June offers anglers some fantastic and diverse fishing out of the port of Frankfort. At the beginning of the month, the cold water in front of the pier heads will continue to produce action for both brown and lake trout. Anglers can target these fish with mono and short lead core setups; 1 to 4 colors, rigged with small bright color spoons and body baits. Spoons such as Dreamweaver Super Slims in patterns such as the Gold Backed Magic Man, Wrecking Ball, Acid Rain, and Gold Backed Get R Done are great choices.
As the month goes on and the water begins to warm, change tactics to locate more column-and bottom-dwelling fish. For great lake trout action, target the bottom in depths ranging from 60 to 90 ft of water on many drop offs throughout the area. Try running straight out from the Frankfort piers and setting up on the “Bank” in 80 ft and troll north heading to Point Betsie, varying your depth if fish are not active in one particular area. Presentations will mainly include bouncing both downriggers and Dipsy Divers using metal 0 and 00 Luhr Jensen dodgers in chrome, tin can, and white color patterns. Pair these metal dodgers with Yakima Bait Spin N Glows in sizes 2 and 4 and in color patterns of Pearl Clown, Lime Chartreuse and Yellow Clown. Rig your Spin N Glows 16 to 20” behind your dodgers for maximum effectiveness. The trick to great lake trout action is to “tick” your baits off the bottom, without dragging them heavily.
Anglers will also begin targeting king salmon located in different sections of the water column. Since the water remains quite cool, try locating kings off of dropoffs in the top 60 ft of water. Target the depth where temps will range from 47 to 53 degrees, keep your trolling speed around 2.3 mph. Use a variety of different set ups including downriggers, 3 to 10 colors of leadcore, 100 to 300 ft copper segments, as well as wire Dipsy Divers and cover a large section of the water column. Baits for early summer kings include small to medium-sized spoons such as Dreamweaver Superslims and standard sized Silver Streaks in blue, green, and chartreuse color patterns. Typically this time of year anglers will have success trolling with rotators paired with both flies and meat rigs. Rotators such as 8 and 10” Dreamweaver Spin Doctors and Big Weenie 10” rotators have been a choice favorite when used with green and aqua colored flies such as the Big Weenie Proctologist patterns. Meat rigs in matching rotator patterns are deadly on Dipsy Divers. Try patterns such as the Speckled Dick from Big Weenie or Dreamweaver Pickled
Sunshine rigs.