Sheboygan Salmon Fishing Report : July

With winds gusting to 30 knots this week it's looking like a good time to make the journey up into Wisconsin looking for a pier with cool water surrounding it. As warm surface water gets forced toward Michigan, cool water wells up to replace it, making the water temperatures plunge. Surface temps last night in Sheboygan were 51 degrees.

I was invited along on this long shot July Salmon fishing excursion by a friend, Mike P., who offered me a ride on the condition I could meet him at his work around 5:00, so he didn't have to make the drive back into Chicago. Mike really loves chasing salmon, as do I, and he had no problem committing to 6 hours of driving for a shot at a good fresh King Salmon or Steelhead.

So I took the Chicago transit system up to meet Mike, where I was joined by another of our friends, Keith, and we were on our way out of Chicago, toward Sheboygan.

We got there just at Sunset, staked out a spot for 3 to cast on what turned out to be a busy night at the pier, and got to work.

Water temperatures were perfect, your spoon came back feeling like it just came out of an ice bath, there were beautiful 3 foot swells coming back out of the lake as a result of so much movement of Lake Michigan's water in an easterly direction, there were alewifes surrounding the piers. There was only one thing missing... Fish.

Even with the lack of tight lines and screaming drag, it was still a lovely night of fishing. The familiar flashes from strobes to light spoons, and then the green streaks as glow spoons were tossed off the Sheboygan Pier into Lake Michigan. I even spotted 2 shooting stars and 5 satellites, something I certainly never see in Chicago.

After our spirits were broken after 5 hours of casting and not even a glimmer of hope, the camera came out and I took some photographs of the gang. Here we are.

Me, Tom Harris, armed with my 7'6" Heavy Casting Rod with a 3/4 oz. Glow K.O. Wobbler.

Mike, with his 8' Medium weight Downrigger Rod, with a 1 oz. Moonshine Glow Spoon.

Finally, Keith, with his backwards hat and 8'6" Shore Casting Rod.

Having never caught a Salmon in July from shore my hopes were not high, I expected to see a couple others hook up and had hoped that one of us would at least hook up and lose a fish, but that's how chasing King Salmon is, you have to put in the miles, the hours, and the casts to connect. I've started early this year and if all goes right, there will be plenty of photographs of King Salmon, Coho Salmon, big Brown Trout, and Lake Michigan Steelhead in the months to come.

Until then, I'll see you out there.

Kinnikinnick River July Fishing Report

I had a chance to escape to some of my favorite St. Croix and Pierce County Wisconsin streams this last week. To my surprise on both the Kinnikinnick and the Rush there were large hatches of small flies. Naturally matching these produced best results. Smaller dries took fish, as did small terrestrials, grasshoppers were fished without luck.

On a day on the rush river I stuck to my spinning reel alone and was able to connect with a few healthy brown trout as well as a large brook trout and a couple of it's younger siblings. Very small silver spoons swung across the current took fish, as well as small, gold bladed panther martins fished both downstream and across current.

Remember this time of year the fish are very spooky, shallow feeding fish were spooked by the slightest site of me, crawling up through the grass, swinging the rod out from behind trees or large boulders produced many more fish than simply walking up to the riverside and shooting at the most favorable trout lie.

Fish were taken from deep, slow pools that had a thick canopy over them, as well as from very shallow, fast running riffles, but most large fish were taken from deeper medium speed pools and bends in the river.

The further from an easy access you get the better you will do. Once I got a mile away from the bridge I parked at the fishing really started picking up, even in spots you might not think would hold trout.

Get out to the Kinnickinick river, Pine creek, the Rush River, or the Willow River now while the weather is warm, the flies aren't to bad, the water is full of suckers, and where some big lazy summer trout are holding in deeper pools where they can be targeted. Good luck out there on the rivers!

This is Fly Magazine, July Issue

Just this week another issue of This is Fly was released on the internet. It features over 100 pages of awesome graphic design, beautiful photographs, and what we all read it for... Awesome images of fish.

One of my favorite articles in this one is about shooting fishing photographs, both of which are a couple of my greatest joys in life, one of which (photography) is my profession.

It's a great read for a rainy day when you can't get out fishing or are stuck in the office wishing you were fishing. If nothing else it is just something to enjoy if you are a (fly) fisher-person at heart.

Finally, A Threat to Invasive Zebra and Quagga Mussels

"An eco-friendly bacteria that kills invasive mussels will be tested for the first time in Canada at the Decew Falls hydro plant.

Ontario Power Generation will monitor the specialized microbe's ability to kill zebra and quagga mussels, which threaten power production at the combined 170-megawatt power stations on Twelve Mile Creek in St. Catharines."

This could be great news for any fisherman, swimmers, and the great lakes in general. There are billions of these things covering the bottom of the great lakes, consuming much of the small scale food needed to keep bait fish alive.

"The mashed-up microbes are introduced into the water as a food source for the bacteria-loving mollusks, which won't clam up to protect themselves as they do with chemical killers." Check out the whole story over at The Standard

Catch Magazine : Keeping Trees Vertical

Another great online magazine called "Catch Magazine" has a new issue out. This magazine is not printed and is only available online. It is certainly worth taking a look at just like "This is Fly", another beautiful magazine filled with mouth watering spreads of places you'd give your last fly to fish at.

