Coho Derby
Super Tournament
Champinons
2nd place '05
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Aug 15 '05
Another Great weekend of fishing ! Records were broken for big fish in the Coho Derby this year
for Brown Trout and Coho, along with over 10 tons of fish being caught for the weekend. We
finished 2nd place this year behind Soul Hunter with 219.36 pounds for the Coho Derby Super
Tournament. Most of our fish were caught within 10 to 30' of water from the harbor and North up
to Haven. Glow plugs, and stick baits worked best.
This morning we also had a nice cooler full of fish with 12 fish, most of them being over 14lbs.
Same baits, but all of the fish came either inside the harbor or just out front of the pier heads.
Aug 12 '05
Fishing has been some of the best yet this year ! The last three mornings we have come in with a
cooler packed full with about 200+ pounds of nice size kings. Evenings have been a bit slower the
last two nights, but still very nice sized fish. 15' to 40' of water along the shoreline and out front of
the harbor have been the best for us. Just about anything glow in the dark has been catching fish
the last few days, spoons, plugs, you name it. Water temps are in the low to mid 50's so if your
planing on going out the next few days while this cold water is around, be sure to bring a jacket.
Good luck to everyone fishing the Wharf's Coho Derby this weekend !!!
Aug 6 '05
Fishing has been very good the last few days again with cooler water along the shoreline. We have
been working 20 to 40 feet of water early morning and late evenings, and 70 to 90 feet of water
mid day. Plugs have been the most productive bait for big Kings most days along with a few glow
spoons after the sun rise.
July 7 '05
Fishing action has still been very good the last few weeks. It has been a very busy year for us with
updates to the boat, along with everything else so I apologize for not keeping up with updating this
board. Most of our best action has been a combination of spoons and plugs from the surface
down to the bottom in 25' to 80' of water. Glow plugs have been best along with a glow cracked
ice magnum spoon being the top producing spoon.
It's nice to see so many nice sized kings this year compared to the large amount of smaller fish this
time last year.
June 11 '05
Fishing has been getting better and better every week. Water temps. are in the mid 50's and there
is a large number of very active fish.
This morning we fished 125' to 190' of water, with a variety of fish being caught. Our best action
was from surface lines and downriggers set at 55 to 100' down. Rattle spoons and Magnum
ProKings, along with some dodger/fly combinations worked good today. We caught 19 fish, and
kept 16 of them, 3 Rainbows, 3 Cohos, 2 Lake Trout, and 8 Kings with the Largest being a 22.8
lb King Caught by Jeff Edwards.
Tonight fishing was also good, but with the storm front rolling through the state fishing was a little
slower than this morning.. We fished 100 to 140' of water and Caught 7 very nice sized Kings and
lost 4 others. Most of the fish came from downriggers set at 55 to 125' down.
May 7 '04
Were back on the water and ready to start fishing ! Can't wait !!!
Oct. 3 '04
This weekend was a little slower again after the cold front moved in and brought along the strong
winds. We did pick up a few smaller fish in the 40' to 80, range though. All but one of the fish
came on spoons fished near the bottom. Copper was the color this weekend. Next weekend will
be the end of our season before the boat gets put away for the winter. It has been a very good
year, with alot of nice sized catches this summer and I'm already looking forward to next year.
Sept. 18 '04
Fishing the last few days has been a little slower than normal. We have still been catching nice
sized fish most of which being Coho Salmon. Saturday morning we caught 7 fish outside of the
harbor, and Saturday afternoon we only caught 2 fish. The fish are there, and there is plenty of
bait fish but for some reason it has been hard fishing for everyone the last few days. I'm sure that
will change before too long and we will be catching coolers full of nice Coho's and 3 year old
Chinook again.
Sept. 13 '04
This weekend fishing was Great ! Saturday morning we caught 14 fish and just about filled the
cooler. Sunday morning we had our two man limit in just two hours. We had 6 fish on at one time
and we were only running 7 lines. It was just nuts, both customers had fish and myself and the first
mate were also fighting fish in between netting and driving the boat. The evenings were a bit slower
all weekend and for the last few days. Glow J-Plugs have been hot for the last few weeks.
