HI-TECH Charters
2004 & 2011
Coho Derby
Super Tournament
Champinons

2nd place '05
3rd place '10
Lake Michigan Fishing Reports for Sheboygan Wisconsin
(click on images to enlarge )

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April 24 2013
                         Boat goes back in the water next week !!!  Can't wait :)


July 19  2012
Sorry I have not been able to keep the website fishing reports updated, I have however been
keeping up on the Facebook page since I am able to update it from my cell phone.

Fishing overall this year has been outstanding ! As of late, we have been fishing 50-90' of water
and catching a mix of cohos, rainbows, and chinook . Catches have ranged from 6 to 20 or more
fish, but 12-15 fish has been an average.

Yesterday I had a great time fishing the 2012 womens powder puff derby. The girls did a great
job fishing in 2-4' waves. Ended the day with 11 fish in the cooler and lost 8 others. That gave us
82.83 pounds for a 4th place over all and a 4th place king weighing 16.3 pounds.  

Flasher/fly combos on the down riggers and 10 color lead cores were the ticket for us yesterday in
55-90' of water. Chrome or UV dodgers have been the most productive for me the last few
weeks with either bullfrog or super frog flys.


Aug 14 ' 11
The 2011 Sheboygan Coho Derby ended up to be a one day event this year again due to high
seas which kept everyone off the lake today. Our 5 biggest fish from Saturday which weighed in at
82.47 pounds gave us a first place win for this years Super Tournament. Congrats to my
customers Dave, Norbert, Dan, and Tim for doing a great job on the reels this year. This group
has fished the last 3 Coho Derbys with us, and finished 3rd place in last years Derby.

All of our bites came on spoons on 5 color lead cores, 10 color lead cores, a shallow slide diver
bite with a silver/white proking, and one bite on a downrigger with a magnum spoon in 75' of
water.

Aug 7 '11
A few more days since my last report, and a few more limit catches as well.  Fishing has been
amazing the last week or so ! We have had a mix of Rainbows and Chinook salmon, as well as a
Coho or Lake trout here and there. We have been fishing about 2-3 miles off shore in 100' of
water, and have been catching most of our fish in the top 50' with a variety of spoons. Speed has
been a very important factor in putting fish in the boat, as well as staying away from the heavy boat
traffic. We have seen Rainbow trout in the 10-12 pound range fairly often the last few days, and
Kings that have been 20+ pounds on a regular basis as well.

Aug 4 '11
Fishing continues to be very good off of Sheboygan this week.  This week we have had a few 3
and 4 person limit catches, and the others all did very well too. We have been back in the
70'-100' depths and fishing with a variety of spoons and dodgers.  We have had a nice mixed bag
of huge rainbows, 5-10 pound cohos, and kings up to and over 20 pounds.

July 31 '11
I have been very busy fishing the last few weeks, so I have not been able to keep up with these
fishing reports like I would like too.  I have however been keeping up with the fishing reports and
pictures on the Facebook Page

After almost 2 weeks of slower fishing due to a full moon and tons of bait fish, and a week of thick
fog, we are finally able to get out to open water in a reasonable amount of time. We have been
working a school of fish 8 to 12 miles off shore for the last 2 days, and have been catching a
mixed bag of Cohos, Rainbows, and kings. Most of the fish have been in the top 60' of water, and
the action has been great !

June 27 '11
The last couple of days we fished 80' to 180' of water just north of the harbor. Saturday morning
we ended with our limit of 20 fish, most of which being cohos and rainbows. Saturday night and
Sunday, we had to work a little harder to find bites with the cloudy water that showed up.
Saturday evening we boated 7 fish including another 10 pound Coho, and Sunday morning we
landed a variety of fish including 3 mature Chinook salmon in the 13-16 pound range and ended
up with 15 fish for Sunday morning. .  The remainder of this week looks great for weather,  fishing
should remain as good as it has been the last few weeks.

June 24 '11
Not much has changed over the last few days, fishing is still very good ! Slightly deeper this
morning again, we had our best luck from 140' to 180' but caught fish as far as 230'. Small 00
dodgers worked best for Cohos on 3 colors of leadcore. Kings came a little deeper down
between 70' down and 107' down on the downriggers and 300' copper line. Once again, Cohos
made up the majority of our 22 fish this morning but we have been catching some nice sized Kings
almost every trip.

