Rogers City Pre Holiday Report

[Trophy Specialist]

I installed a new auto pilot (Simrad AP16) yesterday and fished in the afternoon. It took me two hours (on and off the phone with Simrad) to get the autopilot calibrated correctly. Once setup, it performed much better than I would have ever imagined. Once I was up to snuff on all the bells and whistles of the AP16, I set lines in 30' of water in front of the Calcite breakwall and trolled twards RC. I hooked a bunch of lakers in that one mile trolling run and then headed in. I was getting them on cowbells.

Due to illness, I went out this morning solo again hitting the water at 5:30. I ran a salmon program setting lines right in front of RC in 50 FOW. I went one hour without any hits and pulled lines to switch things up. I had been towing a small king on a Seedless watermellon Monshine spoon. I set up for shallow running with one spoon on each side off church boards and one spoon 100 yards behind the boat with a clip weight. A Moonshine, standard size, Super Orange Crush, 100' behind a board took two pinks, two atlantics and a laker. The line up the chute with a Moonshine Happee Meal took two lakers. A gold Michigan Stinger on the other board took a huge rip from something big and that lure also hooke up with a huge brown that I lost behind the boat trying to net it. I was able to release, unharmed all of the lakers and one atlantic. The atlantics were about 10 pounds each.

When I cleaned the fish, I found gobies, smelt and alewives in their guts. I marked lots of baitfish in close from 10-40 FOW.

[Brown duck]

Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question (I probably know the answer before I ask it, but it's just out of curiosity), but I've read a couple different posts mentioning Atlantics and pinks. I've never heard of them being caught on the big lakes (though this is the first year I've looked at this forum), only in the rivers. Do Atlantics and pinks get picked up every year or is this out of the ordinary? I've only fished salmon a few times on the big lakes, and had only ever heard of kings/cohos being picked up (as far as salmon go).

I guess one more question: how do the Atlantics fight on the lake? I've heard they're hard to beat in the rivers on a fly rod.

[Trophy Specialist]

We typically only catch Atlantics during the spring and early summer at Rogers City. Some years we catch a lot, some years few. In 2004 we caught atlantics on nearly every charter from mid-May through mid-July. Last year we only caught a few all season. It seems like there are a lot of them available this year as I've heard of many people getting them. Pink salmon are the same way: some years they are plentiful and others they are not.

Atlantics fight very much like brown trout. When they are adults, they look very similar to browns too. I would venture a guess that many atlantics are miss-identified as browns. Atlantics tend to jump on most hookups or at least flop and roll on the surface. In my opinion, they do not fight as hard as kings do pound for pound.

Variety is one of the reasons I like to fish N. lake Huron during the spring and early summer. One day last year we caught four different species of salmon in one day along with some steelhead and lakers. Now that's a mixed bag.

[Brown duck]

That's pretty much what I figured (just strange I'd not heard of it before living in MI for all those years). Thanks for the info.

[J - Rod]

We've been staying at Onaway SP each May for the past 6 or 7 yrs, fishing Black Lake. Last year we decided to give Lake Huron a try based on Mike's article in W&W about RC. That salvaged our trip because the fishing on Black was terrible. We caught a good share of Lakers with a nice coho thrown into the mix - all on spin dr's and flies (coho on a spoon).

Last weekend was our scheduled trip up there, but we canned it because of the crappy weather and opted for a shorter drive to Muskegon. I wish we could be there this weekend with the nice weather. It's a great area, but I guess we'll have to wait till next year. :sad: Good luck there and thanks for the report.

[garyrodbender]

Trophy Specialist, thanks for that up-lifting report. Always liked RC for coho and king salmon in the fall.Swan Bay was always kind;) to us. Never had the time off in the spring until this year . Dont have my big rig anymore,14ft Smokercraft deep v. so I need to pick a day or two and play the (wind) weather...I`ve got tue,wed, and thu off this week. Might be in your neck of the woods one am splash, (5:00 am). What channel are you on ? Thanks. The in-line and spoon thing is becoming one of the most productive technique`s im incorporating into my spread. Always have one out each side for sure. In the fall there in SB, in-lines and j-plugs kicked most times .

[Trophy Specialist]

Trophy Specialist, thanks for that up-lifting report. Always liked RC for coho and king salmon in the fall.Swan Bay was always kind;) to us. Never had the time off in the spring until this year . Dont have my big rig anymore,14ft Smokercraft deep v. so I need to pick a day or two and play the (wind) weather...I`ve got tue,wed, and thu off this week. Might be in your neck of the woods one am splash, (5:00 am). What channel are you on ? Thanks. The in-line and spoon thing is becoming one of the most productive technique`s im incorporating into my spread. Always have one out each side for sure. In the fall there in SB, in-lines and j-plugs kicked most times .
I'll be out tomorrow, but I'm not sure about mid-week. There have been so frew boats out that I havn't had my radio on at RC.

We fished near shore yesterday for most of the day, but tried 80-100 FOW for the last couple hours of the trip. We hit several fish on "the shelf" and one was a rather big king that gave us quite a battle.