Outdoor News Fishing

Manitowoc Co.

• Another week of severe weather made fishing on the lake or along the lakeshore a challenge. Most days the weather was too bad for anglers to even try at attempting to take their boats out. This again made it very difficult to collect many interviews.
• Saturday June 24th, anglers were able to take their boats onto the lake and many people took advantage of the calmer morning. However, most of the boaters reported very few if any luck catching fish. Fishing parties averaged about 3 fish for 3 people in about 4 hours. Most of the fish were Coho Salmon with a few Rainbow Trout and Chinook Salmon.
• With all of the rain rolling through the area, the rivers have significantly increased in velocity, depth, and turbidity. This has also caused a slight drop in the water temperatures along the lakeshore, bringing them closer to 50°F-52°F. Increased turbidity can also be seen along the lakeshore as the streams are carrying a great amount of sediment from runoff into the lake.

Kewaunee Co.

• Salmon fishing in Kewaunee County this week has been slower than past weeks, but fish have still been coming in consistently in lower numbers. As storms rolled through many nights this past week, anglers had to spend more time finding fish than catching them, but some did have success. The bags were mixes of chinooks and rainbows, with almost no cohos reported. Many rainbows were reported to have been caught in slightly deeper water (100-200 feet) all throughout the water column on both flasher/fly combos and spoons, with no particular color catching more fish. Chinooks came most frequently in the 60-100-foot-deep range, down 30-50 feet on both flasher/fly combos in green, blue, or white, and on spoons in green or patterns like watermelon. The few cohos that came in were caught on orange dodgers with peanut flies, in no noticeable patterns of water depth.

Sturgeon Bay

• Because of the weather, few anglers in boats launched on the bay of Green Bay-side of Sturgeon Bay, and those which were interviewed had almost no luck targeting walleye or perch. No interviews were obtained from smallmouth anglers who were fishing in boats.
• Shore fishing remains consistent for perch, smallmouth, and rock bass at Sunset Park and Stone Quarry landings. Anglers have continued to catch some sizeable perch fishing with worms or minnows with a bobber or dragging a jig on bottom. Many anglers that are catching the bass are targeting perch and catching all three species in the same way. Few interviews were obtained towards the weekend because of some windy and rainy weather.
• Anglers who launched at Sawyer Park and headed to Lake Michigan had some success over the weekend. Although only a few anglers were interviewed, the catches were similar, consisting of more chinooks than anything else. Boats were bringing in 1 rainbow and 3-4 chinooks per group, and those anglers reported more boats were fishing around them. The best water depth was about 60-90 feet, with flasher/fly combos in green or white down 35 feet being the most productive presentation.