# Pere Marquette Michigan Salmon question



## jfarkas

Hello, we are heading up to Lundington MI on Sept 28th and will be hitting Pere Marquette lake for Salmon. What lure do you typically use for that lake. I know to use fake eggs and a hook for the river systems there but would you use the same thing for the lake or would you use a spoon or something? Ive never salmon fished before so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks


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## Weekender#1

Well if you are going out on the lake like a couple of miles to the 150 foot depths, you will be using spoons/flys on downrigger. If you are trolling up by the pier heads for staging Salmon you will be using J-plugs generally speaking. In the river take some #2 round bend treble hooks, one ounce bell sinkers and some orange yarn or beads to represent eggs, have that stuff with you and you will figure it out. At that time most of the fish will be in the rivers on the beds.


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## SteveinCanton

Spoons and crankbaits work great in the lake either trolling or casting.


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## Saugeye Tom

when I fish the pond i use dipsys and small j plugs,spoons. Its better to run up to the light house. Spoons (northport nailer) and dipsys. A small boat will do. They feed good there. Tom 

the light house I ment was betsie point 5 miles north of the pm pond by boat only


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## dstiner86

that's a beautiful area up there.. go up every July.. seen a lot of ppl fishing salmon in the channel and actually seen a few salmon down in the water out near the light house... and if u never been and want some amazing seafood..check out bortelles its between ludington and pentwater .. i can get fat off that place
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## Weekender#1

I second Bortelli's fish house. You can sit in the yard picnic tables and eat or take out but no tables or waitresses. But simply outstanding fish, one of the more unique places you will go to.


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## dstiner86

bortelles always one of the reason i cant wait to go back.. and the Norwegian smoked salmon there.. amazing!!. happy fishing too.. seen 4 huge northerns pulled out of bass lake.. if u get away from pere for awhile. ..they where hitting white and green spinners 

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## Saugeye Tom

Saugeye Tom said:


> when I fish the pond i use dipsys and small j plugs,spoons. Its better to run up to the light house. Spoons (northport nailer) and dipsys. A small boat will do. They feed good there. Tom
> 
> the light house I ment was betsie point 5 miles north of the pm pond by boat only


(change the light house)


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## RODSABENDIN

In the pond, J-plugs seem to be the best behind dipsys or riggers 17 to 23 down. Watch your depths closely ( there are some old docks and sand bars in there). Fish clear up to the Pier heads if you can. Red headed J, Green ladder back glow J, Chrome J.

Are you only fishing from a small boat?


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## jfarkas

Thanks for the info everyone. Ill post the result when I get back.

Thanks


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## AlwaysFishNTime

Me and a buddy are heading up to Ludington on August 30 and coming back Sept 3rd. I am so glad I came across the post and so glad most the guys are here are cool enough to post helpful information. Thanks to all who share information. I read the boards a lot but post very little and I think I need to change that. Anyway......

We are dragging my 16' Ranger deep V up with us in hopes that we can get into the fish stacked up at the mouth of the PM our out int he lake. We have had luck in the past up inthe lower portion of the river while bank fishing using firetiger or chrome colored Rapala Shad Raps in #7, 8 and 9 and Storm Deep Thunderstick Jr's. 

I want to thank everyone for the information and it looks like I need to place one more Cabela's order and get a few J-plugs and put a rush on the shipping. 

Good luck jfarkas and I will try to post how we do in hopes that I can help someone else.

Thanks again everyone for all the info. This website is the best.


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## jfarkas

Can a 17 foot semi V bass boat make it up the river at all from the Pere Marquette Lake? Does anyone know?


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## Saugeye Tom

jfarkas said:


> Can a 17 foot semi V bass boat make it up the river at all from the Pere Marquette Lake? Does anyone know?


only up to the first bridge. take her out on the big lake, mine does fine. the waves are usally big rollers


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## dstiner86

Biggest thing I've seen go up the river any in all my years going up there is a canoe ..

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## Bucket Mouth

A group I used to go with would go a good click upstream in a jon boat. It gets to be pretty skinny water with some stiff current and whole lot of wood in the water (roots and downed trees). Lots of pinch points too.


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## AlwaysFishNTime

I know this is a long post but please give it time. I think/hope it is packed with good to know information. 

Well my buddy and I just got back from Ludington last night (Monday, Sept 3rd). All I can say is what a trip but not for good reasons. We fished the along the rivers edge near the bridge on the Pere Marquette highway the first evening up there (Thursday August 30th.) No luck throwing spoons, Thundersticks and ShadRaps that first night of fishing from 7pm until 11:30pm. 

