Fishing 411 with Mark Romanack HARBOR BEACH LAKE TROUT, EPISODE 11 MARK ROMANACK, FISHING 411   HARBOR BEACH LAKE TROUT   By   Mark Romanack              
Nestled in Michigan’s “Thumb Region” is the quiet port of Harbor Beach. No one goes here except to go fishing and one trip to the area will confirm why on both fronts. First of all Harbor Beach is not on the way to anywhere. If you end up in Harbor Beach, either you took a lot of wrong turns or your intention was to end up here.            
Best known as a Great Lakes port rich in sport fishing history, Harbor Beach is arguably the lake trout capital of the Great Lakes. Not only is this port well known for producing lots of trout and big trout, the action is close to shore making this fishery a favorite with charter boats and weekend warriors alike.             In addition to lake trout, Harbor Beach has bonus steelhead, brown trout, coho in the spring of the year and also pink salmon. Interestingly enough, the State of Michigan has not stocked coho or pink salmon in this region of the lake. Those fish are wild reared on the Ontario side of the lake. In the spring these fish join forces with the salmon, steelhead and browns making a northward migration up the coast.             The lake trout on the other hand are year around residents of Harbor Beach. Early in the year these fish are found close to shore feeding on spawning smelt. Later in the summer the trout drift a little further off shore to find the cool waters they require.            
The Fishing 411 crew rolled into Harbor Beach on May 20 right on the tail end of the coho, brown trout and pink salmon run and right at the start of the prime lake trout fishing action. Lake trout were clearly our target species, but we came prepared to target kings, coho, browns, steelhead and pink salmon as well.
 THE LAKE TROUT BITE            
Famous among Great Lakes ports as the “trout capital” I was confident we were going to find good trout fishing action. On our side helping with this particular episode I had two of the region’s top open water trollers, Bruce and Nick DeShano of Off Shore Tackle. Born and raised in the thumb, together this father and son team have over 70 years of experience catching lake trout.            
The two downriggers I have mounted on my boat would become “dedicated trout lines” as fishing lake trout in this part of Lake Huron requires an angler to set the downrigger weights close to bottom and to monitor them constantly.            
One one rigger Nick took the lead and on the other Bruce took up residence. The method used to catch lake trout in this area is simple but must be adhered to perfectly to be successful.            
At the terminal end of the downrigger rods both anglers were equipped with a 000 size Trout Dodger by Wordens in the frosted silver pattern. Attached to the back of the dodger both lines featured an 18 inch leader of 40# test Vicious Fluorocarbon with a No. 4 Yakima Spin-n-Glo body threaded on, plus two beads and terminated by a No 1/0 treble hook. The beads add more color and allow the Spin-n-Glo to spin properly.            
This rig is set about 10-15 feet behind the downrigger ball using an OR-1 Off Shore Tackle line release and then lowered until the weight crashes bottom. The forward movement of the boat soon causes the downrigger cable and ball to sway a little, lifting the ball up off bottom. This process takes a few seconds. Once the downrigger weight has lifted up off bottom, the weight is lowered a second time until it hits bottom again.            
Rigged in this manner the downrigger weight will fish along bottom occasionally making contact with bottom and stirring up sediment. The trailing dodger also contacts the bottom providing an enticing target for hungry trout that do the majority of their feeding right on bottom.            
Because the depth fluctuates, it’s best if an angler stations himself right next to the downrigger and rises and lowers the ball as needed to keep the bait making contact with bottom occasionally.            
This delicate balance is accomplished by watching the rod tips. When the downrigger weight contacts the bottom, the rod tip jabs upwards, making it easy to determine when the weight is on bottom. It’s okay for the weight to hit bottom once in awhile, but the weight should not drag on bottom.            
If the downrigger weight doesn’t come in contact with bottom the rod tips won’t jab upwards, indicating the rig isn’t making contact often enough. The moral of the story is he who works the hardest catches the most trout. That delicate balance of keeping the bait in occasional contact with bottom is the magic it takes to produce consistent results. Anglers who get a little lazy and let the bait work above the bottom won’t catch nearly as many lake trout.
 RIGGING FOR OTHER SPECIES            
While Nick and Bruce kept the downriggers targeting lake trout, I manned a set of diving planers set to run in about the middle of the water column. I also set a pair of lead core lines on each side of the boat including one 5 color set up fishing down about 20 feet and one 10 color set up that was fishing down about 40 feet.            
All four of the lead core lines were fished in conjunction with Off Shore Tackle Side-Planer boards to spread out these lines and cover more water. Collectively, this eight rod set up covers the water column literally from top to bottom and targets a wealth of species.            
It wasn’t long before we started catching fish both on the riggers and on the higher lines. The first couple of trout came on the downriggers as expected, but it wasn’t long before the diver lines and lead core lines started producing bonus steelhead and pink salmon.            
On both the diver lines and lead core rigs we fished Wolverine Tackle Silver Streak spoons in the Mini and Standard sizes. Spoons are the “go to” lures for bonus steelhead and pink salmon out of Harbor Beach. Because pink salmon are on the small side, it’s best to fish Mini sized spoons on at least some of the diver and lead core lines.                  
When the dust had settled we boated half a dozen quality lake trout, a steelhead and several pink salmon, landing fish on all the various presentations we started with. Harbor Beach is an amazing multi-species fishery that somehow got labeled as a lake trout destination. There is little doubt that lakers are abundant at Harbor Beach, but what the Fishing 411 crew discovered is there’s a lot more to this fishery.   IF YOU GO: We launched at Off Shore Marina in Harbor Beach, 5 Lytle Avenue, Harbor Beach, MI 48441 Phone:(989) 479-6064   www.catchmorefish.com  Silver Streak Spoons www.yakimabait.com Spin-n-Glo bodies, Trout Dodgers