Past Updates, Fishing and Charter Reports
October 2002 10/31/02 Being Halloween I decided it
was time to stop working on boat projects and spent a partial day on
the Big Manistee River with good friends. Warren Knapp, a
regular from Manistee who fishes from the renown Dotti K and John,
my recent deck hand for most of this July, August and September
2002. Check back later to see if the Steelhead gave us a trick
(by not biting), or a treat and cooperated! 10/30/02 The boat went on the
trailer yesterday, as I made my final pass thru the channel towards
Lake Michigan many thoughts went thru my head. Recalling the
fond memories of arm weary guests by 9 o'clock in the morning last
August. Fishing the Ladies Day Tourney with a bunch of fun loving
gals. And just being a small part of the of the wonderful
thing we know and love called, Salmon Fishing. 10/28/02 Started off the day right when
my Cherokee cooperated and both engines started. Because, I hadn't
used the boat in a while, I believe the boat was looking for some much
needed attention and decided to discharge the batteries. 10/27/02 Wet, cold and rainy, as we've
yet to see an Indian Summer in Manistee. Factor in a cantankerous
28 foot Cherokee, that wouldn't start, because of dead batteries and
you'll see how my day went. 10/26/02 Not much to report, until I
pull my lake boat Monday. Bunch of stuff to do today, but it's
all maintenance orientated. The big river is 1380 cubic feet a
second, which is slightly below our 4 year average. 10/24/02 Cleaning the riverboat and installing new rodholder placements is on the agenda for today's chores. I'm going to try to get out an E-mail contact letter for the members of the mailing list too. I have a few spoon packs I just found and 5 spools of 20 pound Flea Flicker left. Look for an outstanding deal on these end of the season closeouts, because I don't want to carry inventory into 2003. Click here for a messy riverboat! 10/23/02 I was in a serious
computer hell for about 5 hours with tech support at Microsoft
yesterday. I tried downloading Service Pack 1 for XP on a
dial-up connection. This is a huge 38 meg download and I ended
up with corrupted files. This meant, I had to f-disk and
reformat this computer. Plus, partition the hard drive,
install two operating systems and the multitude of programs I use to
bring you this website every day. 10/22/02 Rain and overcast was the
big story for yesterday. Snow was scattered in with the showers,
but not enough to stick to the warm ground. Rain means the water
in the Big Manistee will be rising. The rush of a stronger current
flow will premiere fall's greatest gamester called Mr. Steel Head
entering the big river system. I worked on trying to finish the
replacing the wheel bearing seals on the riverboat trailer yesterday,
until a hard, driving rain shut that project down. 10/18/02 Today I seen it try to snow this morning for the first time this fall. Then around noon it turned to all rain. Nasty and dreary best describes the conditions in Manistee County I endured, while outside pulling the wheel bearings. 10/16/02 Going to wake the riverboat from it's long summer's nap, as Steelhead season is fast approaching! Much to do, and storing lake tackle is on the agenda too. I'm starting to get the bug for river fishing. Fall fishing for unruly Steelhead in the river with plugs is a personal favorite with me and always will be. It's more than fun! 10/15/02 I was going pull the Cherokee today, but by the way the weather looks it's going to be nasty the remainder of this week. I'll be better off waiting for this spell of cold weather to clear out and I won't have issues with freezing with the boat still sitting in the water. Besides, I'm pulling the engines for a complete overhaul and don't want to contend with high temps in the mid-40's for that job. 10/14/02 We got our first hard freeze of
the fall season this morning with a low temperature of 28 degrees.
There's some surface temperatures in the mid-50's off the Port of
Manistee, meaning some decent action on skyrocketing Steelhead, but many
folks fail to take advantage of this superb late season fishery. 10/11/02 Good fishing was found today off Manistee on the 30 line, 80 to 90 feet down. Steelhead and 3 year old Kings, while not overly abundant were being caught. This report came from Shipwatch Marina's very own Capt. Larry Scharich, who was pulling dock duty when the promising reports came in on channel 7. 10/10/02 Not much to report on the status
of Lake Michigan, because there just hasn't been many good opportunities
to get off the dock. Couple this with extremely poor surface temps
and you'll see why, "there's not much happening." 10/9/02 The down temp is still riding at, or below the depth of a 100 feet. Wind, gales and nasty weather is what we have at Manistee lately. Can't seem to get a break for a northwest blow to bring the temperature up on the surface. I'd like to get one more crack at the big lake before I pull the lake boat for 2002. 10/7/02 Sunday's weather was even rougher than Saturday's. This week's "to do" list includes, pulling the lake boat, yanking the engines to rebuild (7500 hours on them) and installing new wheel bearings on the riverboat trailer. So, I've got a pretty full plate for the near future. 10/5/02 Here's the deal for this morning's cancellation. Pay attention the the very low barometer, it's always a good indication of rough weather. Also, wind gusts in excess of 40mph when you convert knots into mph.
