The captain said the chinook fishing off the river mouth last spring was as good as it's ever been. "It was nothing to take a limit of kings in just a couple of hours by working the pierheads," claimed Lee. Lee said, unlike ports to the south, kings are the main draw at St. Joe in the spring. If anything, the problem was catching anything other than kings. "We have not had many cohos. I think the lack of plants has really hurt us."

Lee said when targeting kings near the pierheads at St. Joe, it is especially important to pay attention to spoon sizes. Normally, super magnum or magnum-sized spoons are the ticket, but there was a time last spring when regular-sized or mini-spoons outproduced the big stuff. "Plugs were very good last spring, too," offered Lee. The size of the baitfish present determines lure size. Standard chrome/redhead and glow colors excel. Hot Silver Streak colors at St. Joe run the gambit from SOG Froggie to Lobster and Purple Smurf.

A hot tactic for spring kings at St. Joe is to watch the wind and then stitch the color line where the St. Joe River spills into Lake Michigan. Chinooks will use the veil of colored water to ambush unsuspecting schools of baitfish. The dirty water is usually significantly warmer than the lake water, too. Fishing can be hot in the 20- to 50-foot depths all the way to the Cook Plant at Bridgman to the south. The kings typically run 5 to 10 pounds in the spring, but Lee said there were plenty of 15- to 18-pound brutes in the catch last spring.

The hot king fishing usually lasts into the middle of May before the salmon begin filtering north. A good plan then is to head west to 80 to 200 feet of water, and put out a spread of in-line planers and divers featuring orange spoons and Thin Fins to target steelhead, cohos and lake trout. Fishing for steelhead usually picks up in early summer when summer-run steelies headed for the St. Joe River begin milling around the pierheads. Michigan winter-run rainbows add to the mix as fall approaches.

To sample St. Joe's fantastic spring king fishery, contact Capt. Jerry Lee at (734) 421-8559. For information on bait shops, lodging and amenities in the area, contact the Southwest Michigan Tourist Council at (269) 925-6301, or visit their Web site at www.swmichigan.org.

PORT SHELDON
Hidden between Holland and Grand Haven is southern Lake Michigan's best-kept secret. Port Sheldon doesn't get the fishing pressure that ports to the north and south do. It may be because it lacks a harbor of refuge or because the port doesn't get any fish plants. If you let those factors influence your decision to fish the port, you're making a mistake.

"Port Sheldon is one of our most popular ports for the guy with a trailerable boat," claimed Southern Lake Michigan Management Unit fisheries biologist Jay Wesley. "There are good facilities there, and it's only a short run to the lake."