Lake Michigan, WI Fishing Report

Last year Sheboygan witnessed one of the best fishing seasons to date. The Wisconsin DNR charter fishing harvest report was just released, and confirms that fact. Area captains had a 36% harvest increase from the previous year. Sheboygan charters caught 24,804 fish during the 2012 fishing season on 2314 trips. That's an average of 10.7 fish per trip and an amazing catch rate. The majority of those fish being good sized chinook salmon. Sheboygan charter bookings were also up 14% over the previous year. The 2012 fishing season was considered one of the most successful ever here in Sheboygan. Sheboygan is still one of the best ports in Wisconsin for Lake Michigan charter fishing.  The Lake Michigan salmon fishing here in Sheboygan is still a Great Lakes success story and the envy of most sport fisheries in the world.  

Fishing season starts April 28 2013. Book now for your charter fishing adventure in 2013. www.tworiverscharterfishing.com

Chartrer fishing Milwaukee remains really good when weather permits. We are only out on weekends during October, so this limits our trips considerably. We did two this weekend and went 22 for 25 "imit" and 3 for 4 "The group only had time to fish for 2 hours".  Again it is Chinook salmon and Lake trout making up the catch. The 100 to 115 foot contour is were the action is and has been steady there for the last 6 weeks.

        We are still using the white flasher and Howie Boy Blue fly to do the damage. The riggers are supper hot and almost no reason to use anything else. Everything comes 65 feet and down right to the bottom. Very good consentration of fish right off the Milwaukee harbor. Very easy fishing when weather permits and we are seeing some nice size 3 year old Kings in the 10 to 12 pound class.

         We have a couple more weekends left and are over due for some calm seas, so call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to catch your fall salmon. The 2012 season was one of the best for Chinook salmon in a long time and they are still biting! 

Wisconsin charter fishing is in its final month for Silver King Charters and 2012 was a great season for catching salmon. This was the best catch rate in the last five seasons. We are still fishing and October is a great month for fishing! We have had some lousey weather over the last two weeks and the water on the lake is transistioning back to the way it was in spring. This means there is little temperature break and fish are all over the place. Usually by the first week of October we experience some of the best Chinook salmon fishing of the season. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Our last September trips went like this 15 for 22 "limit", 6 for 9, 1 for 1 "toughest day of the season", 18 for 22, 13 for 19 and 11 for 11. High winds during the last half of the month made things tough.

        The harbor is dead except for the spawning Kings swimming around the marina. No need to talk about that. On the lake it has been hit and miss. Lake trout are the one constant but we are taking Chinooks, Rainbows and Browns too. Our best depth has been 100 to 130 feet and most fish are coming 60 feet to the bottom. We are using a mix of flashers and spoons on the riggers, flashers on the dipsies and spoons on copper sets off the boards. The coppers are 150 to 350 set ups. The dipsies are set at 150 to 215 feet out. The riggers are set at 50 to the bottom. White flasher still are best. Never got the green flashers out after mid June. Our favorite spoon is the blue dolphin Stinger. Nothing is hot right now and all rigs take some fish.

        We are expecting some real good trips before the season ends. Over the last two Octobers we averaged close to 20 fish a trip and if the weather is half way decent we should see the same results this year. Just dress a little warmer. We are only running weekend trips in October, so call us at 414-460-1467 to get in on some fall salmon fishing with Silver King Charters.

 Lake Michigan charter fishing is really good in mid September and October but sometimes the weather can be moody. It was moody this last week! We had multiple wind changes and fish were moving constantly. The trips went like this 12 for 17 "limit", 18 for 26, "Lake trout fest, we could have caught 30 of them!", 6 for 10 "2 hour trip", 6 for 10 "limit", 14 for 20, 3 for 6 "short trip", 17 for 26 and 16 for 24. We ran only one trip in the harbor and it was a one person trip. We took 6 four year old Kings. Out on the lake it has been 2 and 3 year old Chinooks, Lake trout and Steelhead.

        Before I give a breakdown on hot set ups I need to appologize to an 18" boat on the lake Sunday morning. I make a lot of maneuvers on the lake each year and made a poor turn on this day. Appologize for getting upset it was my fault. My brother and I get cut off so much during the year we just deal with it but I should know better. I hope to appologize in person.

