Chicago charter fishing on Lake Michigan from Winthrop Harbor, Illinois with Addiction Charters

9/03/05
Hit the water at 2pm and headed out to 250, but around 180 - 200 we got some marks so we set up in like 205 and trolled east. The action was pretty slow, but we started off with good size fish. We took it all the way to 260, but got out of the fish around 250. Then we worked west to 220 and lost fish around 230. So we stayed in the 230 - 240 range. Spoons down 50 - 80 took the most fish, but they were also the smaller fish. The dispsy back 150 and 200 took the bigger fish on white spin doctors with a white and green flies. We did get 1 4year olds that were already dark bronze and big eggs out in 250fow. So we ended the day going 9 for 11 missing the last fish that hit was heart breaking as it looked to be a real nice rainbow.

8/28
The group on Sunday was looking for numbers of fish rather then big fish, so we head out to the depths….at 250 we started getting some marks and at 260 it looked good so we set up there and trolled east. The action was nice and consistent, every 10 - 15 minutes would got bit. The day started out with spoons on riggers and flasher and flies on dispys staying about even. As then day went on the dispsy faded out and the leadcore, cooper and wire ball picked up. The shallow riggers(45 - 55) out fish the deeper rigger(75 - 90). The host set up for the day was the smurf on the swr down 55 followed by the mongoose on the cooper, and right after that the wire ball with a small dream weaver blue dolphin spoon. At time it seemed we were stuck in the nursery, and quite a few of the smaller fish came unbuttoned right at the back of the boat. The best flasher fly for the day was the clear glow spin doctor with a Green Lantern fly

8/27
We had our sites set on 4 year old kings, so we set up in 90fow with a spread of glow spoons and J-plugs. I was not long before we had our first good king on, he came on a green glow j-plug down 50 on the rigger. Then we hit a long dry spell, but still had lot of fish marks on the graph. Then we took a long trip in the nursery picking up some small kings. We started to work in a bit more and were rewards with another good size king that hit a green fly and green fish catcher off the wire dispy back 150'. We kept working the same water, but the kings were just not in the mood to hit.

8/14
We left the dock at 3pm after a quick update from Tubes that the fish we had found in 150 -180 were still going. So we headed out, and got set up and start off with a slow start only getting 1 laker on the set up. I had made a 2 east west passes and only the 1 laker, so I tried the north south troll and got a few bumps in the 140 - 150 range. Then that slowed down for us, so I started to slide back in. Once we got to the 130's we got a few more hits, made another pass and it dried up, so I pushed in to the 100's. It was now 6pm and the sun was starting to drop, and the fish start to bite good. So we worked the level till it slowed and then we would moved in 10 - 15 foot and we would get back into them. Then from 7 - 8 it was like some one rang the dinner bell…we had a few doubles and a triple, but we were back to playing hook and releases fishing. It was about the to pull rods and head in, when 1 rod would go off…we got that one in then another, and then 2 more…by now we only had 4 rods in the water and were in 70fow, when the rigger and the dispys both take off. The dispy got train wrecked wit the outside dispy, but the king that had hit the rigger was on and heading for Michigan. By the time we got the king in the boat we were in 40fow and the graph was lit up. We were already past our time, so I pulled the last 2 rods and we headed in. We ddint have any real stud rods in the afternoon, but sppons were the ticket (double crush orange pro king mag, carlson reelfish, blue dolphin, smurf, blue whale)

8/14
My group got to the boat early so we got out at 4:30 and set up in 60fow, and was not long before the mono dispy back 100' with a blue and sliver pro king mag was hooked up, only to loose the first fish of the day. Then I had a talk with my crew about losing fish…and the next hit was on a rigger, and we boxed our first king. After that it was 1 hit here 1 hit there, with spoons out fishing the riggers. As the sun got higher up, we slid out and ended up working parallel with Tubes on reel magic. We took it out to 210, but 150 - 180 was the best, and the east west troll was once again the ticket. We also started getting bit more on orange spoons, so I started switching over more spoons to orange. With the double crush orange pro king mag down 50 on the rigger taking the most fish, followed by the swr down 30 with a orange and sliver pro king mag. We finished up the day 14 for 28 and once again short a brown for the slam.