Took my 16' Ranger deep V out into the Marquette Lake late morning on Friday. We trolled for 4-5 hours because that's what everyone else was doing. Around 5pm we decided to go check out the mouth of the river and try fishing there. We kind of "pushed" our way up into the pack of boats, and got several dirty looks while doing it. We started casting the same lures as we did in the river. Fished until 11:30pm or so and we ended up having 1 fish each. One went 15 lbs and the other 12.5 lbs. We had another fish or two on but not landed yet we considered that a successful day. 

So on after watching boats (mostly flat-bottom river jet boats) going up and back down through the mouth of the river, my buddy talked me into trying to get my boat up river in my boat. I reluctantly agreed to give it a try. I trimmed the motor way up and gave it the ole college try but we could not make it. The bottom of the boat kept dragging because the silt and sand was less then 18" below the water surface at the deepest spot right at the mouth of the river. After the failed attempt, I immediately noticed that my 90hp Merc motor was not spraying water from the water pump discharge. This concerned me but instead of wasting a day trying to get it fixed, we decided to go ahead and fish and worry about it tomorrow. Despite either of us not landing a fish, we had 6 or 7 hook-ups and I lost 4 lures to break-offs. Yeah, brand new 30 lb Fireline braid.... SNAP!!! I was totally shocked. Not once, or twice but 4 times. Someone upstream will find a few nice ShadRaps and a few green and glo spoons hanging off a few fish. 

Skunked Sunday too after using an air compressor to blow backwards through my motor, the waterpump was again discharging water when we arrived at the ramp that morning. My buddy did talk me into letting him drag my boat up river while wearing his wadders on that day. We got all the way up to the first bridge before stopping and fishing that hole for several hours. It was not easy but we did it. I used the trolling motor to get up upstream and had to lift it up many times because it was buried in mud or gravel. Many fish whirling at the surface and jumping but no takers for our lures at the first bridge. 

Monday morning we had the same luck as the previous 2 days before heading out of town around 10:00am. That is not the worst of it. I know many of you are Ohio State fans much like me and my budddy and you would probably not stop in Ann Arbor unless your vehicle broke down but my budy wanted to stop at Five Guys for a burger. Anyway, all of my tackle got stolen while we were witting into eating. They took all 4 of my Okuma trolling rods/reel combos that I got from Erie Outfitters (I need to call Craig for replacement costs) and my 2 huge tackle bags. Right now I estimate they got me for somewhere between $2000 and $2500. 20-years of lure "collecting" or aquiring, GONE in just a few minutes. Heck I don't even have enough tackle to take my 8 y.o. boy down to the river or pond to go bluegill fishing. So although not catching fish got us down, that was nothing compared to the feeling we had when we noticed EVERYTHING was picked from the boat. I would highly recommend inventorying everything you take on a trip in case something like this happens to you hope this is helpful to someone in more ways then one. Even taking a few pictures of your tackle in the boxes is enough to jog your memory on everything you had in those bags. Sure wish I would have done that. So now I just need to make a huge list of everything I lost, fill out a police report online, keep an eye out on Craigs List for my stuff under an Ann Arbor listing. 

Well folks, time to hit the hay. I hope this helps.


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## Bucket Mouth

Man, that is a horrible ending to a rough trip. I hope you get your stuff back and a chance to Chuck Norris roundhouse kick someone in the adams apple for pilfering your stuff. I despise thieves more than just about anything.


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## dstiner86

Dang man that really is a crap end to a fishing trip.. Im always worried about my stuff getting yanked out of my car.. Hopefully you can get some justice to whatever thieves got your stuff or least get some of it back if not all.

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## dtigers1984

Wow, that was a bad ending to the trip. I find myself not wanting to get out of sight of my boat when I'm on a trip. If I stop someplace to eat, I make sure that I can see the boat from where I sit.

I just got back from Manistee, and did really well trolling the "little" lake with mag Wiggle Warts.


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## ReelPower

$&@)$& that sucks sorry about the thieves, maybe a different buddy is in order to change your luck. Drift into a pack of harbor salmon trollers while casting and you are instantly "that guy".

P.s. Kings love crappy knots...use uni knot for braid.

P.p.s. make an auto insurance claim ASAP if value of stolen goods is significantly more than your deductible.


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