Salmon on top?

Allen

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So I was sitting here reading some of the salmon reports and something struck me. A couple years ago I took the kids out on the pontoon to throw lures at salmon in the shallows. This would have been pretty early in Sept and the salmon were rolling around in less than 30 ft of water at the top of the water column, so we saw a lot of fish. Yet we couldn't get them to take our offerings (spoons, raps, spinners, etc).

What are the salmon doing at the water surface in early Sept? I'd assume eating, but I couldn't figure out exactly what they were chasing.
 


Migrator Man

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Spawn sacks could work great. Another option is to ball up some velveta on a hook under a bobber. Trout go crazy for the stuff so salmon might too.
 

Allen

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Hmm, I am pretty sure it was still a few weeks ahead of the big spawn run.

Cheese? I have never heard of using cheese outside of chasing catfish. Who woulda thunk…


Still curious as to what they are doing/eating when I see them swirling at the surface. It doesn't exactly seem like fly season, but I know nothing on fly fishing.

- - - Updated - - -

Any idea when the salmon will start being seen up near the emergency outlet of Sak? Am I still a couple weeks too early to be thinking of trying it?
 


guywhofishes

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they are about to bust a nut for the first and only time of their lives

they’re probably stretching, practicing their moves, lounging/resting getting ready for the big show

I would be :)
 

Sum1

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I have seen them porpoising like crazy and no one catching a damn thing. Then there have been times when there is no surface activity and you whack the hell out of them. Have caught way more on lures then I have on egg sacks. I have no answers. I have also heard they don’t feed in the fall when the go shallow but have caught one with a Cisco tail sticking out of its gullet. I have had them take a crank off the surface on more than one occasion. Some years spoons work better than cranks the next year it’s cranks. This is all I know. Salmon piss me off.
 

JayKay

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Usually their stomachs are all but gone, when caught in the fall. I don't think that they're eating. They seem to be more "hitting at things in front of them". Like, aggressive behavior.

Cranks, spoons, and big dressed Mepps spinners work. the Mepps cast well in the wind.

Leaders are important. They're toothy buggers, and usually right along with them, you'll find pickerels.
 

MSA

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The lake turns over every year around labor day weekend, that's when the salmon start running shallower. Labor day weekend is when I start casting for them.
 


Chefwayne33

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I grew up in a town called two rivers in Wisconsin, it’s east border is Lake Michigan, I did a lot of salmon fishing and come the few weeks prior to their run up the river they would be stacked outside the harbors(or going shallow as they do here) they aren’t eating anything, they are attacking anything and everything that could stop them from doing their thing. It’s crazy seeing a salmon chase an alewife 20 ft on top the water, we use to throw out colored marshmallows and get em, they love attacking spawn sacks or anything that looks like it to show dominance over other fish. The best lure I’ve used and seen used from shore? Green Mr. champ, I don’t know if you people use those or have them around here but if you don’t, get some because I guarantee you’ll catch salmon on them in the fall
 

Allen

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Green Mr. champ, I don’t know if you people use those or have them around here but if you don’t, get some because I guarantee you’ll catch salmon on them in the fall


We have other branded spoons that look just like that. Not sure of the name, but I too have caught salmon on them in the fall.
 

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