Lake Trout & Salmon Fishing - Lake Michigan
To make a long story short, had family vacation in my wifes home town of Manistee Michigan this summer. Great little town on the upper west hand of Michigan. (click here for a map) Of course I had to get some type of fishing in especially since this little town sits right on lake Michigan. What most people do not know is this hidden jewel is a great lake trout & salmon fishing area.
After a few cocktails one night waiting for a July 4th parade on the water, I decided to find a charter. Now in my travels over the years and as many charters that I have hired, I only go on one thing when looking for the right captain, gut feeling. Now I know this is crazy but, I like to talk to my captains and feel them out on what is going on. This meeting gives a good or bad gut feeling and I make my decision then. I would not recommend everyone to do this, it may fail and then you will comment on this page to raise hell at me. So that out of the way, talked to Captain Jerry Koblinski of Sunrise Hooker. (Member of Manistee Sport Fishing Assoc.) He Trout & Salmon fishes from a small 22′ cuddy cabin boat setup perfect for a 1 to 3 man fishing trip. Across the back of the boat are 4 Cannon Mag 20 DT/HS Electric Downriggers, making trout fishing lures trolled at a controlled depth.
Setup the trip for the the following day with Sunrise Hooker and my brother-in-law (very cool Navy officer). Set sail for the morning of our trip around 5:30am and we did not even get out of the river channel without seeing boats catch fish. Captain Jerry set out 4 lines with 8" dodgers similar to this one 
and the flies 
2 to 3 ft behind the dodger on downriggers. Captain Jerry likes blue and chartreuse green type colors on the flies and silver or pink on the dodgers. Very simple setup that works very well. This is not the exact setup, but very close and would work. If you are like me, looking at pictures is always good. Most fisherman I know are visual type people and it always helps to see the trout lures or something similar. I will try to include pictures for everyone to see on future posts.
After a few minutes go by we relocate our position that is only about 3 miles offshore. We get setup again with the same lures on the downriggers. The captain also set out 2 additional rods with 
dipsy divers, snubbers 
attached, and a leader line to the same type of trout lures mentioned, trout flies. (Dispy divers can dive straight down to variable depths based on how much line you let out or can be set up to dive down and away from the boat, basically pulling the lures away from the vessel.) Set one of each rigs off both the starboard and port side of the boat. So basically the main line from the rod & reel attaches to the dipsy diver, the snubbers attach to the other side of the dipsy diver by means of a snap swivel, (already on the snubber) and from the snubber a 2 to 3ft leader goes to the fly. The line size was 20lb test and the leader line was the same. (If you have question on this rig, email me and I will be glad to expand on this lure presentation) Captain Jerry gave me some great trout & salmon fishing tips on why they use the snubbers. These fish are so aggressive and hit the lure so hard that you need something to take the shock of the violent fish strike. Think about it, having to add a shock absorber due to the fish hitting the lure so hard so not to break 20 lb test, a fisherman’s dream!!!
We ended up the day with 3 fish total; 2 Salmon at 16lbs each and one Brown Lake Trout at 6lbs. The captain never changed the lures for 6 hours of fishing and the day was a success. I know what I will be doing every time I have to visit the "outlaws"in Michigan, fishing with Captain Jerry.
Fishing License: $12, Charter Boat: $200 for 6 hours, that my father-in-law paid for, plus tip, Bag of junk food: $15, Fishing while visiting the "outlaws," priceless.
