Waukegan 2010 - A Highly Condensed Review of 2010

Waukegan 2010 - Early Salmon, Deepwater Coho, The Tuna - A Highly Condensed Review of 2010

Captain Rick Bentley
Windycitysalmon
http://windycitysalmon.com/

The 2010 Season out of Waukegan, IL began the way it ended in 2009; with limit hauls of Salmon. Large hauls of non-spawning Chinook in late 2009 gave way to bounties of Coho in in early 2010. We set out for the first time in 2010 on April 10th and fished familiar, early Spring territory and hoisted a limit rack of 20, mostly Coho Salmon in a few hours. It is indeed common for our waters to yield limits of Coho in the spring but this was the earliest that we witnessed such strong numbers in quite a few years and the action stayed strong through most of May. And like our Coho which arrived earlier than normal, we also began catching many Chinook Salmon early as well; in the middle of May. We often catch Chinook in May especially when we target them. But the Coho action is usually so good that we orient our spreads in mostly their direction to capitalize on the sure thing and sizzling action. This year even the handful of baits we put out for Chinook in May were especially productive, adding some variety and size to our coolers. And since there were a lot more Chinook around than usual that early, we experienced very little slowdown in June and largely went from outstanding Coho fishing, right into just as equally fertile hauls of Chinook throughout June, July and early August. Both species of salmon arrived early to our shores in 2010 and as interesting as that was, it would also prove to be an interesting year for baits as well.

Every spring, big schools of Coho often inhabit the very nearshore waters inside of a few miles and sometimes as close as 8-10 feet of water. However, there are times when the Coho move further offshore and we will fish 5-10 miles out to 100-200 feet of water. It is under these deepwater circumstances in the spring when I first began experimenting in 2009 with a rig that most captains do not run much for Coho, at least in my area of the Lake; a magnum (10") spin doctor with a trailing 4" fly, down on a deep downrigger. Now bear in mind 90% or more of our April and May Coho are caught in the top 8 feet of water regardless of whether we are deep or shallow. Most of the fish are also caught using planer boards and divers rigged with a 6" orange or red dodgers and a small, what some call a peanut fly. This is the bread and butter spring Coho setup so my resolution to run the mag Spin Doctor and fly 80-130 feet down on a rigger can come across as pretty strange around here. So potentially strange that most other captains in Waukegan do not even own any large Spin Doctors at all. But it worked so well at times that It became a standard for my Coho spread in deep water when the offshore opportunity presented itself. My favorite color combination in this regard is the emerald green/glow tape Spin Doctor and "blue boy" fly; 30-34 inches behind the flasher and about 20-30 feet behind the downrigger ball.

In a season where my intention was to put more effort (and patience) into my flasher/dodger/fly and wire diver setups, the magnum Spin Doctor/fly had me off on the right foot. It must also be put in reference that Waukegan is known more as a 'spoon port' especially when it comes to Chinook baits but I wanted to deliberately improve those other setups and presentation devices irrespective of that perception. The changeup that I threw at the Coho in deepwater with a magnum Spin Doctor had these ambitions off to the right start and it also, oddly dovetailed with another large flasher setup on a wire diver that was to come during the summer.

As the composition of our catch began changing over to mostly Chinook by the middle of June, I also began hearing whispers about a bait called 'the Tuna' and many of you will probably know what I am talking about right away. What the Tuna consists of is a Brad's Super Cut Plug stuffed with actual tuna fish from a can available at any grocery story. Other fisherman probably used various other scents in the Cut Plug but in Waukegan, Starkist Yellowfin Tuna in Roasted Garlic olive oil was the go to filling. The Brad's Cut Plug was normally (but not always) deployed behind a large paddle flasher - the 11 inch variety - again, the kind not run very often at all in Waukegan's corner of the Lake. The whole setup is commonly run on a wire diver rig but some success was achieved by running it on a rigger. Some anglers also did well by running the plug 'naked' (no flasher) on a copper or leadcore as well.

