Memorial Weekend gave us some really solid salmon fishing out of Whitehall this year, especially north of port.
Most of the weekend we started around 5–6 miles north of Whitehall in about 140 feet of water and worked north from there. Our best troll seemed to be zig-zagging between 135 and 155 feet of water, but honestly there just seemed to be a wall of salmon sitting around that 140-foot range most of the weekend.
Best Rods This Weekend
Our best rods all weekend were:
- 250 copper
- 275 copper
- 300 copper
- 325 copper
The Yeck Magnum Bad Toad spoon absolutely did work for us this weekend. That spoon took a pile of fish.
Our high divers early in the mornings were best back around 130 feet, and low divers pulling spoons were taking fish back 80–100 feet.
Spoon Bite Has Been Too Good to Ignore
I still haven’t started running meat rigs or flasher flies yet.
The spoon bite has just been way too good to get away from right now. When fish are snapping on spoons like this, it lets us troll faster and cover a lot more water, which has definitely been important lately.
We’ve been paying close attention to speed at the ball with our Fish Hawk system, and our best speeds have consistently been between 2.6 and 3.1 mph.
A lot of guys focus too much on GPS speed, but currents can really change things underwater. Getting that speed right at the ball matters.
Water Conditions
Water temperatures this weekend ranged anywhere from 47 to 50 degrees depending on where you were fishing and what day you were out.
The lake still has that darker green water color to it, and that’s exactly what we love seeing this time of year. Every May we look for that green water because it almost always seems to hold salmon.
Looking Ahead
The bite this morning slowed a little compared to earlier in the weekend, but honestly that could just be from all the crazy weather swings we’ve had lately.
I’ll keep fishing north this week and probably start checking some deeper water as things continue to change.
If things follow the normal pattern we usually see year after year, I’d expect fishing to stay pretty solid through the first week of June before slowing down for a little while.
Overall though, Memorial Weekend gave us some excellent spring salmon fishing and it’s shaping up to be another good early season on Lake Michigan.