Although the weather forecast was indicating potential rain today I figured I would go fishing anyways! Yesterday was a "recon" day for hiking into 2 different local lakes that I have been wanting to launch the kayak in.

One is heavily developed, and completely privatized, except for an area where a narrow ATV trail passes thru some State Forest land. With some bushwhacking you could gain access to the lake.

The other lake is a small isolated one about a half mile long and a quarter mile wide. A 10 minute hike on a nice trail leads right to it from a nearby gravel parking area at a trailhead for foot traffic. This is where I spent my day. I do not think it sees much pressure, especially from off shore in a small craft.

The early morning hours were filled with hot action on largemouth bass. Nothing big, but very plentiful. Sizes ranged between 10 and 15 inches and they were happy to strike anything I presented. The most fun was with a mini Hula Popper fixed to a short ultra light spinning rig. The fish also readily took jigs and crank baits.

Most of the time I was casting in the stillness of the calm conditions for top water thrills, but once in a while decided to troll. Then...all of the sudden, it was time for an intermission! Super dark rain clouds gathered, thunder was rumbling and the breeze picked up intensity like when you flick the power switch to "high" on a giant barn fan.

Paddled back to shore in quick order from where I had launched and pulled the kayak up under a tall oak tree to help keep the rain out of the cockpit area. I waited for about a half hour for the rain to stop, but with no signs of a let up decided to leave the gear in place and go out for breakfast. As soon as I reached the truck, a text message from my wife had just come in saying..."We're gonna get nailed!"...in all caps!

Sure enough, down it came...in torrents. Glad I was back in the truck! Went to a local favorite hangout for a meal and returned to the lake 2 hours later after the rain system passed by.

The bite resumed as if nothing had happened. I covered the entire lake pretty thoroughly, and ended up with something well over 3 dozen for bass...and much to my surprise, a couple of hefty 14 inch yellow perch.

The rain was not over, and as it turns out one more brief system arrived with no lightning or thunder so I just toughed it out while getting soaked during another hour of trolling. Probably should have brought some rain gear, but I was in a hurry to leave this morning and figured..."how bad could it get anyways!"

The trip to this lake, locally known as Dollar Lake, was a whopping success and I plan to return again to focus on those perch! I'm saving the other lake for a try early next week. It has a stellar reputation for smallmouth bass....

Just back from a weeks vacation near Roscommon, MI. Had a great time enjoying a spectacular week of calm weather to enjoy paddling the kayak in. The fishing would be whatever is was destined to be, and as it turns out, was well worth the effort expended!

If you could read a fish stocking memo to the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources from the local Chamber of Commerce, it may have read like this..."Please send your fish stocking truck with another quarter billion rock bass again this year...our local campers and tourists lov'em!"

While trolling for Northern pike, or any other "largish" sized gamefish, the rock bass would keep you busy on a non stop basis. No matter what size the lure, rock bass were very eager to please. Typical time between bites averaged about 3 minutes, although sometimes it may be as long as 8 minutes. Lot's of fun, and they put up a good scrappy fight!

Typically, at least once or twice each day, I would finally get struck by a pike, which is what I had been hoping for. Only managed to catch 4, and lost several others halfway back to the kayak. The smallest was a 28 incher, and the largest came in at 37 inches. If you have ever caught a Northern pike, then you also know that they often will strike at just about anything if it looks edible. They put up a great battle, and as far as our local freshwater gamefish go, they are very close to the top of the list in my book!

I can imagine a conversation between two pike as they cruise thru the underwater weedbeds and pass each other by..."Hey there Jake...how is your day going?" "Not bad says Clyde, so far I've eaten a dozen yellow perch, 3 rock bass and several lake trout fingerlings". "Yep...about the same for me and it's only 9 am. Have a great day!" Pike are a blast to catch...no doubt about it!

Took in a few local sights around the region and explored some new places to return on future trips...both to fish, and to paddle.

Being away is fun and refreshing, but getting back home to your normal routine is always a welcome conclusion to an adventure as well!

Have a great weekend ahead folks!

