Fishing Charter Milwaukee for Salmon and Trout

           Wisconsin charter fishing is in full swing by mid July when this client from Texas caught his limit of Chinookl salmon. Silver King Charters recommends early morning and late evening trips because of the fast action at sunrise and sunset. But this trip started at 1:00PM and we had a limit of nice fish by 3:00PM. There is one advantage of fishing King salmon from 10:00AM to 2:00PM and that is big fish. The action is not always fast paced but the quality can be fantasic. Most of the real big fish landed each year are around the middle of the day. 

            Milwaukee charter fishing in July is about Chinook salmon. This is the first month that we are exclusively targeting Chinooks and as this guy find out it can be wear you out. One of the best big fish producers we set is the wire dipsy. The fish in this picture was caught off this set up and this rod will produce all day. The wire dipsy rod and reel set up is the most unique apparatus we use. The rod has rollers instead of guides because we are using 30 pound test wire instead of mono fishing line. The rollers allow the wire to be reeled in without damaging the rod or the line. The reels we use for wire are Okuma Catalina reels and these reels have outstanding drag systems, with four ball bearings. This is needed because wire is very stiff and has no give like monofilament. When fish hit this set up they are very aggresive and the drag must respond instantly or the fish will pull off.  

            The dipsy diver or Walker diver, which are very similiar, are 4" disks that have a release on them. When the release is cliped in it causes the disk to dive into the water. The disk will angle from zero to thirty degrees, depending on the location of the weight at the bottom of the disk. This allows us to control the direction of the disk. For the most part we set these divers at thirty degrees so they are set off to the side of the boat and away from the downriggers. These divers will drop at a 3 to 1 ratio into the water, which means when the line counter on the reel is reading 90 the diver is at 30 feet. The diver will be attached to the wire line with a snap swivel.

            The next item put on a dipsy set up is a snubber. This is put on before the leader line to act as a shock absorber. The wire would shake the fish off without this. Silver King Charters uses both clear dipsys and snubbers to reduce visiblity in the water. The next item we attach is the leader line. This is 30 to 40 pound test fluorocarbon line. Fluorocarbon leader is expensive but a must because it is invisable in the water. This leader is usually only 6 feet long because you don't want the dipsy, snubber, leader and bait all combined to be longer than the 10 foot dipsy roller rod. Then we attach another snap swivel that the bait connects to. Silver King Charters almost exclusively uses dodger and fly set ups for dipsy rods. When charter fishing Wisconsin salmon this is a very common bait for this set up. We use 8 inch flashers, with 2 to 4 inch flies. There is a leader line from the the dodger to the fly and this is also fluorocarbon. The fly leader is 40 pound test and is 20 to 30 inches long. The salmon are attracted by the flasher and strike the fly where the hook is located. We typically use green or white flashers and green or glitter flies. The fish just cannot resist this set up. 

           This is a very aggressive set up and when salmon strike a dipsy rod everyone on the boat knows it. When charter fishing Milwaukee salmon even a novice will see or hear the dipsy rod strike. The fish in this picture hit hard and my firstmate said "There is a four year old!" as the 30 pound test wire screamed off the reel. The King salmon took a 150 foot run before our client could stop this fish. After several times of reeling in line and having the fish run again and two eye popping jumps he had the Chinook to the boat and we netted him. It was a nice 15 pound Chinook salmon that ended up being a large 3 year old. This fish came off a classic green Spin Doctor flasher and a Double Glitter Aqua Howie fly. The lead to the fly was 26" and the dipsy was set 65 feet down or 175 feet of wire out and the dipsy was dailed in at a numbet 3 setting. We were working a drop off that went from 75 feet to 110 feet over a quarter mile. Every time we made a turn and this dipsy was to the outside of that turn it was slammed. This is one of the best ways to catch Chinook salmon Charter fishing Wisconsin during the summer.