phishtix

I got some little ones down out from St Joe last Sat. Got to fight some big ones and brought home some cohos so it was worth it. Rather eat them hos anyway. They're delicious! Question, where you guys puting in at Saugatuck? I'm thinking about coming over "maybe" next weekend. My wifes out of town so just me and my dog. Figure I should probably go fishing somewhere.

Nice catches Ed.

Wife and I just returned from a trip to FL. Got a much needed rest. It was my b-day on Feb 25. Turned 57. Her uncle took us out on a boat trip in and around the sound area. He doesn't really fish much so we just did our best to figure it out. Had to use some borrowed equipment. The boat trip was fun just seeing the sites. Managed to catch a few fish. Mangrove snapper, and sheapheads. They aren't like our sheep head in MI. Much prettier and good to eat. The locals told me they are highly sought after. Fun to catch. My wife got too much sun on the boat and that shut her down for fishing. Uncle got sick, we drank a lot of alcohol. I think he over did it. But it left me sitting in the house jonesing to go fishing. I studied up how to catch em by watching videos on the net. Talked my wife to taking me up to a tackle store were I stocked up on the "hot" lures. Then she took me up and dropped me off on a fishing pier up at Charlotte Harbor. I fished for like 7 hours. Got a bunch of Lady fish, some Jack Cravelles, a Bonnet Head shark, and from what they tell me a really nice spotted sea trout. The trout was pretty cool. Looks very similar to our Browns. Also made friends with a Dolphin. He would watch me catch fish and release them and then he would swim over and eat them. I tried releasing them on the other side so he wouldn't see but evidently they have good eyes. And they are really fast swimmers. At one point he sat on the edge of the pier staring at me waiting for me to release a fish. I could have touched his nose. Kinda cool. Had a great time. Hoping to make it down there again someday. Getting old and it sure felt nice to fish and be comfortably warm instead of freezing and hurting. KIMG0362.JPG.crdownload KIMG0364_2.JPG.crdownload

Been on vacation the past two weeks. Spent some time with my family. Took the grand kids to mackinaw island and several other places. Family came home and left me and the dog up for the rest of the week. We fished all over the place. Literally. So I don't have a clicker that I carry around with me to count every single time I hook a fish. So can't say I went this many for that many etc... Suffices to say I hooked some fish. And I caught some of them. Didnt take a lot of pics. The weather was not nice. Periods of rain and occasionally the sun would come out. The pics some of them didn't come out very good. Seems like my best fishing was always right before dark. The big manistee definitely has the most fish. It also has the most pressure. The PM is a close second. My favorite part was the last night on the Ausable. Very peaceful. Not many fish but it was nice to fish in peace. The only steelhead I got on the entire trip came from the Ausable. Actually lost a couple others. One was pretty nice. God I love steelhead! Fish for days for them no biting nasty old kings and finally get bit by some steelies man can you ever tell the difference. Things should get better as it gets cold. I'm already making plans for another trip in nov. Till then I'll be the weekend warrior.

My wife and kids bought me a really nice cart from cabelas. Its much nicer than anything I would have bought for myself. I like it mostly. But its alot to pack it up and haul everything out onto the peir. Comes in real handy though. Specially if I get fish. We are up in Bellaire right now. Rained all morning. Found some fish down at the Boardman yesterday. Nothing biting. Hopefully that changes! Going to hit the BM river tomorrow.

Hit the lower PM on wed afternoon and then BM on thurs from sunrise to sun set. PM water is nice and cold with good stain from recent rains. Fish are there but didn't get any biters. Lots of trees down across the river. Lots of people fishing. BM the water feels pretty warm still. But evidently cold enough cause I found decent numbers of salmon. Had a bad storm come through on thursday late morning. I was prepared for rain but the storm kind of made me nervous. I heard it coming from over the tree line. I kept hoping and praying it would go around me. By the time I saw the large anvil cloud from over the tree line it was obvious it was coming directly over me and it was too late to try to get out of its way. Doh! Lord watched out for me though and I'm still here to talk about it I ended up landing one nice hen. Lost 4 other fish. So I call it a good day. Trying out some new cure from Pautzkes. Sunrise on thursday was gorgeous. I tried to capture some shots with my good camera. I love mornings like these!

