Jigs for Spring

Wow, it's been a long winter. Finding open water has been a struggle this year. Even the inner harbor has been iced over a few weekends. January was a bust but some fish have started to show up this month and March should be spectacular if we get rid of this harbor ice.

Thanks to my IT specialist and nephew Taylor, he has shown me how to get a video on this blog. Let the fun begin.

On this video I will teach you how to tie my bucktail and marabou minnow jig. I rely on this bait on Lake Michigan when conditions get tough. Clear cold water in March and April are one situation. In fact, in clear calm conditions almost any other time of the year this will come through when other presentations wont. Fish these on 8# test or lighter and if possible a fluorocarbon leader. Don’t over-fish it. I swim these with the reel.

It’s an easy tie and a great time to whip up a couple dozen to get you through the start of the year. More to come!

Tight lines, and smooth drags.

Marc

Catching Up

Wow, I was right.  We did pay for that warm spring.  The record summer temps didn’t help as well.  There were some of the highest surface temps on the lake that I remember.  Things held together till around July 4^th and then it was 7 weeks of bath water. 

Right Now

But here we are.  We made it through the shore fishing doldrums and starting Labor Day weekend it has been very good and fairly consistent.  Crankbaits early and late have been taking some nice 4 year old Kings.  Flicker Shads and #5 Bomber Fat Free Shads.  I have to say it again; the Flicker Shad is the best lure out there for $3.99!

In-Fisherman: Tubes for Trout and Salmon

In case you are interested, my article regarding fishing tubes for Lake Michigan Trout and Salmon is running in the In-Fisherman right now.  Outside of these spawning Kings, the tubes are  deadly all season long. 

Full Moon Walleye

The photo is my daughter Ava with a nice Lake Minocqua Walleye that she caught on our August vacation.  This fish hit her Deep Thunderstick Jr while we were fishing the evening of a full moon.  It came from the shallow saddle between Kline and Jossart Island.  After we shared high fives, there was still time for one more drift so we set up in the exact same place.  I was still picking up pliers, flashlights and putting the net away when Ava made another cast.  “Dad I have another fish”, she exclaimed.  I look over and the rod is pinned to the gunwale and line is screaming from the reel.  I reached over and lifted the rod to feel what it was and I felt a big head shake.  A BIG head shake!  That’s when I started to get nervous.  The fish was still screaming 8# line off the reel and heading back to the west and into the bay.  We were drifting the other way.  That’s when I told Ava to hold the rod high and I spun the bow around with the trolling motor and we started to chase it.  We followed it for a half a minute or so and then the fish stopped.  Ava tugged a while but by then I could see that it wasn’t moving.  I helped her pull and we got back a bushel of weeds and bottom debris about 8’ up the line.  That fish (I am presuming a big Musky) ran her through about 30 yards of weeds and got off.  We did get the T-Stick back featuring some serious tooth gouges.  I was a pretty exciting two casts that we won’t ever forget.  And she got to feel the power of a big musky.

 

The warm weather, we will pay for this!

It’s hard to believe that these pictures were taken two Sundays ago. And here we sit with 75 degrees.

Yes, it is fun to have this warm weather in mid-march, but if this keeps up, we will pay for it.

We have had a couple good years of shore and near shore fishing due to cool springs. The longer it takes for the water to warm, the better the shore fishing will be in midsummer. If this warms up too fast, June, July, and August could be a bust.

We already have water temps in the low 40’s. We often don’t see this till mid to late April.

So, there is nothing we can do but enjoy the great Brown Trout action we have now. Browns, Browns, Browns. Some big ones too. Crankbaits, Thundersticks, and tube jigs are red hot. Spoons not so much yet, but that will be changing with temps breaking that magic 42 degree mark.

Get out there and enjoy it now and let’s hope that it cools off a little or we will be talking about carp fishing this summer.

The In-Fisherman Great Lakes Tube Jig article is in the can and will run in one of the summer issues. I'll keep you posted

Tight lines and smooth drags!

Marc

Old School Boots

It took me 35 years to listen to all the people (fellow fishermen, construction workers, my father-in-law who worked outside all his life, etc) who told me that Mickey Mouse (MM) boots were the warmest boots I’d ever find.
No way, I thought. All those cool boots in the Cabelas catalog with thinsulate and gore-tex and other space-age materials must be better. The technology has to be better than anything produced for the Korean War, right?

I have Sorrel, Lacrosse, Cabelas, and more Cabelas. Boots endorsed by the Iditarod participants. All kinds of socks, insoles, boot liners and still …. cold feet.

So I gave in, threw down my $58 (less than half of what I paid for other boots) at Fleet Farm in Germantown and got myself a pair of good old G.I. Mickey Mouse Boots.

