Northern Lake Michigan Fishing Report: May 17, 2010
Manitowoc Co.
High temperatures in the 40s with heavy rain early in the week gave way to calm easterly winds by the weekend. Water temperatures rose to 48 degrees lakeside, with temps rising to the mid-50s in the Manitowoc and Two Rivers harbors. By Sunday, water clarity improved and the calm winds allowed boaters to get on the water resulting in the first signs of successful Chinook salmon fishing. Boaters out of both the Manitowoc and Two Rivers ports continued to try their luck with brown trout with no little success. Most angling pressure concentrated south of Manitowoc in 8-14 feet of water resulting in no reported fish this past week. Salmon fishing has shown signs of life with a few fish being caught off of Hika Bay in 130-160 feet of water. Any green spoons and a pearl/white dodger fly combo has had the most success on the downriggers. Sunday showed the first consistent salmon fishing this year north of Two Rivers. The cold water appears to have scattered the fish in this area with fish being reported caught anywhere from 90-150 feet of water or starting outside the trap nets. Most success came on the downriggers 70-110 feet down on various dodger fly combos with little success on spoons. Several large carp and an occasional brown trout have been caught using night crawlers on the bottom off of the Manitowoc piers. Anglers were still reporting success landing steelhead mixed in with several smallmouth bass using plastics and crank baits near the Shoto dam on the West Twin River.
Kewaunee Co.
The week started off with the average temperature in the mid 40s with heavy rains but eventually the sun came out and the winds calmed down. The water temperatures in both Kewaunee and Algoma harbors were in the upper 40?s at the beginning of the week and rose to an average of 51 degrees towards the weekend. Algoma: The Algoma pier still has seen very little fishing pressure, but a few people have reported success catching catfish on the northern pier with earthworms. The Algoma ramp has seen an increase in use and fishing pressure due to the increasing amount of reports of coho and Chinook being caught. The anglers have caught the salmon on spoons with the most successful color being green. Kewaunee: A few rainbow trout and Chinook salmon have been caught out on the lake from the boats that have been launching out of the city ramp. The most commonly hit lures being used were either green spoons or a combination of large flashers and flies. Most fishermen have reported success in deep waters about 5 miles offshore. The Kewaunee pier has seen no success from the few anglers that have tried their luck. A few anglers have reported rainbow trout still being caught behind Brummer Zoo on rapalas and earthworms.
WDNR