8/13
Started the day at 6am - the crew wanted to target kings, I let them know the kings bite had slowed and that there was some good steelhead action in deeper water. They still wanted to try for kings set we set up in 65fow and set up. It was not long before the dipsy with the glow spin doctor and green perl fly back 125 went off, but it also turned out to be the first strike of the day, with many more to come. After going 1 for 7 with a 2 year old king in the box that came on a Kenosha killer down 45 on the rigger, it was time to push east. We didn't get any hits till we crossed the 150' mark. Then the action got better as we moved out deeper, but we still were not getting many fish the to box. We got them hooked up and tension on them, but they we some how coming unbuttoned. We had a best action from 190 - 210, with rigger and lead core out doing the dispys. I had the most bites on SWR with a smurf spoon down 30' - Thanks Tubes for tip. The leadcore with a double crush glow pro king mag and sister sludge down 40 on a rigger also took quite a few hits. We went 6 for 22 and I tried every thing to get the fish to stick - new hooks, trolled slower, trolled faster, set the releases tighter…we just could not get the fish to stick. We did end up with a mix of fish, just missing the slam by a brown.

8/7
we were set up by 4:30am in 65fow in front of the nuke to try and stay away from all the traffic. For the first 2 hours it worked out well, we had good fish going and not too much traffic. The deep rigger(45, 60) did most of the catching for us with a #4 green glow j-plug and fuzzy bear mag blue tail. Once the bite slowed down we went into search mode, and got bites on the lead core when we moved into 50' so we finished up in the 50' range a bit south of the nuke. The lead core was getting hit pretty much all day, but we never were able to get any of the fish to the boat. The surprise for the day was a laker, rainbow and a coho, all in the 50 - 55' range and all after the early bite was over. Once we got the rainbow, leaving us short a brown for the grand slam, I put out a few green and black spoons right on the bottom. We gave it about an hour, but my crew had driving up 4 hours for the trip and were looking at another 4 hour drive back home, so we wrapped it up early with 10 kings, 2 Coho, 1 Laker and 1 Rainbow. Good thing we didn’t catch any more fish, because there cooler was already overflowing, and still didn’t have any ice in the cooler.

8/6
We set up in 65fow, at 4:45am there was already a flotilla set up on the line, so we trolled south. I was not long before we started putting fish in the box, at a pretty quick pace. The glow program was really working out well with the glow mate mags on the shallow riggers(25, 35) and glowmate j-plugs on the deep riggers(45, 55), glow spin doctors and white flies on the dispys back 100, 125, 150. I was nice to be south of the flotilla and have some space to work. Once the sun got up, the bite slowed a bit, so I switched out the glow baits. We picked up a fish here and there while working in the 75 - 90' range. By 8am we were headed back to the dock with a limit of kings. The best rig for the day was the dispy 125' on the counter with the glow spin doctor and the green perl fly. The glow spin Doctor and green perl fly also took the big fish of the day a 16# king.

7/4/05
We start today at 4:30 in 65fow, and got a bit worried when I was able to get 5 rods in with out a hit. Then the dispy out 125 with the glow spin doctor and the green perl fly took off...and it was chos after that...we were back at the dock by 7:30 going 20 for 24. The riggers and dispys pretty were 50/50 today - with glow spoons and glow j-plugs on the riggers down 30 - 50feet. The dispys had white and glow spin doctors with white and green perl files. We also were finaly able to get the leadcore working agian, with a mag bule dolphin spoon, we took 2 nice bows on iit, with 1 going 14#. We worked from the state line to 28.5 and tried to stay in the 70 - 80' range, but we got pushed out once into 110, and we didnt pop another fish till we got inside 90'.

