By Captain Jim Hirt
Posted Sunday, March 12, 2006
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In previous articles we covered general overview and the specifics of temperature breaks and their location. Now let's continue with spring presentation and location. If your season starts early as we do at Blue Max Charters, you will be on Lake Michigan when the surface temperatures are below the preferred temp of your target species. I will cover late May and early June in this article.
This time period provides great action on Brown trout, Chinooks, Coho and Rainbows. Browns, at this time of the year, will come on similar presentations, lures and locations as I described in the last articles. Look for temp breaks with bait fish and the warmest water. This time of year you won't find water that is to warm for Browns. I like small spoons with silver, green or white blades with green, orange or blue accent stripes.
Work the top 25 feet of water. I set up 90% of my lines on planer boards working the top fifteen feet of water. The remaining 10% of my lines are on diving planers or downriggers for deeper fish. On all my rods in spring, I run a 20-25 pound test monofilament with a 12-pound leader. You need to go with a light leader to produce good action in clear water near the surface.
Run the heavier test to a bead chain sinker or barrel swivel then an 8-foot leader with a cross lock snap. I don’t go nuts with Micro Filament or Super Braid lines because I think they are over kill for this application and add to expenses. Starting out this way I will have the rods loaded with the correct line for most presentations through out the season. I set my boat speed at 1 to 2 mph. Slow presentation is key in spring.
The lures you run is all about the amount of light, baitfish size and the size of fish you are looking to catch. Mix it up! When one lure produces I would double up on that lure. For Coho I prefer 6 inch orange flashers and a variety of different colored flies instead of spoons. Adjust the length of the leader from the flasher to the fly to get the best results. The general rule is one and one half times the length of the flasher.
My experience is the colder the water the longer the leader. Longer leaders slow down the action. There are times when I run up to three times the flasher length. Most Rainbows will hit the flasher flies. When only looking for Rainbows, substitute bright color spoons for flasher flies. The Chinooks should also take spoons.
Fishing Charters Milwaukee Presentation Tips #8
As we go into summer our presentation evolves to follow the temperature of the fish you are targeting. This time of year look for most of your fish in the top 40 feet. Keep your eye on your locater and also work deeper marks when you see them. My experience this time of year is the deeper fish are less active and tend not to bite.
Most often you will not mark well above 30 feet because those fish are out side the cone of your locater’s transducer. The primary presentations I use at this time are planer boards, dipsey divers and leadcore. On all my rods in spring, I run a 20-25 pound test monofilament with a 12-pound leader. You need to go with a light leader to produce good action in clear water near the surface.
Run the heavier test to a bead chain sinker or barrel swivel then an 8-foot leader with a cross lock snap. Starting out this way I will have the rods loaded with the correct line for most presentations later in the season. I use a standard dipsey set up with an interesting twist. Opti-Dodger has a clear snubber, which I run right behind the dipsey and then 8 feet of 25-pound mono to the snap.
The purpose of the snubber is to reduce the shock of the strike on the monofilament and it stretches initially to recoil and set the hook into the fish I am almost 100% on the number of hits to fish boated with set up. When I get those ugly days that the action slows I throw in my leadcores. It is not a presentation that is fun to reel in fish on. 500 feet of line is a lot of cranking. Leadcore will produce when nothing else will. I will go into details on set up and running lead in the next article.
Good Luck Captain Jim
Jim charters out of Milwaukee, WI. With Blue Max Charters
He can be reached at 414-828-1094 or visit his web site at http://www.bluemaxcharters.com
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