10/4/02 Looks like my last 2 charters
of 2002 on Lake Michigan will be cancelled, because of a less than a
favorable forecast. Here's what I'm faced with: 10/3/03 Kinda have the website on autopilot, because this is limbo season for me. I'll finish up the last 2 lake trips of the year this weekend. Then waiting for the leaves to come down and the Steelheading in the Big Manistee River will become my focus until Lake Michigan starts for me in April 03 at BrownTroutville. 10/2/02 Not much to report other than strong south winds for the past two days have kept Lake Michigan at Manistee immerged in much too warm water. Lack of a discernable thermocline is making the fishing "challenging" to say the least. 10/1/02 Took a picture of 4 of the 5
Commercial Indian net tugs now drydocked at Solberg's Marina.
So, for those of you who don't think the Little River Band are
serious about commercial netting in Lake Michigan from north of
Frankfort to Muskegon, you'd better think again! Solberg's is
not to be harassed over this hotly debated issue, because of
discrimination problems they could be facing if dockage was
denied. Right, wrong or indifference to netting, shows that
control of Lake Michigan now rests in the hands of the LRB of Native
Americans. 9/29/02 Fished a half day event this
morning with a good team today comprised of Andy, Torrey, Brian and
Andy Jr. Our catch photo doesn't reflect the action we
experienced. Mr. Wily J. Steelhead (the J stands for
jumper) won more times than we did, because he knew exactly how
to escape! "Wild" best describes the explosive surface antics of
our shrewd adversary, as many lived to fight another day. We
ended up with 3 Steelhead, a small King and a Laker that was tossed
back. We could have had 3 times as many Steelhead, if luck was
on our side. Click
here for tips, techniques and area fished on 9/29/02 9/28/02 Andy S. and 3 young boys were my guests for today's cancelled trip on Lake Michigan. 35 degrees at 7am with a 20 mph wind, plus the youngsters had no heavy winter coats, so I put this trip off until tomorrow. Three frozen "kidsickles" isn't my idea of how to win friends and influence people! Made it over to the net pens at the Little Manistee, and they were crammed full of adult Kings, or Chinooks 9/27/02 Never made much beyond the pier heads this morning, as 2 to 4 seas (and building) dashed any hopes of a trip to deeper waters. So, we made a lap around the harbor without any takers and put the boat back on the dock. 9/26/02 Mr. Don Van Stoyk was my guest for today's Lake Michigan semi-fruitless search for Steelhead. Lack of any decent water temperature is the problem off Manistee now (too warm, 63 degrees to a 100 feet). Even over 700 feet of water, down temp is over a 100 feet down. Also, it didn't help our box much, when we missed the first 4 opportunities and we only ended up with one Steelhead. I got a better plan for tomorrow's effort, check back to see if I figured out what needed to be done? 9/25/02 Going to ready the boat for tomorrow's mission with Don Stoyk and do general late season maintenance. Adjusting to a surface (top 30 foot) fishery means, stowing all the flashers, J-Plugs, dodgers and flies. Spoons will be the food of choice if I can located the mother lode of Steelhead. 9/24/02 If the weather allows, I'll be fishing on Lake Michigan this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Steelhead and next year's Salmon will be the name of the game. If the fish can be located, the catching can be beyond fantastic. A few years back, we boated 28 fish in less than 3 hours, dock to dock! 9/22/02 A severe cold has me laid pretty low, so low, I'd need a step ladder to crawl over a dime. No updates for yesterday, or today are available. Hope to feel better soon, because I'll be fishing this week. 9/20/02 The party is pretty much past over, as far as the Salmon for the 2002 Lake Michigan season is concerned. I'll be fishing next week (weather permitting), and the main focus will be Steelhead. Late September and early October offer some of the best fishing of the year when adult silver bullet Steelhead begin their annual fall run. Look intense limit catch action near the surface (top 40 feet of water) over depths ranging from 400 to 600 feet. 9/19/02 Made stupendous progress in my
quest to conquer Adobe's PageMaker 7.0 today, but I cheated. How
did I cheat? I bought a 3 DVD, 10 hour instructional tutorial and
I watched my first 4 lessons. These DVD's were pricey at $240 and
worth every penny of it so far, because of the time saving short cuts.
