I recently returned from a trip to visit the in-laws in Wisconsin during which my brother in-law arranged an excursion with Shur-Katch charters out of Two Rivers, WI for the 30th of June. As luck would have it, the bite had been on and the weather perfect for the past week and today was another chamber of commerce day on the Lake. I met Chad and his deckhand Jesse, at the dock just prior to 3pm and we were off, headed to one of his many fishy locations in the vast expanse of water that is Lake Michigan. With three in the boat, we were able to run 9 rods, two on downriggers, two on dipseys off of out-riggers, two on in-line planer boards and the remaining rods were attached to planer boards with quick releases. We ended up picking up 2 on the dipseys, one on the in-line side planer and two on the quick release planer boards. The fish didn't seem to have a preference for depth, other than not near the bottom. We even had one take a surface offering that was out for rainbow/steelhead. All but one fish took a Howie style fly and one hit on a 4" Silver Horde spoon. The fish ranged in size from 5 to nearly 20lbs and it was nice not to worry about seals or barbless hooks during the fights. Surface temps ran around 62 degrees and we were marking fish throughout the water column. The last fish came at around 7pm after a considerable length of time without a strike, not bad for an afternoon trip for kings! What an amazing fishery they have with no commercial pressure and nearly 100% hatchery produced fish. If you are in the Great Lakes area, I’d highly recommend getting out on the water and chasing some transplanted northwest salmon. Let’s just hope that the quagga mussels and Asian carp don’t ruin it!

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