June 20 '11
Fishing off of Sheboygan has been nothing short of phenomenal !  This year we have seen
some of the best Coho fishing that I can remember. And while Coho's have been the majority of
our catches the last 2 weeks, we have also been catching Rainbows, Chinook, and Lake Trout.  
The Coho's have favored small "00" orange dodgers with a variety of flys fished on or near the
surface anywhere between 100' and 300' of water. We have also started to see some nice
Chinook Salmon being caught, our biggest so far this season weighing in at almost 21 pounds. 8"
flashers with green apple or bull frog flys have worked the best, but we have also landed a few
nice kings on magnum and standard size Pro-Kings. This past weekend we fished 75' to 180' of
water just north of the harbor. I decided to fish closer to shore than we had been, and it payed off.
Saturday morning we got a late start leaving the dock after 630am.but still landed 23 fish with a
number of nice sized kings. Saturday evening we boated 13 fish, one of which being a 20.82#
king. Sunday morning we finished early with our 6 person limit of 30 fish just before the storms
rolled in.  Sunday evening, the fish were biting a little light with the NE wind but we managed to
land 13 fish and had almost as many get away.  Overall, it was a GREAT Fathers Day weekend
on the lake !

March 26 '11
Per Wisconsin DNR Reports, Sheboygan was the #1 port in Wisconsin for Charter Fishing in
2010. Not a big surprise to anyone who has experienced the excellent fishery that we have here.
WDNR Creel Reports also showed a significant increase in catches for last year for Sheboygan.
The over all catch for charters in 2010 was 149% above 2009 catches, with the majority of
the increase being from Rainbow Trout and Chinook Salmon.

2010 Rainbow catch was reported to be at 170% above 2009. Chinook catches were 160%
above last year, and we also had a 107% increase in the number of cohos caught in 2010.
Sheboygan did see a decrease in the number of Lake Trout and Brown Trout that were caught in
2010, But I think that was due to less time spent targeting those species with abundant Chinook
and Rainbow action.  There was a 14% reduction in the number of Lake Trout harvested by
Sheboygan charters last year, and less than half the amount of Brown Trout harvest last year
compared to 2009

Feb 15 '11
With the warm weather  we've had the last few days a lot of people have been getting the itch to
get back onto the water. While there are still a lot of open dates, it's always a good idea to get a
jump on summer to get the date you want the most.  Saturdays fill up the fastest, and once again
this year I am running a special rate for 6 or 8 hour weekend trips in May and Sunday trips in
June. Check the bottom of the rates page for more information on that.

Also, don't forget to "Like" HI-TECH Charters on Facebook.  I will be keeping up to
date fishing reports again this year on the Facebook page as well as here. As well as up
coming events, specials, and photos.   

Sept 19 '10
We ran our last scheduled trip of the season yesterday. There is still a lot of good fishing to be had
this year, both off shore and around the harbor. Although the fall salmon run has not been as good
the last couple of years, there is almost 2 weeks before that starts to come to an end. The off
shore fishing should remain good as long as the weather allows us to get out there

Sept 3 '10
We fished another 3 hour evening trip today, boating 10 big salmon near the harbor again. All fish
were caught on small Silver Horde plugs. Whites and Pearl have been the best colors for us, and
very very slow trolling speeds have been the ticket for us.

Sept 2 '10
Fishing has been very good the last week off of Sheboygan.  This morning Greg and Pat had the
boat out and fished near the harbor, boating 15 salmon. Small Silver Horde plugs on divers and
down riggers produced very well for them. Tonight I was back on the boat with Pat, and we
boated 9 fish before the storm chased us off the water a few minutes early. #4 Silver Horde plugs
worked the best for us again tonight. Tonight we had 5 or 6 fish on at one time, and our biggest
king of the night tipped the scale at the Wharf at just over 20 pounds.

Aug 25 '10
It seems like the fish are starting to move closer to shore again, last night our best action was in
about 115' of water fishing from 25'-65' down. Green/black proking on the downrigger was again
our best taking a few nice kings. We kept 8 fish last night for a 3 hour trip, tossed one back and
lost a bunch as well.

Aug 24 ' 10
Tonight we had our best action in 175' - 205' of water just a little to the south.  Green/black
prokings  on the down riggers, plugs on 10 color leadcore, and orange glow spoons on the slide
divers. We ended up with 11 fish in the boat this evening, with a mix of rainbows, kings, and a
coho.

Aug 23 '10
The last few days we have been fishing 7 - 12 miles off shore in 250' or more of water. Small
bright colored spoons have worked the best for us in the top 40' for Rainbows and Cohos. Today
we also found a few Chinook down 65'.

Aug 17 '10
We finished in 3rd Place this year for the 40th annual Coho Derby Super Tournament with a
weight of 93.07 pounds.