Aug 31 '04
It was another great weekend of fishing! The weather was not the best conditions with 6 to 8 foot
waves on Saturday and northeast winds all weekend, but we made the best of it. My brother Jon,
one of my first mates Jim McKenzie, and myself took the weekend off to fish for the Coho derby.
Saturday was our better of the two days ending up the day with 1st place for the super tournament
and 4 fish on the big fish board, including 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place Chinook and 1st place
Rainbow. Sunday we fished again, the water was calmer but the fishing was slower for us. We
held our 1st place spot for the super tournament out of 52 boats, but were bumped off of the big
fish board for the weekend. Over all we were very happy with how the we finished the weekend !
The weights for the super tournament and 1st place big fish are as follows:
Super Tournament:
1 st Place - HI-TECH 175.26 lbs
2nd Place - Sorry Charlie 167.32 lbs
3rd Place - Happy Hooker 166.24 lbs
Big Fish:
Brown Trout - Nick Shilts 14.78 lbs
Chinook - Sara Brion 23.72 lbs
Laker - James Thomas 18.64 lbs
Coho - Mark Debbink 10.8 lbs
Rainbow - Rodney Johnson 12.78 lbs
Aug 23 '04
We have been fishing shallow water the last few days with water temps in the mid 50's along
shore. We have had some good action both early morning and evenings, catching mainly Chinook
Salmon. J-plugs and Spoons have worked the best.
This weekend is the Coho Derby, Good Luck to everyone fishing it. Also this weekend there is a
Benefit fry for Jacob Jacoby at the KC Hall, there will will be music, brats and hamburgers, corn
roast and plenty of beer. They are having raffles all day and also a silent auction. Some of the
prizes include $500 cash, Blue Harbor Resort getaway, Bucks tickets, 5 hour fishing trip for 6,
and a ton of other great prizes. Stop by and get some food or stay all day and enjoy the band. It's
going to help this young man and his family with medical bills for a heart and lung transplant. I hope
to see Jake out fishing again soon !
Aug 15 '04
The fishing could not get much better ! The last few days has been just great, we've caught a lot of
nice fish in the 10 to 25 lb class, most of which being Chinook with a Lake Trout now and then
added to the mix. This morning we had our two man limit in about an hour, tossed back a few
smaller fish and finished with 9 Kings and one Laker. Myself and the first mate were able to fish
for about 20 min while taking our time bringing in the lines, and also landed 2 nice kings. Dodger /
Fly's and J-plugs worked best along with Magnum spoons fished near the bottom.
Aug 8 '04
The last few days fishing has still been very good. Last night and this morning we fished 130' to
170' of water and came in with limit catches of mainly Chinook Salmon. This morning we had 14
kings and one Brown Trout, and Last night we boated 2 Lake Trout, one Rainbow, and the rest
were Kings with the biggest being 22 lbs. Magnum spoons and J-plugs worked very good deep
on the downriggers, and Dodger / Fly's on "pumps", greens and anything glow was hot.
July 30 '04
Good old Lake Michigan is turning over again!!! Water Temps are back down in the mid to low
60's again, and the fish are starting to be more active. This morning we fished in 80 to 110' of
water and had pretty good luck fishing fom the surface down to the bottom. Dipsy divers with
standard sized Pro-kings worked the best along with dodger /flys down deeper.
Tonight we fished 30 to 40' or water just outside the harbor. It was a steady action the whole
night with most of our fish being caught on spoons up towards the surface. Light colors and silver
baits seemed to work the best with most of the action on Slide Divers set towards the surface.
July 23 '04
Fishing early last week has been consistant with nice numbers of fishing being caught in the 80 -
110' range. But with the Northern winds and fronts that have come through the last few days
fishing has slowed down a bit. We are still catching fish towards the bottom in 90 to 130'.
