Fishing Michigan

This is a non-fishing related topic and from time to time I will mention things of importance where people can step up and be a part of their community.

There will be a golf outing held at the Lilac Golf Course, formerly the Wyndridge Course, in Memorial of Chris Morin.  Chris was a young man who passed away this past December in a tragic car accident.  His mother graciously signed the consent forms to have her son’s organs donated to help others in need of transplants.  With this self-sacrifice, his gift could help out as many as 52 folks in vital need of transplants who have been waiting as long as decades for much needed relief.

Joe Abate, who received Chris’s kidney’s will also be attending the event to meet folks and the rest of Chris’s family.  He waited ten years on the organ transplant list, the whole time receiving dialysis treatments.  He has gained his life back after getting these treatments anywhere from three to four times a week, he  finally has the freedom to take his loved ones on  family vacations for the first time in over a decade.

The golfing event is being held September 27th, which is a Saturday with a shotgun start at 8 am.  Its is an 18 hole event, in a 4 person scramble format, with a cost of $65 per person attending.  This will include use of a cart, and lunch after 9 holes and a dinner after the event is completed, with prizes to boot.

The 1st Annual Chris Morin Memorial Golf Outing is to benefit “The Gift of Life Foundation”.  For more information, please contact Chris’s cousin: Phil Piepsney at 734.625.0156 and Chris’s friend, John Poupard at 734.777.5229.  If golfing is not your thing, feel free to please donate what you can, and if you are part of an organization or have a business and would like to help sponsor this worthy event, please contact Phil and John.

In addition to helping out this worthy cause, people can step up to the plate to help others by registering themselves with the Michigan Organ Donor Registry at www.michigan.gov/sos or visit www.giftoflifemichigan.org 

Going to try and sneak in topics when I can this month, it just got a bit busier around here.  So, this is about something I really enjoy doing, spending time with my father, and of course fishing.

While we were recently up north at the cabin, we went chasing toothy critters.  I love to go pike and muskie fishing, it goes back to when I was a kid, when the “old” guys would leave camp and come back with 40 inch Northerns from Lake Michigan’s Big Bay de Noc.  I still enjoy the taste of pike to this day, but the ski’s get returned to the water.

In this case, we had trolled around the lake checking out drop-offs and points, shorelines and pads, stumps and flats…you get the idea.  We settled on this small bay around 8 or 9 foot in depth near an outlet stream.  I put on a small Mepps Musky Killer for dad and started to get my Premier rod rigged with a hairpin style muskie spinner.  First cast and he starts rubbing it in, and somehow that quarter as a kid for first fish, became 10 bucks!!!  I blame Granholm and inflation  

Anyhoo, what came back to the boat was the is beautifully colored Tiger Muskie.  So I tell dad to hold it up so I can get a picture, course he starts off by holding it belly forward so I all I have is a white streak.  Even though this fish was only 30 inches, the greens were almost emerald in its markings.  Just a work of art.

Just for those who haven’t heard of a Tiger Muskie before, it is a cross breed between Northern Pike and Muskie.  Usually done in a hatchery, but it does rarely occur in the wild.  The reason why it is so rare is that the breeding habits and requirements are different between the species.

I received an email from Kelly Gotch, one of the co-hosts of Michigan Out-of-Doors.  Kelly will be leaving the show in a few weeks to explore other opportunities.  You may have seen her on “Step Outside” on the Outdoor Channel as well,  she will continueher co-hosting duties  and stay with that show.   Kelly will be starting her new show on the Pursuit network, which is called, ” The Guide Series”, with Kelly Gotch.

I met Kelly about four years ago while fishing the Ice Team’s series of Super Trap Attack ice fishing tournaments.  She first appeared out of place on the ice and the rosy  cheeks had nothing to do with make-up.   Over the years, you could see her grow into her position and take a firm grip on the situations when they arrived. She traveled with the production crew to film Michigan’s contingent of anglers at the North American Ice Fishing Championship that used to be held in Minnesota, two separate years.  It was good to come home and have the shows air on Michigan Out-of-Doors and see what the other anglers were doing that might have been different than my own team’s plan of attack.

She was a warm and friendly face, who knew her job and always handled herself well and with professionalism.  Good Luck Kelly, will miss you on Thursday nights!

sounds like Capt Mike was getting a little pumped over the weekend with the perch reports and fish brought in for cleaning.  With 600 lbs brought in, who can blame him!!!

PERCH FISHING STILL REMAINS HOT!!!!

This was the first REALLY GOOD WEEKEND OF PERCH FISHING!!! We had good catches brought in on both Saturday & Sunday!!

Over 600lbs of Perch brought in for cleaning from Sat. through Monday!!

Good numbers are being brought in from spots ranging from the E-Buoy, to the River Raisin to Stoney Point, to the Turn Around Buoy. Move around often and try various depths!! We had some great catches brought in from only 20\’ of water. Thats right, MICHIGAN WATERS!!!

