Michigan Salmon Fishing with Captain Ed on theEdventure in Manistee, Michigan |
West Coast Sportfishing Charters, is a Lake Michigan Salmon Fishing service located right in the heart of beautiful Manistee, MI. We are here because the Manistee area offers some of the best Salmon & Trout fishing to be found on Lake Michigan. Enjoy fishing aboard our 29' Baha Cruiser... outfitted for serious fishing and maximum safety & comfort!!! We are a member in good standing in the Michigan Charter Boat Association (MCBA) |
| 09/24/08: Call me at 989-928-2810 before 10/4 to book for some great steelhead fishing still in 2008. If you call me before then I will take you fishing for $250. |
9/21/2008 Coho's are hereMatt and Rachel came out Sunday morning and we got some Coho's going in the harbor on white hooches and Aqua glow flies from KRW. Then as soon as it got light out we took a few kings down 15 feet on green ladderback plugs. After that the bloody nose chrome jplugs were working on the slide divers. We had a couple of rips right away on chrome slide divers, but they were gone as fast as they hit. These were the first coho's I have seen this month. It is a good sign.
9/20/2008Eddie brought out some friends to fish this afternoon. We got into the steelhead while it was sunny out We caught 3 steelhead right on the surface and they jumped and danced their way in. You have to check out these pictures. We also caught 6 kings, ending with a double just as we we going into the harbor. It was nice and calm at first, but the wind kicked up around 6:30pm, and the rough water shortened our trip a little.
9/13/98 Carl, Carolyn, Ruth & Jerry Carl, recently retired joined us again this year for a fishing trip on calm waters this time. They boated all the fish that struck our lines. Twice this evening we had to put the boat in neutral to get the line in. I wish I had a picture of Jerry's big one. Maybe Carl will email me a copy to post. It was the bigest clod of seaweed I have ever seen on a fishing hook. We could have put it in a hanging basket outside on our porch. Shortly after Jerry brought that in, we caught 3 fish in a row, and had a great time doing it.
9/12/2008Gail, Russ, Brad and John came fishing this afternoon with us. We caught some real nice fish and talked about everything from England to computers. I hope that Laurie and their 3 year old can come fishing next time.
Carl and Emily Our next door neighbors came and caught some nice salmon this afternoon. We tried fishing where we caught the fish in the morning, but that didn't work out. When we trolled into the pierheads, we caught all 4 in 4 consecutive passes through the mouth of the river. We decided to call it an early evening, and we all went to the Tuscan Grill for some delicious food. Carl and Emily, who own Russell's blueberry farm on Frost Road, brought a blueberry pie, which we ate for dessert. In one of the pics you can see the patch designed to stop seasickness, which did not work for Carl, and did not work for my sister in law Paloma. If you need something for seasickness, stick to either dramamine available over the counter (original formula) or meclizine (available only by prescription - but without the drowsy side effects).
9/6/2008amKathy, West, Michael, and Kristy fished this morning. The wind has been from the nort for the past 4 days, and the bait fish were schooled up near the beach and pierheads again. We had lines set by 5:40 am and waited for the first tindge of daylight. I could just see the rod tips, when the first fish hit the dipsy. The rush continued for about 45 minutes, and then it was done. We caught 4 nice fish and then we searched for more for 3 hours. We went out into deep water, and finally found some 2 and 3 year old salmon in 100 feet of water. We ended up with five fish.
8/25/2008 MoatesJohn and Curt came out fishing again with Kurts family. They caught some fish, most of which didn't release the downriggers. We had a great time with them, and John brought some of the best smoked salmon out. I will have to find who makes this and post the recipe or link so others can try it.
8/24/2008 IanIan brought 4 of his friends up to Manistee fishing for the day. We found big fish all afternoon in 3-5 foot waves. I think we finished up with 13 fish out of 18 hooked. Ian caught a 22.5 pound salmon this evening. There were some other fish that broke off on a 50 pound test leader! The fish seem to really be cooperating in the afternoon. If the warm weather holds this could go on way into September.
8/24/2008 Nat Nat bought this trip as a birthday gift for her father, and then caught this huge fish, which she had a little help landing. They got into some good fishing even though the waves were 3 to 5 feet high.
8/23/2008 McCaulScott, Ken, Tom and Matt enjoyed a very nice evening on the lake. Kind of quiet night, low waves, and ended up with a triple. They had a really good time, and the guys from Indiana caught their first Salmon.
8/23/2008 HermHerm and company got into a few fish, but really the fish never got started real good. We lost a real nice fish, that Otto tag teamed on. I took a short video of the rainstorm that overtook us. I will get it posted to the gallery in the next few days.
8/21/2008 Ron RussRon and the guys fished the pierhead with me tonight, and we caught some real nice hogs. Check out these pcitures.
