3/25/16 Waiting on Walleyes

I went out Friday evening after work to hunt for some spring Walleyes. I was on the lake by about 5pm and was out until 9:30 or so at night. the weather was absolutely perfect to be out fishing. It was bright and sunny and the wind was pretty calm. It would have be cold without the sun and with some wind. While the sun was up I was not having any luck with the Walleyes but I did catch several smallish Largemouth Bass up to about 15 inches. Once the sun began to set I did catch one small throwback Walleye. He absolutely slammed my lure and I would have thought he was much bigger than he actually turned out to be. I didn't even bother measuring him because he was pretty small and was never going to make the 16" size limit! The Walleye fishing should start to get good anytime now. I caught all of my fish by working a Rapala X-Rap slowly through shallow water.

3/22/16 Crappie Evening

Kelly and I got the canoe out last night for a quick after work trip. We only had about an hour and a half on the water. It was extremely windy but temps were in the 60's. We tried a couple of my "go to" spots without any luck. We eventually found an area that was sheltered from the wind and also produced a few nice bucketmouths and a couple decent specks. I did catch one pretty nice White Crappie of about 13 inches. These were the first fish caught from my new Old Town Discovery 133 Canoe.

3/16/16 Happy Birthday to Me!

I don't know how Old Town knew it was my Birthday tomorrow but my new Discovery 133 Canoe arrived just in time! Thanks to Emilie Bronson and Aaron Overstreet for hooking me up! Soon enough it will be time to get this thing slimed! Who wants to sit in the front seat while I paddle you through Pike infested waters?

3/12/16 Winter's on it's Death Bed

The weather allowed me to get on Lake Michigan Saturday to fish for Cohos. The nice weather had EVERYBODY out and the lake was extremely busy with boat traffic. It seemed like every time I got close to a spot where I wanted to cast, a motor boat would appear and beat me to it. I ended up casting for most of the day with absolutely no luck. I put on a few bright orange crankbaits and while trolling back to the launch ended up catching 1 really nice 19" Coho and losing another one. It was a pretty frustrating day as it seemed like places where I can usually catch fish casting were completely devoid of fish. All in all though it was a beautiful day to be out and I at least caught one salmon. I saw Ron from the Team Triggerfinger website while on the water and it sounded like they were having an excellent day trolling. I also got to meet Anthony who contacted me through the blog. Pretty cool to see some relatively familiar faces on Lake Michigan. Another interesting thing that happened was as I was trolling into the beach to take out, one of my lures got snagged on something. I messed around with it for a long time before finally deciding to break it off. I clamped down on my reel and started pulling to break my line. When I did this, I could feel something give on the other end. Slowly but surely I managed to pull up the snag wondering the whole time what it was going to be. It ended up being a very thick rope. Go figure. Anyways I got it up enough to get my pliers on the crankbait and pop it free. It was good to at least get my crankbait back.

3/4/16 It's a Beautiful Thing!

Just a quick update today. The lakes are open!!!!!! I got out of work relatively early and had enough time to load the kayak for a quick trip to a trout lake. I only had about an hour and a half to fish before dark and I was determined to make the best of it. I ended up catching 4 Rainbows in quick succession. I caught all my fish in shallow water. I think they were enjoying the sunshine as much as I was! Once the sun began to set the action died off entirely and I just got to enjoy being out for the rest of the evening. If you're planning on getting out be safe. The water is still extremely cold!

3/3/16 Pike Flies and Related Things

I've been tying some 6 inch flies to target Pike this year. I think that they turned out awesome so I wanted to share a few pictures of them! A few weeks back Randy and I took advantage of a warm weather day to take the canoe out and fish for some river Pike. I ended getting skunked but Randy at least finally caught a Pike with me! Also, I've been in contact with the DNR about my last post and the guy killing Pike at a local dam. A conservation officer emailed me back to get more details on the incident and he said that they will be patrolling that area more this spring! Hopefully they either catch the guy or just deter him by being around more. Either way it's good to hear and I'm glad that they took my email so seriously. Open water is coming. More updates coming soon!