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Gone fishin’

Upper Peninsula

• Keweenaw Bay: Those trolling in shallow waters had nice catches of coho, brown trout and splake. Most were using a flasher/fly combo, spoons or stick baits. Most of the fish were still tight with spawn so look for fish pushing up into the river soon.

• Marquette: Had a couple days of decent weather and a few boat anglers were out targeting lake trout and salmon between the Lower Harbor and the “white rocks” area. Most caught lake trout in 30 to 70 feet including a few limit catches. Salmon fishing was slow with only a few Chinook and coho picked up. The end of the breakwall in the Lower Harbor has been a hot spot with anglers getting a fair number of lake trout along with the occasional coho and steelhead. The lake trout have just started spawning so if the weather cooperates there should be a few more chances for anglers to get out and catch more fish. The Carp, Dead, and Chocolay Rivers had meager reports with only a few coho, steelhead and brown trout caught. The coho still look very fresh and many have not spawned so we may see another good push of fish in the rivers soon.

• Little Bay De Noc: Had walleye and smallmouth bass anglers. The best walleye catches were at night in 18 to 40 feet when trolling stick baits from the Gladstone Bay area south to the Escanaba lighthouse. The better bass catches were from the “Black Bottom” to Farmers Dock with plastics or minnows in 15 to 30 feet.

• Big Bay De Noc: Had smallmouth bass anglers fishing a little more south from Sand Bay to the Burnt Bluff area. Catch rates were good with minnows in 12 to 25 feet.

• Munising: In general, things have been slow as most anglers were averaging four hours or more to catch one or two fish. There has not been a good coho run. Catch rates for splake were down as well but those trolling within the bay did catch some fish. Most have now winterized their boats.

• Grand Marais: The only action had been some steelhead reported off the mouth of the Sucker River. Those surf-casting were using spoons or spawn. Some young small fish had been caught which is good news of a possible year class coming up.

• Drummond Island: A few yellow perch are still being caught at Ashman Island which is straight west of Scott Bay. Try shiners or small worms a foot off the bottom in 12 to 14 feet. On the calm days, smallmouth bass were caught just off Bruce Point. Anglers were using an orange artificial tube jig with black spots while jigging along the rock piles in four to six feet.

• Cedarville and Hessel: There was no fishing effort from Cedarville Bay. There were no reports of any perch caught from the finger docks at the Hessel Marina.

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