Fishing Michigan

No, its not a request, but after a weekend of “Sight Fishing” that is where your body will feel it the most.  Come Monday morning, right between the shoulder blades there is that old familiar tightness. Turn your neck to look around and it feels like you are stretching out  like your high school football days all over again.

After fishing the Midwest Open out on Devil’s Lake this weekend, that’s where I am right now.  Having employed the most product method used for fishing under the ice, the Sight Fishing technique.  Give me a gin clear lake, good dark shanty and its better than watching TV.

Have you ever got into a conversation with an older angler about using fish finders?  You know the ones, they go on and on about seeing the fish on the screen and how it gets them going when they aren’t biting.  The old, ” I don’t know what’s worse, not finding fish, or knowing they are there and they won’t bite?”  That’s sight fishing magnified by a power of 10, you actually see them come in towards your bait.

You either adjust your approach to what they want, or see them do the “fintail dance”.  If you have ever sight fished you know what I am talking about.  They come in, inch by inch, your heart starts picking up a beat or two and you watch.  They could come up behind and in a split second either suck that bait right into their mouths, or start to dance.  The dance is where their front fins are almost in constant motion, they come in, study the bait, and then just as suddenly use those fins to back off.  Its a process of cat and mouse, it might seem like 10 minutes has passed while the drama unfolds, but in reality its only a minute or two.  They back off, study the situation some more, the fins kick in and they come closer.  Reminds me of the old Abbott and Costello routine, “Step, by step….slowly I turned” and the tension builds.  The fish, usually a gill or crappie comes, studies some more, and either takes it, or starts the dance all over again.

By this time, you are wishing you had the smallest bait available down there for them to look at, a 2 or 3 mm Fiska from Your Bobbers Down  . Rigged with a waxie, single spike, or the best bait would be a wiggler.  What most of us are more familiar with calling a mayfly larvae.  Its hard to beat a wiggler in these situations.

Sight fishing, call it fishing in crystal clear hi-def.  You want the really big boys down there, play keep away from the small ones and get to fishing.  Great lakes in the area to practice this technique are many of the lakes you will find out in the Irish Hills.  Devil’s, Sand and Wamplers are really good examples!