We are not sure what to expect for fishing in the Ludington area this month. We have had cold water all summer. Time will tell if we finally get some strong south winds to keep a warm water barrier to slow kings from going up the Pere Marquette River to spawn. Fishing for the most part in August was in the top 30-40 feet of the water column. This meant our catch rates were down due to the kings being widespread horizontally in the water column. Coho fishing has been fairly steady.
For staging kings if the water is over 55 degrees near the bottom in 60 or so feet of water the best choice for lures are plugs. I prefer Dreamweaver’s Captain’s Choice in Natural Glow, along with Green and Natural Glow Spatterbacks. If the water remains cold, spin doctors and meat rigs should remain the ticket. Top spin doctor colors this summer have been Kevin’s Girlfriend, Yellow Sparkler, and a Chrome Killer. UV Meat Rigs behind them have also stood out this summer. Familiar Bite Herring Strips have been my top performer for meat rigs.
Cohos are a different fish. I have been trying a variety of dodgers and flies for them and cannot get them to work. Standard green glow spoons like a Mongolian Beef or Lightning with an 8 foot lead off your cannonball will work well for them. Make sure you use another green spoon as a free slider. Cohos are attracted to the boat. I will fish a 3rd downrigger on the side of the boat the motor is running with another short lead and slider rig. This 3rd downrigger (out down) normally would have a small red 00 dodger on it with a green fly, but spoons seem to be better this year.
Some steelhead and lake trout will continue to be caught close to shore if the water remains as cold as it has been. Keep an orange spoon near the top on a 2-3 color leadcore for a steelhead or bounce a tin can dodger and spin and glow on the bottom for a laker.
Alewives are still being found in our area; the odd thing to me is that for most of August some of them were still out in 120-130 feet of water. I would expect them to be in much shallower near where the cold water meets the warm. Some of the Alewives have been in shallow water as expected, but the fish seem to like to eat the ones out in deeper water. The kings just do not want to begin staging near shore. I expect the run to be very long and very steady with just a few kings entering the river every day.
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