Thursday, August 17, 2023

8/17/23 Northwestern, Michigan Fishing Report


 

Northwest Lower Peninsula

Leland: Anglers were starting to see more Chinook salmon and a handful of coho filter into the harbor. They were also seeing a lot of mature Chinook salmon this summer already. Water temperatures were sitting at about 70 degrees at the surface. Meat rigs and deep divers were very successful while trolling in 150 to 200 feet of water. Anglers who fished very early or at dusk were seeing the best results.

West Grand Traverse Bay: Anglers were reporting successful lake trout fishing with the occasional Chinook salmon coming in as well. Not much for bait fish being reported in the bay and a lot of fish sampled had empty stomachs. Some anglers were catch and releasing steelhead on the bay as well. Most anglers were fishing north of Old Mission peninsula and were having great luck. Bloody nose and Happee Meal were hot colors for catching lake trout.

Charlevoix: Anglers targeting salmon had successful bites in both the morning and the evening hours. Trolling in 75 to 125 feet of water anywhere around Fisherman's Island to North Point was showing results. Flies, spoons, and the occasional meat bite produced Chinook salmon and a few coho bites. Anglers fishing the Charlevoix piers continued their success targeting smallmouth with natural bait including wrigglers, leeches and minnows.

Petoskey/Harbor Springs: Salmon anglers fishing Little Traverse Bay reported hit or miss on both the evening and morning bites. Water temperatures in the past week dropped steadily to 45 degrees roughly 60 feet down with surface temperatures still in the low 70s. Trolling artificial lures along the north and south side of Little Traverse Bay produced slow but steady results. Chinook salmon, lake trout, and some coho were all reported in the bay. Anglers fishing the Bear River reported the occasional Chinook salmon, rainbow trout and brown trout.

Frankfort: The Chinook salmon were biting well. The early morning bite out front was producing very good numbers and sizes on plugs, flies and spoons. Anglers were targeting 25 feet down. Pier anglers reported great activity from 3 a.m. to daylight on glow spoons. Coho were also getting picked up in the same areas on mostly spoons.

Onekama: Anglers were heading straight out from the pier heads to 80 to 100 feet of water and trolling the top 35 to 45 feet down to land some nice Chinook salmon on flies and spoons. The early morning bite was landing more but the evening bite was not bad.

Portage Lake: Bass anglers were reporting low numbers of largemouth bass in deeper waters as water temperatures were still moving up.

Below are links to bait shop listings organized by county: 

Your area may not be listed within this fishing report so below is a list of links to pages in Northeast Michigan to help guide you to public lakes in your county.
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