8/18/2008 GatesEd, Bill and the guys returned for another round of salmon fishing. They caught some real nice fish, with the afternoon being better than the morning. Unfortunately the group pic didn't turn out as well lit as I had hoped. I am still learning this new camera, and I didn't set it for a nightime picture.
8/17/08 AyersMatt, Holly, Ha\yden and Ray came up to catch some hogs at the pierhead tonight. Even Hayden, age 7, caught a big fish - his first. We had a lot of fun
8/17/08 Scott BartlesonScott and his family came out fishing. We didn't fins a lot of fish this morning, but we sure had a good time with everyone. The fish we caught were really good size though.
8/16/08 Jim MIller's Cousin's They arrived from Indiana and showed us how to catch the hogs at the pierhead, and we also caught one 3 miles south just off the beach.
JohnMiller8/10/08 John brought a friend and his son to fish salmon on Lake Michigan. this was their first time and we managed to catch a few nice fish this overcast rainy, misty morning just off the beach.
Jul 25, 2008 Kathy & Wes We had a nice double one which they landed both the fish. It was fun fishing with this group.
7/17/2005 This is Jason's first salmon. This weighed almost 19 pounds, and was caught in Manistee. We had four fish on when he landed this. The fish were down 110 feet in 135 fow. They came on fishcatchers and KRW flies, mainly the riverside, and aqua green glow, but Ken made me a special fly with a red head and glow white skirt that hooked up on 4 fish. I think we finished up 7 for 16 on this trip. The weather played a big role. The fish were biting before 7:30 am real good, and this thunderstorm cell rolled in just south of us. We turned and trolled north to go around it, but the fish turned off as it passed. We went 3 hours without a bump, and then lost a couple jumpers, and I switched colors to a aqua gree fly on a green fishwcatcher, and that started to catch some fish.
Michigan Salmon fishing charter with Captain Ed June 7th 2008 Capt Ron, Joe, Fred and Joe, a group of veterans from Detroit, fished with me today and caught this box. and his veteraFishing has improved with the south wind, but the big fish have not arrived yet. Our best baits were Stinger's Killer Blue and a ProKing green/white with some silver prism tape added to the back of the lure. Almost all the fish came on the riggers 99-110 feet over 150 -250 fow. There were no hits on the dipsy's, shallow downriggers. We had multiple rips on the lead core, but we only managed to hook up on one steelhead. The Killer Blue accounted for all the fish, and it didn't seem to matter whether we fished a magnum or regular size lure.
10/6/07 Springer Steelhead CharterWe fished the shelve from 40 fow to 170 fow from 7 -8 am. One king hit as we were pulling lines. We went out to 600 fow and trolled east. We caught our limit, 9 steelhead in all, and only lost 2 fish. I will have to post a picture from my fishfinder on my web site to show what massive schools of baitfish we have in Manistee right now. That is probably why the kings didn't bite this morning. When we were out at 600 fow, the seagulls were diving and feeding on bait on the surface. The fish we caught had 2 inch alewives in them, but the schools weren't massive there like in 40 - 100 fow. It made the bottom at 60 feet appear like it was at 40 feet. The water temp in 60 fow was 64.5, at 600 fow, it was 61.4 on the surface which was where we caught all the fish. I ran 2 colors, 3 colors, 5 colors, and 7 colors of lead and they all produced equally. 6 were on lead core, 4 were on riggers. Orange and chrome prokings, green and black prokings, bumblebee - proking: see the pattern, small lures, I did not catch one fish on a magnum lure.
9/29/07 Bartleson Charter We got a real late start today, it was after 9am when we set our first line at 166 feet. The waves were 3 -5 's, and we pulled lines and went South to the 8's, in shallow the waves were 1-2's. We marked a lot of fish there. We landed this great CoHo right away down, and had another fish on, but the dipsy leader broke and that was our last hit for the day as a front moved in and that was the last time we saw the sun. These girls were wonderful and didn't complain or want to go home.
9/24/07 CampbellBob, Cheryl, Kara, and Kaitlyn came out fishing today. It was still slow from the gale winds we had yesterday, but we caught these four nice fish. It was a bit chilly in the early morning, but it warmed up nicely by 10am.
9/23/97 Rick and Cheryl Rick was trying to rent a boat to go fishing this afternoon. I happened to be purchasing some supplies because all the trips that day were cancelled due to the gale force winds. I offered to take him out an troll the river and if the lake calmed down, we might get out on to deeper water. We put a couple baits out and Rick caught his first Salmon right next to the railroad trestle in the channel. 
9/15/07It was the day afer a gale warning and the lake was just calming down. Fishing was slow in the afternoon, we were 1 for 2 from 3pm to 8pm, which didn't give the anglers much to practice on to get ready for the 'witching hour'. When it came between 8 and 9pm we had a lot of fish striking our baits. We lost a lot of them due to tangles, jumping and downrigger cables.
