north channel salmon

[len]

Have any of you fellow sportsman fished the north channel for salmon, I had seen a fishing show of that area and they were trolling with the current, has any one ever fished this way, did you have to troll faster than the current. thanks

[DANN09]

Yes Len You troll with the current and in doing so You go faster then the current. They troll the hole river not just the north ch. and it's starting now. There are fish (browns . steel and salmon) in the river.

[len]

Thanks Do you know if they use dippsy divers or just down riggers. This site is great...

[GOTCHA]

Len, welcome to the site, I personally don't know anyone that use's dipseys, downriggers are used though. I was just sitting here thinking I should give my buddy a call and see if he is ready to go:D I need to get out , BEEN A LONG WINTER.........

[JasonG]

I have acess to fish one of those long pier on the north channel. How would you guys suggest fishing the river this time of year from the pier.

[Jimbos]

Len, I would stack my riggers running them generally 35 and 25 down. Running #13 Rapalas in all of the popular colors. My favorite spots would be from the Marine City warm water discharge to just past the state park. Then I would reset them as I got to the North Channel, once you get around the Harsen Island ferry it gets a tad shallower so you may have to run them 30 and 20. and start sliding back and forth across the river slowing your troll down river. When you get to behind Johnny Lega's there's a big dropoff again and work that area real good, then trolling along that grassy island on the left. You can get practically right on top of it and it's 45 feet deep.
When your passing the old I think Crist Craft plant? in Algonac make sure your along the Harsen Island shore as there's a shallow point that sticks out there just waiting to swallow a cannonball.

[ice fishin nut]

Damn Jimbo,,,,, you know the channel pretty well for a Livonia boy!!!!;)

[ESOX]

I have caught a number of them over the years in the warmwater discharges further up the river, and while flatlining or casting pike baits along the channel edges. Still seems strange when a big salmonid grabs a Bucher Baby Shallow Raider or a 6" Jake, but it happens often enough to not be a freak of nature. It does happen a lot more frequently on cloudy days, sunny days I am sure the guys running deep would do much better.

[Jimbos]

Originally posted by ice fishin nut
Damn Jimbo,,,,, you know the channel pretty well for a Livonia boy!!!!;)

Yep sure do IFN, I could go into further detail but I didn't want to overwhelm him. Now if I was sturgeon fishing i'd anchor right above that dropoff behind Lega's or above one of the 85 foot holes just down from Henry's :)

I forgot to mention, i'd run the lures back about 75 to 100 feet. Other may do something different, but that was my thing.

[Got-One]

Have had a boat based in a marina on the North Channel for the past 20 years. It seems that the salmon come in in April, May, and the early part of June.

A local resident once had a boat parked near mine who had a different twist in fishing for the salmon. He used what he called bottom knockers. He used the same baits (Bomber long A's) that I did. The bottom knocker was about a 3 to 6 oz. sinker rigged to a 3-way swivel with about a 3 foot leader to the bait. He would let out the bait while trolling until the sinker hit the bottom and let out about two more rod lengths of line before setting the rod in a holder. He would only fish from 10:00am until 2:00pm. I found that it is gaurenteed to get snagged on the bottom but it produced both Kings and Walleye for me.

[twoatatime]

welcome len,

I posted a report for the n/channel in the cold-water forum. The first pass we had no hits. We ran up to the ferry on the second pass, and I thought I had a king on. It ended up being a 45 to 50 inch musky. Our lines got tangled in the net, and we lost it at the boat.

I use two riggers with sliders on each. On each side I also run bouncer rods. I sometimes also use in-line planers with deep diving reef runners. I still think it's too early. A couple warm days should bring them in.

[Joe_G]

Since Wednsday, April 1, I have seen at least 8 Big Water boats running 4 or more rods off downriggers, in 50 FOW in front of Deckers and beyond. That's just as I was passing through. Who knows how many I didn't see. I was on the move, so I never did see any nets flying.