It was a tough year with warm water and slow fishing conditions, but the weather was the best I
can remember for the derby. Plugs on lead core lines were by far the most productive for us the
last few days, slower than normal trolling speed seemed to pick up slightly bigger fish for us, which
helped us for the derby.

Congratulations to Scream Team who took first place this year with 104.64 pounds, and Team
Thompson for their second place finish with 93.8 pounds.

July 31 '10
Fishing last week slowed down a bit compared to the last few weeks.  But, last Thursday evening
and Friday evening it improved greatly. Thursday evening we finished the night keeping 9 big fish,
one of which being a 14.1 pound Brown trout. This morning, we pulled lines early and headed in
with 7 fish for less than 3 hours of fishing. 80' to 120' have been the best for us, and a mix of
flasher/flys, plugs, and a few spoons.  Greens and cracked ice have been the most consistent
colors all season as worked well for us again this week.

July 15 '10
We caught our 4 person limit this morning again after a little rain delay which pushed our trip back
a little over an hour. Plugs were by far the best for us today, anything white or cracked ice was
hot. We also landed a nice 13.6 lb brown trout today.

July 12 '10
We are still catching very good numbers of fish off of Sheboygan.   Saturday morning was a little
slower with a very warm sun and no wind on the big pond,  we were able to land 13 salmon and
trout. Saturday evening, a slight storm passed through and got the fish going again and we landed
10 fish for a shorter trip.  Sunday morning we kept our 3 person limit and released at least 8 or 9
smaller fish.  We fished both near the harbor as well as off shore on a break line that had formed
Saturday morning. Almost anything was catching fish, but small plugs and a mix of spoons worked
the best for us.

July 6  '10
Great catches of mostly Chinook salmon  have been very common all year, and the last few days
have been as good as any. The last few evenings we have done very well in shallow water around
the harbor area. Plugs and spoons have both been very good for us. Pearls and whites have been
the best, as well as anything glow during the last hour of the day.

June 22  '10
Fishing has still been great all week !  2 Rainbows and 5 Chinook tonight, and we lost 3 others.
(reel Lee, reel)  Still working 70' to 95' north of the harbor with the same set up as the last few
posts.

June 19 '10
It seems summer fishing has begun with early mornings and late evening being the most productive
times to fish. We have been doing very well on our evening trips with nice catches of mainly
Chinook Salmon. Tonight we fished 70' to 90' of water north of the harbor and landed 12 kings
and 1 Coho. Magnum spoons on 10 colors of leadcore and downriggers, as well as flashers on
wire dipsys, down riggers, and leadcore. Our most productive spoon has been a green/glow
magnum spoon on a 10 color leadcore, and our most productive flys have been either bullfrog or
super bullfrog with either green or mtn dew flashers.

June 8 '10
Fishing has been pretty good so far this season, warm weather early this spring really helped get
the water temps up and brought the kings around a little earlier than they were last spring.  This
week we have been fishing 70' to 90' of water and have been catching a mixed bag of kings,
cohos, and rainbows. Magnum spoons and flashers down deep on downriggers and leadcore lines
for kings and cohos, and rattle snakes near the surface have been taking the rainbows. Last night
we fished from 6pm to 9pm and boated 10 fish, with 5 of them being over 14 pounds and the
smallest being a 6 pound coho.

Aug 28 '09
Fishing has still been doing pretty good the last week,but there has been a few slower days with
some of the fronts that have been moving across Wisconsin. The last couple days has been pretty
good for us in 70' to 85' of water straight out of Sheboygan. This morning we ended with our 3
person limit along with a couple small fish that were released.   Plugs have been the most
productive for us, fishing the top half of the water column with leadcore lines and slide divers.

Aug 16 '09
Fishing has still been very good, even after the line of storms went  through this afternoon. We
moved out a little deeper to 70' to 90' of water and have been doing good with dodgers and plugs
on leadcore lines and wire dipsys.

Aug 14 '09
Salmon fishing has still been going good the last few days.  We have been catching some nice sized
salmon in the 15 to 22 pound range. We have been fishing  35'  to 50' of water straight out of
Sheboygan with mainly #3 plugs on 3 and 5 colors of leadcore.

Aug 4 '09
Fishing has been much better the last few days again. The salmon have moved into shallow water
and have been starting to feed more, as they normally do this time of year.  We have been boating
some nice sized fish this year, with many fish over 20 pounds. J-plugs and glow spoons have been
our best the last few days in fishing the top half of water in 40' to 80' of water.