7/31
Due to a longer then expected coffee stop we got a late start, but the reports were sounding good for the same water we fished the day before. So I set us up on the state line in 75 feet of water. Once again the glowmate mag spoon on the deep downrigger went off while I was getting the third rod in the water. The action was pretty good for the first half hour or so, but then it slowed down. There was quite a few more boat on the water then the day before, so I decided to get outside the fleet. The graph was blank until I got out to 130 fow, and we started getting some better hits. We found that the fish were down deep, the riggers were down 85 - 125 feet. The hot set up for the day was the mongoose spoon down 120 feet, and it also put the big fish in the box.

7-30
We hit the water at 5:15 and got set up inside the fleet of boats. The first rod out was the glowmate mag on a rigger down 60 feet in 70 feet of water. Then as I was setting the next rigger the first was already hooked up with a king. The first hour on the water was some of the fastest action we have had, but ratio of hookups to fish in the box was not our best at 3 for 9. Once the sun came up the bite slowed, but the hook up ratio went up also. With so many good marks it was hard to leave the area, so we worked in the same depth but further to the south. Then I got a call that the action had picked up to the north, so we headed that way, but we ran out of time. So we ended up going 9 for 15 with the big fish going 16 and a half pounds. The big fish of the day came on a mountain dew spin doctor and a green 4k fly off a dipsy back 175 with a #3 setting. The dipsys with spin doctors and flies did most of the work early, but then the spoons down deep on the rigger finished up the day. The hot spin doctor was the glow one with crush ice tape and a green perl 4k fly. The hot spoon was the diamond king mag mongoose on the deep rigger.

7-24
Left the slip at 4:15am and headed back to the 70fow that had been good to us the day before. The first spoon down was a glowmate mag on a rigger 60' down. While I was setting the second rod the first one was already hooked up on the first king of the day. The action was pretty fast as long as we were in 70 - 75fow, we got out to 80fow and the bite died. Once we got back into the 70's we got back on the fish. Once the glow bite slowed down we switched to white flashers and spin doctors with white and aqua flies. Rigger were down 50 - 80 and dispys were back 175 - 225' with flasher/flies out fishing the spoons today. With the temps forecasted to hit the 100's, we made it a short trip and we were back at the dock around 9 going 9 for 11

7-23
Got a late start at 5:30 and set up in 70fow just south of the line. We had fish on pretty much right away, but didn’t get the first 4 fish to the boat. Then we stepped up and started putting fish in the box. As the day went on we moved out to 120fow, and didn’t find fish, so we moved back to the 70 - 80fow that had give up fish. We took a few more fish on the dispys with the mountain dew spin doctor with a green fly back 225 with fireline. The hot set ups were the riggers down 50 - 70' with white dodger and white flies. The odd part was we didn’t get any hits on the lead core. We ended up going 11 for 23

7-9
Hit the water at 6, and set up in 70fow. The downriggers and the leadcore were the 2 hot setups for the day, with the green dolphin mag doing most of the work. By the end of the day we were running 6 Blue dolphin mags. The only down side to the day was the number of fish we lost.

7-3 Afternoon
Got a chance to take the wife and some friends out for a trip. We set up in the same place as we did the day before and ran pretty much the same spread. The weather had whipped up pretty good and speed control became a task. The bite started quite a bit earlier then is did the day before, and it was not long before my wife saw the rigger go and she was hooked up with a nice king. Then the dipsys started to out shire the riggers, so I put a white flashers and 4K white fly on the lead core, and it started getting hit. The big fish of the day a 14# king came on the blue and silver pro king mag down 40 on a rigger. We went 8 for 12 with 1 laker and the rest kings

