 40 to 80 feet of water. Chinook, atlantics, along with the occasional pink have also been taken. Anglers are using downriggers, lead cores, copper, and dipseys. Spoons have been working the best however. Good colors have been greens, blues, orange and silver, green and orange, silver and glow stuff both early and late in the day. Catches have been made straight out from the harbor and west towards Calcite Harbor, Swan Bay and Adams Point. Alpena: Walleye are starting to show up. Anglers are heading out and fishing at night for the best success. Anglers are using crawler harnesses and or body baits. Best places have been Sulphur Island, Scarecrow Island, Grass Island, right out front of the marina and North Point. The walleye have been moving around a lot as of late. The shallower water seems to be the best. Mayflies are starting to hatch so it may slow things up for a little bit. Thunder Bay Island and 9 mile has had some super fishing with many limits. Anglers are fishing anywhere from 45 to 80 feet deep. Thunder Bay River: Pretty quiet over the last week. A few rock bass, pike, drum and walleye. Most are using live bait such as leeches, night crawlers or worms. Harrisville: Fishing has been steady with a mixed bag of fish coming in. Harvest has included lake trout, salmon, steelhead and walleye. Lake trout have been in shallow and out deep from 60 to 80 feet of water and in 100 to 140 feet of water. Salmon and steelhead are in the same area and seem to be by product catches while targeting lake trout. Anglers are using lead core, copper, dipseys and down riggers with spoons, cut bait, spin-n-glows and body baits. Walleye are still around the area in good numbers with late evening and early morning providing the best catches on crawler harnesses, bottom bouncers, and body baits. Oscoda: Is producing a mixed bag of fish including lake trout, salmon, steelhead, walleye, smallmouth bass and catfish. The boats are reporting lake trout, steelhead and salmon catches. Reports are that the lake trout are suspended in half of the water depth you are fishing. Steelhead and salmon are in the lower 2/3 of the water column. Most reports are in water depths of 90 to 120 feet of water off lead core, dipseys, copper, down riggers with a wide spread. Spoons, mainly dark colors, are working the best. Walleye and smallmouth along with catfish are being caught off the pier. Walleye and catfish are hitting off the pier in late evening. Houghton Lake: Bluegill are biting on slip bobbers and leeches from four to 12 feet along the edge of the weed bed. Tawas: Pier fishing at Tawas Bay is in ‘summer mode with a few bass, drum, and catfish being caught and some of the local kids are fishing for and catching carp. Boat anglers out of Tawas are catching steelhead out past Buoy #2 in 50 feet of water to almost up on the surface. The steelies are apparently in there taking advantage of the hatching mayflies. Trollers after walleye are doing fair down toward Alabaster in 25 to 40 feet of water or going to the north side of the Charities and fishing around the Steeples. Limit catches were common north of the Charities. Tawas River: Shore anglers were getting a few bass, catfish and drum. Au Gres: Lots of boats out, lots of walleye caught with lots of limit catches. Much of the action was in 35 to 45 feet of water out near the shipping channel. Other boats were going north of the Charities and doing well. Au Gres River: Shore anglers were taking good numbers of catfish and drum. Northwest Lower Peninsula Fishing Report Harbor Springs: Smallmouth bass anglers are still focusing most of their effort near the permanent structures east of Wequetonsing (i.e. the pier at Roaring Brook) and near the north shore of Petoskey State Park. They also did well fishing shallow in the Wequetonsing docks. A lot of success was also had inside Harbor Point and in the harbor itself. Green tube baits and soft plastic worms are working well. Many fish over 6 pounds are reported to have been caught this spring by catch and release. Petoskey: The surface temperature of Little Traverse Bay remained in the low to mid 50s at the surface last week. Boat pressure remains pretty low in Petoskey. A lot of lake trout caught were under the slot limit. Anglers are using spoons and peanuts and fishing from Bay Harbor east into the Bay. Fish are being caught in 60 to 100 feet of water, some suspended and some close to the bottom. Anglers fishing near the mouth of Bear River on D Pier were still catching smallmouth and rock bass. A lot of freshwater drum were caught last week as well. Walleye are being picked up during the afternoons and evenings past the mouth of the river. Anglers were mainly using crawlers, crank baits, soft plastics and flies on all of those species. Anglers fishing the break wall are still catching a few smallmouth bass and northern pike using jigs with soft plastics, small crank baits or just a hook with a crawler. Charlevoix: Boats are targeting lake trout from North Point to the can at the cement plant. Winged