Several more certified 30+ kings were brought in on charters in August. September has been a bit slow due to all the warm, clear and calm water, but the pier guys and trollers are sharing a few salmon and brown trout success stories from time to time.

Some fish are already in the Sturgeon Bay canal and a few even staging off Strawberry Creek, awaiting the pump to be turned on or a big rain event. Same with Ahnapee River, low water and flow, but fish already well upstream (and some still in the lake, of course; they come in waves and it always peaks -- for kings -- the last week of Sept. to first week of Oct.). Some browns and salmon are also cruising Northern Door harbors. Night anglers casting glow-in-dark baits or soaking spawn sometimes connect. Dawn or dusk would be next best time to try. There's no night fishing allowed in the tributaries now through spring steelhead/walleye spawn, but it is legal to fish at night off the piers, docks and shores of Lake Michigan and Green Bay.

Browns can run now through end of October as the Seeforellen strain spawns late. Cohos in the Ahnapee and Kewaunee run mid-October to early November.

Lots of work at the Strawberry Creek facility this summer to shore it up, thanks to donations in memory of Mark Opgenorth earlier this year (Mark was a former DNR fisheries employee who died tragically while working on the fish run a couple years back). If in the area or have the chance to make a road trip, be sure to stop there the first week of October and check out the improvements and see a pile of BIG Sturgeon Bay kings. The run will be winding down by then but there's a dedication planned later, Oct. 16, with some of Mark's kids to attend in the morning.