7-2 afternoon
Set up in 60fow with fish marks, but they were not too hungry, so we trolled out to 120fow with out a bump and lost the marks at 80fow. So we moved back in and just stayed on top of the fish, till they got hungry. As the sun was starting to drop, it was like someone flicked a switch, the bite was on. From there on out it was pretty fast action with kings taking the baits. Riggers down 40 with spoons, and the blue and sliver pro king doing most of the work. Also the dispys with white and blue spin doctors with white 4K files back 125 to 75 were also taking fish. We kept changing up the spoon on the lead core, but it was a dead stick. We ended the day 7 for 15, all kings and biggest went 13#'s. We worked in 60 - 70 fow and down 20 - 40 feet

6/25/05 afternoon
The wind had pick up and gave us some good rollers, so I set us up on a south troll in 70 fow. We went for about an hour with out a hit. The first hit was on the lead core with an old yeller spoon, but we didn't get the first one into the boat. Then a few minutes later the lead goes again, and this time the fish is on, but it turns out to be a small king. Then I turned around and trolled north, and was not able to get the speed right. So we kept trolling south, and the fish kept biting. We were taking some nice kings on the blue and silver pro king mag down 40 and the lead core with old yeller. The first highlight of the trip was when a rigger popped and the little guy ran up to grab the rod, and the fish peels off 320 feet of line. Then the lead core starts taking drag, and the other son grabbed the rod. From the looks of it we had 2 nice kings on...15 minutes later the younger son with a little help from dad boated a 18# king, and 5 minutes after that the older son landed a 15# king. It was the biggest fish either of them had ever caught. So now it was dads turn, and not tool long after that the rigger went a gian and the fight was on...then off..the spoon came back bent on half and missing the hook. So I got another blue and silver pro king and sent it down, and then the lead takes off again with another king. I was standing next to the rigger when it went off, So I grabbed it and got the slack out, it didn't feel like a big fish, so mom jumped up to get the rod. After about 2 seconds the fish peeled out 158 feet of line and was heading to Michigan...then back towards North Point...then it made run for the boat on the surface...not sure how it didn't get tangled up in the birds, but he made 1 last dive and came unbuttoned. We were running out of time, so I started to pull the rods that were not producing fish. Then I got down to the last 2 rods, the lead core and the rigger. I asked which one they wanted to bring in first, and they said the rigger. So I popped the rigger and started bringing it in, and then the lead core loads up. After a few minutes, I can see that we hooked up with a nice brownie that would go 5 - 6 pounds. Its was a great end to a good trip.

6/25/05
Set up in 60 fow and headed east, with out marking much until we got to 70 fow and the graph lit up. We had fish come up and follow the rigger, but not hit. It was hard to look at the graph and see so many fish and not get hooked up. Got some reports of a few fish south, so we headed that way and just about the time we turned we hooked up with our first fish, and 6# Coho on a rigger with a white dodger and white fly. Then once we got in front of the nuke we hooked up on a dipsy with a green flasher and green fly, and landed another nice Coho. Then we took another Coho on a Carlson reel fish spoon on a rigger down 20 feet. With just a few more minutes left the bird with a spoon takes off, and the drag is buzzing. The fish makes a few nice jumps, another good run and then nothing...after bring in the line we find the line all nicked up. So we ended the day 3 for 4

6/18/05 afternoon
For the afternoon trip I set up right were we left off for the tourney. The fish were still there but just not biting, so we headed east a bit and found the hungry fish. From 4 pm on it was pretty consistent action every 10 minutes, with Coho and rainbows. Coho were hitting birds with OO orange dodgers and blue and gold flies. The rainbows were hitting the blue and silver pro king mag down 43 on the down rigger. We ended the day 17 for 22 with 5 bows giving us a nice tail dance followed by spitting the spoon back to us.

