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Back in "The Day" many a boat would be anchored in front of then Amoco Oil's(now BP) hot water discharge just east of Wahala park. I used to load tank cars in the mid to late eighties thru the mid nineties which was right across from the discharge and I would have a bird's eye view of all the boats casting glow-in- the dark K/O Wobblers, Little Cleo's and Castmasters and such. I knew that area well and we would troll at night also along the sea wall west(rocky rip-rap) of back then LTV Steel(now Mital West). Ken K. Valpo

Back when state line plant was running we would go out with a few coolers full and stay most of the night. We always did much better at about midnight when others have left. Same thing at Amaco discharge (Whiting). That was from shore. Most use glow croc's but I like KO's becuase you can reel them in slower and keep them near the bottom. Late Aug / early Sept is not too early to get some from boat out only a mile or two and have more silver left in them. Try slower speeds.as they are not chasing bait so much.

The best situation is when it's been real hot and dry through the month of August with no north winds. We can have salmon temps almost to the mouth of the rivers. That happens about once every 10 years. Then, a north blow will wreck things.

On the other hand, the temperatures right now are almost 80 degrees. If we were to get a really rip snorter of a north blow that could push in some cooler water - at least get it down into the low 70s. That wouldn't hurt anything and could help bring in some kings ready for the run. I've seen that happen as well.

Mostly it's just a trickle in thing, a few fish will be around (hopefully as early as next weekend) and we will get a few waves of fish through the month and actually into October. But it's always hit or miss.

Want more of a sure thing? Head up to Ludington or Frankfort where there are lot's of wild fish, cooler temps and much better fall runs.

I made a trip to the Trail Creek weir on my way home from Ludington on Thursday morning. I noticed that there were 4 kings trapped and released in the weir during July. It makes me a little worried that we may have already had our Fall run. Maybe we’ll get another push, but that seems to be the bulk of our returns over the past few years.

I believe one of the guys in this site said the natural kings run in July n stocked fish in the fall

Up north a lot of kings run in july. All of them are natural fish due to the past 50 yrs of the weir there closing off their spawning grounds after mid august.

Nature will find a way. It is actually very cool that over the past 50 years we have altered the king run for naturals in Manistee to that extent.