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Post by deadeer on Sept 23, 2024 22:08:56 GMT -5
Luke has Wednesday off of school AND football practice. Now DAD does too! Woohoo!!!
So we are planning maybe the last Lake Michigan trip in our boat for the season. Hearing speculative chatter about Wednesday being a good day for a push of staging salmon to head upstream for the spawn, after these good rains and temp drops. Lots of variety to be caught with chinook, coho, steelhead, and even sheephead. Anything would be great. Past fish camera videos from late Sept thru early Oct showed mega runs right after good, cold rains like now, so we are optimistic!
Maybe 1-2 more trips out on inland lakes after that before the winterizing and storage go into effect. We had a great year with the updates on board, and hopefully Santa will bring more for next season.
Follow up report to come later...
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Post by marshallco on Sept 23, 2024 22:12:58 GMT -5
Those days don’t come around too often, so you 2 enjoy and send pics!
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Post by deadeer on Sept 25, 2024 15:10:01 GMT -5
Well... we waited out rain this morning at a restaurant. Neither of us wanted to be as wet as the fish. Lol. All for nothing today, unfortunately. We were only one of a handful of boats. Fish were stacked at the mouth of the Paw Paw River, but nowhere else. Others were jigging, we trolled. Talked to a charter boat, and they had two after a day of fishing. So, we are done for the big lake. Planning on a river trip or two to Berrien Springs still, then on to hunting.
Gonna go look at Trail Creek this afternoon.
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Post by omegahunter on Oct 5, 2024 21:10:53 GMT -5
Hey duff, I can catch crappie after all! Cousin came up from Kentucky and we fished today. He used to live up here 30 some odd years ago, but moved down on Lake Barkley because he liked crappie fishing so much. Now he winters over in Florida for 3 months till the crappie move out into the middle of the lake, then he moves back to KY and starts on them again! He thought they should be just started in from deep water as water temp was 72.4°. Then we went deep around standing timber; caught a few bass out in 25' of water. Finally moved in to 10' in front of lily pads and we started boating crappie. Picked up a few bluegills along the way. Ended up with 12 crappie 9 1/4 to 12" and 3 bluegills. Too late to take pics when I started cleaning them, but did take one with my 12"er since I can NEVER catch any crappie. Amazing the amount of meat they put on from 10 to 12"! Going again tomorrow after church and lunch.  |
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Post by duff on Oct 5, 2024 21:52:33 GMT -5
Hey duff, I can catch crappie after all! Cousin came up from Kentucky and we fished today. He used to live up here 30 some odd years ago, but moved down on Lake Barkley because he liked crappie fishing so much. Now he winters over in Florida for 3 months till the crappie move out into the middle of the lake, then he moves back to KY and starts on them again! He thought they should be just started in from deep water as water temp was 72.4°. Then we went deep around standing timber; caught a few bass out in 25' of water. Finally moved in to 10' in front of lily pads and we started boating crappie. Picked up a few bluegills along the way. Ended up with 12 crappie 9 1/4 to 12" and 3 bluegills. Too late to take pics when I started cleaning them, but did take one with my 12"er since I can NEVER catch any crappie. Amazing the amount of meat they put on from 10 to 12"! Going again tomorrow after church and lunch. Keep it up! |
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Post by bullseye69 on Oct 6, 2024 6:59:40 GMT -5
Went mackerel fishing couple days ago in Tighnabruaich Scotland. Just fishing off the end of the floating dock. Got skunked but still a good time.    |
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Post by omegahunter on Oct 6, 2024 20:43:40 GMT -5
Well, we went again this evening, but not much was biting. Yesterday, at least we picked up some bonus bluegills and caught and released several bass while crappie fishing. We didn't catch anything but crappie tonight and only caught 6. One of my 4 was under the 9" limit and one of his got off at the boat. The jig had to be on the bottom in 10' of water or else they wouldn't hit it. I still cast instead of vertical, but I would let it settle to the bottom and just pop it forward with a crank on the reel and let it settle again. He gave up vertical and started casting when I boated 3 in a row. After that we couldn't catch another one! I think I'll try my hand at them a time or two as it starts getting cooler and then again in the spring.  |
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Post by duff on Oct 7, 2024 5:13:50 GMT -5
I feel like I am done boat fishing. Will hit the river a time or 2 for walleye/sauger. Dang dove hunting has taken up my free fishing time. Those fall crappie can get chunky
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Post by scrub-buster on Oct 7, 2024 5:48:43 GMT -5
We are going to hit the farm pond in a few days. Last night I went through our poles and swapped a few reels out. I should be getting 2 more reels delivered this week. A new 33 for my wife and a used catfish spinning reel for me.