6/18/05
Day 2 of the 1st annual PFC Geoffrey Morris Memorial Governors Cup
We decided to work the 50 - 70 fow but further north then we did on day 1. It looked like the right move, we got to the spot at 5:45 and had to wait for 6am to put the lines in the water. We had more fish on the graph in that fifteen minutes that almost the entire day before. At 6 we got the lines in the water, and went with out a fish for way too long. So we headed back south, picking up a fish here and there. We got the our spot from day 1 and didn't find any fish, so we headed east. Once we got into 80fow we took 2 nice kings, and made a few more turns but came up dry. So we pushed east again, and then in 90fow we hooked up with the big fish of the day, a nice bow. Right behind the boat the bow makes a few last jumps and spits the hook back to us. So we quickly reset the line, and shortly after that the lead hooks up and a king. Then we pop 2 more rainbows of the downrigger. In 30 minutes we took 6 fish, and we have 15 minutes left and still need 5 more fish for a limit. I then plotted a course back to the harbor, it was going to take use 38 minutes. They only allow 30 minutes of run time so we were going to have to pull the rods 10 minutes early to make it back in time. Then the rigger that had taken the bows, pops and takes some drag. Mike jumps the rob and the fight is on, we started to clear some of the dead rods. Mike put a good fight on the fish to get it in the boat real quick, and its ended up going 11#s. Now with just a few minutes left we send the rigger rod back down 42 feet and hope for another nice king to bite. We kept pulling in the dead rods, and left the 4 rods that were producing fish as long as we could. The fish gods were not looking down on us that day, we ended up with only 11 fish for day 2. The time came and we had to pull rods and get in to make the scales, we had only 3 minutes to spare. The first report back was it looked thought for every one...The final standings had us in 13th place...This was our was our first tourney as a team, and we are looking forward to next year.

6/17/05
Day 1 of the 1st annual PFC Geoffrey Morris Memorial Governors Cup Fishing Invitational
We had found some good size Kings and Coho in 60 - 90 fow perishing. So we set up in 60fow just off abbott and waited for the 6 am start. We had a bit of a dry spell to start the day, but is was pretty consistent for us until about 9:30. Most of the bites had come on a dipsy back 60 feet with a smoke dodger and 4k boy blue fly, the problem was we went 1 for 10 on that rod. Then around 10:30 - 11 we had moved out to 90 -100 fow and had a some quick hits. We hooked up with a small king, we only needed 3 more fish and had more then 2 hours left, so we shook of the small king. Looking back that was a bad idea as we only landed 1 more fish after that. So after day 1 we were in 15th place, and had a lot of points to make up. The good news was we had the second biggest steelhead for the day that got us a 50$.

6/12/05
Most of the weekend was spent pre fishing for the 1st annual PFC Geoffrey Morris Memorial Governors Cup Fishing Invitational. Most of the fish were scattered with no real hot set ups. Sunday afternoon we made the run out to 200fow to see if the fish moved out deep. The graph was pretty much blank, so we trolled east. Once we crossed into 300fow rods started to pop. Still no hot set ups, a fish here a there. Most were 3 - 5 # Coho, but the highlight of the day was a 12# king on a orange spoon behind a yellow bird.

6/4/05
Got an early start at 5:30am...was planning on heading out to 130, but the marks in 90 fow told me to try it there. So we set up in 90fow at the state line and trolled south. I was worried when I was able to get all the rods in the water with out a hit. That soon changed as the outside bird with an action flasher and the blue liz took off...with a nice bow....after that it was pretty consistent till about 8 and then it dried up. Turned out deeper and lot the marks and the no bites, so we turned in, and got 1 here and there to end the day 15 for 22 losing most fish with in site...The hot set up today for us was the reelfish spoon 10' off the bottom. After that its was the two tone on a bird. Our best depth was 80 - 90but it slowed up pretty early

5/29/05
Hit the water at 6...Set up in 50fow water just north of the nuke ..didn't get a hit for about 30 minutes...we had good marks but no takers, so we zigzagged are way out to 100fow, getting 1 here 1 there...After looking at the gps and the marks of where we got fish we found that the fish were in pretty tight active schools. We didn't put the program together until just about it was time to quit for the day. So if your heading out Monday...and find active fish I would say stay with them, don't get to far away, and keep working them. Our best rod was a Coho killer(blue/breen/gold) fly and a OO orange dodger 30 back on dipsy. We did have 2 nice bows...both came on a board with a orange action flashers and a blue liz fly.

