Hello, my efforts at all of the little things and dialing in the boat are beginning to pay off. On Monday June 16, 2025, THE Top Dog and his crew (Captain Mike Shine & Tony Boshold) beat a field of seasoned Captains and others in the annual Zillion fishing tournament held out of Belmont Harbor. We caught all 5 species of fish Brown Trout, King Salmon, Coho or Silver Salmon, Lake Trout and Skamania steelhead or Rainbow Trout, to take first place. We also won for catching the largest King Salmon. Our plan came together on the right day and we smoked the field. One veteran Captain stated that he had been doing this tournament since 2012 and that a boat had never gotten all five species since he's been doing it. So we are grateful to the Dragon fly (that came and landed on my hand and gave us a little positive luck), and of course to the fish gods we take a bow! We started at the R4 where surface water and down temps appeared perfect, and the fish were there and biting. We fished 50 to 80 FOW made a couple turns around the R4 and then headed east to deeper water to search for big Lake Trout and Rainbows (90 to 120 FOW) where we found both. We had our catch by 10:30 am and only needed to upgrade, which we did on the Lake Trout. We went back to the R4 on Wednesday and in a couple hours 2 of us, boated 8 coho, again today (Friday morning) we were 9 for about 13, 8 coho and 1 Rainbow. NBK, stubby dodgers, and moonshine lures were all good. Fish were biting from surface down to 50 feet. However the surface water temp is getting very warm, I'm sure it will push the majority of fish deeper soon, unless cooler water gets pushed in? Good luck out there and remember safety is number one.

Hello, my efforts at all of the little things and dialing in the boat are beginning to pay off. On Monday June 16, 2025, THE Top Dog and his crew (Captain Mike Shine & Tony Boshold) beat a field of seasoned Captains and others in the annual Zillion fishing tournament held out of Belmont Harbor. We caught all 5 species of fish Brown Trout, King Salmon, Coho or Silver Salmon, Lake Trout and Skamania steelhead or Rainbow Trout, to take first place. We also won for catching the largest King Salmon. Our plan came together on the right day and we smoked the field. One veteran Captain stated that he had been doing this tournament since 2012 and that a boat had never gotten all five species since he's been doing it. So we are grateful to the Dragon fly (that came and landed on my hand and gave us a little positive luck), and of course to the fish gods we take a bow! We started at the R4 where surface water and down temps appeared perfect, and the fish were there and biting. We fished 50 to 80 FOW made a couple turns around the R4 and then headed east to deeper water to search for big Lake Trout and Rainbows (90 to 120 FOW) where we found both. We had our catch by 10:30 am and only needed to upgrade, which we did on the Lake Trout. We went back to the R4 on Wednesday and in a couple hours 2 of us, boated 8 coho, again today (Friday morning) we were 9 for about 13, 8 coho and 1 Rainbow. NBK, stubby dodgers, and moonshine lures were all good. Fish were biting from surface down to 50 feet. However the surface water temp is getting very warm, I'm sure it will push the majority of fish deeper soon, unless cooler water gets pushed in? Good luck out there and remember safety is number one.

The silvers are transitioning (4 yr olds prepping to spawn), moving. Therefore it became difficult to catch many silver fish offshore in one trip. Most Captains out of Chicago are targeting Lake Trout now, and we are lucky to get a few silvers, if we do its usually 3 yr old or less salmon and misc browns / steelhead. This started the last week in August, I'm writing this review on 9-4-24. The main bite right now is Lake Trout (2 per person max). The waters on top are warm so they will die once taken aboard the boat. At this point if you catch a couple salmon or other silver fish (rainbows, browns) consider yourself lucky (this is out of Chicago). Its best to head in after catching your lake trout (LT) limit so that you don't kill any (LT) by releasing them. Lake trout are pretty deep right now 80 to 130 FOW plus. Biting on silver flashers and spin and glos and/ fly's. There are a few silver fish around but not many. Trolling slow works great for trout 1.9 to 2.2 but if you keep it a little faster you might luck into some salmon. The photo added here was a great catch last weekend of August, a Grand Slam, 5 species... King / Coho salmon, Brown, Lake and Rainbow Trout. Good luck out there. Salmon may start to show up around the harbor mouths soon. I'm planning to fish them with loud ugly looking lures to entice a bite. Shore fisherman have begun to catch a king here or there. Once the water cools off near shore the steelhead and browns will likely follow the kings in close. You can't catch em if you don't try, so get outdoors and Capt JB