glow bobbers and flashers or dodgers were working well with green always being a good color. Lake trout were caught in 40 to 70 feet of water -- some within 10 feet of the bottom. A cisco was also caught out near the cement plant while trolling. Smallmouth bass can be seen in the channel, but the bite was a bit slow. The few bass that are biting are on the large size. Smallmouths were caught on crawlers, crank baits, and jigs with soft plastics. Some ciscos were still being caught in the channel at various times of the day. Carp and northern pike have been spotted cruising around in the channel as well. Lake Charlevoix: Anglers are reporting the mayfly hatch has started. Anglers are catching some walleye just before dark and cisco at various times during the day. Ciscos were found in Loeb Bay, Oyster Bay and into Round Lake. Try a little jig with a soft plastic or a Swedish pimple for cisco. Traverse City: Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in East Bay. Anglers have been catching bass in the shallows on tube baits, crank baits, and spinner baits. Lake trout fishing has been good for the relatively few boats targeting them. Depths have been variable, but most fish were caught near the bottom in 20 to 50 feet of water. West Bay reports good smallmouth bass fishing in five to 15 feet of water. The lake trout bite has been good fishing in 15 to 40 feet of water on spoons or spin glows behind dodgers. Elk River: Smallmouth bass fishing has been fair; however the majority of fish have been on the small side. Anglers were targeting bass with tube baits, crawlers, and leeches. A few freshwater drum were caught as well. Boardman River: Smallmouth bass fishing has been relatively slow with mostly sub-legal fish taken on live baits. Carp and rock bass have been caught as well. Platte River: Walleye and steelhead can be found at the mouth and in the stream in small numbers. There are large numbers of suckers and carp from the hatchery to the lake. Frankfort: Salmon catches have slowed from the past two weeks but anglers are having some luck in the early mornings and evenings out front in 120 to 200 feet of water trolling 60 to 100 feet down. Blues, greens, and chartreuse colors have been the most popular. Anglers heading north to Platte Bay have been having good luck with lake trout. Onekama: Anglers had good catches of steelhead heading off shore a mile and trolling the top 40 feet of water with orange and chartreuse spoons. The Barrel is producing nice size lake trout and the occasional king with the early morning bite producing nicer catches. Portage Lake: Bass anglers are still having nice catches of large and smallmouth bass throughout the lake. Smallmouths are hitting good around the break walls and largemouths are shallow around structures and on the drops in 18 to 22 feet of water. Pan fish are starting to bite after the mayfly hatch but it is still a little slow. Manistee: Salmon fishing has slowed down compared to what it has been the last couple weeks. Boats were finding Salmon 40 to 80 feet down in 100 to 200 feet of water. Steelhead anglers going offshore looking for the temperature break were doing well. The hot color for steelhead was orange. Pier fishing is slow since the water has warmed up. Ludington: Boats are catching some Salmon 30 to 80 feet down in 80 to 180 feet of water. Anglers going offshore looking for the temperature break were finding decent number of Steelhead. Bright colored spoons were working well for the offshore anglers. Pier fishing is slow. Pentwater: Boating anglers fishing on Lake Michigan traveled 12 to 14 miles out to find fish. These fish were taken in 300 to 400 feet of water. Steelhead and Chinook salmon were taken from the top twenty feet of the water column. Lines running closer to the bottom returned fair numbers of lake trout as well. Upper Peninsula Fishing Report Keweenaw Bay: The fish bite for most of the week was up and down but steady. Anglers harvested a fair number of Chinook with some coho and lake trout. Anglers are now trolling in 20 to 120 feet of water 15 to 90 feet down from the head of the bay northward to Carlas Restaurant at speeds of 1.9 to 2.5 mph. Some anglers put in at Traverse Bay Marina trolling in depths of 130 to 180 feet of water using a variety of spoons and colors. The lake trout bite was slow here. Anglers who were jigging off of Big Louies Point in waters from 150 to 260 feet down took some limits of lake trout. South Portage Entry: Anglers fishing waters from the lighthouse southward along the 41 shoreline to the Red Rocks picked up a mix of chinook, lake trout and rainbow. Anglers were trolling in waters from 30 to 60 feet deep 25 to 55 feet down at speeds of 1.8 to 2.3 mph. The fish bite was up and down during the week here also. Anglers are also picking up lake trout trolling in water from 60 to 120 feet deep at Farmers, Newtons and Big Reefs. A variety of spoons and colors were used. Lake Antoine: Bass anglers are catching good numbers and good-sized smallmouth bass along