Plus, I won't have my face stuck in an instruction manual for hours on
end. 9/18/02 I'm waiting for the Steelhead to pick-up next week, because I sitting on a few charter guests wanting to go. Hopefully, the deep water Steelheading will improve and we'll be into fish big time, like usual for this time of year. 9/17/02 Thanks to Captains, Derek and FBD for the photos and keeping this website fresh. It's kinda hard for me to come up with noteworthy info, if I'm not fishing. However, I did my time on Lake Michigan this season and it feels ultra good not having the pressure to fill the box everyday. I've put myself in a tough position with this website. Because, there was almost 15,000 individuals that visited this site during the month of August, and I hate to suck at "catching" in a front of a audience that huge. My everyday charter guests don't see the difference, but you do! 9/16/02 8am, News Flash: Wow, it's only
37 degrees in Manistee County this morning. The chill of autumn is
in the air and it's time to think about the outstanding fall river
Steelheading that will soon be upon us! 9/15/02 The high winds predicted for yesterday morning never hit us, but the breeze did pick up in the afternoon. I need a fishing report from a Manistee fishermen, because I never made it to the marina yesterday. 9/14/02 All's quiet on the western front, I'm happy to report. Spent all of yesterday trying to learn a new software program called, Adobe PageMaker 7.0. This program is necessary for me to format my book covering all methods and tackle required to be successful in your Great Lake quest of cold water gamefish. I hope to have my own book for ready for sale by early 2003. 9/13/02 Friday the 13th? Superstitious
or not, we don't need the rough weather forecast for this
weekend. Here's the weekend open water forecast. 9/10/02 A cold front moving in, means northwest winds and that should load our harbor up with Salmon in the next day, or two. Hope to put a deal together with the Producers people, because they make the Willies Worm (river steelie lure) and a Flatfish copy. After several tries with trying to secure Helin's T-4 Flatfish, no distributor would even deal with me. So, I'll find someone who will! 9/9/02 As the 2002 Salmon Season
winds down and a slow Michigan economy has taken it's toll on
everyone's charter business, I'll have a few days off. I need
to do many things for the 2003 season and the ground work has to be
laid right now. 9/8/02 Len, Kevin, Tim & Chad
were my prized guests on today's Lake Michigan Salmon search.
Now, this team was a fine group of fisherman that knew how to have
fun and still be serious enough to put fish in the boat. Len
had the "hot hand" landing most everything that touched
his rod (unlike his luck yesterday!) and shared his vast wisdom and
knowledge with the rest of his fellow anglers. The bottom line
on today's outing was gratifying, as several entertaining circumstances
presented "ALL" of us a good quality time and a bunch of
laughs. 9/7/02 Fished with Barry, Gary, Berto
and Frank on Lake Michigan today. We had a superlative trip
with a massively substantial 200 lb. box. The dead fish count was
10 Kings to 27 pounds and 5 spunky Coho. We accomplished this
feat by 11:30am and headed back to Manistee contented in the fact,
there was more fish in the box than needed, to call it........................one
incredible fishing expedition! 9/6/02 Bill and his father Karl were my guests for this morning's half day Lake Michigan Salmon quest. Sloppy water to the north meant, we moved the boat 8 miles south for calmer conditions. Quality was the focus of our catch. We boxed 4 worthy adult Kings to about 20 pounds and a Coho. The interesting thing about today's sojourn was that Bill flew his private Cessna up from Toledo, Ohio in less than 2 hours. Both fishermen did fine on the rods for the action we experienced in an extra-strong east wind this morning. Click here for Bill & Karl's catch photo 9/5/02 Catch'em quick is the theme of
today's report from the Port of Manistee. After an
unproductive lap around the harbor, we yanked rods and headed for
the shelf at 7am. We almost had our full compliment of 5 rods
set, when the 5 rigger was being attacked by a spirited Coho.
Then a couple more went into the fish box when a good-sized King smacked
a diver rod. Capt. Bob Hicks (aka Sarah Ann from Lud-town)
put on masterful show of his angling expertise, whipping the largest
fish of the day in short order. So, after about an hour we
boxed our 10 fish limit and headed back to the dock around
8:20AM. The body count for today's effort was 4 Kings (2
smaller ones) and 6 chunky Cohos. I've watched Capt. Bob's
complete metamorphosis into an adept, proficient angler this year,
good job......Capt. Bob! 9/2/02 I'll be taking a few days off from the overly-hectic grind, having been at the boat around the last 45 consecutive days. R and R is needed and welcomed after an exceedingly heavy August schedule (30 trips in 31 days). Besides, the weather radar shows rain and storms approaching at 7am this morning. I'll still have daily updates and fishing reports for you, as the come in from other captains fishing Manistee waters. Need to catch up on much neglected office and home duties. Lots to do, but I'll probably research fish on Wednesday, or this Thursday. 9/1/02 I had a 2 groups of remarkable
hard-fishing, father-son teams of Mike Jr. and Mike, Dave Jr. and
Dave, plus Jerry was along too, on today's early morning Salmon slaughter.
This team got with the program and boxed 10 lunker Kings, by around
8am. Not being greedy, we pulled lines by 9am and headed back towards the
dock.
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