June 21 '09
Fishing off of Sheboygan this year has had it's ups and downs, largely due to the weather.  This
past Thursday, Friday and Saturday fishing was very good ! Our catches consisted mainly of
Rainbows and Cohos the last few days with a few Lake Trout and Kings mixed in. Our best catch
was Saturday boating 25 and losing 8 or 9 others.  Rattle spoons on flat lines and slide divers
were our most productive in about 280' of water south of the power plant. Strong winds took their
toll on fishing today, as we boated only 3 fish and lost 5 others during our morning trip.

March 15 '09
Yesterday I attended a fishing seminar in Kenosha at Jalensky's Outdoors & Marine. It was a very
well organized event, and I thought it was very informative. I had the opertunaty to talk to some of
the tackle reps and charter Captains from around the lake, and everyone seemed to agree that
2009 should be a great year !  Some of the Captains from Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha
agreed that the heavy rains and floods that we had last spring had a huge effect on our fishing last
season. They had found muddy or dirty water as far as 13 miles off shore early last June. Some
felt that the dirty water and colder than normal water temps, forced some of the fish to migrate to
the Eastern half of Lake Michigan giving Michigan Captains some of the best fishing they have
seem in over 5 years. Alot of the Captains said that they noticed high numbers of 2 and 3 year old
salmon later in the season, which is a good sign for the 2009 season.
All in all, if we get our normal weather patterns this spring I think we should see catches again like
we had back in 2006 and 2007.

June 23 '08
The last few days have produced some nice catches of mainly Chinook salmon, along with an
occasional Lake trout.  100 to 150 feet of water has been the most productive for us, with most of
our fish coming from the lower half of the water column.  Dodger / fly combo's have been the most
productive on weighted highlines, and magnum pro kings on the down riggers set from 50 feet
down to 80 feet down.

June 16 '08
Fishing overall this year has been pretty good for us. The last 2 weeks catches have been up and
down with all of the storms that rolled through the mid-west last week.  With the next few days of
stable weather in the forecast, fishing should become more consistent. We have been fishing in
depths ranging from 120 feet to 290 feet of water, with our most consistent range being the 225 to
280 foot range. We have been fishing the top 70' of water, with a mixed bag of Rainbow Trout,
Lake Trout, and Chinook Salmon. Magnum spoons on the downriggers, and rattle snake spoons
on the highlines have been the most productive.

July 18 '07   Powder Puff Derby 2007,  
We fished the powder puff derby again this year, and although we didn't place in 2nd place like
last year the girls did have a great time.  We boated 9 fish this year for a total weight of just of
over 96 lbs, and had two fish that placed on the big fish board.  1st place coho caught by Mindy
Stopar, and 3rd place Chinook caught by Tina Heinecke which weighed in at over 18 lbs. We
fished 25' to 45' of water just south of the harbor today, and caught every fish on plugs on the
downriggers and side poles.  

Fishing has been great so far for most of the entire season,  with July being no exception !  I would
expect to see another record year for fish caught off of Sheboygan again this year with the amount
of fish being caught.

June 30 '07
June was an outstanding month again overall this season. The first two weeks brought a lot of limit
catches or close to limit catches, with a nice mixed bag of trout and salmon. The third week,
slowed a bit with the few fronts that had passed over the area, and with the turning water from a
strong westerly wind. But, with more stable weather the last week or so, fishing has improved and
we have had a lot of nice catches the last few trips. Mainly water depths of 70 to 100 feet have
been our most productive working dodger/fly combo's and a mix of spoons. Rainbows and coho's
have favored rattle snake spoons in the top 30' of water, while most of our bigger chinook salmon
have been coming on large dodgers in white/glow or green/glow with teal or light green flys.

June 4 '07
It is looking like another great year !  The last two days brought good fishing again even with the
unstable weather.  Our catches have been a mixed bag of Rainbows, Cohos, and Kings along with
a Lake Trout every now and then.  The last 3 days have been at least 50% Chinook Salmon, with
very health fish weighing between 9 to 15 lbs being the average.
Friday evening produced some nice sized fish in closer to shore in 15' to 40' of water around the
harbor and to the south.  Saturday, that area was not productive so we ventured out a little deeper
and found some nice sized Kings in 115' to 160' of water.  Rainbows and Coho's came towards
the top to about 30' down on small dodger/flys and rattle spoons, while the Kings came about 45'
to 70' down on plastic flashers and flys.  