9/8/2007 5am Earlier the same day Dave, Ned, and William caught this mess of fish. It was a little bit chilly in the morning, as you can see by the jackets, but the fishing was good, and we filled the cooler. We had fun guessing who the jinx was as we had time to eat those cinnamon twist donuts in between the strikes.
8/31/2007 Ed and Lauren had their battle with the fish today. Lauren kissed the fish again - I think that is a good luck. WE were reaquainteds with old friends from last year, and we had another great day fishing with them.
8/21/2007 Today was overcast and breezy with the wind from the east. We proved that you can't trust what you hear about the wind: "When the winds from the east, the fish bite the least." Ed, Ron, Henry, and Ray caught their King limit and also caught 4 Coho's. They were all reeling a fish at one point between 6am and 7am. Afterwards they were exhausted, Ray said it was because one of them was too excited and talked all night long. Click the date above to see all the pics.
8/19/2007Joel and Dan caught their limit today in the rain. Dan wrestled with a few fish, and as you can see he won the battle. They finished with 6 Kings, 3 Coho's and a Lake Trout. The fishing was great out in deep water. 
8/18/2007Today was rainy, but that didn't stop us from going out and catching the fish. Alec holds this fish, but his brother Mason caught his share too. Click the link to see all the pics. The twins also pitched in to catch some fish with Brad and Tracy.
8/12/2007The Patnodes came in from NY and ND to go out fishing. We had a good time and filled some coolers today.
8/11/2007Kristi, Kathy, Wes, and Michael came out and fished the middle of the afternoon and caught these lunkers. This trip was a charity donation with the proceeds going to Covenant Foundation.
8/4/2007Bob, Leo, and their friends caught a cooler of fish heavy today that they had to remove the ice and sit on the lid to get it to close. I broke this ice up and poured it in the nooks and cranny's. All the fish came with Kens KRW Aqua gold glow fly and the riverside fly.They finished up 13 for 20.Check out the size of those fish. They fished in the morning, with most of the fish were taken before 8am.
7/29/2007Sarah caught this monster down mear the stick at Big Sable Point. We went way down there to fish to get away from the tournament boats that were in Manistee. As you can see byu the picture the lake was calm, and fishing was slow. They caught 5 fish, including a steelhead. The full moon makes the evening fishing better than the morning, but with the north wind and heavy boat traffic, the fish just weren't biting really solid this morning.
7/28/2007Check out the moon in the top left corner of this picture. The sun just finished setting, and the moon was out. The fish really hit well just after the sun set tonight. We were 2 for 4 from 3 - 6pm and then nothing until 9pm. We boated 5 more fish in the next hour to send us home with our limit.
7/20/2007 Martin, Sammy, Chris, Jonah, and Ben went fishing today. We started out in 4-6 foot rollers a few miles from the port. We set out a couple lines, and had an immediate strike while I was setting the lines. Unfortunately, the drag wasn't set yet as I was lowering the downrigger and that one got away. After that first strike we didn't have anything for 15 minutes, so we pulled lines and went down south. The fishing was much better there and we caught some real nice fish. We finished up 8 for 12 for the day. Sammy was practicing California conservation and let some go. The best lure of the day was NBK (Natural Born Killer) on 10 colors of lead. At the end of the day, we had a steelhead hit off the downrigger at 20 feet down. He jumped out of the water and he must have seen me or Sammy and swam away. Take a look at these pictures.
7/15/2007 We caught our limit this morning, and all the fish were 15 pounds or more. We had 38 quart bags of Salmon after they were filleted. It was partly cloudy when we started, but rained later on, either way we caught fish. A couple fish bit on lures, but the rest were on KRW Aqua Gold Glow flies. Click the link to check out the size of these fish!
7/7/2007 Mattie caught the first fish today. We ended up 7 for 9 for the day. The good news is that the big fish are here now, and they are hitting flies, lures and meat rigs. The diamondback, orange piranha, cottonmouth, aqua gold fly, and green meat rig took all the fish. It was a slow day, and we filled the time eating donuts, cherries, and relaxing. We went to the beach afterwards and enjoyed the refreshing swim in 70 degree water on a 90 degree day. 
4/29/2007 Mike caught this nice lake trout when he and his dad came out fishing with me for a short time in the morning. The water was still a lttile bit cold, but we went to my favorite spot and caught a nice lake trout.
4/28/2007 Martin and his son went out fishing for browns today. We caught this nice 20 inch brown, and also a beautiful 8 pound steelhead. It was chilly in the morning when we left the dock, but warmed up by late morning, and we had a good time cruising the lake looking for hot spots. The water temp was 43 degrees most of the areas we fished. The action turns on where you can find the water temps around 46.
If there is anything we can do to accomodate you, please call me and ask. We want this to be fun and memorable. We watch the marine forecast closely for every trip, and will ask you to re-schedule if we think conditions are unfavorable.
Check out the pictures in the photo gallery.
