Charter fishing out of Leland has been very good for lake trout with more salmon already showing up in catches than in recent years.
“We’ve got good lake trout fishing,” said Jack Duffy, a veteran charter captain who runs out of Fishtown. “The water warmed up so they are scattered now, so you have to work for them.”
But not too much. Captain Bob Smith returned Monday morning from a fivehour charter with eight lake trout that went four to 16 pounds.
The trophy lakers are a trend early in the fishing season. Duffy reported taking two 20-pound lake trout, and another charter brought in two 15-pounders. “All within a couple weeks,” Duffy said.
Every charter captain, however, would like to see a return of salmon similar to what caused frenzies in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
“We do all right in July and August with salmon, and usually have a couple mixed in with lake trout. And we do well in September,” Duffy reported.
But there already have been some good salmon days spent off North Manitou Island. Duffy took a paying crew out earlier this month. Their first trip netted 11 king salmon, of which four went from 12-17 pounds. They returned the next day to the island and boated eight kings.
Captain Jim Munoz pointed to reports of solid salmon catches south of Leelanau that might bode well for July and August.
“They’ve been good all spring long starting in the southern basin (of Lake Michigan) through Manistee and Frankfort. It’s petered out down there, which means it’s moving north. This is going to be a better salmon season than we’ve seen in a long time. This spring and last fall are confirming that,” Munoz said.
In the meantime, lake trout are coming through for charter captains and clients.
“There have been several 20-plus pound fish caught. Last summer we had the same thing. We caught bigger trout than I’ve seen maybe ever. I can’t even guess how old that fish is . If they grow a pound a year, you’re talking about something that’s been swimming out there for a long time,” Munoz said.