Started the day out in West Bay near Traverse City, MI in hopes of stirring up some shallow water lake trout action. After 3 hours of trolling 2 lines...I never even had a strike! I have a hunch that the fish are starting to move back out into deeper waters and I was not set up for that today.

Marked some occasional fish, both suspended and hanging near the bottom, but nothing with an appetite to try my lure offerings that were running at 10 and 18' of depth in 20 to 25 feet of water.

It was calm for almost two and a half hours but the North wind had other ideas and started to create little whitecaps with side rolling waves near the end of my intended stay on the lake. It was time to head back to the safety of the beach.

Passed by a couple of guys in a boat, and they were calling it a day already after having had the same lackluster morning.

The Great Lakes Maritime Academy is located right where I made my shore launch from, and at least I got to enjoy watching students and cadets perform training maneuvers with the "classroom" tug boat. The large "mini ship" that they have on hand was already gone for the day on another training exercise out of sight so I did not have too much "big boat" traffic to contend with.

Upon returning to shore I spoke with a fellow that was heading out to free dive for fish with a spear. I mentioned that the water temps were still rather chilly, especially at depth. He was no novice, and was geared up appropriately for the task at hand. He had been out a few days before and harvested a couple of burbot, sheepshead and a 28" catfish.

Sometimes a day on the water is all about awaiting those glorious days when the fish cooperate regardless of what you do...and for the moment...you leave empty handed! I drove home with a smile just for having had a chance to get out and paddle today....

A few mental mistakes, and a few operator errors, nothing serious, but we are almost done. The movers, 7 of them, all former wrestlers, showed up at 9:00, 1 open trailer, 2 enclosed trailers, and 4 pickups and we were loaded and were pulling out by 10:00. We were in Onalaska unloaded, everything in the condo and drinking beer by 1:00. Marion's sister made lunch that we enjoyed at 1:30. A piece of cake! They even put our bed together and made it, well the DIL make it. The only thing, we forgot a full pickup load back in Caledonia that I picked up today, and I will have to go back Weds. to pick up some more stuff, and take some stuff to the recycling center I also got everything cleaned up this afternoon when I was back. I couldn't clean up the shed, but it's not too bad. It's empty, except for the things they wanted and I didn't need any more, and they would need. Now, we have to get organized here, which is happening. We did have one big plus, a little pond about an acre, 20 yards off of our out deck has a big old green head Mallard and a hen nesting in the cat tails. That will be cool to watch them raise a family. I think/hope that it will be a good move. I just hope Marion lives long enough to enjoy it. She is having a tough time with it. She seems to be happy about it, but she is having some issues, She has severe diarrhea and nausea, and she can't keep any food in her stomach. We have another appt. Friday.

Good night, gang, we will see you in the morning, the Lord willing.

It has been an enjoyable, but rather brief period of time for safe ice this year to fish in Northern Michigan. Made it out yesterday for one final trip.

Started out over in the "muskie zone", and managed to get a single northern pike to strike but missed the hook up. I was running a small perch spoon and a large pike jig. Of course the bite came on the micro spoon with a #12 sized single hook! Caught a few small perch and decided to move to deep water (17') and target yellow perch.

Since this would be my last time out I planned to bring home a limit of 25 perch. The location of set up #2 was a good choice. The first perch was pushing 10" and I felt good to start laying them down on the ice. Once my pile reached about 15 a seagull landed right outside the shanty and started to beg for a treat. Must have heard all the commotion or smelled fresh fish! You definitely have to keep your kept fish "indoors", otherwise they would be taken one by one until you had nothing left!

As soon as I reached 20 fish the end goal was in sight. I was almost at the daily limit. Then, all of the sudden, I heard a snowmobile approach, slow down and coast to a stop at my door. A rider got off and said "Hey in there...have you been watching what is going on at the North edge of the ice where it meets the open water?"

I gulped and said "No"...with a certain amount of apprehension to what I knew was a loaded question. I quickly stepped out and noticed I could see water slowly approaching over the ice like a freshwater tide. Yikes! I said "Thank you!", and proceeded to break down and load up my gear tote in the wink of an eye!

