TOPIC:

The buoys are showing some cold water returning from Bridgeman north. 

Getting later in the season, will the fish still be attracted to this water closer to shore? Is it worth working these areas as opposed to trying out deeper? Will it attract and hold staging fish?

Thanks for any thoughts and experiences.

No.  Staging fish are staging and no longer seeking. Just my opinion.  

A bust for us at St Joe today. Went out 5.5mi to 110fow and several other boats. Waves were at our limit on the ride out, wind instantly picked up real bad, so we turned back and fought 3-4' waves back in. Trolled the pierheads and inside the harbor a little. Only marks were where the Paw Paw and ST Joe merged. Lots of boats out for this late in the season. This was probably our last big lake trip. May try some inland fishing a time or two still.

There still is alot of fishing time here. In the past kings have made them selves known in as late as October here. Biggest push last year at East Chicago was mid October. I have personally fished in October and ran out to 100-120ft. and caught silver Kings that were 2 year olds. Just like summer fishing some days they are there and the next they have moved. Deep Kings in October are screamers. In close we will have to see what happens. I'm going to try to fish into October this year instead of pulling out early.

When you fish offshore for kings in October, are you fishing long coppers and wire mag divers to fish really deep like we’re doing right now or are you fishing higher in the water column? Is it more like summer or more like spring fishing?

When I was able to find them they were usually around 50-65 ft. down. 10 color lead core for some reason was my hot set up riggers on a few but 10cl was really good. 

Just a word of caution when fishing offshore at that time of year.

Almost all other boaters are either fishing still in close or are out of the water. So your out there pretty much on your own. Up north they fish alot late like that off shore and its the same. Silver Kings usually most are 2 year olds. Best for me is 49-50 north straight out of Portage.

Yes, agreed, you got to be careful out there, particularly when fishing offshore in the fall. November is historically the angriest in terms of wind and wave conditions. Things can change fast out there too.

Sounds like it could be fun though if you hit the right day and conditions are safe.

Been a few years since I have fished offshore in October/November (deer hunting more of a priority) but its a lot more like spring fishing than anything else. Once the water is cooled off and there's no thermocline, the fish can be anywhere. And often in the top 50 feet

One thing to watch out for is dragging shakers on your lines. I think it may have been about 8ish years ago, but we were fishing offshore and doing decent on immature kings and the odd steelhead, and then the bite died. An hour later when we pulled lines we had mostly dead shakers on 5 of our 9 lines