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Post by deadeer on Oct 7, 2024 10:18:02 GMT -5
We are planning to put the boat in the water this coming weekend. Gonna try for river kings, coho, steelhead in the St Joe river, either at Berrien Springs or Mishawaka.
Time and trips are numbered with the changing seasons.
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Post by bullseye69 on Oct 7, 2024 12:01:05 GMT -5
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Post by deadeer on Oct 7, 2024 17:21:32 GMT -5
Always wanted to say... HOLY MACKEREL. lol. |
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Post by esshup on Oct 7, 2024 17:51:27 GMT -5
I'm used to using live mackerel as bait for Bluefin, Yellowfin and Wahoo. Not to eat.
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Post by scrub-buster on Oct 10, 2024 20:31:37 GMT -5
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Post by deadeer on Oct 12, 2024 17:52:20 GMT -5
We are planning to put the boat in the water this coming weekend. Gonna try for river kings, coho, steelhead in the St Joe river, either at Berrien Springs or Mishawaka. Time and trips are numbered with the changing seasons. We ended up going to Mishawaka and fish the Twin Branch Dam area of the St Joe River. There were quite a few boats and shore fisherman. The water level in the river is several feet low, so it's quite challenging navigating thru the sand bars, logs, and stumps. Unfortunately the prop took a lot of damage. Nothing new for us. We saw a few fish on the gravel flats. Saw some jump, and one guy had hooks in one that was an acrobat and real screamer, but it got off. All steelhead as expected. We only ended up with two smallmouth. Better than a skunk at least. We were way under dressed for the wind, so had to really suck it up and give it all we had. I finally threw in the towel and we called it a day. Still hoping for another few boat trips. |
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Post by esshup on Oct 12, 2024 21:36:55 GMT -5
I caught 350 Smallmouth and 200 Yellow Perch today.
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Post by onebentarrow on Oct 12, 2024 22:41:46 GMT -5
I caught 350 Smallmouth and 200 Yellow Perch today. What kind of dynamite did you use? |
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Post by esshup on Oct 13, 2024 14:20:15 GMT -5
I caught 350 Smallmouth and 200 Yellow Perch today. What kind of dynamite did you use? Seine net. |
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Post by featherduster on Oct 13, 2024 23:33:44 GMT -5
What kind of dynamite did you use? Seine net. And suppose your going to sell them too? |
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Post by esshup on Oct 14, 2024 7:16:37 GMT -5
And suppose your going to sell them too? I delivered all of them Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning except for 40 Smallmouth that are going to a customer in Southern Illinois. I kept 10. I fin clipped those 10 and they are going into my pond after I fatten them up a little bit in the holding tank. That way I can tell when they were put in my pond if they get caught at some time in the future. I can get more if needed in the next few weeks. I will be getting more Yellow Perch too. I might be able to get some 14"-18" Walleye too......... LOL And hopefully some Saugeye in a few weeks. Those do exceptionally well in targeting smaller panfish in a pond. The walleye target more fusiform shaped fish, not panfish unless there aren't too many fusiform shaped fish in the pond. I have a customer that wants 50 Smallmouth that are 12"+, I have a supplier for those, but I have to coordinate getting them with some other fish as they are 1,068 miles away one way..... No way can I run that distance for just a few fish. I will be in SFC (R) B neck of the woods when I get the fish. This is what they will grow up to look like:  |
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