steeliebob

Welcome Nick, It is making ice up here in the UP. I will give the Huron side a test run about Christmas time. Mabey I can get out and nail a couple of nice steelhead through the ice. I will let you know as soon as I do then the ice is on usualy until April. Bring your gun and coyote call we will set up for fish and you can shoot at a couple of coy dogs. Get your gun sighted in at 200 yards. The old guns with pop up peep sights would be super for open ice coyote hunting

Come on up to the UP and bring the crawlers and bobbers this spring Mike. Then post your monster chromer pictures for all to see. Then come on back in the Fall and I will show you how to catch coho salmon on them. The cohos are alot like bass, if it moves they will hit on it.

Love the cat!!! I have 2 of them in my insurance office everybody loves them. They look good next to the deer and fish trophies. I am at 6 E Spring street in St Ignace. Anyone is welcome to stop by and check them out. Stop by say Hi have coffee shoot the bull

Jason, they are never too young to learn. My granddaughter 4 months was born 8/2/09 all we talk about is fishing and hunting.She just grinned when I told her grandpa shot a deer. She does not understand yet, but it won't be long. Had my nephews daughter on the boat this summer ( she just turned 1 at the time) we got skunked but she had a fun boat ride.

Terrific response Mike. I like it I really do. Two problems with the wolves #1 they are managed by people who live in the LP who think wolves are okay as long as they live in the UP. #2 Most of the people who are managing them have never seen a wolf in the wild before. You are so right about wolves moving into urban areas last winter I saw two of them on the outskirts of St Ignace. I have kids and a grandchild, now don't believe the BS the DNR feeds you that wolves do not attack people.....how many documented cases of wolf attacks do you want. As soon as a wolf attacks a person in the UP everyone I know up here will have a rifle in their pick up.We annt to shoot them just give us an excuse and the lead will fly. WIth deer numbers down I assume that the wolves will start killing each other or they will head across the ice. One of the largest packs in the UP is only a few miles from the LP. I know how their numbers grew in the UP so I can imagine if a few get across the ice this winter how fast they will grow. Now if you read the DNR wolf management plan, there is room for 300 to 600 wolves in the Northern Lower Penninsula. This puzzles me where did the DNR idiot draw the line that a protected species cannot cross and go into the southern lower penninsula? Yup, just as long as they are not in my back yard. Don't go into my deer camp, don't eat my dogs or worse yet my kids. A wolf on the move can travel up to 50 miles in a day and not even be tired. I guess that means a wolf or a wolf pack could cross the ice and be in southern Michigan in a week. Forgot!!!! The DNR says they have to stay in Northern LP cannot cross the line. Not in my backyard. They are already there just like the mountain lions are here. The numbers are not there yet but they will be. Once the wolf #'s hit 100 or so there won't be an elk herd anymore and wild turkey #"s will be down, then the deer numbers will also go down. At one time there was a bounty on coyotes for a reason, what was the reason? They were the white tail deer's # 1 predator. I am just like you guys from the LP I don't want them in my backyard either.

Well put Steve, I can see you did your homework. I also enjoyed seeing my first two wolves in Michigan back in 1993 (no kidding they were eating a deer). The decimated deer herd has lots to blame excessive hunting, poaching, hard winters, predators, poor land management, too many DNR issued doe permits. Take your pick. Now that the deer herd is down to mabey 3 per square mile predators are killing off the fawns faster than the deer can reproduce which does not help the situation. Yes hunting in the UP will be slim to none for I guess the next 5 years at least. The DNR in my opinion should just close deer season in the UP for a couple of years. If the Feds want to manage wolves then let them manage wolves. I have yet to see a federal truck pulled over on a back road with the occupants chasing a wolf but I do see the DNR trucks out there. How much of our license money goes into this wolf program anyway? How much money does Peta and the Sierra Club contribute??? I bet I have more change in my pocket than any of these groups have contributed toward Michigan wolf management. If a DNR officer gets a complaint of wolf poaching and deer poaching at the same time period which complaint are you going to hear about? That alone tells me that deer are not very high on the DNR's priority list. When was the last time the DNR offered a $5000 reward for information about deer poaching. Let a wolf or two get shot in the UP and every DNR officer within 200 miles is working on the case. If the wolves are under federal control the DNR needs to get out of the picture completely.This means that the DNR cannot respond to a wolf poaching complaint. Let the feds manage them until they are delisted. When the federal government can't handle it then they will allow for the DNR to manage wolves and we will have population control. As far as any license money supporting the wolf management program it is not going to be cost effective in the long run. More and more people are going to quit deer hunting or hunt out of state. Precisely why I have walked away from 4 super good deer hunting spots and have been hunting in the LP. The hunters that took over these spots did not have any luck either.The Detroit Lions have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl than I will have of shooting a buck in any of these spots again. I checked all of my spots ( you used to see 10 to 20 deer a day in these spots) prior to deer season and found very little if any deer sign. I am not blaming the wolves entirely for the decline in deer numbers but I don't feel that license money should support them. Mabey next year the Mackinac Bridge deer count should go from south to north, that might shock the DNR if those numbers were higher than the north to south numbers. Really I don't think that they care. As long as they have their jobs and good benefits why worry. In the future the price of licenses will go up because the # of hunters has gone down.

