Was Indiana's spring fishing affected adversely from these stocking shortfalls? "No way!" said Tim Morris, owner of Just For Fun charters out of East Chicago. "We had spectacular March and April fishing during those lean years. I don't anticipate any dip in our catch rate next spring. Whether there are 2 1/2 million cohos in Indiana in March or 1 1/2 million cohos, that's still plenty of fish."

SUMMER COHOS
I've explained prospects for spring cohos already, but for the past decade or so (since the ready availability of GPS units), summer fishing for cohos has been terrific. With full stockings of Indiana and Illinois fish, the summer action should remain consistent with the last several years regardless of hatchery shortfalls in Michigan. During the summer months, Michigan's fish are headed back toward the Platte River.

Each summer, the south-lake cohos school up from seven to 15 miles out in the lake, which is easily accessible from all of Indiana's marinas. Pull out of your favorite launch area and head for the "numbers." The numbers are the GPS coordinates where the charter skippers and sportfishermen have been pulling fish for the past several days. You can get the numbers off the Internet at a variety of sites. The reports from the Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council (www. great-lakes.org) are quite reliable.

Summer cohos are suckers for trolling flies run behind attractors. Metal dodgers are quite effective, and in the summer, the 8-inch versions are perfect. Chrome, pearl and dull silver (called smoke) are favorite colors along with the streamers in white, greens and pale blue colors. In the past couple of years, plastic flashers have become popular, too. These spin in a wider circle and give the flies a different action. The same color patterns do the work.

KING SALMON
I reported earlier that the Lake Michigan states cut the number of king salmon (aka chinook salmon) stocked in the lake in 1999 and plan another 25 percent cut in the future. The reason for this is because there have never been more kings in the lake than there are now! Fish managers can adjust hatchery output, but they can't adjust the number of kings. These fish are being naturally spawned in Lake Michigan tributary streams. Conservative estimates put the "wild" stocks to be as large or larger than hatchery stocks.

It's certainly been noticeable in the past two summers when unprecedented numbers of 2-year-old-plus and 3-year-old-plus kings mixed into the same areas where both spring and summer cohos are caught. In fact, late last summer, far more kings were being boxed than cohos.

The action for kings heats up in late April when the rising water temperatures trigger huge schools of alewives to move into the shallows to spawn. When your sonar starts marking big globs of baitfish on the screen, it's time to target kings by deep trolling magnum spoons under your coho baits. The rule of thumb is to put the king lures in the bottom half of the water column. If you are fishing in 40 feet, set lures for chinooks at least 20 feet deep.