Fishing Report
Sunday May 12
Captain Matt Whitney has completed another full fishing report for Mother's Day Weekend. Read the full story.
Tuesday May 7
SurfGrandHaven welcomes back Charter Boat Captain Matt Whitney of Whitney Charters! Please click on the full story to get Captain Matt's report....
Wednesday September 19, 2012
Hello, Sorry for the long absence, I'll see if I can still write one of these. The last couple of weeks have presented some pretty good challenges as the water temps rollercoaster their way through the month. Currents have been tricky and the fish have been here, gone and back again in 2 to 3 day’s time. I've been using the Holland and Muskegon weather buoy's to tell me where to start on almost a daily basis. The two things I focus on are the water temps at both ports, primarily the bottom temp and getting an idea of the depth of the thermocline from Holland, and the current directions and speeds at Muskegon. Remember when reading current directions that a NW current is a current traveling to the northwest coming from the southeast. It's just the opposite of reading wind directions that indicate where the wind is coming from. Southerly currents are a good thing as they cool the water down. Watching the different current directions and speeds at the depths you want to fish will help you choose trolling directions and starting points before you even leave the dock. Now if I could just get the fish to play by the rules I'd be all set. The strong winds from the north will be putting plenty of cold water into the channel as I'm writing this and if you have a chance a couple laps in the river might be a good way to spend the evening. Don't try it alone though as 40 mph winds can send you across the channel in a hurry and a fish isn't worth that. If you do get out, good bets are chrome/red head, double glow wonderbread, pearl w/black dot, mongoose and grinch patterned plugs in sizes equivalent to a number 3 or 4 J-Plug. The 11" white paddle with an Illusion fly should probably be down too. Run your baits as far back as traffic will allow and remember that when the cold water is pushing up the river, your bait is actually traveling with the current as you head up stream. Watch for successful boats and try to match their speed if you don't have a method of monitoring your speed at the ball. The southerly gale force winds winding up right now will likely make the river warm a bit by Thursday afternoon but more north winds by the weekend should keep the fish from getting cooked in the channel before Saturdays Salmon Festival Contest. The cooler weather will also help river temps remain a bit more moderate than they were earlier this month. For those of you that want to brave the Big Pond, I'd suggest setting up in about 60 or 70' of water and going west (remember to check the buoy's). We've been seeing decent numbers of younger kings, steelhead and lake trout anywhere from 120 to 240 feet of water the last couple weeks after these windy periods pass. Enough mature kings and cohos have been mixed in, plenty of which don't appear quite ready to run, to keep things interesting if you still want a big fish for the contest. Check the buoy's to get an idea of how far down to set your gear and at this time of year I look for the 60 degree mark for my highest rig and go deeper from there. Hello Darlin Super Slims have been very productive lately and the Dreamweaver White/White Paddle with the Illusion fly has been hot on brighter days with the Pickled Sunshine and Oceana flies working well early, late and on darker days. Wire divers with meat rigs have been producing steadily and double glow plugs have been very effective on long lines. Pier anglers have been present in good numbers lately but the number of fish around them has been less consistent. When conditions are safe enough, I would think the current forecast should put plenty of fish in the shallows to keep pier fisherman happy for the next week. If it's too rough Linear Park should be an option as fish like to hold around the water discharge near the power plant. The recent rains should help increase the number of fish in the northern rivers but until we get a substantial soaking it won't make getting close to spooky fish any easier. Floating or wading a river is still a great way to spend a fall day though and you won't catch a big one if you sit at home. Try to arrive in the dark, fish until breakfast sounds good then head home, watch your favorite college team play football, take a nap and call it a great day. Inland waters, at least if you can find water in the bayous, should start to produce decent catches of blue gills, pike and bass as the waters begin to cool. Nobody I know has had the opportunity to try this yet but it's a good bet that a couple hours effort will result in a tasty lunch. I like light tackle with teardrops and wax worms but a worm and a hook is usually all it takes as the fish start to go on their fall feeding binge. Call the local tackle shops as they'll be up to speed on this fishery if your searching for flat water this weekend. Have a great weekend and good luck! Matt Whitney Whitney Charters ...
