Tis been a while since my last blog, but an eventful month of cold water salmon crankn’ has ignited a strong salmon bite this last week or so. I’ve made it out a few times during this month, and each and everytime has produced action. If you’re looking to catch a salmon, now through the Halloween is probably your final chance. Sure, they’re really ugly right now, but they do have some fight left in em – especially the big males who are very angry fish right now.

Spots, spots, spots. I have posted an occasional report, dropped a picture in a thread, etc etc, and people are just nuts for moldy oldies. Some people are absolutely convinced that fish are caught in one spot, and just about demand where I have been fishing. That’s not nice . The truth of the matter is the 4 year old kings have flooded the tribs and harbors of all the shorelines of Lake Michigan, and fish can be caught just about anywhere right now.

For my campaign this season, I have caught Kings in Chicago up and through East/Central Wisconsin at just about every harbor destination. River kings, no thanks, not my game…

Anywhos, I thought I’d share a little of my fishing success from this month thus far with some basic advice for landing these ugly fish.

I got the month started by joining my friend Tom. We went north of the border and hit up a couple of spots. The night ended for us going a combined 8 for 13. Not a bad evening at all. Here are a couple pics of the outting – 6 kings around the size Tom is holding, and a couple of “Steelies”. All fish taken were on the crank. Jointed shallow diving thundersticks or rapalas. The key is shallow diving…

I also had the opportunity to finally get my girlfriend on some fish this fall. We had gone out for a few outtings at Waukegan, but were skunked each time. It was nice seeing her hook up and land some quality sized fish.

Again, we knocked em on cranks. Most action was on thundersticks, reef runners, or the discontinued Frenzy made by Berkley.

This one beat out my biggest of the season. This egg-laden female was pushing 22#s -

And another big buck -

And a couple more slobs, all of whom fell victim to the wobbling night time crank -

The girl and I hooked into and landed a handful of other fish, but those above are probably the “photo quality” specimens…

So that’s how we’ve been doing it. Cranks, shorter and stiffer rods, and non stretch line. That’s the key for enticing bites. However, I have been out there and seen lots of people trying to mimic the method of extraction, but it seems that only a few can replicate. Salmon fishing isn’t hard, but it does take some work and effort before you start hooking into and landing fish. As I recall, I got skunked my entire first season of chasing kings back in the day…

Good luck out there

Mike