Water 77 degrees and green in main lake, visibility 1 foot
Water 73.5 degrees in channel, visibility 3 to 4 feet
Scattered floating weeds in main lake, not a huge problem
Bait not dense anywhere but scattered, heaviest in 15 to 18 feet off edges
Fished 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Weather cloudy early, sun breaking through later
Was going to be another drum day, but the weather was too good to pass up so I broke out the muskie gear. No hits except one trolling rip which may have been a drum body. Pretty nice environment for a fish to be in the channel, cooler water, plenty of bait, lots of water movement (sloshing into Lake Mac early, then strongly out to Lake Michigan later).
Those boats are after perch in 30 to 40 feet of water, although they are sometimes deeper than that. This is another factor which could hold a muskie in the area. There was an article in yesterday's Holland Sentinel about a guy named Dick Griffin whose boat has taken limits of perch for 42 straight trips this year, fishing mainly out of South Haven, Grand Haven, and Muskegon.
Oops, forgot to address the salmon question. There is a brief run of salmon up the channel and into Lake Mac for a short distance, that takes place over 2 or 3 days in general around September 10. It has been as early as Aug. 31 and as late as Sept. 22 depending on the temperature. You can take them trolling deep crankbaits or however you can present a bait in the lower half of the water column. I have hooked them jigging a blade bait, which is a rush. You would think that these fish would pile up at the east end of the lake going into the Macatawa River but I've never done anything at all down there personally. The farthest east we have contacted a salmon is the narrows at the middle of the lake. Some fish have to ascend the river since we have seen some smaller fish way up in the tributaries in October.
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