HAWG-TIDE Charter Fishing Frankfort & Traverse City

Frankfort Fishing Report 9/8/10:
King and coho salmon have been coming from East Platte Bay!  We took the past few groups up to the bay for some pretty good fishing.  Best baits were plugs on 5 to 15 colors of lead core.  Stinger NBK and Dolphin pattern mag spoons on riggers 45-75 down.  Temp has been around 50 feet. The south bank has been best but watch out for the tribal trap net buoy lines.  It appears that there are about 4-5 different net sets in the bay.

Traverse City Fishing Report 9/8/10:
East Grand Traverse Bay has had very good catches of kings and lake trout.  We have been fishing the south bank in about 100-120 fow.  Also the “Yuba” bank has been good. Best bites have definitely been first and last light. Plugs on copper lines out 350 to 500 and also meat rigs on wire divers out 200-250.
West Grand Traverse Bay has also been catching good numbers of salmon.  Troll the “Hole” early in the morning or get away from the boat traffic by fishing the “Red 8″ buoy to the north.

Frankfort Fishing Report 8/22/10:
“BIG” kings have been getting caught out of Frankfort this past weekend. We have been fishing shallower water (finally!). Anywhere from 50-90 fow.  Kings have been coming on riggers with plugs 50-80 down and on divers with meat rigs 123-150 out.  These three 18 pounders were caught just south of the harbor in 85 fow on Sunday. Benzy Frenzy starts Friday. Good luck to all teams!

Traverse City Fishing Report 8/22/10:
East Grand Traverse Bay- Kings are moving into the bays.  Anywhere from  90-150 fow.  Stinger magnum glow spoons in the morning have been very productive.  Also still catching unlimited amounts of nice size lake trout.  Traverse City Salmon Classic starts Friday the 3rd.

Frankfort Fishing Report 8/15/2010:

Thank you SOUTH LYON CATHOLIC CHURCH group! Teams Hawg-Tide, Netminder and Sandpiper took out a large fishing group this past weekend.  We fished in front of Arcadia Bluffs golf course. Great catches of kings were brought in by all.  We were fishing in about 100-130 fow.  Downriggers with all glow plugs seemed to be the ticket fished 70, 80 and 90 down. We were also using 2 colors of lead-core on our out-down riggers.  Meat rigs out 225 on wire divers also worked well.

Frankfort Fishing Report: 8/10/10

King Salmon fishing out of Frankfort in at its prime!! We went 19-22 last night on all nice size kings. Average size about 15 pounds. Our best depth of water was 130 foot.  We were targeting the 75 foot range.  Very good temp break at about 70.  Best baits were green/glow plugs on riggers using Stinger pancake cannonballs. Meat rigs with red teasers caught several fish.  They were fished on wire divers out 180-220. The time is now to fish Frankfort!!

-Captain Andy

Frankfort fishing report 7/27/10:

18 Pound King!

Team Hawgtide fished this past weekend out of Onekama for the “Best of the Best” tournament and the Manistee “Big Boys” tournament.  Finished 7th and 10th places.  These were both “no-cull” events.  Targeting only big fish is a must!  We caught all of our fish all days but had too many small fish mixed into our catch.  Best baits for mature kings were meat rigs on divers out 200-350 feet.  Also “J-plugs” on 400-500 foot copper rigs.  Stinger 24 pound cannonball down 200 foot worked for several fish.  125 to 220 fow was the most productive location. 50 degree water was down about 90 foot.

Frankfort Fishing Report: 7/13/2010

King salmon fishing is really heating up off of Frankfort. The past few days found nice catches of kings and lake trout.  My best action has been in 120-170 fow fishing 90 down on riggers. Stinger magnum spoons (Dolphin, Mongoose patterns) have been good. Wire divers out 250-300′ using a white Pro-Troll flasher with a Rapture Hypnotist fly took several bites. 400 foot copper rig with a 4oz Dive-Bomb caught some bigger kings using a pearl plug.

GTASFA weekly league will be in Leland Wednesday from 6:30 to 9pm.

Capt. Andy
Hawg-Tide Sportfishing Charters

Frankfort Fishing Report 6/28/10:
King salmon are coming down deep!  We have found our fish 100 to 200 down on riggers.  Water temps have been 63 on the surface and around 50 at 100-110 down. This past weekend our best bait was the Stinger “Modified Carmel Dolphin” spoon. Most action came straight out front in 130-200 fow and north. Uncle Sam Shootout tournament this Sunday. Check out www.GTASFA.com for info.

Traverse City Fishing Report:
Mature salmon are starting to get caught on a regular basis in both bays. 400 to 600 copper rigs have worked well. Very nice size lakers as well are being caught just about anywhere.  Troll the drop-offs in 100-150 fow. Trout like a slower troll 1.5-2 mph.
Cherry festival starts this Saturday!

Frankfort fishing report: 6/1/10
Fished this past weekend out of Arcadia in the Onekama Shakedown Tournament.  Fishing was slooowww!!  Our best bites came 17-20 miles offshore.   We found some colder water (48-49 degrees) and boxed 3 steelhead, 2 lake trout and a few small kings. The inshore bite for kings was extremely tough (probably due to the 7 am start time ).  We ended up 8th place with the ladies on Friday and 7th place for the main tourney.

Traverse City East Bay fishing report: 6/2/10
Finished 2nd place in the GTASFA weekly fishing league last night.  We set up for lake trout in about 30-50 fow and picked away on them all night.  Most trout came on 3-7 colors of leadcore. All spoons. The big surprise was a that we caught a nice 11 pound king on a 3 color leadcore right at dark.  It took 2nd to a 14 pound king! Several 4 year old salmon were caught.  Hats off to GTASFA net pen stocking program (in its 4th year, by the way!) TC trout this Saturday.

Frankfort: 5/16/10
Water temps have been very cold do to a week of east winds.  Sunday the 16th surface temps were 44-45 degrees.  Ran a trip in the morning and manage to catch just a handful of lake trout.  No salmon!  We fished the bank in 100-130 fow.  Trout were coming close to the bottom.  Standard trout program.  Cowbells and dodgers… Salmon are very close to Frankfort. The boys in Manistee have been catching salmon. This week of south winds should bring them up.

Traverse City. West Bay: 5/17/10
Lake trout in the shallows!  Trolling with short cores anywhere from 25-50 fow has been good and this will only get better.  Water temps are 45-49 degrees today. Spoons with orange and gold have worked for us.