5/27/05
Got out at 2pm, and had god marks right out of the marina, we set up in 30 fow and headed south. It was not long and we had the first fish on, a nice Coho, that hit a blue and silver fly on a shallow dipsy. The action was steady for the first hour, then the bite slowed. We started working 50 - 70fow and hooked up, but were not able to box the fish. Since the fish we jumping, I am thinking steelhead so we put out an action flasher and a small blue fly on the outside board. It seemed like the rig was only out for a minute before there a was steelhead on the other end. Which was followed by a good rip on a rigger with a blue dolphin spoon down 65' in 70fow. I was thinking king, but it was coming in way too easy, it turned out to be a 7# Coho. The next fish I will soon not forget...it was a small shaker, that was hooked in the gills. So I go to put it in the cooler, and in one last ditch effort he shakes and I miss the cooler...the first fish that I have missed making it in the cooler....not good, and I know it would come back to bite us. So with about a half an hour left we need 1 more fish, and there is an approaching storm...We decide to stick it out and get out last fish....well that shaker that escaped came back to hunt us...the storm was quickly approaching, so we pulled rods short 1 fish.

5/21/05
Water temps have come up a bit, the water has cleared up, and we had good marks. We set up in 30fow just south of the marina, and put out our Coho spread of OO orange dodgers and small flies. It was not long before we had the first fish in the box. Then the action slowed, but we still had good fish marks. As more boats moved out we starting getting some better action, but the fish were coming unbuttoned. The highlight of the trip was the few rainbows that showed up. Most them were already jumping out of the water before the board even released.

5/15/05
Saturday night we had a strong front move in, and fishing slowed up. We set up where we left up Saturday looking for some of the bigger kings. The Lil' bruiser off the birds were the studs again today account for more then half of the fish. We found a spot in 144fow that was good for a fish or two on each pass, so we worked the spot until about 10 and then it shut down. Then on our last pass we had a double hook up with 2 nice Coho's, 1 off a bird the other of a green dodger and a marriage fly off the rigger down 90

5/14/05
We fished the Chicagolandfishing.com Coho Open and took 2nd place. We set up in 135fow and the second rod down went off before I could get the rod in the holder. It was a 3 - 4 # rainbow that hit a blue dolphin spoon down 100 foot. After that the birds got hot with the Lil' bruiser doing most of the work behind a OO orange dodger and 1/2 oz inline weight back 3 - 4 passes. We had our 10 fish limit by 8:30, but now we set out sites on some big fish. The fist king hit a Carlson reel fish down 100 foot on the rigger, and then about a minute later the cut bait rig ( salmon Assassin with a green glow twinke rig) went off. Mike and I had 2 good kings on, the first one went 9# and the second one went 10.5#

5/1/05
Started off at 6 am with a stiff west wind. Set up in 160fow right where we left off the day before, and picked up 1 fish right away. Then we hit a bit of a dry spell, seems like the Coho had not woken up yet, but around 8am things turned on. Rigger down 20 - 50 with dolphins, purple tourneys did well. The dipsy back 125 with a OO orange dodger and a green crinkle fly did a number on the Coho. Did pic up a laker on a blue dolphin down 32 on the rigger, that went 15#'s...around 9:30 we only needed 1 more to limit out. The blue dolphin down 50 went off, wit the first king of the year a nice spunky 2 year old

4/30/05
Hit the water at 7:15 and set up in 150fow. It was pretty much non stop action. We set up in 150fow, with rigger down 90 and 110 with blue dolphin spoons looking for some kings, but still hooked up with Coho down 110. Dipsys back 125 - 150 or birds back 3 - 4 passes with OO orange dodger and peanut flies all took fish. The hot fly colors were green crinkle and aqua. The action was so good, we picked up 7 fish while pulling in the rods.