We start out the season by offering fishing trips in late March/early April (weather permitting) on Grand Traverse Bay. Dressing appropriately for the weather is key to having an enjoyable experience in April. We always recommend dressing in layers as the temperature can vary quite drastically this time of year in a short amount of time. Especially in the mornings! On cooler days, we will have a heater onboard to warm up in between catching fish. Booking a trip during the middle of the day is a good suggestion for peak sun exposure and added warmth. Also, the middle of the day can offer the best fishing window as the warming water can trigger fish to bite. Fishing in spring is a great activity to get over the winter blues by getting family and friends out of the house and ending the day with fresh caught fish for dinner. In April, you will have the opportunity to catch Lake Trout, Whitefish, Cisco, Burbot, Brown Trout, Steelhead, and even Smallmouth Bass.

As we make our way into the month of May, we turn our focus to the shoreline as the warming water will draw in Cisco and Lake Trout. This is a great time of year if you're looking for more of a hands-on charter fishing experience. On most days, we will be casting blade baits towards the shoreline and retrieving the lure back to the boat with you anticipating that tug on every cast. It's a lot of fun! We can offer this type of fishing trip starting in April and will last till the end of June. If you're looking for more of a kickback and relax while waiting to reel in your next fish type of trip, then your typical charter trolling trip is available all season. Anytime of the fishing season that we are available for charters is a good time to troll. We can offer a trolling fishing trip with success as soon as we can make it out on the water to when the snow starts coming down at the end of the year. Here in Michigan we are legally able to have out 3 rods a person and we can achieve that when we troll as compared to having one rod in your hand when casting/jigging. Most people tend to request a trolling fishing trip as we do all the work for you and all you have to do is reel the fish in!

Approaching summer, the water will get too warm near shore and will push fish out deeper into the bay in search of cooler water. When this happens we are able to offer our other hands-on charter fishing trip, which is vertical jigging for Lake Trout. Jigging is a fun way to target Lake Trout and is gaining popularity here in Northern Michigan. Some of these Lake Trout that we hook into are over 20lbs (average 6-12 pounds). As you drop your jig from the boat, you can watch it fall in detail on the massive 15" Humminbird graph on the center console and a 10" graph on the bow to depths of over a 100'. We start offering Lake Trout jigging trips in June and will last to the end of September. Lake Trout season in the bay will be closed on October 1st and we switch over to Cisco for the remainder of the season. Disclaimer: Typically, we catch more fish throughout the season trolling vs. jigging/casting as their is a learning curve and technique that we will have to teach you. We also recommend smaller groups if jigging is the preferred method. If there are more than 3 people on the boat, we will be taking turns jigging and reeling in fish.

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Salmon start to trickle their way into the bay in July, but we don't get good fishable numbers until August. These fishing trips are trolling only and peak season for Salmon is from the middle of August to the middle of September. These hard fighting fish test our equipment, break lines, and test your arm strength. The average weight of a salmon we catch here is between 15-25lbs! There have been fish caught in the bay that have reached over 30lbs in the last couple of years with a state record 47.86lbs king caught in 2021, just a few ports south of Grand Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan.