Start of September and the Final Stretch

[Captain Rick Bentley]

It is the last day of August and roughly six weeks remain in the 2011 season. Fall weather patterns have already presented themselves several times in August with hard winds from the north, fastened to cold fronts, which kept us off the water. In the meantime, I write this note in the comfort of air conditioning on a September 2nd that is in excess of 90 degrees.

From this point on to the conclusion of the season, is probably the most misunderstood time of year with the most common question echoed, "is fishing good that time of year?" My answer is always, "it can be really good!" And in recent days it has been really good with hauls of 18, 16, & 13 fish earlier in the week in half-day trips and then 19 fish this morning. We continue to catch Kings of all sizes including the big spawning Kings as well as Steelhead and Coho.

There is no doubt that most people who have fished Lake Michigan are aware that you fish in the Spring for Coho and fish in the summer for Kings. So what happens in September and October? Fishing for Kings in the 5-14lb range can be awesome as we move into the end the season with the potential of a spring-like tempo of steady action. But at the time of this writing, we continue to see large, mature fish in the 15-20lb range, right alongside their younger siblings.

In a few less words, these next 6 weeks can retain a very summer-like flavor of fishing with usually more moderate air temps and awesome sunrises.


Taking a look back at the past few weeks, many big Kings in the 14-18lb range were caught with mixed hauls of younger Kings along with Steelhead and Coho. Whereas last year our Kings seemed to be early, this year our Kings are a little late but our Coho and Steelhead fishing had been superb nearly all season long.

Here's hoping we finish out this stretch of the remainder of the 2011 season with lots of Kings.

As always, our Facebook Page is updated on a real-time basis so please visit it to see photos of recent catches.

Thanks for reading,
Capt Rick