Dodger/fly's have had the best action along with some J-plugs and spoons.Once the wind switches
around there is going to be alot of hungry fish out there.
Good luck to everyone fishing the Cleveland Fishing Derby this weekend !
July 11 '04
This morning we fished a two boat group of 8 people. We ended the 5 hour trip with 16 fish
caught on HI-TECH, and a 2 boat total of 30 fish. The Dodger/Fly's were still working well along
with just about anything else you put down in the water. Two, 3, and 4 fish on at once has been
the normal for the last week. Early morning and Late Evenings have been the most active times for
Large Salmon. Good water tempatures and stable weather has made for great fishing so far this
year.
July 10 '04
Saturday morning we had plenty of action, but only 8 of the 32 fish made it into the boat. That
Evening we fished the same area, and landed 12 more nice sized fish with the biggest being a 21 lb
Salmon. Dodger/Fly's worked well for us in 80 to 115' of water, fishing deep. Along with
Magnum spoons working well a bit higher up.
July 9 '04
Tonight we finished the night with another 4 person limit of 20 fish, weighing in close to 200lbs.
Over all, the last week fishing has been some of the best in years! Morning and Evening has
produced very nice catches of mainly Chinook Salmon, along with some Coho and Lake Trout.
Tonight we fished in 80 to 100' of water strait out of the harbor. We fished down riggers and Slide
Divers from 40' down to the bottom, with dodger/flys being the most producing the most fish.
We have heard alot of good things so far about the Blue Harbor Resort and the Blue Harbor
Resort 's water park, its good to see Sheboygan make the most out of our lakefront and Lake
Michigan !
June 28 '04
Fishing tonight again was very good, with non stop action for 2 hours this evening. We fished 40'
to 60' of water just north of the harbor again and ended up with 12 fish in the net. We tossed back
4 smaller kings, and kept 7 Chinook in the 10 to 17 lb range, and one very nice Coho that
weighed just over 7 lbs. Standard size ProKings and JB Spoons seemed to be the key tonight,
along with a slightly faster speed than it has been the last few days
June 24 '04
We fished the last two evenings in the 50 to 90 range. Wed night fishing was a little slower than it
had been the last week, but tonight fishing was some of the best so far this season. In just two
hours we boated 9 Chinook Salmon, six of which were in the 15 to 22 lb range. Dodger/fly
combinations and Magnum JB Spoons seemed to work best from 25 to 50' down on downriggers
and dipsy divers.
June 13 '04
We had our first trips with the new boat this weekend, everything went pretty good over all.
Saturday morning we fished in about 115 fow just south of the harbor. We caught 10 fish in the
morning, 7 Coho's, 2 Kings, and a Rainbow. All were caught on dodger fly combinations with
most of the action being dipsys and downriggers.
Saurday Evening we fished the same area, and most of the same baits, but ended up with 5 for 7
fish. It seemed like the action died down alittle after the lake started to lay down.
April 18 '04
The boat is ready to hit the water today, it's been a long winter and we cant wait to get back on
the lake again. Also The 25' Regal that I have been using will be for sale in the next few weeks, as
I will be moving into a bigger and better boat. So look for details on that as soon as the begining
of May. It has been a great boat for fishing Lake Michigan.
Nov. 18 '03
An update on this years Coho Derby, Jeff and Grace Brown of the Wharf presented The
Sheboygan Camp Y-Koda Outdoor Skills Center with a check for $10,000 tonight with the
proceeds from this years Derby. The Great Lakes Sport Fishermen club also recieved a check for
$4,000 to help with fish stocking for lake michigan and other club projects around Sheboygan.
Thanks again to the many sponsors of this years Coho Derby, and the many people that helped
make it what it was especialy Jeff and Grace Brown and Ward Torke.
