Fishing continues to be some of the best I have ever seen.  Limit catches are the norm no matter how many people are on board.  More people = more rods = more fish.  Just that simple right now.  Water temps are holding in the low 40's and the fish are eager.  Not eager like 2006 when they were starving though.  The kings are fat and full of energy.  Fishes stomachs are all stretched out when they are cleaned.  Many had bait in them.  Every boat I talked to had limit catches and this has been going on for several weeks already. 

Yesterday we boated 17 in 3 hours and lost 2.  Horseflies took every fish.  Little boy blue and SeaMist were studs.  Riggers 130-150 down in 170 fow were steady.  Wire divers back 270 and 300 were decent and 450' of copper took fish.  Big paddles, flies and fairly hot troll gets it done.

Get out there while it lasts.

Captain Paul

Salmonhead Charters 616 299 1349

4/25/11 - Good day on the water out of Grand Haven-

Some nice fat Kings up to 15# and finished our box with tasty Coho's.

140' - 160' of water with big paddles on riggers parked at 100' - 140'.

Kings eating flies - Mirage and Lil Boy Blue were best !

Coho's were eating spoons showing silver flash and glow.

We fished straight out but heard good reports N.W. of Port in same water.

Thanks to LeRoy (Diesel Doctor) for a Very Fishy Day !

Capt. Dave

Don "Empty Net" Shirfinsky and I arrived in St. Joe around 9:00 am and launched about 9:30.  We set lines in 120FOW and set a West course.  The information I had was that the pattern was almost summer-like with fish coming 80-125' down in 120-200FOW.  So I brought some meat-rigs and some Herring Strips I put in the freezer at the end of last year (YUK!!!!). I put down a wire diver 225' back with an 11" Hooch and a Blue MOO MOO meat-rig attached and loaded it with an off-colored nasty strip of herring.  Other offerings were a Spin Doctor with a green fly down the chute at 105', a magnum lure down 85' with a slider; A blue dolphin down 65' with a slider; another diver with a red/chartruese spoon; and a half-core with a mixed veggies spoon.  We also ran a body bait on top but took no fish up there.  As we got into 165fow we took a Coho on a  slider with the main line at 65'.  Shortly after we took a rip on the Meat Rig off the Wire Diver, but got off.  I put it back down and it was only a few minutes and it went again.....This time a real nice King in the mid-teens.  A short time later the meat-rig went again with another nice King.  At this point a meat rig was put down the chute at 115' (Blue Crush Spin Doctor with a Blue MOO MOO).  We were now in 180FOW and were taking fish consistently a couple came on spoons but the majority were hitting the meat-rigs with the rotten Herring.......go figure.  We finished up around 3:30 and were 13 for 18 and boxed 10 fish including a 14# Laker (it came on a meat-rig........dah!), 3 Coho, and 6 Kings with a couple of those in the mid-teens.
 
I had called a friend when we were heading down and he decided to come down with a bud and fish Friday in his boat. We met for breakfast and then headed out.  We set up in 120FOW around 8:15 with pretty much the same offerings, except I replaced the Blue MOO MOO meat-rig down the chute with a Big Water Cold Steele rig.  We finished at 11:15 going 11 for 12 boxing 8 Kings, 1 Coho, and 1 Steelehead (small), and 1 throwback.  Our speed for both days was a magic 2.4 on the GPS.  We seemed to get most of our bites at that speed.  The set-backs on the riggers were 20-35'.  The water temp was around 46 degrees both days.  Seventeen of the 24 fish came on MEAT......in April no less!!!

Short 2 hour trip solo on Friday and limited and lost 2 more.  HorseFlies ruled with Artic Ice taking 4 bites, SeaMist and SeaWeed each taking one bite and Lemonlime Orange Twist #5 spoon taking one bite.  Hot troll of 2.5-2.7 at the ball which translated to 3.8-4.2 SOG on my gps.  Rods were singing the whole time.  Fish were caught from 235-265 fow from 108-154 down.  The coho was the reject at 50' down. 

Friends reported spectacular success over the weekend as well with limit catches in short order no matter how many guys were on board. 

Also hearing reports of decent brown fishing near shore, but the mixed bag with big kings offshore is outstanding.

Salmonhead

http://www.salmonheadcharters.com/content/view/395/26/

It never hurts to start early when selecting your spoons  for another fishing season !

Mark from "It's Me"  fishes on the amateur side of many of the Tournamemts.

    Mark's 'Lil Mate won't tell you much -- but has his favorite....K-49 Sea Bee