Stop in and grab some minnows, spreaders, jigging spoons and hooks.

For the avid PERCH anglers we also have some wax worms in stock, if you havent tried them , they can outshine minnows on certain days and dont forget the good old nightcrawlers. They wont outfish a minnow but can tend to fool the larger PERCH on occasion.

It will be a great weekend to PERCH fish, make sure to get out and get in on this action!!

Good Luck & tight Lines,

Capt. Mike

I know I had brought this up before, and since its so late in the walleye season, I just might do it again next spring, but here are some pics.  Told my Unc about the crank idea, and he said he just read about guys on Saginaw Bay using spoons for flashers, hated to tell him that I have been using them on and off for a few years now down on Erie.  He thought he might have sprung a new idea on me I think.

Also, for those who haven’t tried this trick yet, two helpful hints.  Its hard to run these without spooking fish if you plan on running a diver or inline weight in front of the flasher and then your choice of bait; spoon or harness.  If you have a couple of reels spooled with lead core, then good choice with this combination.  If you don’t have any spooled up, no worries, go and get yourself a snapweight kit and try the 50/50 system.  If your kit doesn’t have dive charts, look into a Precision Trolling Guide to get the info you need.

These are the spoons I run.  Also there are some stores like Jann’s  (Jann’s Netcraft) that will offer spoon kits.  Which means there are spoons, and you add the split rings, good quality snap n swivel,  then you have some fairly reasonably priced flashers.

Frankfort:  Big fish in the 25 and 30 lb range are being caught off the pier with alewives.  Folks are cathing the bait with #10 long shank gold hooks, often without any bait.  Waxies are a good choice, as well as spikes if you have bait, to catch the bait!  Cast nets are another good option for getting all the bait  you need.

Spoons are also taking salmon, but they are tending to run smaller in the 10 to 15 lb range.  Cleo’s, KO Wobblers and Kastmasters are good choices.

If you are looking to try your hand at fishing a tournament for the first time, look up salmon tournaments for Michigan’s West Coast.  There are a number of them left, and some are pretty reasonable considering the payouts that you might earn/win.

Good luck, the fishing should be good and steady from now on.  If you can’t fish the shallows from shore, there are plenty of fish left in the lake, just staging and getting ready to make their runs up the many rivers on that side of the state.

With the cool weather starting earlier this year, the salmon are starting to run in the Lower Peninsula.  Some of the runs in the Upper started to take place a week and half ago,  one night it hit 39 degrees while there.

Reports are coming in that the salmon are in the Manistee in good numbers, but have yet to reach the the first dam in big numbers.  If the weather holds, it shouldn’t take long though.  Look for all rivers north of the Manistee to be getting similar reports as well.

I know one reader is heading up to Oscoda with a box full of Little Cleo’s to fish off the pier.  This is the time of the year folks that the fish will keep running until the primal urge is satisfied, that or a sudden warm spell!

Get your collections of spoons, flies and spawn rigs and head north, time to fill the freezer with the good stuff.

One of the bonuses of getting away from the crowds is the quiet time that one can have to himself.  At the cabin one night, I sat up  with some loose leaf paper and a pen and started brainstorming up new ideas that I could apply to trolling for walleye and giving some old ideas or concepts a new twist.  I had the Precision Trolling Guide out and was just flipping through the pages and came to the section that listed the many baits produced by Storm (before Rapala purchase).  If there was one bait that Storm ever produced that was a dud in my book, it was the Lightnin’ Shad.  I realize that some folks have probably caught fish on these, but I am just not one of them.  I had sevaral of the largest baits produced, some I picked up when they first came out, some when I found them for two bucks at Big Lots a couple of years back.

It was at that point my little light bulb popped on, and I came up with a new application for these baits.  I wanted a diver, that could get down deeper with less line let out that a disc or jet.  Yet, I wanted to be able to long line them back behind the boat as another trolling option.  So I get home, start removing treble and split ring from the belly, kept the split ring on the tail and removed the treble back there.  Now all I have to do is find some good ball bearing snap n swivels for the tail split ring.  Then its simple, run my leader back for a spoon or attach a harness.

Take a look at the samples that I took pics of earlier.  Big deep diving bill, large rattles and a prism flash with its’  tight wobble in the water.  The qualities are deep diving,  its’ got flash, wide body profile  and makes a lot of noise.  Its got everything and more than any diver available on the market has today.  AND, you may have some already in your tackle box ready for some tweaking,  and trolling behind your boat.

Turns out I have a swimmer after all with the dogs.  Gauge seen here resting turned out to be a great swimmer.  Well once she quit trying to drink up the whole lake that is.  She even jumped off our dock and came to me.  Belle (not seen) was a little leery of it, but still got in.  Bonnie, who should be the leader here, still doesn’t care for swimming, but isn’t afraid to drop in the shallows and cool her belly off.