Wesley said while there aren't any plants made directly at Port Sheldon, fish stocked at Grand Haven and Holland take a natural liking to the area. Wesley said anglers can find excellent angling at Port Sheldon from early spring right through summer.

Hot action starts at Port Sheldon right after ice-out. Fishing takes place off the Consumer's Energy Company pierheads or around "The Bubblers" a mile north and a mile out from the pierheads. Warmwater discharged through a series of tubes there attracts spring salmonids in 20 to 40 feet of water. Anglers cast jigs and spoons, soak live bait, or troll near The Bubblers. Anglers who play the wind can have good success along the shoreline as the warm water stacks fish up there. Expect a hodgepodge of browns, steelhead, lake trout and salmon. The fishing remains good in the shallows into May.

June, July and August finds trollers heading northwest out of the pierheads to the 100- to 150-foot depths while targeting the top 70 feet for chinooks, cohos, steelhead and the occasional lake trout. Typical of most Lake Michigan ports, green, chartreuse and blue spoons highlighted with glow tape are hot combinations for kings out of Port Sheldon. Hot-colored spoons are better for the rainbows and cohos.

For information on charters, bait shops and lodging in the area, contact the Holland Area Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800- 506-1299.

GRAND HAVEN
"I can't really imagine the king fishing getting any better," said Grand Haven charter skipper Chip Klein. "There was just a ton of fish here from mid-May right though the summer. They weren't the biggest fish we've ever seen, but for numbers, you sure can't complain."

Charter boats accounted for 13,019 kings at Grand Haven in 2004, up from 8,962 in 2003. When the numbers for 2005 finally come out, thoughts are that they will likely to be much higher than 2004.

Chinooks usually show up at the Grand Haven pierheads in early May. "You'll hear about anglers catching them at South Haven, and then Holland, and within the next day or two, they're here," Klein said.

The big draw for spring salmon is the slug of warm water that the Grand River pumps into Lake Michigan at Grand Haven. Klein is a master at working the color line, and can pluck a limit of kings from the dirty water faster than you can say, "Time to go!" Key is to deploy a spread of divers, downriggers and short lead cores to cover the water column. Watch your graph for clouds of alewives, and your surface temperature gauge. Find the bait, and kings won't be far away.

As the water warms and the kings begin to move offshore in late May and June, a hotspot is the area known as "The Trench" just south of the pierheads in 60 to 70 feet of water. Rocks here provide some subtle structure, which is a rarity in this part of the lake.