I scheduled a few days off to go fishing with friends, fishing with a change of attitude (not having to do everything and occasionally reeling in a fish) and to do that came a change of latitude. Myself and two friends headed for 5 days of fishing at Northpoint Marina. Fishing reports for there had been very positive, recently.
The weather-guys didn’t do us any favors. Last Thursday dawned with stiff southerlies, strong enough and with sufficient waves, I’d never take a customer out in such stuff. Since Northpoint is only a stone’s throw from the Wisconsin line, I pointed the boat at a spot five miles south of the border and 180 feet of water. With 3 to 5s, I knew a south troll would be uncomfortable, if not impossible. It took the better part of an hour to get the starting point.
We took a double while setting lines and picked at the fish as we sloshed our way north, getting bites and catching several fish. By the time we were straight east of NP, we were looking up to see the crest of the on-coming waves, pulled lines and headed in.
The next two days were really windy and even ol’ salts like us didn’t venture out. Sunday was a different story. It was sloppy with residual waves and rollers, but very fishable. With no better place to head, we went back to our Thursday starting point and fished basically the same track. We caught five going north over our Thursday waters, so I told the guys, I’m going to spin back south to see if we can catch five more going that way, then reverse course one more time until we get our limit. The plan worked perfectly! Five more on a south troll, then five more heading north. Basically, the same plan worked again on Monday.
All fish were cohos, caught them from the surface to 100 feet deep. Most fish were 20 to 30 feet down. Most fish came on dodger and flies, though we did catch a few on spoons.
All in all, except for trailering through Chicago, it was a good trip and I’m ready to go back to my work (as soon as I get the boat cleaned up.)
The South End provides useful resources and discussion forums for those that fish The South End of Lake Michigan for Salmon, Steelhead, Perch, and Bass as well as elsewhere in the Region and Chicago area.