July starts off with good numbers of steelhead to fish both near and offshore. Large skamania steelhead hang pretty close to the river mouth eating everything that’s smaller than they are. Body baits and spoons in orange/silver and orange/gold patterns capable of trolling at speeds around three mph will be effective for the hard fighting fish. Offshore, and this is where the guessing starts, I believe youâll still be able to find cool water near the surface with slicks telling you where to fish. Set up with plenty of brightly colored baits just as you would for the skamania. Great patterns for these fish, not only steelhead but the occasional coho will also likely show up. The best setup will be the Fireball, Jawbreaker, Orange Crush, Mac and Cheese and the Dreamsicle Glow. Standard sized Stinger and Dreamweaver Super Slim spoons generally work best but if the fish are a little deeper and hitting lead core rigs greater than eight colors or coppers over 150â, I like to go to the standard sized Dreamweaver spoons.
Even with the colder water anglers have been catching a lot of lake trout fishing tight to bottom here in Grand Haven and ports to the south. When fishing trout reduce your speed a bit to something less than two mph usually works best. The top bait choice in the area is the Luhr Jensen Trash Can Dodger and either a P-Nut or Spin-N-Glo trailing behind it. Yellow with red dots and green/yellow painted are top colors for the trailing bait. Check your rigs frequently as any contact with the bottom and a pile of zebra mussels, or a small trout that bit without being noticed, will often foul your rig and be the reason that fishing seems slow. As an added bonus, a lot of mature kings that sneak into the area in early July will fall for this combo too and let you know that they are around.
If you should hook up with a king adjust your spread so that in the early morning and late evening you have meat rig behind a magnum Dipsy Diver on either wire or braided line and running near the bottom. Youâll want to have this rig ready to go by the second week of July as passing schools of mature kings will come and go daily, and you donât want to miss out. My favorite attractors are the Fat Nancy (Green Frog), and the White Double UV fish scale taped 10â Spin Doctor blades.
Swing into a local tackle shop to find out what meat rig is hot and pick one up. Kings seem to be incredibly picky when it comes to which one they want. It looks like the numbers and size of the kings will be similar to last year. Anticipate light numbers of kings in your catch but the occasional fish over 20 pounds will be around, late July offers the best opportunity for the biggest kings in this area. Stay optimistic and ready to take advantage of the species that happens to be the most plentiful on any given day and youâll keep fresh fish on the table and have plenty of fun on your trips. Good luck this summer and I hope to see you on the water!