July is my favorite time for fishing king salmon in the Ludington area. Lake Michigan sets up a thermocline in layers that will vary by depth. Using a temperature probe, like a Fish Hawk, is essential for success. If you do not have a probe, turn your gain all the way up on your graph, and you will see where the thermocline starts. The fish spend most of their days in 40-46 degree water and feed up to around 55 degrees. The 52-55 degree feeding temperature is preferred by baitfish. Closer to the end of August, the kings will stage in even warmer water, closer to shore, and having the probe fishing temperatures you did so well with in July will be much less important.
Even in July some four-year-old-adult kings start to make their way closer to shore from the biomass in the center of lake. This makes them easier to catch, because they are not so scattered. Every year, the Little Manistee has a few kings in it just after the 4th of July. They show up off the bank, from way out in the normal 70-140 feet deep water, where we spend a good part of the summer fishing for them. If we have a hard northwest or east wind, some of the kings will be found near the pier heads and go up the river.
At this time of the year, when the adult salmon are feeding, the best lures to use are flashers and meat rigs. I am convinced Familiar Bite Herring Strips are the best on the market today. They only use salt to preserve the strips and they are as natural as possible. They do not add any additional oils or chemicals. I prefer to make my own meat rigs by purchasing Rhys Davis heads. The Rhys Davis heads have the perfect curve to make your herring strip spin in a one- inch circle. I buy the skirt tape in a variety of colors to make the teasers to crimp with a bead above to hold the skirts on the 50# fluorocarbon leader. Flashers should vary in color for the depth you are fishing and the sky above. Start with red on top, then yellow, green, blue, and purple. Glow flashers help a lot at first light and when fishing over 90 feet down. For sunny days blue, white, and Mountain Dew seem to work the best, and on overcast days, I like darker greens, UVs, and black flashers.
Typically, mid-mornings in July when the kings slow down feeding, it can pay off to pull all but one of your flashers and go into a sneaky mode for the kings that are not in a feeding frenzy. Spoons, spoons, and spoons should make up your sneaky mode king spread. I like prefer Yeck spoons in blue dolphin or lightning colors when searching for the non-aggressive salmon.
They both have a small strip of glow that will help stand out in the deep-cold water. Drop most of your gear down into the 40-46 degree water and head into deeper water. Increase your leader length on your cannon balls or add a secret weapon rig. Your deeper copper lines or torpedo diver sneaky rigs should put a few more kings in your boat with spoons while the rest of the fleet are still pulling flashers and meat rigs.
Enjoy the scientific season of king fishing in July, before the crowds of August arrive. July is the season when temperature rules apply and in August we throw the rules of temperature out the window since the fish ignore them and start staging runs to the rivers to spawn.
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