Oscoda                                                July 19, 2003

John,
Fished 1.5 hours due east of Oscoda July 19, 2003 went 2/2. Started in 
75 fow trolled due east to 140 fow. Picked up a 6# king right away, 65 
down on a mag blue-tail, 30 feet behind the ball. Marked more fish and 
baitfish on the graph between 80-90 fow water than I have ever seen 
before, but getting a bite was a problem. With all the bait in the water 
I suspect the fish were well fed. By 110 fow we had left all the other 
boats and by 140 fow we picked up a nice laker. My youngest daughter 
landed both fish. With lunch and diner in the box we picked up and 
headed back in. Talking to others later in the day, our results sounded 
pretty typical. Mix of salmon and lake trout, 1-2 per hour. Good and 
steady action for all with no real highs or lows.

Reed A. Shick 

Oscoda                                  July 13, 2003

Hi Captain John, sorry I can't give you much of an Oscoda report, could not get out on Friday, Saturday.... biggest waves our two boats actually tried to fish in, (4ft plus) too many "butts" staring back at me so we called it after an hour. Sunday, only managed 3 Lakers per boat in shallow and way South, of Ausable Point. In 65 FOW and using the Monkey Puke fly 150 back on the Mono, and 50 down on the rigger with a Karen, and a Blue Green Watermelon. Sorry again, may have to come over and fish Michigan this weekend.
Jeff Hart
"Always Fishin'" 

Oscoda                                  July 4 thru 6, 2003

 
Fishing remains incredibly slow unless you are fishing for Lake Trout. The best catch of Lake Trout was of course on the bottom in 60- to 80 FOW Straight out from the Pier and slightly North, with good amounts of Lakers being taken in up to 160 FOW. Using just about anything seemed to work especially the White Glow Fish Catcher with the "Monkey Puke" fly. (If you needed to catch a fish that was the ticket) The Kings simply are not here yet. However some were sporadically taking a few. Not enough to really get excited about. I fished everyday from Thursday to Sunday as well as Captain Dave out of "Smells like Fish" and we only boated 3 Kings, along with a huge amount of Lakers and several Steelhead. We released all of the Lakers except the hurt ones. Quite a few nice Steelhead being taken on Yellow Birds with the smaller spoons or Flies. The water was just about flat calm the whole weekend making for a very nice boat ride anyway. There was a report of an 18 to 20lb. Laker taken on Sunday. (That had to be fun) It reportedly took 425 feet of line before being landed. I had to leave early on Sunday as usual and didn't see the fish. We will be fishing Oscoda again starting Friday afternoon.

Jeff Hart
"Always Fishin'

Oscoda                                  June 27, 28 & 29, 2003

Hello John,

Went out of Oscoda on the 29th of June. Got off the dock around 7:00 
am and headed southeast out of the harbor to about 70 foot of water and 
set up. Worked between 70 and 120 foot of water. Went 4 for 4, all lake
trout with the biggest to about 10 pounds. 3 were caught on a Stevie
Wonder Stinger spoon on a full core and the other was on a white fish
catcher and a Capt. Len's Jaw Breaker fly 80 feet back on a wire dipsy.
Trolling direction did not seem to matter and our best speed was 2.3 to
2.6 mph. Pulled lines at noon and headed in. 

The radio was pretty quiet all day. The best I heard was six fish in
the box and very few salmon being reported.

Talk to you soon,
Larry Skellett
Keep'em Wet 

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Hi Captain John,

Fished Huron Friday, wind absolutely blew us off, some of the friends I took tried "chumming" but didn't work, I had to take there green faces back

Saturday, was hugely dismal went 2 for 3 with 1- 7lb King throwing everything we had at them. Storms came in and had to get off by noon

Sunday brought bad fog, calm seas but nothing, nothing.... went 3 for 4 by 2:00pm. All on Green fish catcher with a Monkey Puke fly. Interestingly all caught within an hour window. Switched everything, tried many speeds, couldn't find them, went from 45 to 160 FOW from straight out from the river to up to 6 miles south.