Sept. 9 '03
Fishing has still been very good, with limit catches of 2 and 3 year old (5 to12 lb) salmon and
rainbows in just a few hours in the 40' to 100' range. The Salmon run has started, but at a very
slow pace maybe because of the lack of rain. It is still a few days early, so I'm guessing by this
weekend there should be more of the big kings being found around the harbor area. Sunday
morning conditions were the best so far this year for the harbor, and we boated 11 fish in 5 hours
with 8 being in the 20 lb class. The next three weeks should be the best time to catch a cooler full
of trophy kings.
Aug. 14 '03
Strong currents the last few days have made a mess of our lines, but good numbers of fish are
being caught near the bottom in the 100' range. Yesterday we had catches of 6 fish for the
morning, and 9 fish for the afternoon, with a few being 4 year old salmon close to 20 lbs. This
morning we headed a little deeper to try to get out of the currents. We found calmer waters and
with them more fish ! We ended our 6 hour trip with 18 fish, and lost 12 others. We boated 7
rainbows, 7 kings, and 4 cohos with the largest being a 19 lb chinook. Spoons seemed to be the
ticket today, as the dodger fly combinations that have been working seemed to die off.
Aug. 13 '03
The totals for the coho derby are:
2,209 fish were caught for a total weight of 16,828.6 lbs
1st place Chinook - 28.06 lbs - Randy Strauch Super Derby
1st place Coho - 11.39 lbs - Jim Gravelle 1st - Stone Cold
1st place Rainbow - 16.13 lbs - Ron Garwien 2nd - Off the Hook
1st place Lake trout - 18.60 lbs - Bryan Gruenke 3rd - Happy Hooker
1st place Brown - 15.19 lbs - Matt Jurss
Aug. 10 '03
Thanks to everyone who helped get the 33rd Coho Derby going this year ! Special thanks to Jeff
and Grace Brown of The Wharf for taking over the derby this year and turning it back into the
derby it was meant to be ! Also, Thanks to the sponsors for thier donations the prize money and
door prizes were better than ever ! The most important thing is that everyone had a great time, and
that all proceeds are being donated to the Camp Y-Koda Outdoor Skills & Education camp to
help the kids.
I will have the total standings and stats in the next few days. HI-TECH finished 4th on Sat. and 7th
on Sunday for the Super tournament, and ended the weekend at 4th place for the weekend out of
46 boats. We also Placed with a 1st place Lake Trout that weighed 18.60 lbs.
Aug. 4 '03
Fishing has been going strong yet the last few days, with very nice catches for our morning and
afternoon trips, as well as our evenings. August is peak fishing for Salmon, and it looks like it will
be another great year of fishing. Early monings and evenings have been the most productive times,
and more 4 year old Salmon are being caught everyday ! This weekend is the 33rd annual Coho
Derby, good luck to everyone that fishes !
July 31 '03
We fished last night again for the Wed. night fishing leauge thats put on by the Wharf. We took
first place with 74 lbs of fish. We boated 11 chinook salmon, and two very nice brown trout (9 &
8 lbs). The largest chinook of the night was 18 lbs.
July 28 '03
Sorry I have not been posting new reports as often as I'd like, I've been having problems with my
computer the last few days. We've been on the Lake every day for the last 10 days strait, and
have been having very good luck with "Kings" or Chinook Salmon. Last Friday and Saturday we
came in with our limit of fish in 5 and 6 hours. We've been working the 60' to 120' range and fish
have been from the top to the bottom. The most active feeding times have been early morning and
late evening, but we have caught a good number of fish during the afternoon hours as well. Most
fish have been the 2 and 3 year old Salmon, but we have been catching at least a few 4 year old
salmon each trip in the 18 to 20 lb range, with the biggest being a 25 3/4 lb king caught by Bill
Glad of Sheboygan this past Saturday.