Friday July 6, 2012
Hello, A short update for the Big Lake boat anglers. Last night we found some really nice kings with a few steelhead from 170 - 190 feet of water. Downrigger depths were from 70 - 120 feet down with Blue Dolphins, Hello Darlin's and Kevorkian Coyote's working well. Wire divers with the same Spin Dr. combo's I mentioned in my last report worked very well set 150 and 160 feet back. A Modified Blue Dolphin Fuzzy Bear spoon in the magnum size went a few times on the 300' copper too. Shorter coppers and cores were very quiet as most of the fish we hit and saw on the graph were in the 70 - 90 foot down range. Also, the flies are biting too. Good luck and have a great weekend! Matt ...
Thursday July 5, 2012
Hello, The fishing on Lake Michigan is still very good for anglers fishing from the Grand Haven area. Double digit catches have been common for better than a week now with kings tipping the scales at better than 15 lbs included in the catch. Steelhead are still making up a good portion of the catch and averaging around 8 pounds with plenty of fish in the 12 lb range testing the abilities of the person at the other end of the line. The fish have been most active at first light and again near dark but the only really slow time seems to be from about 11 am until 3 pm. Basically, if you can't sleep because of the heat go fishing and then search out a shady spot for an afternoon nap. The flies have begun to make their presence felt but they've not too bad on a relative scale. The best areas lately are from 70 - 90 feet of water and then from 110 on out to 160 feet of water. 1, 3 and 5 color lead cores have been very productive for both kings and steelhead even though the 76 degree surface temp says they shouldn't be. We witnessed a large school of bait jumping around on the surface the other night with several large fish chasing them. These rods fishing higher up have been baited with the small Dreamweaver Firecracker and Candy Apple spoons, the orange/green edge Stinger, the Stinger Shanster and as it gets later in the evening the Hello Darlin' Super Slims have been hot. Wire Divers pulling an 8" White Green Scale/Glow tape Spin Dr. with a Pickled Sunshine or Green Bead Mirage fly from 120 - 150 feet back have been deadly on the bigger kings. The Hello Darlin' Super Slim has also been good on riggers in the 50 ft to bottom range and on 200 - 300 foot copper rigs. An 8" Green Jerry Spin Dr with double glow tape and a Pickled Sunshine fly has been very good at times on longer coppers and deeper down riggers too. As has been the case for a while now, the current continues to require that the driver pay close attention boat speed. Today’s troll showed an over ground speed of 3.0 while trolling south and 2.0 - 2.2 mph troll while working north. Remember too that as you work out the current will likely slack up a bit so if things slow down or your seeing fish and nothing is happening, drop it out of gear occasionally and play with the throttle a bit. For the incredibly heat resistant anglers fishing inland waters, success has dropped a bit lately. The few people I know that are fishing and have been successful are getting out at daylight and catching a few bluegills and bass in 5' - 10' of water. During hot weather and full moon phases I, along with a few other sleep deprived first mates at Chinook Pier, used to go bass fishing with floating Rapala's in the middle of the night when sleeping was impossible due to the oven like temps. That was more than a few years ago, now that I have A/C it's likely to be a long time before it happens again, but it was a lot of fun and I caught some of my biggest bass during these nights. Pier fishing is pretty well down to nothing but sightseeing if you're after perch or steelhead. Bass fisherman will probably find both large and small mouth bass around the pier heads as the river and bayous warm up and the fish move to the cooler waters of the lake. Crayfish imitations and deep diving crank baits should work well. Rumor has it that a few walleye fisherman have picked up a couple fish while trolling in front of the piers during the evening as well but I haven't been given any fillets or seen pictures to prove it. With several days of north winds forecast for the first part of next week I'm hoping the excellent fishing on the lake will continue so if you can stand the heat, or are willing to be on the water by 5 am, give it a try! Matt ...
