There’s nothing like Michigan’s King Salmon run to get the adrenaline pumping. Typically 12-20 pounds, these brutes fresh out of the Great Lakes are an awesome challenge in the lower rivers. Each run is very unique, driven by lake temperatures, weather patterns, rainfall, and the numbers of fish in the big lakes. We use fly rods and spinning tackle depending on the conditions and angler preference. The action starts in mid-August and continues into October.
Mid August: Streamer time is about here! Typically by mid August there are some bright silver Kings in the river. Here are some of our top August salmon streamers. Our Great Lakes Deceiver & Murdich Minnows are two of our top streamers for trophy trout and salmon. These colors are very effective on early run Kings – Chart/White Glow, Green/White and Fire Tiger. This time of year is just a great time for river and shoreline streamer action! I have put a lot of time the last few years into targeting fresh King Salmon and the streamer we sell are the proven patterns that are in my boat. These and some of our other top salmon streamers are now in stock and can be purchased online at Great Lakes Deceivers.
September: Here are our 2 best methods for hard biting Kings! 1) Streamer fishing with a sink tip and large streamer or fishing Thundersticks on spinning rod. Got to love both method as they will produce very hard aggressive hits. The King above I caught using a Winston 9′ 9wt Nexus fly rod with a Airflo 320 grain Streamer Max sink tip fly line and a Murdich Minnow in Chartruse/glow. 2) If you’re in the mood to throw a spinning rod, we can also chase kings with a TFO 8’6′ 8-17lb spinning rod with 20lb power pro baid and Jr Thunderstick in fire tiger.