July 16 '03
Fishing the last few days has been great ! The king salmon have moved in closer to shore, and
have been moved active. The last few trips out, we have brought back some nice catches of King
salmon, Coho's and Lake trout. Today was the Womens Powder Puff derby at the wharf in
Sheboygan. The crew from Priority Sign that fished with me today did a great job ! We ended the
day with 6 nice fish and lost two others, with the biggest being an 18 1/2 lb King. Acording to
Grace Brown at the Wharf, there were more fish caught today in 6 hours, than there was during
last weeks 3 day tournament in Port Washington.
We also fished again tonight, and caught 3 more Salmon around the 20 lb range. Action tonight
was fast, with 7 fish on in just one hour, right before dark.
July 9 '03
Fishing has been pretty much back to normal the last few weeks. Last weekend we had fished the
300 foot range off of Sheboygan for Rainbow trout, with pretty good luck. Now the last few days
with the thunderstorms, the fish have moved closer to shore along with the warmer water. Tonight
our best action was in the 120' to 150' range with dodger/flies and orange colored Pro-kings in the
top 50' of water. Most of the fish we have caught the past few days have been Coho Salmon, with
a few Rainbows and Chinook mixed in.
Also today is one of the last days to sign up for the womens Powder Puff Derby on July 16th, at
the Wharf in Sheboygan. You can call them for information at 458-4406
June 23 '03
We fished the last two days for Rainbows, Sunday morning we ended up with 2 Rainbows, 2
Cohos , and 2 Lake trout on a surface line in 270 feet of water. Tonight we were out for three
hours and came in with a few nice Cohos and five more Rainbows. Fishing seems to be back to
normal now after a few nice warm days and southern winds.
June 21 '03
Fishing this week has been very good for those of us fishing Lake Michigan off of the port of
Sheboygan ! We are still catching good numbers of Lake trout, and today we found the rainbows
! We didnt get a chance to fish them long, but did get one nice one. A few other boats also had
some nice catchs today, some being a mixed box of Lakers, Kings, Coho's, and Rainbows. We
plan on fishing the morning, and hope to spend more time fishing the surface out deep for
Rainbows.
June 15 '03
Water tempatures have risen into the mid 50's with the warm, sunny days that we have had. This
weekend fishing has really picked up! Lake trout have still been the most abundant fish with limit
catches of two per person along with some nice sized Chinook and even a Coho. We have still
been fishing the 50' to 70' range south of the harbor. Saturday, we also tried the 300' range to try
to locate a few Rainbow trout, but no takers.
June 4 '03
Fished tonight again for a few hours, just south of town. The water temp of lake michigan was 48 /
49 which is about 3 degrees warmer than it has been. We boated a couple of Lake trout, and lost
4 other nice fish. With any luck, it will only get better by the weekend.
June 1 '03
Fishing has been slower than normal so far this spring, the biggest reason being water tempatures
still in the mid 40's due to Northeast winds for almost 2 months. We are starting to catch more
fish, all of which being Chinook salmon and Lake trout, but numbers have been down. A few
more nice days, and a southern wind will help get the water temps back to the mid 50's where
they should be. Once fishing starts to pick up, it should be another great year acording to this
years D.N.R. reports!
May 10 '03
Fishing has been pretty slow the last week. The weather is the biggest reason, with north-east
winds and cold weather for the last few weeks it has really taken it's toll on the fishing. The fish are
there, Browns and Lake Trout have been caught along the shore line, along with a few King
Salmon also being reported. Water tempatures have been in the mid 40's up to 52 deg along
shore.
Charters
of
Sheboygan, WI
Lake Michigan
charter fishing at
its best !
Directions
Rates
The Boat
Pictures
Recipes
Lodging
Water Temps.
Weather
Links
Buy a fishing
license online
( wisconsin DNR )
Sheboygan Co.
Chamber of
Commerce
E mail the
Captain
Charters
of
Sheboygan, WI
Lake Michigan
charter fishing at
its best !
Directions
Rates
The Boat
Pictures
Recipes
Lodging
Water Temps.
Weather
Links
Buy a fishing
license online
( wisconsin DNR )
Sheboygan Co.
Chamber of
Commerce
Home
E mail the
Captain