I'm a fan of these online magazines as I can look at them in the bright, full resolution of my monitor and can refer to them anytime, any place I have a computer handy. So click on the image above and take a peek at this, it's full of great photos and some interesting articles.

Great Lakes Angler Heads to Minnesota

For the next 10 days I will be chasing Walleye, Perch, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, and Muskellunge up in Northern Minnesota. Reports full of photographs and stories will follow me home, so until then... I'll see you in the north woods.

House Approves $475 Million for Great Lakes Restoration

The house past legislation last week approving $475 million towards resoring the Great Lakes. This, of course, is good news for all of us that have respect for our great lakes. I couldn't ever see myself living far from its shores and every penny that gets routed into restoration, prevention, and research is a penny well spent in my book.

The money will be broken down as follows:

• $147 million to clean up highly toxic rivers and harbors that feed into the lakes.

• $60 million to prevent and remove invasive species.

• $98 million to refurbish areas near shores and to prevent "non-point" pollution, such as fertilizer and oil run-off.

• $105 million to restore and protect habitat and wildlife.

• $65 million to monitor progress of cleanup.

I find it interesting that the lowest amount of money into invasive species prevention and removal.

Some of the more abbrasive invasives as of now (because I'm sure there are more to come...) are: Rusty Crawfish, Round Goby, Common Carp, Sea Lamprey, Alewife, Rainbow Smelt, and of course the dreaded Zebra and Quagga Mussels.

The money was part of the Interior and Environmental Protection Agency appropriations bill for fiscal year 2010. It passed 254-173. -Detroit News

A new Lock at the Soo Locks

Construction just began on a new lock to compliment the Poe Lock at the Soo Locks, connecting Lake Superior to Lake Huron. This new lock will make faster work of moving the 1000 foot class of freighter between the lakes. If anything were to happen to the Poe Lock it would "restrict 85 percent of our business," said Fred Shusterich, president of Superior, Wis.-based Midwest Energy Resources Co.

The Coffer Dams that re-route the river to allow work on the lock will cost $1.9 million. Around 8000 ships make the journey through the Locks each year and this high capacity lock will help keep things running smoothly, and will provide a backup for times that the Poe lock needs maintainence on it's hydrolics or anything else.

This will provide hundreds of jobs for the people of Michigan. More information can be found here at the Detroit News.

2009 Fish Totals, first half

Well, tomorrow marks the passing of the first half of 2009. It's time to total up my catch for the first part of the year. It's been a great start to 2009 and I can only dream of catching as many quality fish as I did in the waxing part of this year.

Here we go:

Yellow Perch: 499

Brown Trout (inland): 48

Rainbow Trout (inland): 5

Rainbow Trout (steelhead): 6

Brook Trout: 3

Coho Salmon: 4

Chinook Salmon (fingerlings): 3

Largemouth Bass: 10

Smallmouth Bass: 6

Sucker: 3

Sunfish: 2

Bluegill: 5

Rock Bass: 20

Walleye: 2

Northern Pike: 48

Total 664 fish

So all in all, it's been a great 6 months. From here out there will be a lot more bigger game fishing. There will be Bass, Walleye, and Northern Pike in northern Minnesota. Follwed by a shot at the Skamania strain of Steelhead, Brown Trout from Wisconsin harbors, more inland trout fishing in Wisconsin. Then will be a couple of months chasing Kings and Browns in the tributaries in Wisconsin, followed by the later running Steelhead strains in November.

I really can't wait for any of this, it's going to be a ball. Thanks to everyone that's fished with me, brought me to their "secret spot", and actually met me at 4:30 a.m. to get at some perch. I'm blessed to live in such spot so conducive to angling. I will keep at it as long as I'm permitted.

Round 2, here we go... See you on the seawall, the river, the lake, the dock, the pond, the dam, and under the bridge.

Kissing the June Perch Season Goodbye (litterally)

Out to home base on the sea wall this morning by 4:40. I had some equipment malfunctions that were unexpected. My trusty super rooster tail actually snapped in half today, I guess after catching 3 Northerns and close to 60 Jumbo Perch on it the metal gets a little brittle.

This was just fine, I was fishing catch and release today in respect to the great season lake Michigan gave me. I landed a few jumbos and a few smaller little guys that hit much harder than their lighter biting older siblings. The fishing was by no means on fire for me today, but guys using #5 shad raps were doing better than I was.

Upon catching my last jumbo (around 12") today I looked at it right in the eyes, said "see you next year my friend" and gave it a kiss on it's fish lips and tossed him back. I got some funny looks from other anglers, letting go such fine table fare. I'm ok with some funny looks.

I won't be out tomorrow, half the year is done with and I'll have a report coming with my totals from the fish log for the first half of 2009.

Thanks Lake Michigan. I'll be moving on to brown trout and skamanias in later July, Brown trout, steelhead, and salmon will be heading my way in a couple of months as well. It's been a great year.