We spent the day with Captain Chris Ingalls from Dark Blue Charters and Tangled Tackle Fishing in late August of 2024.  Afterward, we discussed the trend of big fish on Lake Michigan, fishing meat rigs, the importance of a great first mate, and getting away from the crowds on the water. Here’s a transcript of the conversation.

 

Chris Larsen  

It was fun to have a little bit of dock talk here last night. You shook my hand and said, "This is the first time that we've ever met." And I was like, "I guess it is." It feels weird because we've talked so much. I felt like we met even though it’s never been in person.”   

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

We've talked on the podcast at least four or five times.  So yeah, I felt like I knew you too.  

  

Chris Larsen  

It's cool to spend the day on the water, and I appreciate the invitation to be here this August.   

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

Come back anytime.   

  

Chris Larsen  

It was a lot of fun. We were out today with a big group of other guys that do content.  How do you feel about today?  How did it go?   

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

I thought it was solid. We had 20-some bites and put some nice fish on the deck. I never stress over the amount of fish we put in the cooler. The experience is what everybody should come out here for. Not just to put fish in the deck, not in the freezer, but to come out here to enjoy the day. My first mate, Tim, says it better than anyone: you'll remember the people and the day you come out here. You're not going to remember every fight with the fish. You won't remember every fish, but you'll remember who you fished with. You're going to remember the boat, and you're going to remember the good times. That's what it's all about. But we had a good day fishing, too. Like I said, 20-some bites. I don't know how many we put in the cooler, but we filled it up pretty well.  You all did a great job.  

 

Chris Larsen  

There are a lot of big fish in there. Last night, we were talking, and you said the bites are going well, and then it dies off as we get towards mid-morning. Is that something you've been seeing here for the last few weeks, or is that something that just recently happened?   

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

You know, two, three weeks ago, Chris, we were getting bit almost the entire morning. We had a nice pod of cohos around here, which kept us busy later in the morning. Now, we have a lot of big kings, and I have no doubt if we went offshore to deeper water, we could find two and three-year-old kings. We could probably find some straggling cohos or another one might be coming. But today, we focused on the bigger fish. We knew they were going to be staging. We had a pretty good idea where they were going to be, and we just worked in those waters. Those staging fish tend to feed hard early, feed hard late (maybe once or twice in the afternoon), and then they shut right down. So, it was expected today.  

 

Chris Larsen  

Today, we had a fish hit just about 23 pounds. Many were in the high teens, and probably one more that went over 20.  The fish have been big this year. It's been a good year for big fish. Why do you think that is?   

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

I've got to give credit to the DNR because they don't get enough credit out there. Compared to 10 or 12 years ago, this fishery has a night and day difference. 10 or 12 years ago, we were lucky to get a dozen or even eight fish. And we were lucky to get two over 12 pounds. This fishery has flipped around. The bait fish are out there, and they're abundant. The big fish are like us. They like to eat, and then they want to lie on the couch. Then they like to eat a little later on again, and that's what these fish are doing. The bait fish are plentiful. That's what's going to drive this fishery, and that's what's causing these fish, in the last two years, to be big.   

  

Chris Larsen  

It's late August right now, so they're getting towards the end here. What are you seeing so far with fish coming in? I know we were marking a bunch of fish as we were coming through the harbor. What are you seeing there right now?   

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

The water's warm inside the pier heads, but the fish are on a biological clock. When it's time to go, they go, and many of them will come into the river, turn right back around, and go back out if the water temps aren't right. That's why you see so many fish with red bellies and fins. Their bellies are irritated from lying on the bottom, whether because they come in and go back out or they're lying there on the bottom looking for the right time to enter those river systems. So, if you're looking to come out right now and fish, you can definitely fish the pier heads. The fish are there. If you want to come out and jig Manistee Lake, the fish are there as well, or you can go out in the deeper water and catch them there. It's a great time.  

  

Chris Larsen  

Tell me a little bit about the program we were running today.  

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

We were targeting the bigger kings today. So, there were many J plugs, silver hoard plugs, and dream weaver plugs. We also had meat rigs out. Those are my typical big-fish go-to rigs. With the bigger four-year-old fish this time of the year, you've got to get them to want a bite. They're not looking to feed so much anymore. You've got to get them to instinctively bite. With those plugs having the rattles in them, the aggressive motion with that meat rig, and that lazy spinning dying-bait-fish-look that it has are the things that will trigger those big kings. That's why, later in the season, I tend to stay away more from spoons and more aggressive baits.  

  

Chris Larsen  

Tell me a little bit about your meat rigs. We took quite a few fish off that today. How do you set up your meat?  

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

There's nothing special to it. The more you do it, the better you get at it. It's like riding a bike. I run a lot of Dreamweaver 10-inch Spin Doctors for meat rigs; those are my absolute go-to. Occasionally, I'll run a big 11-inch Dreamweaver paddle with my meat rigs and maybe a Bechhold. You don't have to adjust the teasers on them; most of the time, they come set the way you want them. Today, Dreamweaver meat rigs, Dreamweaver Green Gasoline, and the GRC White Cow Rigs have been used many times. Brighter colors, like that Green Gas with the UV or that white glow on the GRC, seem to work well today. But honestly, Chris, I'm no genius regarding meat rigs. I set them up the way they come out of the package; what can make or break you on the meat rigs, though, is watching your speed, watching that you don't get too fast with those things. If you get a little too fast on a meat rig, they tend to blow out. They don't spin quite the way they should. They spin a little too fast. So that's a big thing to watch with them.  

