2008 Sheboygan Fish Report

8/10/08 - Fishing had been very hit or miss for the week leading up to the Sheboygan Coho Derby. Many days found most Captains working hard to put a few fish in their boats mixed with trips that were pretty good. We competed in the Sheboygan Super Derby Tournament, so on Friday we were happy to find a couple groups of active fish so we at least had some confidence going into Saturday. Saturday we had 22 bites, landing 15 of 18 fish we got to fight. Would have been good enough for 2nd place in the Super Derby, but we were unable to start the right engine (forgot to turn on the shore power and recharge the batteries after a long day of trolling and running electonics) so we had to limp back on one engine and missed the deadline by 10 minutes, so we got DQed. No excuses, we screwed up but that's tournament fishing. Hot baits for us were #4 Jplugs in anything mostly white and Green Kingfisher Flashers pulling Herring strips in Church Tackle Shockwave bait heads. We fished 100 to 130FOW and found our fish 50-60 down early in the day and 70+ down later on, taking fish as deep as 111 on the rigger. Congrats to all those that placed on the board and in the Super Tournament.

07/29/08 - Fishing has been good the last week off Sheboygan. The quality of the kings we are taking are very good overall, lots of nice #15-18# kings with some bigger ones mixed in like the 22# king taken by 11 year old Garrett Nees below left. The other 15# king taken by Jordan Eighmy is typical of what we have been taking. The morning bite has been tricky with fast action from 4am-6am and then it shuts down. The evening bite has been more consistant, taking fish steadily from 4:30pm until dark with fast action at sunset. Hot lures have been Wonderbread Jplugs in both #3 and #4 size and Wonderbread spoons, blue halogram Revelator Flashers with Blue fly and White/Green Bechholds with Siggs Hypnotist fly. We have been fishing 70-120FOW north of town.

07/20/08 - We fished all weekend in fog. Saturday afternoon/evening was the worst fog I have ever seen in 38 years of trips onto Lake Michigan. 100' visibility at most for Saturday & Sunday. Saturday morning my friend Richard brought some friends and relatives out. We dodged boats in the fog and managed to go 9/14 with some nice kings, two coho, and a rainbow. Picture is below. Then Saturday evening my friend Jeremy from MN came out with his girlfriend Kim and her parents. Once again we battled boats in the fog and managed 10/14 with nice kings and a rainbow. Both times we fished 70-80FOW north of Sheboygan. On Sunday we went back to the same area but it was not happening, picked up some rainbows and a small king, so we worked back toward the harbor and started banging kings in the mud while the fog let up enough for us to see the sky for the first time in two days. Jeremy took a 19.37 king (weighed at Jeff's) and we took some another double digit king and lost a couple. Tough fishing in the fog but we got some fish none the less!

07/06/08 - We traveled to Manitowoc on Tuesday, running to Cleveland and fishing up to Manitowoc. Fishing was slow in the morning but by noon we started gettting hits and and ended up going 12 for 17 with some good double digit Kings. Wednesday we sat out the storms, then went back at it Thursday. Fishing was good in 80-120FOW, mostly on Mag spoons 50-70 down, but we also found feeding kings 20-30 down on 6 colors of leadcore. We got hits slow but steady and ended 13 of 15. On Friday we started slow but the bite picked up after 10am and we ended at 1pm having gone 17 for 25 hits, still mainly a spoon bite. Then came the Scotty Offshore on Saturday and as so often happens, the fish shut down on tourny day. We started off strong with two good Kings right away, then picked up a small king. One hour later we took a nice 9# rainbow. That was at 8:30am and we fished the rest of the event, 4.5 HOURS without another hit. It was a closed communication event, so we had no idea how the other boats were doing but we figured we would be in last place. We we got to the docks we found out that our 4 fish cooler was good enough for 5th place and we just missed 4th place by 2.6 points. The fish had shut down for EVERYBODY not just us, with some good charter boats from the area coming in SKUNKED! Tough fishing for sure. Just goes to show you, some days they just don't bite! Good luck fishing!

06/29/08 - Recent storms made this weekends fishing interestin as the cold water is back but the temp breaks are not far off shore. We fished south of the harbor Saturday and north of the harbor Sunday but in both cases our best action was from 90-120FOW. For us the best action was on magnum spoons down 40 and 60 on the riggers, with half cores taking hits and 300' of Copper taking hits on the boards. Blue flashers and blue flys back 175 on the wire diver was hot on Saturday but our divers were dead on Sunday Most of our fish were 7-10# kings with a few bigger ones mixed in. We ended up with 8 fish on Saturday morning and 9 on Sunday morning. Not the fastest fishing but we caught fish the duration of our trips so there were no long periods without fish. Hoping for some stable weather for the 4th of July as we head to Manitowoc this week to fish their derby and the Scotty Offshore on Saturday. Good luck fishing!

06/19/08 - The lake has stayed cold much longer than usual so the fishing off Sheboygan has been running later the than usual but the salmon are starting to heat up now and the Chinook are looking very healthy with some nice fish being caught. We have also taken some real nice rainbows and lakers right off the surface, but the lakers will start going deeper now. The big rainbow below was caught on a flatline fished off our radar arch with 3/8 weight in front of the big orange spoon! Seem's when we find a pod of fish, doubleheaders are the norm. The summer king fishing is getting into gear so it will just get better and beter. Hope to see you on the lake! Fish have been scattered between 80 and 180FOW the last two weeks. Lately Kings have been betwen 60'-80' down and trout in the top 10' of the water column. Some of the June action is shown below.

05/28/08 - This year's cold weather just doesn't seem to want to leave, so the lake has stayed cold much longer than usual. The fishing off Sheboygan has been running about three weeks behind the usual. We're finding good numbers of rainbow and lake trout and picking up some nice kings. The fish are scattered in location and in the water column. The key to success has been covering lots of water and covering the water column from just below the surface down to 100+ feet on the riggers. We have fishing from 100FOW out to 300FOW South of the harbor, mainly on East/West trolls to find small temp breaks and scum lines, then working the area until we stop getting hits. Then we go on the hunt again. Some of the May action is shown below.