I did not pioneer this setup by any means in Waukegan however I AM the type of fisherman that loves to experiment with new rigs and baits. This time however, even I had a hard time getting on board this one. As more rumors hinted at the success of the Tuna rig, I began running imitation setups on wire divers such as the large Spin Doctor/fly and 11-inch flashers/flies. In some instances I even rigged and ran a large pink squid behind a big paddle flasher because one of the more effective Cut Plug colors was called Pink Magic and was of course pink. The pink squid actually worked more than a few times to my gratification but none of my alternatives could match the relative success I was hearing about the Tuna and it wasn't until I fished them myself that I was unwaveringly sold. Throughout the summer, a few boats were taking fish on the Tuna Rig and starting in early August, crews aboard my boat were too. Color patterns known as Wonderbread and Pink Magic were the most successful for me. I preferred to run it 40-44 inches behind a silver tape/glow tape 11-inch paddle flasher on a wire diver but I also had success with them behind the large Spin Doctors as well.

Throughout most of June and all of July, Chinook were stacked in close to Waukegan because of an ongoing offshore wind regime which kept coldwater nearshore. The Tuna rig worked effectively for these fish as did most makes of spoons that had orange on them. We consistently did well in 30-60 feet of water throughout this timeframe but the Chinook bite started getting downright slow by mid-August. This was somewhat unusual because we usually experience a more consistent Chinook bite throughout the month August and often into September. The outstanding bounty that June and July yielded in terms of Chinook seemed to imply that not only were the Coho early in 2010, but so were the Chinook and it gave me the impression that few were left. Did the 'everything was early' theme possibly contribute to an earlier maturation process resulting in a staging sequence the began much earlier than usual? Were there not many fish left after we hammered them so efficiently over June and July? Did some fish possibly move into a spawning phase earlier in the summer?

I caught some fish in June and July that were already going into the 'bronze' phase. Another captain next to me caught a Chinook in May that was already dark! A few fish doesn't make a trend necessarily but it's certainly provides some evidence to suggest some of that might have occurred. I also recall a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon on July 23rd when I fueled up ahead of the weekend's trips. On a natural whim, after I finished fueling and cleared the wall, I threw out a couple J-plugs on planer boards in 10 feet of water and I made a coupe passes across the harbor mouth. In less that an hour with only three lines out I caught a big, mature Chinook and broke another off. (I also boated a nice Brown Trout and released a healthy and hard-fighting Lake Trout in there too so it was a fun little experiment). Perhaps there were more than just a few Chinook already at the harbor mouths in very shallow water in the middle of summer preparing to spawn. And since most of us fished the 30-60 range, there's a good chance we ran past a good quantity of fish in even shallower water as well.

Theories will abound as to why our August Chinook catch diminished but thankfully huge schools of deepwater Steelhead offered a great alternative and kept our coolers full. At this stage, offshore runs became a habit and the action out there was outstanding. Some fiddled with the inshore option still but results turned more and more erratic. I continued to experiment with both my deep-set mag Spin Doctor as well as the Brad's Cut Plug Tuna on the wire divers offshore as well and both setups performed well across a variety of species.

Both the mag Spin Doctor/fly and Tuna Rigs will see a lot of time on the rods in upcoming seasons. Running an especially large rig, very deep for spring Coho and running wire divers in as little as 30 feet of water with big paddles/Tuna may seem odd. But many more fish than I could have imagined were caught using these methods. While some fruition can be attributed to more patience with these rigs, other elements of success can also hinge sharply on when to try new methods and make necessary changes. For many of us, the rate of bait changing probably occurs at it's fastest pace when fishing is the slowest. That is only natural but often times this leads to us putting rumored-to-be-good baits on lines when they have the least chance of working. This can be counter-productive because it leads to lack of confidence in good baits. We should not become too conditioned to classify some baits as non-prodcutive because of when we ran them in the past. Next time, try to run those baits and rigs you had been thinking or heard about when fishing is good. And then be patient. Even when you are experiencing steady action, you can usually find at least one quiet rod to put on that lure that a friend told you was a 'hot one'. It's no magic bullet by any means but you will likely give a bait you previously had little confidence in, a much better shot of working. This should serve to expand your list of go to baits in the future and you can never have enough of those.