Fair Haven 7/10-7/22

[matt05star]

I'm fishing the next 12 days out of the state park with my brother and other family,  and will try to post reports on the days we get out.

 

Didn't get an early start today, as we were exhausted from setting up camp.  Lines in at about 8, out at 11, starting in 120 FOW pretty much straight out of port.

 

Didn't mark many fish, just an occasional mark down about 40 feet, which we were fishing below for the most part.  Riggers set at 73-79, wire dipsies 180-250.  Fleas are pretty bad.  Ended up 3 for 5, with a couple fish coming unbuttoned from our wire and meat rig after 5- 10 seconds.   The other fish were hooked well, each with a couple hooks. All fought pretty well, too.  No derby fish, but teenagers in the 11-14 lbs range. The hits came in 145- 165 fow.

 

Broke a boom on one of my Big Jons in the waves, as I had cleared the rig to make way for fighting one of the fish.  I had the 12 lb weight above the water, and I guess the bouncing was a little too much stress on it.

 

These are the baits that worked: a UV Wonderbread, A ladder back spoon with white back ( if anyone recognizes and knows what it is, please reply with the name), a larger spin doctor and fly off a wire dipsy, and the large paddle with meat rig.

[lumberjohn]

11 hours ago, matt05star said:

I'm fishing the next 12 days out of the state park with my brother and other family,  and will try to post reports on the days we get out.

 

Didn't get an early start today, as we were exhausted from setting up camp.  Lines in at about 8, out at 11, starting in 120 FOW pretty much straight out of port.

 

Didn't mark many fish, just an occasional mark down about 40 feet, which we were fishing below for the most part.  Riggers set at 73-79, wire dipsies 180-250.  Fleas are pretty bad.  Ended up 3 for 5, with a couple fish coming unbuttoned from our wire and meat rig after 5- 10 seconds.   The other fish were hooked well, each with a couple hooks. All fought pretty well, too.  No derby fish, but teenagers in the 11-14 lbs range. The hits came in 145- 165 fow.

 

Broke a boom on one of my Big Jons in the waves, as I had cleared the rig to make way for fighting one of the fish.  I had the 12 lb weight above the water, and I guess the bouncing was a little too much stress on it.

 

These are the baits that worked: a UV Wonderbread, A ladder back spoon with white back ( if anyone recognizes and knows what it is, please reply with the name), a larger spin doctor and fly off a wire dipsy, and the large paddle with meat rig.

You'll find better fish out in 300', weather permitting. Head NNW out of the chute.

[matt05star]

Yes, I'm hoping to be able to fish deeper Sunday and Monday, if the wave forecast is accurate. 

This morning we had lines in just before 7, lines out just after 8, as it just got too bumpy. Waves seemed about 3 foot when we were coming in.  Didn't have a bite during that time, which made the decision to pull them pretty easy. Lots of boats out on a Saturday morning,  and I certainly hope they had better results.

[Minnerman]

Looking forward to the reports. Going to be fishing out of port bay for a week end of July.

[matt05star]

This morning (7/12) we got out a little earlier and set down in about 290 fow, lines in about 6:30.  Downriggers set at 6080, wire dipsies out 180-220.  We had a nice fish, upper teens to 20 lbs, get off about 10 feet from the boat after a nice fight, on a spoon ( not sure which spoon, as we had free sliders on in addition to the bait off the ball).  Oh well, it happens. 

We had 5 other hits in the few hours we were out, but mostly short strikes. They just weren't hooking up.  They were hard enough to trip releases, but didn't seem to be getting the hooks well.

We did get one 15 lber to stay buttoned on a dipsy and the spin doctor / fly rig in my picture of my first post. I guess I'll be running that one whenever we're out.

The lake was much more cooperative this morning, enabling us to run out deeper and back in without issue.

As I'm typing this at 1:30 p.m., the breeze is up pretty good, so not sure what conditions are now.

Will be out again tomorrow to give it another try.

[matt05star]

7/13 ( Monday) morning report:

We set down in 300 fow pretty much straight out of port.  It wasn't very early, but lines in by 7.

We had a nice fish on our cut bait on the wire dipsy out 185, but it broke us off at the swivel on one of the teaser rigs on the cut bait rig. Hmmm. Oh well.  Fought it for a few minutes. 

We trolled north to 440, decided to come back into the 330 fow area where we had marked an occasional fish, and had the one on the cut bait get off.  We continued to work the 330-350 fow area for the rest of the morning.  We did land a nice 20 lb fish off a SS size spoon ( free slider, down about 40 feet), I believe a 2 face spoon.  That fished jumped a couple times, including clearing the surface by a few feet once ( don't you love seeing a big salmon do that?).  Caught a dink on the same spoon, and had one hit but no hookup on a frog- type spin doctor and fly off our other dipsey out 180. 

 

By the way, we found a tip on the internet that recommended using a wet microfiber towel to help clear fleas off your lines. It did help on the wire, the mono not so much.  But you might want to give it a try. Hopefully they lessen very soon.

 

Looks like a blowoff the next couple days, but we have other things to tend to anyway. Hope you're finding success if you're out.

 

My brother does a great job with smoking the salmon, so we've been enjoying some chunks from our catch a few days ago.

 

[matt05star]

7/17 ( Friday) report:

 

Couldn't get them to go...

Fished 8:30 to 1, tried to give the lake time to calm a little ( still quite bumpy early).

Fished primarily 150 to 210 fow, marked a fair amount at 80', and marks deeper ( 90-110) as temp moved deeper over the deeper water. Regardless, Couldn't get a rod to go. Ran our typical spread of two wire dipsies ( one with cut bait, the other flasher/fly) and two downriggers with spoons and free sliders. I hope others did better.

Looks like it might be Monday before we can get back out on the big water.

 

[matt05star]

Got out Monday (7/20) for our final trip of our camping stay on the big lake.

We decided to start a little late again, due to the wave forecast.  We had lines in at 8:15, greeted still by some 2 foot rollers remaining out of the northwest from yesterday.  As they predicted,  the lake slowly laid down somewhat. It did seem to freshen again as we headed back to port at 2:30, but with the southwest wind.

 

We started in about 150 fow and trolled north. We marked fish around 80 feet down, but couldn't get any to bite.  Once the lake calmed a bit late morning,  we trolled out to as much as 415 fow. 

Finally,  at noon, we had a 13 lb. king hit in 345 fow on a spin doctor and fly out 240 on a #4 Chinook diver.  Shortly thereafter we took a nice chunky 8# steelhead on an NBK spoon down 80 on a rigger.  As we're clearing that fish from the net, a king takes a UV wonderbread spoon down about 90 on the other rigger.  That one gets off about 40 feet from the boat. Another decent fish, but not a giant ( fortunately).

We took one more king (15#) an hour later in 260 fow on the same wire dipsy and spin doctor/ fly setup. ( picture attached). Again, out 240.  

 

Was a good time at Fair Haven, as always. We'll break camp down on Wednesday.  On the days too windy for the big lake, we fish our kayaks in the pond for pike and bass. They were pretty cooperative,  so we fish almost every day.

 

Looks like the lake will be great Friday through Sunday, so I expect to see plenty of derby fish weighed those days. Good luck!

[Minnerman]

Thanks for all the reports ! Looking forward to getting out there on Saturday. Seems like you had the most luck in the deeper water