5/20 & 21/22  Have a great today and tomorrow.  Best of luck if you're blessed enough to fish the Great Lakes.  Going to take 2 days off for home projects that need doing. 
                     Be back Monday with 1st hand knowledge of what I witnessed as a charter skipper during Alewife die-offs from 1983 thru 2003.

5/19/22   The current Alewife die-off is it good, or bad?  I'd say good, because there's a surplus of bait.  Alewives are an invasive saltwater specie.  Their kidneys don't adjust well in big temperature swings.  Hence, the cyclical die offs. Click TC die-off article
               This is a long ways from the scare tactics the MDNR used a few years back.  Wrongfully, foreseeing a collapse of bait like on Lk. Huron in the early i2ks.  Then, the MDNR got took to the cleaners by the WI DNR on allotted planting numbers.
               Spoke with the Godfather of the Leland charter fleet Capt. Jim "Spanky" Munoz and there Alewives spawning in the short Leland river that runs thru Fishtown.  Capt. Jim said, "it's been a longtime since happened."  So, everything is good side of up and up.

5/18/22  Long time friend of this website Capt. Jack sent in today's featured photo.  It's a nice mix of spring Coho, Steelhead and Lake Trout caught out of Lake Huron's Port of Harbor beach, MI last weekend.  Click HB mixed bag
               This is a good spring port I know well having chartered out of there in my early career in the mid to late 1980s.  Back then it was mostly spring Kings with 5 fish limits.
                Limit has been changed for Lk. Huron ports to 2 Lake Trout from Rogers City N. by MI's DNR to conform to the 2000 Consent Decree.  Click for MDNR article
               There's an Alewife die-off happening on Central Lk. MI ports to and past Leland, to Traverse City, MI.  Made the TC's channel 7 news that will be covered tomorrow.

5/17/22  Super star DNR Creel Census Clerk for Rogers City, MI Julie S forward us a link after seeing mention of the surface temp charts being offline.  Click for Julie's link
               This site is called Seagull with access to current flows and how they converge. There's a color coded graph for a rough idea of surface temps.
               Need to update this website's Great Lakes info page where everything is devoted to weather and sea conditions.  Ludington's down temp buoy link needs a new URL address.  So, I need to research and update this new link off Seagull.
              We all like a hint on where to start.  Using 21st century internet tech to point us in the right direction beats playing "pin the tail on the donkey" blindfolded.

5/16/22  Posted an archived temp chart photo that shows a big temp break off Manistee, MI.  This the cold side is vertical structure just like the shelf (drop off).  This works to concentrate the fish and gives us a place to start.  Click archived chart
              Losing this technology makes starting point a lot more luck, then skill.  Not having the luxury of these charts after watching them for 20 plus years is a big loss.
              Did find something close, but it's hard to clearly define thermobars and a way to get data off Ludington, MI's down temp buoy that will be tomorrow's focus.