Wisconsin Outdoor Great Lakes Fishing

Great Lakes fishing reports and tips

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Salmon Fishing Milwaukee Patience Puts More Fish In The Cooler

Salmon Fishing Milwaukee Patience Puts More Fish In The Cooler

Milwaukee fall fishing has never been better. The west wind has moved the Alewives in from 160 feet to 50 feet and the temperature is 45 degrees at 30 feet down. All presentations are working. Spoons, flasher flies and plugs are all taking fish. The first light bite has been fantastic. Doubles and triples are common when the sun is just on the horizon. I start my morning with all glow spoons. Charge them up with bright light before you put them in. Charge them again every opportunity you have in all low light situations. Keep them bright for the hottest action. I have been running my Slide Divers on #4 early and going to a lower number after it gets brighter out. The lower the number the deeper they dive. Sixty feet of line out is a good place to start. The best glow spoons for me have been the Reaper Fish Fry, Green Fox or any of the Tiger Glows in the magnum size. The only place you can find them is at Badgertackle.com Downriggers 40 to 60 down have been the ticket once again with glow spoons. Later in the day on sunny days move to deeper water and fish 60 to 90 feet down with Vulcan Silver Plate, Silver Sky or any of the silver colors in the regular size. This 3-inch spoon is just the right size to match the Alewives look for them at Badgertackle.com
Four-year-old kings are also available. Most of the boats are reporting four to six of these big bruisers each trip. You will have to pick and peck at them. Try magnum spoons and #3 and #4 J-plugs. The big kings will be available until mid October with the quantities diminishing toward the end of October. For exciting action on the biggest fish of the year fish the warm water outside the break walls, in the harbor gaps and around the harbor. When the water is clear go with all silver, silver/green, silver/blue. In low light or cloudy stained water, run the glow in the dark spoons. Downriggers 15 to 30 down are the way to go. Run your corner downriggers at 12 to 22 feet with 60-foot leads and cover the deeper water with the remaining downriggers. The Slide Divers are taking a lot of fish with the large ring set to #2 and 50 foot leads at 37 feet of line out. I used 50-pound Power Pro on all my divers this year and it allowed for better hook sets and deeper running with less problems.
Let's continue with ways to land more of the fish you have on the line. We covered quality hooks and correct setting of the drags on your reels. They probably rank as the top two in importance, although there are many other ways to get the fish to stick. To me there is nothing more vital to my success on the lake and satisfaction of my customers than a high ratio fish on to fish in. I am sure there are some that will disagree with a procedure I use to allow a greater numbers at the end of the day. I pull my lines and stop the boat on all of the fish over ten pounds or at least that's my goal. Occasionally, in the heat of the battle, a larger fish will end up close to the boat before we can clear lines. Then I will take the boat down as slow as we can to avoid getting the fish around my other lines. The longer you drag the fish around the more time they have to get off. Over the years I have found that the harder you pull on the fish the harder they fight and more likely they will come off. This also allows me to run smaller terminal tackle and lighter lines both of which improve presentation. I know pulling lines is a lot of work but I would rather do that than disappoint a customer and friend. I have the pleasure of a new group of fishermen twice a day with a wide variety of experience. Most of who have never caught a fish before. My youngest this year was three and oldest was eighty-seven. We managed to boat over 80% of the fish we had on. There will be more on this subject in the next article. Good Luck!! Jim charters out of Milwaukee, WI. with Blue Max Charters. He can be reached at 414-828-1094 or visit his web site at http://www.bluemaxcharters.com Copyright 2006, James J. Hirt, All Rights Reserved

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home