        This week we started in 100 to 110 feet and fished 45 feet down to the bottom. It was supper hot! by Thursday it changed and a north wind made condition tough on the lake. We fished the harbor for a trip and a half. The best spot was the Milwaukee river channel and pearl or silver plugs fished near the bottom were good off riggers. Saturday the fish were sluggish on a flat calm morning and the seas got heavy in the afternoon but with south west winds the fishing really became solid on Sunday. The thermocline was 40 feet down on Sunday, right where it started on Monday. The best spot was 80 to 90 feet just north of Milwaukee at the end of the week.

         Riggers with white flashers and green or little boy blue Howie flies are best. We set our up high riggers at 40 and 50 feet and third deepest at 65 feet and this has a spoon. The deepest rigger is right at the bottom. The dipsies were at 130 to 150 on the line counters all week with the same sets as the riggers. We had a set of leadcore and a set of copper out this week and the copper did better. The best was a 150 with a blue dolphin stinger spoon.

         Silver King Charters runs through October and we have some great fishing coming up. Give us a call at 414-460-1467 and book a fall trip to catch salmon and trout before the season is over. 

Fishing is starting off hot in August. Kings are starting to put on their spawning weight. Rainbows are little more elusive, but are biting on silver and orange spoons.

Kings are being caught in 125 to 200 feet of water, down about 50 to 120 feet on blue, green, and white flasher flies.

We've caught up to 20 fish in one day. King salmon starts spawning the next few weeks which brings some trophy fish in!

Time is running out on the fishing season, book now to lock in your charter fishing adventure. www.tworiverscharterfishing.com

The waters have warmed a bit making for a "good" fishing rate. We brought in 4 kings, 6 rainbows, 10 salmons, no brown trout.

Sunday,  produced little fish, two kings got away. But Monday brought in more than the limit, 3 salmons, rest kings and trout. No browns though.

Fishing deep, schools are breaking up but we did find them. All in all, it's a half and half last week. Somedays good, some not so good. We will have to see what this week brings.

Fishing has been very consistant this month. The lake is still in the process of setting up for the summer which means the fish are still scattered. Steelhead are in the area already and abundant. Our last trip we took 13 out of a 20 fish limit. Coho are still off Kenosha and Racine in good numbers. Fishing should just get better from here on.

     Lake Michigan salmon fishing remains one of the best in years. Silver King Charters went 27 for 39 "limit", 30 for 36 "limit, 22 for 26, and 25 for 40. The fish are again a mix of Chinook and Coho salmon and varies day to day on which we catch more of. The Coho salmon are now averaging 4 to 6 pounds and the Kings are 10 to 17 pounds for the mature ones. There is plenty of bait around and all the fish have been stuffed full, unlike earlier this season. The alewifes are the medium size three year old class. Good to remember when choosing spoon size.

       Racine charter fishing has been very good in 40 to 70 feet of water. The fish are all over the water column and even though the water temperature is a little warm in these depths the fish cannot resist the enormous amount of bait in close. Out leadcore setups with spoons have been hot. Medium sized Stinger spoons in the dolphin series are our favorite right now. Little Boy Blue Howie flies, with white blades are very good on the dipsies and riggers. We still are running orange doggers for Coho and these sets produce 5 to 10 fish a trip. Fishing is very good and as long as the bait and cool enough water stay in close the fishing will stay outstanding.

        We fishing the Kenosha Coho Classic on Saturday and won both the Classic and the Lake Michigan Southwest Series leg for the tournament. We had 139 pounds for the Classic in ten fish and 49 pounds for the Series in 3 fish. Check out the gallery for pictures. All the fish we weighted in were Chinook. Spoons on leadcore and boy blue flies with white flashers on dipsies ruled the day. First place feels so much better than second in the SU Open two weeks earlier. The difference was not as many lost fish. The Morris is this weekend and then we are back in Milwaukee for the rest of the season. Fishing for Chinooks has already been hot in Milwaukee and we cannot wait to start catching them for you. Call to book your summer adventure with Silver King Charters and start catching salmon.

Fished north of town this morning in 50 to 60 feet of water. Had plenty of action on fathers day with a repeat group treating there dad to some outstanding fishing. The fish were very slippery today as we only landed about half of what we had hooked. Dad lost every fish he had on the line, but enjoyed the day being the target of all the jokes from his kids. The great fishing here in Sheboygan continues as we still managed to land 9 kings, 2 cohos and 2 rainbows. It was my pleasure to again to share this fantastic fishery with this group every year.