  

Chris Larsen  

What speed are you looking for when you're running those meat rigs?  

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

Up to 2.5 will work. I've caught fish at over 2.5 with them. I've caught fish on outside divers on turns, so I'm probably up around three. But my typical trolling speed for this time of year, because I want those fish to be aggressively biting, is 2.0 to 2.5. You probably noticed today that I was around the 2.4 mark most of the day, and that was what they wanted. I might go out tomorrow, and they will want a 2.1 or 2.0. I watch for what they're doing early in the morning. We'll adjust from there. When we came through this morning, we hit a bunch of fish, turned around, went right back over the pod, and hit a bunch more fish. We worked in that same area all morning. It was really effective.  

  

Chris Larsen  

Do you do that quite a bit? Do you turn on fish, or do you try to go out and find different fish?  

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

You know, I wish I had a set plan every day. I'm figuring it out as I'm going. We have fished in the same area we fished today for the last three days. We knew that that little two-mile stretch was holding good fish. If we had continued south all the way down almost to the Big Point Sable, we probably would have hit fish there as well. I don't know if we would have hit as many, but I knew that little spot was holding fish. So, there are days I do that, and there are days I go out there, and I'll put it on a north or south, and I troll as long as I want to. If we're getting bit, we will stay in that direction.  

 

Chris Larsen  

We didn't have big crowds out there, but other boats were out there, and we were away from the crowd. Is that something that you typically do? Go out and try to get away from everybody else?  

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

There are days you can't, and that's the issue. Today, we were lucky. We had a big lightning storm that came through last night. We had winds that picked up. It went into a special marine warning at about two in the morning. That held some smaller boats off the water, which is smart. You don't want to be caught out there in a smaller boat. Being in the middle of the week also helped to have fewer people out there. We're at the tail end of August. That also kept some of the boats out. But the more I can get away from a crowd or outside of a crowd, the happier I tend to be. It can be really productive fishing on Manistee, Ludington, or Frankfurt, where everybody's fishing the shelf. Typically, that is at 100 to 140 feet of water, even 150 feet. If you can get on the outside of that pack, I'll sometimes fish in 200 feet of water running the outside edge. Fish are like deer with a deer drive with all those boats pressuring fish either to the inside, where they don't want to go because that's typically where warmer water is, or they're going to turn out to the deeper water, where they want to go. So, if you're on the outside of that pack where I love to fish, you'll often pick up fish that are getting driven out to you.  

  

Chris Larsen  

There was a little bit of chop on the water today, and I heard you tell some of the guys that it was the perfect amount of chop. It wasn't rough, but there was some chop on the water. How does that affect what you all do in the day?  

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

With salmon, they don't like sunlight. They're like vampires. They don't like warm water. They'll be in it when they have to feed or when they have to run. But they don't like sunlight. So choppy water keeps the sunlight from penetrating. The overcast skies we had today also contributed to our longer bite.  

  

Chris Larsen  

One of the other parts I enjoyed on the boat today was meeting many people with great personalities, but meeting your mate, Tim, was a pleasure. Watching him work is fun and he's a really good guy. Tell me about your relationship with him. 

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

If you find a good boat on the Great Lakes, it doesn't matter what port it is in, the best boats have the best mates. The mates make a good boat. I was a mate for a long time. I learned the ropes that way. I learned how to treat customers the right way. I learned how to set lines correctly and learned a lot of the little nuances. Finding a good first mate like Tim is fantastic. I also have a couple of other really good guys. I'm not dissing them in any way. Tim's my go-to guy, though. Tim has one of the most easygoing personalities. He's great with customers. He has a ton of real-life experience. He's an excellent fisherman, which also helps. And we work well together. If I'm thinking of something that needs to be done, I normally look over, and it's already being done. Tim's got his hands on it. So, if you want to find a good boat to go fishing on, look in the reviews for the ones that mention the first mate. The way Google is, you can do a keyword search looking for ones that say, "good first mate," "first mate was helpful," "first mate was thorough, efficient.” Those are the boats you want to find.  

  

Chris Larsen  

Chris, is there anything I didn't ask you today that we need to add that you'd like to talk about?  

  

Captain Chris Ingalls  

Chris, thanks for coming out today. We talked about it for a while. The invitation is always open. You guys come back anytime. Thanks to Fish Hawk for making a great product. I can't say that enough. I've said it before on my show. Take away any of my pieces of equipment you want, but leave my FishHawk. It's that valuable to go fishing with, so I'll leave it at that.  

  

Chris Larsen  

I really appreciate it. He's Captain Chris Ingalls from Dark Blue Charters and you can find him on YouTube at Tangled Tackle Fishing.