Wednesday June 20, 2012
Hello, It's hard to believe but the fishing right now has at times been as hot as the weather! This past weekend plenty of nice kings and excellent numbers of large steelhead provided excitement for anglers on the lake. The cool water temps had fish showing up from the pier heads out to 140 feet of water. We stayed in the 50 foot range all morning and had 17 fish on and felt lucky to boat 9. The steelhead were putting on an aerial display that rivaled Sea World’s best show and were escaping more often than not. The fun is still going strong but conditions are changing quickly. Last night on a four hour trip we found warmer water with the low 60 temps stretching all the way down to the 80 ft depth. The good news is that the fish didn't seem to mind the slightly warmer water. Immediately after setting lines at 6 we hit a pair of 14 lb kings and the fishing remained steady up until shortly before 9 when the fish went on a binge and things really heated up. When it was done we had boated 7 kings with 5 of them between 11 and 17 lbs, 4 steelhead around 9 lbs each and a nice lake trout. Another 8 fish didn't hang around to have their picture taken. The best area for us was between 105 and 125 feet of water. 5 and 7 color lead cores with a Gold Watermelon Stinger and the Orange Sparkle Dreamweaver spoons, wire divers between 140 and 160 ft back with 8" green Spin Dr.'s with the Pickled Sunshine fly and our center downrigger set at 100' with the White/Fish scale 11" Paddle with the Frosted Poofster fly were the rigs that took multiple hits. Blue Dolphins and glow spoons on downriggers at 60 and 70 feet, a full core and a 450 copper also took shots. The strong current continued to affect trolling directions and speeds with northwest, south and e/ne courses being the most productive. The warmer water has had a predictable effect on the pier fishing for steelhead and it cut the catch down considerably. Fortunately the "warm water" isn't all that warm yet though and a few fish continue to be caught. Alewives and shrimp remain top choices for bait. Bluegill fisherman are reporting lots of smaller fish in the shallows but a little patience in water 5' - 8' deep is paying off as some larger fish can be found there. Tear drops with wax worms on ultra-light tackle early and late in the day are the hot ticket. Bass fishing around the marina has been steady the past few days but not great. Catfish seem to be going on a fast in our area as they continue to ignore everything including scraps from the prime rib I snagged off the neighbors grill the other evening. Hopefully he doesn't read this report. With the forecast showing some cooler weather and north winds arriving soon, the fishing on the lake, including the waters around the pier, will probably slow for a couple days and then pick right back up as the cool waters move back in our direction. A little cool weather should help the inland action too. Have a great week and I hope to see you on the water soon. Matt ...
Wednesday June 13, 2012
Hello, June is only 13 days old but we've already seen typical June fishing (nap time), good June fishing, and just plain excellent fishing. The trend so far has seen the best fishing a couple days after the latest cold front so we should be looking at a pretty good weekend coming up. The most consistent water has been the 80 - 140 foot range but there have been some very nice catches taken near the piers and as far out as 370' feet of water in the last 7 days. If you find cold surface temps when you head out in the morning, and notice a large number of people on the pier swinging landing nets, put some orange and gold on and give the steelhead a try before venturing out deeper. If kings are your primary target, slide out to about 60 or 70' before daylight and set up with your favorite glow spoons and spinnie/fly combos. UV anything seems to be a good choice lately too. Make sure and cover a wide range of depths as we've had good success on half cores all the way down to the bottom with some nice four year old kings pushing the 17 lb mark hitting at all levels. Our best rigs lately have been wire divers with magnum Dipsies rigged with an 8" green/pearl glow Spin Dr. pulling a Pickled Sunshine fly (when the sun is up high) and the silver Alley Cat spoon in standard and magnum sizes fished on any pole you want to put it on. It's been most active for us on our 450' copper. On the half cores, high divers and short cores the Freakin Veggie, Mixed Veggie and Orange Killer in standard sized Stinger and Super Slim spoons have been very reliable. In the depth ranges from 40 to 80 foot down Modified Blue and Green dolphins in both standard and magnum sizes have been very effective. For the deep rigger, try either the big White/Fishscale Paddle with a Frosted Poofster or the Trash Can and yellow/red spot Spin-n-Glo. While you're out pay special attention to the current. It's been racing lately and changing dramatically during a morning on the water. Monitor your down speed closely if you have a probe and if not keep a close eye on your diver rods as they're good speed indicators too. Note your gps speed over ground and heading when you're hitting fish and stick with it as long as possible. Several friends of mine had great luck on a south troll the other morning and didn't turn for four hours as they heard others remark that they couldn't hit going north. Conditions change quickly though and that same evening we had excellent success traveling in both directions but we did have to play with our speed to keep the action going. With the constant wild swings in temperatures I expect the issues with the current to continue for now. For those of you fishing the piers it's been a good month. Plenty of nice steelhead are being taken daily on alewives and frozen shrimp suspended under a bobber. I've heard that good numbers of perch are being taken with the cool water temps and alewives drawing them in. Young alewives are hard to beat in these conditions but salad shrimp or shrimp chunks work pretty good too. Another bonus to using shrimp is that if you keep them cold you can eat your bait if the fishing is slow. I don't recommend doing that with the alewives no matter how cold you keep them or how much cocktail sauce you use. Inland fishing has been great lately for bass and my kid caught a 21", 6lb whopper the other night on a wacky worm. The action was pretty steady and the 3 boys caught more than a dozen nice fish in a couple hours on the bayous in Spring Lake. The bluegill fishing is slowing rapidly for bigger fish as they've mostly moved off the beds and moved out into deeper water. Fish early in the morning for the bigger fish and go with the lightest tackle you can to fool the big ones. The catfish around the dock have become more elusive lately and have likely moved into deeper water. Steak trimmings and hot dogs have gone untouched during my last couple of attempts. Sorry for the long breaks between reports this summer but long hours at the office and steady charters have combined to limit my free time. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on track shortly. Matt Whitney Whitney Charters, LLC ph - 616-846-6325 ...