During the last hour of fishing, the ice was creaking, thundering and groaning like a bowling alley on league night. In my head I said..."Yep...this is my last time out for the season!" It does not matter if you have 12 inches of ice below your feet because there are other properties of natural physics at work. Like a big crack that could separate you from the main ice body...leaving you on a floe! I did happen to notice our local Coast Guard helicopter making rounds earlier in the day, and I suspect that they have been keeping tabs on "us" fisherfolks.

The wind was blowing strong from the South, and I suspect that a high pressure system, along with the wind, made the giant body of lake ice "tilt" and lean downwards below the open water. Regardless of the "why", we all got our tails in Boogie mode and vacated the ice pronto. Back on shore as we swapped stories a couple of us noticed that there were still a few guys sitting out on buckets pretty far out. Two of us hopped back on our snowmobiles and made final rounds to advise people about what was going on and to offer quick rides back to the launch. Everybody was content to stay, and honestly, I think they were fine, but we gave them a strong caution about paying attention to conditions.

Spoke with a fellow from a spear fishing shanty and talk quickly turned to muskie. For a few days, he and I were stationed about 400' apart. I mentioned how I had an encounter with a "mid" 40 inch muskie...twice in the same day, and he replied back that a fish of 46" stopped under his hut but he let it go because it was short of the legal taking size of 50". We were both pretty sure it was the same muskie.

I enjoyed hanging out for another half hour with him, and getting the run down on the muskie spearing routine from the several decades he has spent in the pursuit. Super nice guy and I hope to see him out again next year. Who knows, we might even fish together via both my shanty for perch, and inside his bob house for spearing!

Went out ice fishing today...targeting yellow perch. Over the past few days the large ones have been ignoring my lure/bait offerings so I changed things up today with some small jigs and scented rubber tailings.

Things were off to a good start, and larger fish were taking the new baits...however they were grabbing anything I put down so I was unsure if the new tackle was really the solution or not.

All of the sudden the perch I could see below me in 13' of water vanished like they had been beamed up to meet Scotty on the Enterprise. Hmmm...must be a large predator coming in. Sure enough, a massively proportioned muskie showed up and sat still right under my feet for about all of 30 seconds. My heart was pounding and I wished I was set up with a spear...although this particular fish was by estimation somewhere in the mid 40 inch inch range. They need to be 50 inches in this lake to make them a keeper. Besides, I would only do catch and release anyways.

I had two holes bored, both eight inches in diameter. I kept jigging the small perch rig with my right hand, and in my left began to jig the larger "attractor" spoon that I typically deploy when getting started for the day. It tends to bring more fish in from around the circumference of where I am set up in the shanty.

The muskie came over and stared down the 4" Rapala jigging Rap and then coasted away. I had a hunch that it would return, and sure enough...it came back a total of 14 times over a 2 hour period! Each time I was ready with a new lure deployed, and on the 4th visit (let's call it a "she"), she grabbed a tiny perch spoon that I had down in the other hole. I paused, set the hook, and she came zooming straight up at the hole at me! I freaked out, trying to quickly reel in slack, and before I knew it she was gone. Oh my gosh was I shaking!

On the eighth visit she came up to my second boring again to check out a tiny perch jig that was tipped with a 2" Gulp scented minnow. She touched it with her nose as I watched...and then all of the sudden...grabbed it with all her might. Again, I paused, set the hook, and she began to do a series of alligator rolls beneath me to show off her beautiful side bars. Next...she throttled North and disappeared from view as the tiny little perch rod was starting to bend down to the cork handle. As soon as this happened, and the line went more taught, the jig popped out and it was over. Oh my...two good chances and I missed them both! Shame on me!

Figured that would be the end of it for the day, but much to my surprise she came back to continue checking out new lure offerings 6 more times! Muskie have a reputation for having huge appetites, and going after very large baits...but today she was in the mood for mere tidbits.

I completely gave up on going after perch and made a mission out of catching this behemoth. Alas...it was not to be. Tomorrow is a brand new day...and I plan to head back out there to spend the entire day...from sun up to sun down! Catching her would be the pinnacle of my ice fishing season! The yellow perch are going to take a back seat this week as I comb thru my tackle tonight and bring out a new series of offerings!