TOPIC:

Have a few questions for you guys. Anyone ever try trolling for fall Kings at night?? Or are u better off casting at night?? What is the best time of day or night you guys prefer to fish for them?

EAGLE wrote:

Have a few questions for you guys. Anyone ever try trolling for fall Kings at night?? Or are u better off casting at night?? What is the best time of day or night you guys prefer to fish for them?

Low light hours are best. There is a small widow both morning and evening when they seem to be most active. There is a bite at night, nothing consistent but, they are moving and glow spoons or glow cranks will still take some. We will have to see how this fall goes. With only 60,000 kings planted, take out the numbers for the amount for predation, that doesn't leave a bunch of fish for a fall run but fingers are crossed.

Personally I would say my best luck runs from 1 hour before daylight and up to an hour after sunset but not much after that. I do know guys that plan trips at 1 or 2 am but I haven't really seen much action later or early.

Years ago I used to fish at night at the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal. Back then, lots of kings homed in on the canal. Not so much, these days from what I hear. Back then, the marina rules at Hammond/Whihala prohibited launching after sundown so we had to launch about 7PM. Occasionally we'd catch a fish or two in the early evening but by 11 things were getting interesting and my 1 there was a good bite going. By 2 we were so sleepy we'd quit and go home. Glow baits, rattle baits and solid black J-Plugs were the killers. I had some lures with little red LED lights inside them powered by a watch battery. Those were terrific.

I don't think adults from the 60K stocking will be returning until fall of 2019. This year COULD still be somewhat productive at all Indiana ports.

Lickety-Split wrote:

EAGLE wrote:

Have a few questions for you guys. Anyone ever try trolling for fall Kings at night?? Or are u better off casting at night?? What is the best time of day or night you guys prefer to fish for them?

Low light hours are best. There is a small widow both morning and evening when they seem to be most active. There is a bite at night, nothing consistent but, they are moving and glow spoons or glow cranks will still take some. We will have to see how this fall goes. With only 60,000 kings planted, take out the numbers for the amount for predation, that doesn't leave a bunch of fish for a fall run but fingers are crossed.

Ed, like Mike said, keep in mind that the fish returning this year as 2 and 3 year olds are from the stockings that happened before the cut. The first stocking of only 60,000 fish was last year. Those fish are jacks right now. The bulk of the return is going to be pre-stocking cut fish.

Everybody keeps blaming stocking cuts for poor fall returns down here, but we haven't even seen the results from that yet. In reality the survival of kings on the south end has plummeted over the past 5 years, despite relatively constant stocking numbers averaging just under 200K.


I hope Mike is right and that there could be productive fall fishing this year.

Wanted to ask a question about fall salmon. This being my first year out there. To find them, do u still follow the same water temp to find the depth they are going to be in? Or are the just at the mouth of all the rivers?

They are on a time table as much as they are on a temperature seeking mission. It's very rare to have "salmon" like temperatures even in early October. I've caught "spawning run" kings in 82 degree water. That being said, the few times we've had cold water nearshore in September (even late August) the fishing was awesome. I will be switching from deepwater trips to nearshore on August 26th - hit or miss and my customers are forewarned. Some guys just want the chance to catch the biggest fish in the lake and this year has promise for some true trophies. I'll be running my trips from 5 AM to 10AM. If I lived closer and had willing customers, I'd leave at 4 AM. Fish can be from 10 feet to 50 feet and usually the most active ones are in the middle 3rd of the water column. Like just north of the Port of Indiana, lures from 15 to 30 feet will normally catch more fish than higher or near the bottom. In 15 fow, put the baits 5 to 10 feet deep.

Mc angler since u guys at Michigan city have deeper water closer to shore than portage or east Chicago does that mean you guys have longer staging times or maybe even better fall runs than elsewhere from the deeper water?

Do you guys net pen them for three weeks or longer? Use the cheapest food or the good stuff from the west coast? In our opinion nobody on this planet has better survival and return rate than the guys in Ontario running the egg take and stocking program on the north shore. Highest return rate highest survival rate and highest quality fish anywhere in the Great Lakes. You get what you put into it as far as stocking goes....poor practices equal poor returns

DO you guys think a north blow brings them in that last week of August or first week of September?