Captain Dave of "Smells like Fish" reported fishing was better in shallower, fishing primarily 60-80 FOW doing well 6 for 8 on Saturday on mainly Monkey Puke type colors and black and white, (MJ and OJ). Sunday 3 for 3 all on the Monkey Puke fly and the green fish catcher.

Going to Oscoda Wednesday and will fish until Sunday, will send a report as soon as we can

Jeff Hart
"Always Fishin"

Oscoda                                           June 25th, 2003

Capt. John,
We fished Oscoda Wednesday morning 6/25/03.
Went 7 for 9, five kings and two lakers. Kings were about 8# one was 12#. Fished off Ausable Point in 85-100 FOW. Caught fish on fishlander ultra-glow Miami Dolphin on rigger 65 down, mag double glow Yellowtail 55 down. Green/crushglow Fiscatchers with monkeypuke Purple Taco's on wire and braid dipseys 85-150 feet back. 

Had some nice rips on mag green Chilly Willy, wire dipsey, nobody home.
Watch out for the commercial whitefish net off the point in about 80 FOW. It is not marked very well. Check your radio, a poor guy spent the night drifting toward Canada because he didn't have a radio and his cell phone was useless. They finally found him 25 miles out wed. At least it wasn't rough enough to flip his 16 foot aluminum and it was a warm night. I hope he knows how lucky he is.

Good luck!
Jim Athey

Oscoda                                        June 21 &22, 2003

Hi Captain John, thought I drop you a line on Oscoda this past weekend:

Saturday: Went 5 for 8, all in 80-100 feet of water 75 back on Dipsey's and no deeper then 45 down on riggers. Colors were White fish catcher and a white fly for 4 of 8 the rest were on Green Dolphin, Yellow Tail and the Michael Jackson, all caught from 7:00AM to Noon, went back out at 5:00pm and got nothing. All lakers except an 11lb. King.

Our fishing buddy in a different boat: same water depth went 7 for 9 fished the same area and same basic lures. All Lakers

Sunday: Went out at 7:00AM nothing until almost 11:00AM. (After wandering well South and Deeper then the fleet.) Someone hit the switch. Went 9 for 12 (had to pull off at 2:00pm because of other obligations) Lost two screamers. The others were (7 Kings) One at 14lbs, two in the 10lb area and the other Kings were 6lbs. or less. The remaining were Lakers in the 6lb. or less range.

All in 140-160 feet of water, the only fish caught were on riggers, one side 55-65 down and the other 100-110 Dipseys, long lines and yellow birds did nothing. Spoons did all of the work, Wonder bread. Yellowtail, Michael Jackson, (which I lost on a screamer) Blue Dolphin, and White Screwball.

My buddies boat was fishing in 110-140 FOW and went 6 for 7 with one King. fishing 60-80 down. 

Weather was amazing, NO WIND at all, yikes never fished like today with the weather and the way the afternoon bite was.

Anyway, hope I gave you something you can use, if not, I will continue to send anyway. I know you are busy no need to respond.

Jeff Hart
"Always Fishin'" 

Oscoda                                             May 5, 2003

Team 2-Shot was planning on fishing Ludington Saturday morning, however, that 2 am alarm never seemed to go off!  After sleeping in we managed to get a late start and fish Oscoda instead.  Ran 9 miles north and watched the water temp go from 50 degrees at the mouth to 41.2 to the north.  Trolled 20-35' of water and managed 2 lakers, one 12 lber spitting up smelt as she was boated.  Both Lake Trout came on Gold/Red #11 Rapalas 8' down on the riggers 50' back.  Nothing on the boards.  Picked up and ran back to the mouth where traffic was quite intense.  Lost about a 5 lb Walleye at the back of the boat in 50.5 degree water before calling it a night.  Looks like they are getting good numbers of Walleye wherever the plume of water comes out from the mouth.  Not much to the north yet

2-Shot