They got their nick name from soldiers who thought they looked like Mickey Mouse in them, but no one complained because frozen feet were a thing of the past with them. They are big and fat. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to drive in them. I thought I may press the gas and the brake at the same time.

They have instructions printed on the side like a car tire. An air valve too. Oh, and open the valve if you are jumping out of an airplane. Hey, you never know. This isn’t printed on the side, but I wouldn’t wear them through airport security either.

Oh, and they stink like rubber. Goodyear tire plant level rubber stink. Did you ever walk into Fleet farm and smell the rubber smell and figure it was from the tire department? Nope, I think it’s the pile of MM boots. I don’t know how you would deer hunt in them. You deer hunters are worried that the deer may smell the Olive Garden salad dressing you had two weeks ago. I guess the deer may just think he is getting close to Fleet Farm if he gets close to you in these boots
They are heavy. I wouldn’t want to walk 5 miles in them. Luckily, for fishing I don’t have to. It’s a nice workout. I figure I’ll have calves and thighs like Lou Ferrigno by March 1st.

OK, that all said. I have had them for a month. I have fished in the teens and one morning that was 9 or 10 degrees. And the verdict is…… I haven’t felt even a twinge of cold! Warm toasty feet! The warmest boots I have ever found. Just like everyone said.

I guess they have layers of wool and felt. But the real difference is an air bladder surrounding your foot. You can actually add a little air into them (Air Mickey). It’s like a thermos for your foot. So the weight and size and smell and the fact that you look like Herman Munster are all worth it. Finally, warm feet!

A Brief Report

The harbor was hot for Browns, but it has cooled off. There are fish out there but scattered. Some of the inner-harbor spots have started to produce.

To everyone who reads this, thank you and have a great New Year. Let’s make it a great fishing season.

Tight lines and smooth drags,
Marc

11 degrees and Fishing was hot!

It’s been a great December along the Lakefront. Fishing out in the harbor is going strong with no signs of icing up yet.

I had a five fish morning on Saturday the 17th. No giants, but a five fish morning on the third weekend in December and I haven’t had to think about going into downtown yet. This is a bonus guys. Get out there.

The one pictured was Saturday December 10th at dawn. Eleven degrees! Down coat, insulated bibs, Mickey Mouse boots, Carhart baklava, Under Armor base layer…… and three Browns. Can’t beat that!

I must admit that as I wandered out on the break wall, 11 degrees on the old Allen-Bradley thermometer, and wind out of the west at 20, in the dark, I was questioning my own sanity. But I not only felt saner when I started catching fish, but I knew I wasn’t the craziest one as I saw two rigs pull up at the ramp and launch. It’s always nice to know there is someone out there that is closer to the front of the line at the loony ward.

Reflecting back on the year, after a horrible winter (worst ever for me) it was a pretty great spring, summer, and fall. Yes, there were some slow periods, but there always are. I hear complaints from some that it was a bad year. If that was the case, you probably sat in one spot too long because there were some very good stretches of fishing and they didn’t take place in the popular spots.

You gotta move around.!!! It’s a big city and a lot of access points. Hit at least two, three, or four per morning. To sit in one spot and not catch anything for three hours with all the options available is insane. Don’t leave fish to find fish, but don’t wait around all morning for something to happen.

The numbers of returning salmon are down, but that’s the way it is right now. Quality, not quantity. Brown Trout, what can I say…. World Class!

To all the great folks that follow this, have a great Holiday season and a great New Year. My New Year’s resolution is the same this year as it has been for the last 35. Fish more!

Tight Lines and Smooth Drags,
Marc

Love those November Browns

‘Tis the season to be jolly. Not because of the holiday but because the Browns are in the harbor.

Things are setting up perfectly right now. We have hungry post-spawn fish coming back from the tributaries. We have some of the smaller juvenile fish moving in off the main lake. And, we have pre-spawn Seeforellens coming in. You can encounter any one of them at any time right now and we have been doing just that.

The action seems to be on shallow minnow baits in the shallower areas and the deep diving crankbaits in the deeper areas. Not much action on spoons right now, but that’s typical. The Rapala DT series baits have been solid performers. DT-10’s to DT-14’s. I’ve caught a few literally grinding a DT-14 on the bottom. That seems to trigger strikes when everything else is slow.

It’s also the time when small musky baits work well. In fact, they will also work when all else fails. No, not a Suick, but small musky sized crankbaits that imitate shad are great. Two in particular would be the Rapala Super Shad and the Bagley Monster Shad. It seems nuts but these fish are looking for a big meal and the size of these baits really get their attention. The bad news is that they will still shy away from heavy line so 10-12 pound test is the maximum you can get away with.