Thursday May 24, 2012
Hello, The roller coaster weather pattern lately has made the fishing a bit more challenging lately. This past weekend provided lots of opportunities to catch up on your rest if you weren't lucky enough to find a pocket of fish and stick with them. Catches on charters ranged from 1 to 15 fish per boat with the most wide spread success taking place Saturday evening. I'm not sure what made them decide to go into their attack mode but we had over 2 dozen fish on in 165 to 205 feet of water and other boats had equally fast action in 80 - 100 feet. Apparently the fish are getting smarter and have finally realized that alewives taste just as good later in the day as they do at dawn. The most active rigs I had were a rigger set at 68' with a Fuzzy Bear gold Alley Cat (mag), a Fuzzy Bear silver Alley Cat (mag) on a 450 copper, the Hello Darlin Super Slim on a 10 color lead core, a Super Slim Jager Bomb behind a standard size Dipsy fished 100' back on 3, and a Trash Can dodger with a yellow/red dot Spin-n-Glo set from 180' to 235' down with a 14 lb weight. All of these produced throughout the weekend for us. Our best trolls were due east and west with a 2.5 mph over ground on the west troll and 3.1 mph on the east troll. The guys inside were doing well on similar spoons with their divers and 150' to 250' coppers and full cores doing most of the work. I'm hoping the brief cool front the last couple days will keep good numbers of fish in similar areas for the upcoming weekend but things will likely be very different by Monday. Look for trout to begin to settle in near bottom in the 100 to 200 foot depths and keep at least one rod set for them to keep something happening. The news for inland fisherman with the weekend off couldn't be much better. The recent warm weather has excellent numbers of very aggressive spawning bluegills showing up in 1 to 4 feet of water on just about every local body of water. Check county park websites for areas near you for easy access. Bass are feeding heavily too and with the opener this weekend it should be a lot of fun fishing for them with just about every type of method you know. My favorite is to toss a larger floating Rapala near a weed line and work it like a wounded bait fish on the surface. My kids usually out fish me with Wacky Worms and jigs but I like surface action better. Catfish continue to entertain us as we relax around the marina so if nothing else is biting, find a spot along the river bank and bait a hook with just about any type of meat from your refrigerator or fresh minnow chunks from the bait store and hold on. The pier is a great place to spend some time when the sun is out and the temps are high but fishing won't likely be the best part of your trip. However, if you toss a crawler into the channel side and fish it on the bottom I'm sure you'll catch a few catfish and sheep head but it's a tough place to get perch or salmon from lately. You may find a few bass around the rocks though so if you want to try a little casting bring a few jigs or medium to deep diving body baits and fish parallel to the pier. Regardless of what you do this weekend though, take a moment to reflect on the reason for the holiday. Best of luck, Matt Thank you, Matt Whitney Whitney Charters, LLC ph - 616-846-6325 Cell - 616-638-4061 ...
