Fishing Michigan

Had a good day on the water with Dad yesterday,  trying out the new E-tech 40 hp.  Liked the motor even more after today’s venture, really nice.

The fishing was good, not great.  There was some work involved getting our limits today.  If you are fishing in the morning, skip the shallow areas and head out to 23 fow and start fishing there right off the bat.  The slower I went (.7 to 1.1 mph) seemed to produce just silver bass, but when kicking it up a notch ( 1.4 to 1.7 mph) with the harnesses the walleyes turned on.

The harnesses off the 4 oz bottom bouncers in front and at the side of the boat produced best,  with a few less hits coming off the boards.  Today was also a good day to fully test out the new TX-22 Church Boards.  I found them to work very well,  well worth the investment. 

We had lots of boats in the area,  everyone getting ready for the weekend.

We each caught a couple of bonus perch off the harnesses

If something doesn’t pan out the way you want, you fix it.  In this case,  if the engine you have is too small, you go big.  That was the case this season.  Remember the new Triton duck boat last year,  well I had a 15 hp 4 stroke Mercury, so i used it.  Way under powered.

This year I had some extra change, and went big, lots bigger.  If your tried and true lets you down, throw the old gal into the hear or recycle her, go and get what you want. In this case, I went 40hp in the new 2009 Evinrude E-tech.  Like an old worn out mare who had been drinking sulphur water,  this is like a new colt on mountain fresh.

Top end on the 15 hp was barely 9 mph with a person sitting in the bow.  With 3 people in the boat, none in the bow, that 40 was kicking at 35 mph.  Pun intended, all the props go to Bi-State Marine.  Great price, knowledgeable  staff, and more to come after fishing the boat in the morning!  Lots of details about this motor will make a few heads turn.

if what you got isn’t working, get r done!  Look at the beef in that rear end.

This weekend only Matthew’s Bait and Tackle will be running a special on fish cleaning.  So if you have a crew,  and you catch your limit, bring your eyes or perch to the shop.  You pay only $1.00 per fish to get them cleaned.

Give Jason or Mike a call for more details

734-242-0666

This just in from Captain Mike from Matthew’s B&T.  Its quick and to the point!

Trollers with harnesses were pulling 2 man limits in about 2 hours this morning.

Get the boats ready, the fish are here. Dont miss out. 

If you have been reading the reports or having other anglers telling you what is the hot ticket this year,  every year for that matter, you know by now that bottom bouncers coupled with crawler harnesses are the winning ticket.  Don’t have any?  You went to big stores and were shocked by the prices?  Just plain cannot find them?  First of all, you are missing out, second blame the store, or China and India for the costs, and finally…….Google.

I wanted to pick up some more 4 ouncers for trolling, but I don’t buy just one or two of anything.  I wanted to restock those bottom bouncers lost, and just stock up for the future.  I would make my own, but its just about impossible to find a mold with the 4 oz slots.  So I googled bottom bouncers.

What I found, was a lot of options.  I settled on Sidewinder Outdoors .  Clicked on bottom bouncers and found that they are sold by the dozen.  $17.85 is a pretty decent price for unpainted bouncers, and that what I like in the first place.  I leave some unpainted, and take a half hour or so to paint the rest the way I want them.

If its an option for you, give it a shot.  I will be getting mine in the mail shortly.

Note:  I was going to put this on last night, but then I got the pics of the wayward moose, and this got BUMPED back.  The emails are still coming in asking more questions, than I know the answers to, but am looking them up this morning.

Although, I didn’t win the planer boards the other day, while I was on Ebay I did do a search on jigs.  When I typed in Whistler Jigs from Northland.  I did find these 3/4 oz Glow Whistlers.

Someone had already bid $4.99 the other day, so I pounced with five minutes left with a bid of $5.50.  I waited around a bit during the final minutes left in the bidding.  Ended up winning, couple that with the $6.35, I paid a total of $11.85 for this pack of 25 jigs.  Comes to 48 cents for each jig, and when you buy them in the store, you are looking at a buck a piece+gas+tax.  Not a bad deal.

Again, why Whistler Jigs?  These are some of my favorite jigs for using on the Detroit River, plus they are a great weight for the bottom of a three-way swivel with a harness on top.  They can be employed while drifting or trolling.

This has nothing to do with wild cougar sightings down here in the Lower Peninsula, but there be moose roaming the Upper Peninsula.   Originally planted years ago on Isle Royale, located off Michigan’s shore in Lake Superior,  the animals came from Canada in an attempt to repopulate the species.  It is long believed that wolves escaped over the ice from the island years ago, and now it appears that the moose went that route too.

These pictures were sent to me by my aunt and uncle, who live 40 minutes south of Munising.  Roughly located in the middle of the U.P.,  the animals could have been pushed east by this year’s heavy snow fall.  It is the first time they were sighted by any of us (the family) in the area.  The pics were taken on the backside of the cabin facing the lake.  Although the moose might seem brave entering this area,  Bess and John are the only people on the lake all year long.  Most folks are just starting to head up to do their spring cleaning.

………but both Friday and Saturday produced limits.  Trolling harnesses with a variety of methods was producing the best; bouncers, divers and keel weights.  16 to 20 ft from the bay out produced. 

Sidenote:  Stop in @ Matthew’s while picking up your bait, and if you aren’t sure where the fish are, ASK.  They are going the extra mile, and will give you GPS cooridinates to help get you started.

As I write, I am waiting for  the end of a bid on a pair of Church Tackle TX-6inline boards,  then hopefully I will be able to swoop in with a last minute bid.

You don’t see a lot of folks drifting with planer boards, the TX-6’s  aren’t your normal sized board either.  These boards are 5 and 1/4 inch in length, and when moving with the wind, or in extreme shallow conditions will outproduce the larger boards.  You can also use slightly different rods than you would with the bigger trolling rods.  Normally I use my 8′ St Croix Premier Glass trolling rods with the Daiwa SC 27 LCA linecounter trolling reels.  With these smaller rods I can use my smaller lineup of 7′10″ medium action trolling rods with the Daiwa SG 17 LCA reels.  These reels are roughly the size of a 5500 C3 Ambassaduer, or 5600 C4.

Ok, the bidding just ended, and oopsy.  When I first saw the item, it was going for $14.99 for the pair. From 9 minutes left until 1 min and some change the bidding was kept changing.  I was the leader for a while there with a bid of $20.51.  I refreshed with 30 seconds to go, and I was outbid by a buck.  I don’t mind that too much.  I have four already,  and I can get the boards at Frank’s for $12.99 each anyway.  The hook was the shipping price,  at 10 bucks it was more than what Frank’s would charge me,  so I tried to balance the shipping with the cost of the boards themselves.  At $21.51 plus $10 for shipping, it wouldn’t have done me any good to continue bidding.  Specially since I plan on ordering some more harness blades from the Linwood store soon.