An event from this weekend has me rethinking line weights. For 30 years I have preached 8 pound test for most of the season except for the salmon run (September and October). This weekend I hooked and fought a Brown that I can’t begin to guess what it weighed. Well over 20 pounds, likely over 25 pounds. I had it whipped but as I tried to get to the net it was able to dive down and use its dead weight to sound. My 9 ½ foot MH rod and 8 pound line wasn’t enough to control the fish in the close quarters where I was at and it took off along the bottom raking my line through rocks and mussels. It broke off leaving me with about 3 feet of line that looked like it was run through a box of broken glass.

I rarely get too upset about a lost fish, but this one had me ready to scream or throw up, or both. It took me all weekend to get over it. This was a special fish and I had It whipped but couldn’t close the deal at the end. It was literally 10 feet from me wallowing in the shallows, but the 20 seconds I fooled around getting the net was enough to give him an opening to make one last deep surge and there was no stopping him.

Is 8 pound too light? Do I need a heavier rod? That would all be an answer, but it comes with a cost. I may have never made that long cast with a light lure with heavier tackle. That fish may have seen heavier line and shied away. I’ll never know. And he may have shredded 10 pound line as well. I hate to change what has worked for 30+ years because of one fish. But then again, that one fish is what I am after all year and the tackle failed me in this case. I landed a 25 pounder in April and this fish looked heavier.

It’s a great story that will haunt me for a while. Hopefully there is another one out there and the heavens will align again. Luckily events like this don’t defeat us but feed the obsession. It validates the wonder if there are true giants out there. Just to remind you, there are only about 4-5 places in the world that we could be having this conversation about Browns approaching 30 pounds! This is one of them.

Tight lines and smooth drags.
Marc

Better late than Never

To loyal followers of this blog, I apologize. No lame excuses. All I can say is that it was a very busy stretch with two vacations and a new job that included some travel. The new job is great. Vacations were too. Now I promise I will get back on track.

Newsworthy updates:
The fall run of Kings looms very near, but yet so far. The harbor and surrounding inshore waters are about as warm as I have seen in years. This is just after some of the coolest water I have seen in years lasting well into midsummer. After a horrible winter, we had a streak lasting from April 1st till mid-july where we caught at least one trout or salmon every weekend during that period. I don’t know when I did that last. Maybe never. I am hearing reports from shore anglers that this is the worst spring and summer that they have had. I beg to differ. Till recently, it was great.

So for now we wait till the water cools. The Salmon will be in soon. Their clock is ticking no matter what the water temps are. It would be nice if it cooled off because they would be in by Labor day.

June Trip
The June trip to Minocqua was great. Tons of Bass. Lots of Smallmouth in the shallow rocks and mid lake hard bottom humps. Wacky worms on wacky jigs and jigging spoons were the ticket. A couple hundred bass caught and released.

July/August Trip
The July/August trip to Minocqua was also a bass extravaganza. A couple hundred again including a 50 bass morning and a 81 Bass day. And the 81 day we didn’t even fish between 10:30am and 5:00pm. We also caught some nice walleyes by accident. Most of the Bass were deeper than usual but the water temps were in the uper 70’s so it wasn’t a surprise. The big walleyes came on Mann’s 20+ crankbaits. Some pike and bass too. It’s a great crankbait if you really want to get down 18-20. We used 15# fluorocarbon line and low gear ratio reels to ease the pain of the deep cranks.

We had one 20” walleye with a huge bite mark on it (see photo). That gets the imagination going!

Storms Rattlin Flat Warts
In an earlier blog I was pretty excited about the re-introduction of the Storms Rattlin Flat Wart. I said that I would report back so here it is. They suck. They look the same but they aren’t. I guess I am not surprised. The new Storm seems to want to change something with whatever they touch of the old Storm designs. They changed the rattles, they don’t “Hunt” like the old ones did, It’s hard to get them to run straight. I’m very disappointed. The best substitutes out there are still the Flicker Shads and the #5 and #6 Fat Free Shads.

Tubes for Lake Michigan
This spring was outstanding for pearl tubes on Lake Michigan. This summer was terrible. Can’t figure that one out. Live bait was key all summer. I don’t like it that way, but that’s the way it was. If you could get large lively baits, you could catch fish. Even during the Coho blitz back in May, live alewives outfished everything.
Getting back to tubes, if you aren’t fishing pearl tubes out there you are missing some great action. Three-eighths ounce heads and pearl white Gitzit tubes. It’s that simple. I will be doing an In-Fisherman piece on this for spring 2012 (shameless plug). Pearl Gitzits are at Fleet Farms and Cabela’s now.
I’ll end it there for now. Again, I am very sorry for the gap in the blog.

Tight lines and smooth drags!
Marc