My cousin Joe, who resides in Michigan, called and asked for a rematch of our earlier fishing excursion in Pennsylvania waters.

This time he wanted it to be on his own home waters of Lake Michigan.

Joe had been pretty salty that a Pennsylvania guy had edged him out in trout fishing and now planned to even the score with King Salmon running in Lake Michigan. We would head for the Ludington Michigan located in Manistee County on the western shoreline of Lake Michigan.

We would be meeting up with Captain Steve Jones and his boat, the Predator, on Sunday to make a run at the King Salmon stacking up off shore of the many rivers feeding Lake Michigan.

The King Salmon return from the lake every four years to make a spawning run up the rivers, where their life began as stocked fry compliments of the Michigan DNR. The program has been very successful and the fishing for the brute salmon weighing up to 35 pounds has been excellent.

Captain Jones has been a successful professional charter captain for over 40 years. He runs charters nearly all year long with spring salmon runs, summer walleye and bass, the fall salmon run and especially for muskellunge on Lake St. Clair, a world renowned musky fishery that has produced trophy fish up to 50 pounds and averages 10 musky a trip.

He is the musky advisor for In Fisherman and is a strong advocate for the catch and release of the fish with his clientele. He is one of the original advocates of green fishing which calls for catching, photographing your trophy and returning them safely to their home waters.

The wake up call was at 4 a.m. as we were to leave the docks at 5 a.m., when the fishing would be at its best. We would troll off shore around the harbor and the mouth of the river areas with spoons and glowing plugs.

The flash unit gave the plugs a very eerie pale green glow and they would draw the attention of the salmon in the dark waters in the 40-50 feet depth range.

The weather was not our ally today as the wind was blowing in from the north at 15 or better knots, producing 7 foot waves away from the protection of the points jutting out of the shoreline.

Some cousins and Beaver boy came along for the excursion and to join in on the fun. Just as the first streaks of daylight peaked over the horizon we had our first hit.

Beaver boy had his hands full with a 20-pound king that peeled out line and was not in a very good disposition. We brought the fish to net and he just fit in the boat cooler.

Joe and I waited patiently for a hit when Joe got the call and had one on his line. The reel was singing and he had a nice fight on his hands.

The fish was landed and Michigan was up 1-0, but I was being patient. My patience was paid off as I had a strike and a fish on soon afterwards. The fish was doing its best to throw the hook, but we brought it to net as well.

This went for awhile and we had eight salmon in the box, but Joe and I couldn’t break the tie for the rematch. All of a sudden, Joe had a hit and yelled fish on with a glance at me to see if I was watching.

The action looked good for a while, but all of a sudden the line went slack and the tie remained, giving Pennsylvania a 1-0-1 record.

The action went dead and the wind and waves picked up and we all decided to call it a day. We had at least 150 pounds of fresh salmon and some good laughs with our adventure.

We hit the docks and headed up to the cleaning stations to filet and ice down our catch. Some other boats arrived and we observed some nice salmon and a good sized brown trout brought in to shore.

The one-day NR license was only $8 and was a bargain and could be bought online or over the counter.

To read more about Captain Jones and the Predator online see: www.fishpredator.com.

Until next time ... grab your cousin and wet a line in the great outdoors!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle