As September winds down and the big kings have headed up river to their spawning grounds, those of us fishing Lake Michigan look forward to the arrival of steelhead and the younger year classes of salmon fattening up for winter. Reports of a few fish being taken several miles out are just starting to trickle in. If you have the opportunity to take advantage of this exciting fishery, arm yourself with plenty of bright colored spoons and invite a few friends as youâll want plenty of gear in the water to cover a lot of water. Look for baitfish to be in water temperatures in the low 60âs and donât get hung up looking for colder water. The fish will seek out this young bait, generally close to the surface, and gorge themselves. Dreamweaver Super Slims and Michigan Stinger spoons in bright patterns like the Jager Bomb, Orange Crush, Mixed Vegetables, Michigan Dolphin, Orange Fireball, Riverside and Mac and Cheese are all excellent in the fall and never forget to put a couple Hello Darlinâs on your deeper set-ups. If you want a shot at a trophy lake trout the odds are good at this time of the year. They move in to shallower water in the fall too and can usually be found hovering near bottom beneath the schools of bait. A Trash Can Luhr Jensen dodger with a P-nut or Spin-n-Glo in either the green or yellow and orange dot pattern trailing along will often fool the big ones.
As the water cools into mid-October and competition for space on the water is non-existent, move towards the channel mouth to find plenty of steelhead getting ready for their turn in the rivers. Bright colored spoons will still take plenty of fish but I like to add small body baits like Tadpollys and Hot-n-Tots to my spread. If the fish arenât at the mouth of the river, move in and use a zigzag trolling pattern over the sand bars until you find fish. I switch to fishing from my kayak at this time of year and I mainly use plugs as they donât fall to the bottom when Iâm fighting a fish on another line. As I struggle to walk and chew gum at the same time, paddling and reeling at the same time is definitely not happening. During October you can experience just about every type of weather imaginable on the lake within a dayâs time so itâs best to stick close to shore when fishing from a smaller boat. The sudden and frequent weather changes in the fall can easily ruin your day. There can be a lot of beautiful fall days on the water but always be cautious and keep a close eye on the weather.
If the weather is too rough for your boat, donât despair as pier fishing picks up in October and offers a safer alternative on marginal boating days. Steelhead and whitefish are the regular targets at this point. The best bait you can have is some fresh steelhead spawn still in the skein as both species will greedily eat it up. A simple slip rig with a pyramid sinker from 1â2 oz. to a full oz. and a supply of your favorite style hook in a size 8 or 10 will be just the ticket to provide you with winning combination. If fresh steelhead spawn is not in your refrigerator, cured salmon eggs work well too when the fish are on the feed. If you want to target whitefish, move further out on the pier into deeper water and for bait use smaller chunks of skein, boiled/treated single salmon eggs or pick up a container of wax worms. Take your leader down to 2# test and for a hook I prefer a True Turn in a number 10. Youâll also want to rig one rod up with multi-hook rig (crappie rig) like you would for perch as these sometimes finicky fish will pick one rig over the other without any reason that I can figure out.
Get out and enjoy the rest of the season, thereâs still plenty of open water fun left in Grand Haven before the ice arrives!
[easy-social-share]