with a few largemouth bass casting crank baits or drifting crawlers in the lily pads and tall grass. Panfish anglers are catching a good number of yellow perch, black crappies, bluegill and rock bass with some keepers. Anglers are catching a lot more in the smaller class mainly jigging, drifting or still-fishing with crawlers. Marquette: Surface water temperatures have warmed into the mid to upper 40s near the river. A few boats have ventured out to Stannard Rock with good results in limiting out with lake trout jigging off the reef in 100 feet of water on the edges. Lake trout anglers in the Marquette area have been doing fair with some slow days depending on winds. Best areas have been about three miles east of Marquette near the Sand Hole and Sand River area near Shot Point. Shore anglers at the Carp River report slow action with a few steelhead reported casting with assorted spoons and cleos.. Little Bay De Noc: The best walleye fishing was in the southern bay from Breezy Point south to Nosee-um Creek. Anglers trolled or drifted crawlers w/harnesses in four to 14 feet of water. Many limits of fish were reported. The Escanaba River reported fair catches using the same in 10 to 20 feet of water. Black Bottom area also reported fair catches using crawlers or cranks in 10 to 28 feet of water. Kipling area reported fair perch catches using minnows or crawlers in 14 to 26 of water. Anglers also reported drum catches throughout the Bay. No salmon reports. Big Bay De Noc: Both walleye and smallmouth bass catches slowed here this week. The walleye are moving south although catches were reported in the Boot area, Kates Bay and south to Garden Bluff. Best catches were in 16 to 20 feet of water trolling crawlers w/harnesses. Northern pike were active this week with Ansells Point area and into Garden Bay being the best area. Most trolled cranks, spinners or spoons in eight to 12 feet of water. Most smallmouth anglers reported fish at various depths from four to 16 feet of water with Porcupine Point, Kates Bay and Puffy Bay being best using spinners, jigs w/crawlers or cranks. Fairport anglers reported a few catches this week as the water slowly begins to warm Au Train: Surface water temperatures have finally warmed into the upper 40s near shore. Offshore surface temps remain in the mid 40s. Anglers this past week had mixed results with local anglers frustrated as the bite was slow, however some anglers still did well catching close to limit of lake trout with a few coho, Chinook and steelhead as part of their catch. Most anglers are having best luck with downriggers although a few lake trout have been caught off bottom using dipsy divers. Spoons have been best choice with chartreuse and orange colors doing well. Productive areas for fishing have been east and north of AuTrain Island in close to 200 feet of water along with the Shelter Bay flats fishing near Laughing Whitefish Point. Other productive areas have been Wood Island Reef. St. Marys River: Walleye have been slow in and around Lime Island of Raber Bay. The walleye bite has been slow all week due to cold water temperatures. A few under size fish have been caught and released, including undersize pike and smallmouth bass. Anglers have been watching for the July fly hatch in order to start fishing for lake herring. A few mild hatches have been reported in the Raber area, but no heavy hatches yet. Evening hours in Bay Dewausi while trolling crank baits, and crawler harnesses in four to six feet of water just off weed beds have produced a few nice walleye in the 20 to 24 inch class. Walleye fishing seems to be more productive in the evening hours on the St. Marys River watershed. Sault Ste. Marie: A few nice Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout are being caught on the discharge side of Gloverland Electric Power Plant casting spoons and black crank baits with chrome colored bellys trolling in four to six feet of water. Detour: Had low numbers of anglers due to wind and rain. However, those anglers going out harvested lake trout and a few Atlantic and Chinook salmon. Anglers were fishing from the city launch to the #3 green can and around the lighthouse to the #2 red can on the Drummond side using watermelon, green/gold, pink/purple, green/white and black/orange spoons. Cedarville and Hessel: Anglers still-fishing with chubs for pike are doing well along the south and east shores of Hessel Bay, off the marina pier early and late, in Musky Bay, Middle Entrance, and along the north shore of Government Bay. Perch fishing in Cedarville Bay is fair, and bass fishing remains good, casting with spinner baits in the shallow water. Herring are still not in, but should begin to show with consistent warm weather. St. Ignace: Angling pressure has been low. Chinook salmon and lake trout are coming in from behind Mackinaw Island around Round Island and from the southwest side of Mackinaw Island.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 10:46:18 +0000
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