Sept. 4 '06
After a slow start to the weekend, fishing was right back to normal again after the cold front
settled in and weather conditions stabilized. We have been still working good numbers of fish in
100' to 160' of water, mainly close to the bottom. Green coyote's with either glow fly's or greenish
teal colored flys working best. Also, the Magnum JB spoons from Jeff's Tackle in wonderbread or
double cracked ice close to the bottom on the downriggers has been doing good for us.

There has been a number of fish caught today off of the piers and boats fishing in or around the
harbor. The water temperature is still much higher than ideal, but the salmon still are staging  
around the harbor for this fall's inevitable salmon run.

Aug 24 '06
Limit catches, or close to it has been the story the last week or better. Catches are consisting of
mainly Chinook salmon, but we have had a few lake trout, rainbow trout, and cohos mixed in the
last few trips. We have been fishing water depths of 85 to 120 feet of water, mainly just south of
the harbor. With the warm water still around, most of the fish have been either suspended
mid-depth or near the bottom. Glow Fishlander spoons and glow j-plugs on the downriggers, and
green coyotes or e-chips on magnum dipsy divers or slide divers have been working best.  
.                            .                          .                          .                           .
Aug 1 '06
Fishing has been outstanding the last few days again, with catches ranging from 8 fish to 18 fish for
each trip. This morning we had another nice cooler full of 16 big kings, and had at least as many
that got away. With the cold water tight along the shoreline the last few days, it has made for great
fishing close to the shoreline.

July 20 '06
We fished the harbor area again this morning, with great success boating 10 nice sized fish and had
another 10 on, 9 chinook salmon and 1 brown trout. Fishing still has been very good the last few
days despite some reports of slow fishing for others.

July 19 '06
We finished in 2nd place this year for the Women's Powder Puff Derby and also took 5th place
for the Coho category.  The Powder Puff Derby is put on annually the 3rd Wed. of July each year
by The Wharf on Sheboygan's riverfront. We fished offshore in 100' to 135' of water just south of
Sheboygan, and ended our morning with 10 fish being boated and lost 5 others. We had a nice
mixed bag of chinook, rainbows, a coho, and one lake trout.  Most fish were suspended in the top
50' of water despite the warm water temps. A combination of spoons and dodger flys in a mix of
whites, greens, and orange.

Tonight we tried to fish the same school of fish we had this morning offshore, but with the strong
south-east winds that have been blowing all day there was a nice 3 to 4 foot chop that was a little
hard on our crews stomach. We opted to give the harbor area a try since there were much calmer
conditions and favorable water conditions. This proved to be a good call, and we managed to get
4 more big chinook salmon into the boat before calling it a night with 5 chinook boated and 4
others that got lucky and got away.

July 16 '06
This morning we fished part of a 3 boat group, working the same water as the last few days in 70'
to 90'. We ended up with 8 nice sized fish which was enough for our group to win their friendly
competition amongst the rest of the group.

Tonight we fished the same area and boated 13 more chinook and rainbows.

July 15 '06
This morning we fished 60' to 80' of water around the north ship wreck,and worked our way
south from there down to just east of the power plant. We ended the morning with a mixed bag of
18 fish. Fishing has been just outstanding all season and today was no different, as we had another
great night and boated 12 more nice sized fish in the same area offshore in 60' to 80' off of the
power plant

July 15 '06
It has been an outstanding season this year, great numbers of fish, and nice healthy fish which have
been putting on plenty of weight for the last few months. With a bumper crop of alewives this
years and the great perch spawn last summer, the fish have had plenty of food and have been
packing on the weight.

I will have to say I'm sorry I have not been able to keep up with this report like I would have liked
to, but we have been busy getting the finishing touches done on the boat and fishing, fishing, fishing.
 

May 17 ' 06
The remodeling is done, and its time to get to fishing ! Fishing has been very good the last few
days, and with nice numbers of chinook salmon this early in the year it looks like it will be another
great season.
HI-TECH
Charters
of
Sheboygan, WI

Lake Michigan
charter fishing at
its best !
HI-TECH
Charters
of
Sheboygan, WI

Lake Michigan
charter fishing at
its best !
HI-TECH
Charters
of
Sheboygan, WI

Lake Michigan
charter fishing at
its best !
While enjoying everything Sheboygan has to offer,

Experience Lake Michigan Charter Fishing at it's finest,
with
HI-TECH Charters of Sheboygan Wisconsin


Located on the scenic Riverfront Boardwalk of the Sheboygan River
HI-TECH Charters
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Last modified: 4/24/13
2012 Powder Puff Derby. 4th place overall, and 4th place king salmon