05/05/08 12:28(CST)

Captain Ed Patnode of Edventure Charters reports from Manistee:

I trolled near the pier and the beaches near Manistee this past week, and was catching both lakers and browns. Of course the lakers were released (prior to may 1st open season). The browns all came on #11 floating rapala's, gold/black. We trolled half the baits without an attractant, and received 0 bites on those baits. The baits with either the Powerbait or Kens Anise attractant caught all the fish. The best bites were on warm days (>55 degrees) with low wave action, less than 6 inch waves. Whether we used Church boards or large planer boards made little difference. The key to fishing these baits was to use a floating bait in the cold water 42-45 degrees, 120 feet behind the board. The lakers were all caught using baits run on lead core lines. All the fish were caught in clean water, not the muddy water coming out of the river, although other fisherman reported catching some lakers in the muddy water. We did fish off the pier one morning for Browns, steelhead and menominee. The bite didn't start until 8am, but they bit on crawlers and spawn, using a half ounce slip sinker above a barrel swivel. To catch the menominee, we kept our baits closer to the pier, and had a float above the hook. You have to set the hook very fast on a bite, unlike the browns and steelhead who would pick up the baits and run with them.

04/27/08 14:32(CST)

Captain Ed Patnode of Edventure Charters reports from Manistee:

I trolled near the pier and the beaches near Manistee this past week, and was catching both lakers and browns. Of course the lakers were released (prior to may 1st open season). The browns all came on #11 floating rapala's, gold/black. We trolled half the baits without an attractant, and received 0 bites on those baits. The baits with either the Powerbait or Kens Anise attractant caught all the fish. The best bites were on warm days (>55 degrees) with low wave action, less than 6 inch waves. Whether we used Church boards or large planer boards made little difference. The key to fishing these baits was to use a floating bait in the cold water 42-45 degrees, 120 feet behind the board.

The lakers were all caught using baits run on lead core lines. All the fish were caught in clean water, not the muddy water coming out of the river, although other fisherman reported catching some lakers in the muddy water.

We did fish off the pier one morning for Browns, steelhead and menominee. The bite didn't start until 8am, but they bit on crawlers and spawn, using a half ounce slip sinker above a barrel swivel. To catch the menominee, we kept our baits closer to the pier, and had a float above the hook. You have to set the hook very fast on a bite, unlike the browns and steelhead who would pick up the baits and run with them.