Friday May 18, 2012
Hello, On Lake Michigan, fishing is definitely slowing down but there are still plenty of fish out there waiting for you. Catches the last few days have ranged from 5 to 15 fish among the group of guys I talk to. The best fishing seems to be happening in three different depth ranges. 60 - 85 ft has been good early as schools of bait are fairly thick here. 120 - 140 is providing plenty of action and the 185 - 210 foot range continues to be a productive area as well. Lead core rigs from 5 to 12 colors have been effective in all ranges with Jager Bombs, Modified Blue and Green Dolphins and a newer bait from Fuzzy Bear called the Arctic Ice all working very well. The Arctic Ice is similar to a Blue Dolphin but with a clear crush tape on the face and the standard Fuzzy Bear glow tape on the back. It's been a killer for my neighbor and he's using it at all depths with good success throughout the morning. Paddles and flies are still taking fish but it seems to be a different pattern for everybody with a white paddle trailing your favorite fly holding a slight edge over other colors. The most active downrigger depths have been from 45 to 75 feet down and standard divers are taking fish from 120 - 170 feet behind the boat. Coppers have been good in the two deeper stretches with a lot of success on the 150' rig but the 225', 300' and 400' coppers are picking away as well. If this seems like a lot of area and depths it's because it is. The fish are starting to move into a late May pattern and are moving daily so run everything but the kitchen sink and if you don't find fish where you start, keep moving. If you hit a pocket of fish be sure to mark it on your gps and stick with them until things slow down. It will also pay to start running some stuff near surface as the steelhead should start showing up and they'll be around slicks chasing bugs soon. For those of you fishing smaller waters, the bluegill fishing has really taken off this week. My son took a limit of very nice gills on his fly rod Wednesday afternoon in just over an hour on Stearns Bayou. Several others I've talked with have found similar success on some smaller lakes north of Muskegon as well as on the bayous of Spring Lake. Take a break every now and then and toss a floating Rapala around and twitch it on the surface near weed lines. You'll likely be rewarded with a big splash and a leaping bass for a change of pace. Remember though that bass have to be released until next weekend. Perch fishing has all but ended again on the lake but the mild cool front coming at the beginning of next week could change that again. Catfish continue to offer plenty of entertainment on the Grand with plenty of 5 - 8 lb channel cats eating whatever I was planning to have for lunch that my sons snuck out of the fridge. For the serious guys, chunks of fresh alewives are hard to beat. Regardless of your choice, get out and go fishing this weekend. The weather is going to be great and the odds of catching a tasty meal are on your side. Good Luck! Matt Thank you, Matt Whitney Whitney Charters, LLC ph - 616-846-6325 Cell - 616-638-4061 ...
Tuesday May 8, 2012
Hello, More news from the Big Pond, the fishing is still excellent. Even better though is that people fishing from the pier with ale wives are able to enjoy the fishing too as abundant baitfish around the piers have pulled hungry salmon in towards shore over the last week. Trollers using bright spoons in patterns like the Hog Wild, Hitman and Jager Bombs have enjoyed excellent success in and around the muddy river water but good success is being had in the 40 to 60 foot depths away from the piers too. If either of those options let you down fishing has continued to be very good around the 200' mark with the biggest fish still holding from 90' - 150' down and preferring Paddle and Fly combinations. White Paddles with either a Blue Bead Mirage Action Fly or a Hypnotist Rapture fly have been very steady producers for the last few weeks and the Kevorkian Paddle with the same Mirage fly has been a fixture at 115' down on our starboard outdown since the season started. 450' copper rigs with the magnum Modified Blue Dolphin and Alley Cat have been deadly lately too. With the temperatures and winds bouncing around like they have and are forecast to continue to do, this incredible fishing will hopefully continue a little longer. Perch fishermen were able to celebrate a little late last week also as reasonable success was had by those willing to put some time in. There's not a lot of bragging about the size of the catch but tasty 8 and 9 inchers moved back in and were the favorite target of a number of boats this last weekend. Other panfish have remained a bit on the slow side as the unsettled weather has kept them moving making success a little more difficult. Catch and release bass fisherman (my two sons and a rig they call a wacky worm) fishing around marinas have found plenty of fish to keep them entertained even with the cooler weather. Catfish are biting well on the Grand right now and the sandwich ham from our boat seems to be the preferred bait. Have a great week, Matt Thank you, Matt Whitney Whitney Charters, LLC ph - 616-846-6325 Cell - 616-638-4061 ...
