TOPIC:

May be a crap shoot, but I'll try. Looking for some help if anybody has knowledge...

How far could you troll up the Manistee River from Lake Michigan? Does it stay wide enough and deep enough to troll for awhile and make a loop back to the pier heads? Just a 16' boat, so don't need much room.

The wind and wave forecast for later Saturday and Sunday not looking good, and we have a trip planned already. Friday night and Saturday morning showing good so far. Don't want to make the drive if no back up plan for rough conditions out on the big lake.

Really appreciate some input. Thanks.

It's certainly deep enough, as it's a maintained shipping channel. I'm sure you could use a couple riggers and troll from the pierheads into Manistee lake. You will not be able to run a "spread". There will be lots of jiggers to dodge as well, which is something else you could do. There will be way more guys jigging than trolling nowadays. 
Drop a couple j-plugs down and give it a try, just try to blend in. 
Also, if it's rough, that means even more boats staying "inside".
Welcome to salmon season up north. 

Thanks. We are familiar with that scene in Ludington.

We have jigged a little then trolled thru the traffic a few times. Two riggers and two dipseys and we can dodge and weave. Just want to wet some lines.

Thanks for the info.

Got same info back from some guys on a Michigan forum. Should be no problem working the river. We don't need limits, just a couple fish or "the fish" to make good. My boys birthday is Saturday, so I'm hoping it's a trip with a lasting memory!

We have done it successfully in St Joe, so if similar we will be in good shape. 

Thanks again.

Troll Whitehall, we killed it Sunday. Going 12 for 22. 10 kings, 1 steel, 1 coho. Trolled till about 10 AM. Our biggest being 19 pounds. It was none stop action the whole time. We ended with a couple tangle and waves started to build. A lot of work done on J plugs and meat rigs. Talking with locals they were saying the lake was going to flip this week. They thought Tuesday or Wednesday. So with that you would not have to go fair from port. Good luck. 

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a day that you will remember for sometime. Congrats!!!!!

Awesome report. Thanks!

Very rough weather conditions made for tough fishing. We managed one coho Friday night out on the big lake. After that, it was all in the river. We couldn't scratch up anything else, and only seen two fish caught Saturday.We decided to try PM Lake in Ludington Sunday morning before heading home. We fished it before, so knew the layout. We trolled thru the jiggers and out into the harbor making several loops. That did not disappoint! We got three nice kings.  

Manistee coho.

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Ludington PM Lake king.

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