June 9th ands10th

This is the weekend after the full moon and the fishing is picking up. We are also in the middle of the the lake setting up for the summer. The thermocline is starting to set up and the fish remain scattered. From now to October the fishing will be best at sun up and sundown. The Kings have moved into the area in good numbers along with the steel head. This is a month earlier than normal and I beleive that the warm spring is the reason.

Catch last weekend were good with big Kings mixed in with the Coho and Steelhead. Fishing should pick up with the warm stable weather expected this week.

Fished the past few days with similar results. We have been fishing in depths from 70 to 120 feet of water straight out of the harbor. Worked between the commercial fishing nets where we marked plenty of bait fish and caught a variety of fish. Caught almost  all 5 Great Lakes species every trip. Had some luck catching rainbows on the surface using old school rattlesnakes and wingbats trolled behind planner boards. Caught our kings on dodger/flies on downriggers set 50 to 80 feet down. Water temperatures are still in the upper forties.

    Racine charter fishing is still excellent as we went 10 for 13 "limit" and 20 for 24 "limit" in our last two trips. Same program as last week as we worked the second and third hills straight out of the Racine harbor. We were in 70 to 120 feet catching fish from the surface to the bottom. The thermocline has not set up yet and fish all all throughout the water column but there are plenty of them.

       We are still seeing a mix of Chinook and Coho salmon, with the big Chinook this week weighing in at 17 pounds. Lake trout and Rainbow trout make up the catch right now. Both the last two trips saw all four species caught. We are now almost all flasher and flies, with are favorite set being a wire dipsy set at 3 and out 120 to 180 feet of line. Green Spin Doctor and a green fly on this set has been taking some nice Kings! Looks like the rest of the week will be great weather and great fishing. Silver King Charters starts charter fishing Milwaukee on June 24.

We are off to a great start this month after running 42 trips and catching over 600 fish these first 3 days of June. Our customers that are from all over the Midwest enjoyed catching coolers full of Lake Michigan Rainbow Trout, Lake Trout, Coho Salmon and King Salmon. The six Dumper Dan boats are fishing 80 to 120 feet of water both north and south of the harbor which is only 1 to 3 miles from shore off the port of Sheboygan. We have nearly 350 trips booked in June alone so don't miss the boat on this great fishing action and call or e-mail me your reservations. We will see you on the water!

( Check back for more picture update's on this thread ).

Captain/Owner Dan Welsch
Home Office: 1-920-457-2940 / Boat Cell: 1-920-377-1147
http://www.dumperdan.com

Right now we can call Lake Michigan a fish factory and we rate the fishing action as excellent!  We never have seen this kind of early season action in May before, we just hope it continues thru June.

We fished yesterday afternoon. We had a phenomenal afternoon of fishing. We ended up landing a 3 person limit of 15 salmon in 3.5 hours of fishing. Fly-dodgers worked very well and all colors were working.

May is usually a transition month from our spring, near shore Brown and Laker fishing to our Salmon season, which usually starts around Memorial Day when the water temperatures approach the 50-52 degree mark.  For the past three years the Kings were arriving in our area in early May. Reason? They could be enjoying the beautiful beaches we have along the Lakeshore or the massive schools of spawning alewives (bait fish) we have right now invading our shore lines.

Surface water temperatures along the shore out to 50 feet is around 50 degrees while out in 70 to 200 feet of water it drops to the mid 40's.

Wednesday, May 16, in the afternoon; boating only six nice Kings, but Thursday the 17th, a.m. trip was a little different. After a slow start and only 1 for 8 ... things heated up. Doubles and triples were common. We ended the morning with 13 Kings, 1 Coho and 1 Laker by 8AM. We fished from 90 to 200 feet of water a little north of Two Rivers working the bottom 2/3 of the water column.

Best baits in flashers were Bechhold and Son Flashers in blue / glow, white/ glow and their Big Kahunas with spin N glows in white /glow with aqua Screemer Flys behind. Spoons by Warrior Lures also did an excellent job. Their orange Easter egg, glow puke, and green froggy worked great.