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Took my pop with me for the first time on my boat and 2 of my brothers. Spending the day together was worth it, but I'll tell you I was very humbled by the lake yesterday. Since I begain salmon fishing earlier this year I have been doing okay and even having some really awesome days. Yesterday was not one of them, fished for 6 hrs and went 0 for 0, not a single bite. Pulled the lines one time and searched out deeper and then in closer, just could not find any fish. Found a few spots with a little bait but no fish around, couldn't even get a laker to bite. Oh and I am not even going to mention the flies and tangles....never had a worse day kept tangling?? Maybe currents?

But enough of that, like I said it was awesome to spend some time with dad and my brothers and it was nice out and flat and that is really all I need!

My question - when you have days like that what is your approach? Do you pull lines and search and search until you find fish? Change up your spread (we weren't marking much at all) or just enjoy the day on the water?

We fished northwest out of st joe in 75-150 fow, talked to guy at the launch he went straight out 80-120 fow and 5 for 5 cohos and lakers.

Hopefully next time will be better!

Mojo,

First, thank you for the report even on a tough day, a lot of people wouldn't post a day a like that but the information still helps. Next, I started fishing St Joe in 2013 and I am still figuring it out. It is a different fishery than say Portage Indiana. St Joe has deep water access relatively close to shore (vs portage) and a main river outflow, which are assets but also a learning process.

I have found the currents can be extreme in St Joe sometimes which can create tough fishing and like you said tangles on your gear. A probe for speed at depth helps a ton along with learning to watch your rigger cables and diver rod bends. For the most part I know the speed I am running is good based on these 2 angles. I do use GPS speed and have used probe speed also, but if you can learn to see your angles on the cables and diver rods then you'll know your running a good speed. Sometimes my gps is as high as mid 3's in St Joe in order to achieve the desired lure speed.

When you are tangling gear and/ or boards are running funky even though your heading has not changed you know the current is strong. You can also check the cook power plant buoy as it is in 60 FOW . This buoy tells you temp every 5 feet I believe, wave height and, CURRENT speed/ direction. I check this buoy every time and during fishing too.

Overall St Joe is a great fishery that requires some time to learn how to proparly fish it. The assets of deep water access are great but also that hinders radio use and most people communicate on phones there. Typical year at St Joe is as follows:

April = coho in close or 200 fow plus eating freshwater shrimp offshore.
May = coho and kings in 60 - 100 fow
June = coho, steelies random kings 80 - 150 fow
July = Skamina Steelhead in close (pier heads) which can be great fishing! Lots of them stocked in St Joe. or Offshore 80 - 150 fow for Lakers, Kings, Steelies
August = Lakers, some Kings and Coho coming back and steelies
September = Lakers, 2 yr old Kings and some steelies around
October = 2 yr old kings and some steelies around

Keep at it, learn how to fish St Joe and you'll have some great days throughout the yr. When getting to deep water is a must in the summer, St Joe is a great port for that.

Tight lines,

Tim

Thanks for the report! I still get blanked sometimes even when I throw the kitchen sink at them. Then I’ll read a report from someone who nailed the same day but have been on the other end of that also. It happens. Hang in there.

Tmik34,

Such an informative post, thank you for sharing that wealth of information! I did notice the lack of any radio chatter, and I could not find any other boats out, so I am assuming they went straight out or southwest from port. I know I have a lot to learn and yesterday was one of those days that quickly reminded me.

I am printing this post and will keep it in my log book for reference next time I fish St Joe.

Appreciate the input!

No problem, happy to help. Feel free to PM me with any questions. Before we moved the boat to St Joe, I fished every where from Waukegan to Michigan City and everywhere in between. Once we started fishing St Joe more I had days just like you so don't feel bad its a part of the learning process. When you have a great day you'll appreciate the work you did to make it happen.

We went out last saturday and got a couple of kings and lost a couple of kings as well as a dink laker and a decent size laker (lakers got thrown back). The funny part is that we just decided to run out to where we saw a few other boats and where it looked like the mud line ended. We started trolling to get out deeper and ended up right on the same spots as we had marked from last year. It was totally by coincidence but we found it amusing that we ended up on top of our old marks.
We had a couple of small tangles and for some of the time we had rigger lines both off to one side and for a while we had both rigger lines going to the center of the boat (they were about 40' different depths) which told me there were two currents running at different depths. As someone said, its a strange part of the lake to fish with currents but also a great place to get to some nice fish without have to travel for 20 miles off shore.
I am bad about not changing up lures a lot. I am getting better but I often think I would have better success if I was switching lures constantly. also I have learned to follow the advice of - don't leave fish to find fish. Also I am getting better at documenting my trips; what I was fishing at what depths, speeds, etc etc. try to keep a detailed log of each trip; come next year you will appreciate having it.

Don’t feel bad it happens. First I like to have a level of confidence there are fish there. Sometimes i just want to try so after 2-2.5 hrs no fish time to go home. I have unlimited things to get done so if fish aren’t cooperating I’m out. Lol. Glad you had some quality time with your brother!!