TOPIC:

With the water temp in the 30º - 40º I thought the Coho would be out but we are lucky to pick up one or two a day. Are they still up in the creeks or out in deeper water. This has been a strange year as far as the weather.

Deeper water is my guess. Mid lake has held warmer water temps than nearshore thus far. That will change though.

WI from what i hear....

Out deep 200+ is a pocket of warmer water left over because of the mild winter. Reports of them eating shrimp again like last yr.

Tmik34 wrote:

Out deep 200+ is a pocket of warmer water left over because of the mild winter. Reports of them eating shrimp again like last yr.

Long ride to get 200' from Portage

Yes it sure is. My first full trip last yr I shot out right to 210 and setup there. Caught coho from 110 down to surface. Granted thats only 10 miles out of st joe where i fish.

200 feet is a long run from any Indiana port. But with a good forecast of 1 to 3 you will find me out there if I have to go there to catch silver. Lakers are fun and all but the fun starts to wear off after they leave there near shore spanning locations.

SAFTEY- should be the biggest thing on a boaters mind when going deep. A south wind from shore looks like for us a great lake to boat on. But when your in 200ft and that south wind starts to pick up, it is no longer a peaceful day. Makes for a long ride home fighting waves that are from the south and building and have no distance between them. If for some reason you have trouble and need to anchor instead of drifting. You would need min. 600 feet of anchor line or more depending on wave conditions.

Yea I usually dont venture offshore until the water warms up some - 50's+- never know what can go wrong out there.

I should be more carful how I post things now that we have a wide diverse group of guys now. Meaning we have guys with a lot of experience and guys with virtually none. Which is a great thing. If I ever went out to 200' with the water temps in the mid to low 40s or colder. It would have to be on the right day and I would not launch out of an Indiana port. While at the same time I would not go alone. I would wait to go with someone else I know while there are multiple other boats out there. Safety is huge on our boat. Just about every situation that could ever happen has been role played on what we would do in that particular situation. Hell I have been considering buying a cold water survival suite.