Fishing Michigan

Ok, ignore for the moment one of the best late ice seasons in recent memory.  Its almost time to start hitting the open water for your favorite gamefish.  Rather than wait until the ice is unfishable, turn your attention to those wants and needs for the warmer season now.

In the upcoming weeks, there will be some posts announcing spring events at some of our local retail outdoor shops,  Cabela’s and Monroe’s own, Cooks Sportland.  Today I will be going over some of the events scheduled this weekend at Bass Pro Shops in the Great Lakes Crossings shopping mall.  I had a great phone call with Doug Phillips who coordinates all the events held at the store.

This is the last weekend of their spring instore event and they have it packed with seminars and special events.  One of the events for the kids,  a charitable trout pond, not only provides enjoyment for the youngsters but also serves the community.   All the money raised will go to the Boy Scouts of America.  The unique twist is that all the fish caught, are released back into the pond.  At the end of the event,  all the trout are donated to a local food shelter.

I related to Mr. Phillips, that my sister-in-law, Michelle coordinates the meals for GodWorks here in Monroe.  He was good enough to suggest that she contact many of the tours who hold events on Lake Erie.  Many of the fish cannot be returned to the lake,  and the organizations are always looking for food shelters to donate the fish to.  Great idea, but I think I just talked myself into cleaning a whole lot of fish this spring and summer.

Back to BPS.

There are workshops and seminars to cover all your fishing questions and lots of tips to help you improve in several areas.  It could be dropshoting for bass (now legal in Michigan), running boards for walleye, high speed trolling for muskie on Lake St Clair or improving your spring crappie bite.  There will be four main areas where the seminars will be held within the store, and will be running on the hour starting at 10am Saturday and Sunday.

There will be conservation booths and tables set up to hand out information and answer questions.  A large display of Moon Valley furniture.  Bill McElroy from Scales and Tails, and well known cartoonist for Bassmasters,  will be putting characteritures on the handle of  any Bass Pro Shops rod that you purchase.  If fishing is not the only outdoor activity you indulge in and you are into turkey hunting, they will have a seminar for you too.

As with most spring store events, one of the highlights won’t be found listed anywhere.  Its when you are going through the isles, looking over the product.   You will have vendor sponsored pros tripping over themselves to help you find the product you need or want.  The guy next to you could be Hall of Famer Keith Kavajecz.  Michigan walleye pro Mark Gwizdala from Saginaw, might be the guy helping you find the right planer boards for your next trip.  Todd Glover could be the person who helped you understand a little more about seasonal bass patterns.

For a complete list of events and times, click on the link, http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?appID=94&CMID=&langId=-1&pageView=image&catalogId=10001&partNumber=&storeID=1&storeId=10151&deptId=000000000&categoryId=000000000&jumpToPage=1&currentPage=0&subdeptId=000000000     and make sure you look at the dates for this weekend. (March 9,10 and 11th)

Upcoming event of interest will be their “Walleye Day” held on April 14th.  A lot of Lake St. Clair tactics, that you can take and adapt to fishing Lake Erie for walleye.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 1:06 pm and is filed under General Topics, Walleye Fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.