Nice! Looks like he's got a plump belly. He must be eating good.

Figured I would try one more time for some Walleyes over on Lake St Clair.. Theres not many in shore Walleye fisheries by me anymore. So I go over to Lake St Clair quite a bit. Rarely disappointed when I go. Other than the drive over from 275 to 696 and 94 sucks! This trip I caught a hole bunch of small Perch, but no Walleyes. Couple of the Perch were around 7 inches but most were about 4. Maybe 30 or more Perch? But nothing big enough to eat I found this one particular spot on the edge of the channel where the deep water meets the shallow water. Very difficult to fish due to the big boats going in and out. But man there were a ton of fish there. I tried to stay on it but just too many big boats pushing 4 ft wakes. Not very relaxing for sure. Did catch a really large Small Mouth Bass. Probably the biggest smallie I've ever caught actually. And if I remember right the next largest one before that was also caught on Lk St Clair. This lake has to be one of the best Smallmouth Bass lakes in MI.

Thanks Ed, I'll give them a call.

Feeling a bit low this weekend. My best fishing buddy that I've known for many years passed away. He was with me the day I caught my first steelhead. He keeled over from heart attack. Just returned from a bike ride with his daughter to go get ice cream. He sat down to relax and next thing his wife knew she looked out and he was laying face down on their back deck. He was on vacation and we were talking about getting together to catch some gills. I'm having a real hard time wrapping my head around it. Seems like I've been saying good bye to the people I love way too much these last few years! I've been searching old photos from some of our trips. But I don't have many that have been digitized. My old computer crashed a few years back and I lost alot of my old pics that had been uploaded. I did find this one.I uploaded it to my flikr account several years ago and fortunately it was still there. Probably nothing great about the pic but I can still remember it like it was yesterday. We had the weekend to ourselves. Rained on us the first day but the fishing was really good. The next morning we got up before the sun rise and when we arrived at our spot we were greeted by a rainbow that seemed to shine down right on the top of the hole were we catching fish. Its not just any hole. And its not exactly a secret hole, but every late august into early sept it literally fills up with fresh from lake mi salmon. I remember we caught so many fish that day. Our arms were sore. One of those trips where time seems to stand still and nothing else matters. I will never forget it! I know I've got more pics from that trip, just I can't find them. The pics were all taken on film and I had to scan them to be able to upload them to my computer. I'm thinking about maybe taking my hard drive from my old computer and see if theres a place that might be able to extract the files from it. Anyway, I don't mean to bore everyone. Just feeling kinda low. I don't have many people to talk to about these things. Seems like so many people that I grew up with are not here anymore. I sure miss them all!!

Had a nice afternoon on Lk St Clair. Caught quite a bunch of perch in the middle of the day, biggest was 12 inches. Kept a few but let most of them go back. As the sun began to go down the Walleyes turned on. Got 5 in like 30 minutes. Nice afternoon to be on the water. Summer finally here. Enjoyed fresh Perch for breakfast and planning to enjoy Walleyes for dinner

Last 3 weeks oct 4, 11, and 18th. fished manistee river once and st joe twice. Not much to get excited about. Hooked 2 Salmon on the manistee back at the beginning of the month, and lost both. Then completely skunked not even a bite on the joe oct 11. Finally yesterday got one nice fresh hen steelhead on the joe. Probably a lot of others doing much better than me. But thats how it goes for me.

Nice fish! Very informative report.

Huge! Sounds like a good time. Good job!

Took the boat up and fished the lower Big M friday. Had a pretty good day. Found some fish and they were pretty aggressive. Had a young male actually chase my skien while i was reeling it in. Grabbed it right next to the boat and took off. I was shocked. Seen Steelhead do that but never a Salmon. Water was 61 first thing in the morning. I fished from day break till early afternoon. It was really good first thing and slowed down after the bright sun got up in the sky. I took some brakes to let the dog run around but while I was fishing I don't think I ever went more than 30 to 45 minutes without having a fish on. Ended up 5 to the net and quite few that got away. I kept a 2 for my friend that doesn't get to fish anymore and he asked me if I could save one for him. My biggest was a hen that weighed 20lbs on the hand scale. So yeah, pretty good day I'd say. My arms are really sore so must have been a good day

Sweet!