wikdsvt
Club Member
This weekend a friend from AZ flew in and we headed up north Salmon Fishing. 1st day - the campground we usually stay in Scotville (1 city east of Ludington) at closed 1 week early, so we stayed at a different one, hopped in the boat went down river fished for a few hours and not one bite., then it started to rain.
Back at the boat launch I run into a local who was cleaning his fish at the cleaning station. He tells me to go to the Big sauble Damn in Silver Lake State Park. What the hell, nothing to lose.
Next day wake up, SOAKED (it rained all night), ate breakfast, rain turned into sprinkles and we tore down camp and headed to silver lake around noon. Still sprinkling throughout the day no one was fishing, except the guy we ran into the day before. SOAKED AGAIN.
HOLY SHEIT. I've never seen so many damn salmon in my life. You could walk across the water they were stacked in there like logs.
We stayed until 9pm, both limited out at 5 each (10 salmon total). Cleaned the fish, sealed them up, put them on Ice and then got two hotel rooms. Tossed all our soaked clothes in the laundry. Hit the bar. (not much going on in Ludington on a Monday night.
Went back the next day, the weather was nicer and there were about 20 guys out fishing. We are catching fish left and right (like everyone else) and then the DNR walks up to us and wants to check out the Jeep. No problem. They had reports of some guy in a orange snagging and taking the fish back to his car. (I was wearing an orange sweatshirt).
DNR looks at the fish we cleaned the day prior and tells me that we are only allowed 10 in our possession a day, so I explain we caught them yesterday, cleaned them, sealed them in bags and put them on ice, there is no way we could have done it this morning as we didn't have the vacuum sealer with us. He agreed.
They sent us on our way and back to fishing we went. The guy they were looking for had a orange hunting jacket on - obviously not me.
Stayed until the sun started setting and we both limited out. We had 4 stringers full of fish. Pulling them out of the water was a BEOTCH, as each string had 4-6 fish.
In total, we kept 20, but probably tossed back 50 over the course of 3 days. The largest was 22.7lbs. (digital scale). Smallest was around 9-10lbs.
If anyone wants some salmon, go to Silver Lake state park, and head to the dam with spawn bags and 1oz weight. (the current is wicked strong at the bottom of the dam).
The fish were still fresh, not all beat up. They only have to go 1/2 mile from the lake before they hit the damn so they don't get too beat up. Every female we kept still had eggs in her. We gave the eggs to the locals to make spawn bags.
Back at the boat launch I run into a local who was cleaning his fish at the cleaning station. He tells me to go to the Big sauble Damn in Silver Lake State Park. What the hell, nothing to lose.
Next day wake up, SOAKED (it rained all night), ate breakfast, rain turned into sprinkles and we tore down camp and headed to silver lake around noon. Still sprinkling throughout the day no one was fishing, except the guy we ran into the day before. SOAKED AGAIN.
HOLY SHEIT. I've never seen so many damn salmon in my life. You could walk across the water they were stacked in there like logs.
We stayed until 9pm, both limited out at 5 each (10 salmon total). Cleaned the fish, sealed them up, put them on Ice and then got two hotel rooms. Tossed all our soaked clothes in the laundry. Hit the bar. (not much going on in Ludington on a Monday night.
Went back the next day, the weather was nicer and there were about 20 guys out fishing. We are catching fish left and right (like everyone else) and then the DNR walks up to us and wants to check out the Jeep. No problem. They had reports of some guy in a orange snagging and taking the fish back to his car. (I was wearing an orange sweatshirt).
DNR looks at the fish we cleaned the day prior and tells me that we are only allowed 10 in our possession a day, so I explain we caught them yesterday, cleaned them, sealed them in bags and put them on ice, there is no way we could have done it this morning as we didn't have the vacuum sealer with us. He agreed.
They sent us on our way and back to fishing we went. The guy they were looking for had a orange hunting jacket on - obviously not me.
Stayed until the sun started setting and we both limited out. We had 4 stringers full of fish. Pulling them out of the water was a BEOTCH, as each string had 4-6 fish.
In total, we kept 20, but probably tossed back 50 over the course of 3 days. The largest was 22.7lbs. (digital scale). Smallest was around 9-10lbs.
If anyone wants some salmon, go to Silver Lake state park, and head to the dam with spawn bags and 1oz weight. (the current is wicked strong at the bottom of the dam).
The fish were still fresh, not all beat up. They only have to go 1/2 mile from the lake before they hit the damn so they don't get too beat up. Every female we kept still had eggs in her. We gave the eggs to the locals to make spawn bags.
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