If all of the PETA people in this world would eat asian carp instead of poor vegatables the problem would be solved. I am sure there is a chef somewhere that could make them taste like spinich or tomatoes or something.

Just put the steelhead rods away, next to the salmon rods, next to the ice fishing rods in the garage. These are next to more salmon rods and about 10 tackle boxes which is next to all kinds of rain gear and hunting gear. Good God I hope that I can find stuff when it is time to go fishing again. I hope that I get more lures for christmas

Nice pic. Now if we can get the trail cam to throw a little lead they would be a little more camera shy.

At least this will help make ice

I'm in, looks like only three from the UP so far

Congratulations!!!!! They get cuter every day. Definetly a keeper.

Absolutely do not travel today!!!!! We are getting a major blizzard in the UP and Northern Michigan with very high winds. Your hunting dogs would appreciate a place by the woodstove today also if you live up here.

Awesome: Awesome; Bet you can't wait to go back

This is a favorite of mine that requires some leftovers if you can salvage any. I take about 1 cup of leftover (salmon, trout, pike, perch, or walleye) flake them boneless. Add about 1/4 cup of mayonaise, two or three tablespoons of relish, two teaspoons of lemon juice mix well in a small bowl. A slice of swiss cheese or american cheese. Put the cheese on a kaiser bun add a desired amount of fish mix. Put it on a broiler pan and broil about three minutes until cheese melts. You can top this with a tomatoe slice, banana peppers, or sauteed mushrooms w onion. This works great with smoked fish too. You have to try this, the leftovers won't last long.

Adam they are catching them right now off of tawas 3 to 5 pounders I hear. One of the guys at deer camp got his buck on the opening day and I haven't heard from him since. The last I heard he was headed to Tawas for whitefish

PETA bugs me!!!!! I am a vegetarian mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and whatever nature provides ( venison, fish, rabbits, partridge, squirrels or whatever gets in the way of the lead).

You want to catch salmon in the St Ignace area just get in touch with me. You need a local to show you what to do and where to go. Up here you can catch lots of fish or few fish depending alot on weather. I do know where to go and what to use. Most people from the LP don't use the proper timing, location, or gear. After 20 years of fishing in the UP I have figured things out. Catching steelhead or salmon up here is pretty easy now. I do have some rather odd ways I rig my lures or baits and my wife doesn't know wether I am coming or going as I fish all kinds of odd hours.

Start at one end of the river and poison the whole thing. Then charge the fish farms that are responsible. I believe that sooner or later it will be a reality, then what do you do?????The Michigan DNR is doing a good job by helping with the situation

What is the closest one to St Ignace???? I thought about joining but I don't know who to contact. We have a problem up here nothing but woods and waters. I love a problem like that.

Guys don't put the smoker away just yet!!!!! This goes great for the X-Mas parties. 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped boneless smoked whitefish, salmon or trout. 8 oz of softened cream cheese 8 oz sour cream. three tablespoons of finely chopped onion 1/4 cup of almond slivers. two teaspoons of whorchestire sauce or soy sauce. 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke. Blend it alltogather and serve with your favorite crackers. Wash it down with a Michigan harvest wine or your favorite beer and you are good to go. This lasted about 10 minutes at boar camp so make extra

Jason, I know exactly where you were fishing. The bouys are a subsistance net and the fish that they target are salmon. Do not get upset at the tribal fishermen the tribe plants loads of fish in the UP every year. We would not have a salmon fishery anymore if it was not for the tribe. If you go across the road from where you were fishing that is a tribal fish hatchery. They raise millions of walleye and salmon every year. I does not look like much but I give them a lot of credit. If we had to depend on the DNR to plant fish up here I would give up fishing so would lots of other people.

Matt, I forgot to mention Burt Lake is great for perch & walleyes with an occasional trout or pike. Most guys fish in or near maple bay. In January when L Michigan is froze over we hit the stream mouths for steelhead and menominee

Get ready the EUP should have good ice in 10 days to two weeks, you might have to travel or just sit and wait. Sounds like Dan needs a trip to the UP. First ice on Munoscong and Brevort can be hot but be very careful. Both of these hotspots have been known to swallow up careless ice fishermen. I came close once and do not want a repeat of that event.

Matt, I spend about 90 percent of my winter efforts going for steelhead and the big ones, what fun it is. Brevort lake has ice right now but not safe ice yet. It is an awesome lake for bluegills, perch, walleye and pike. Munoscong should be good in a couple of weeks also. Give me a post if you want to try trout fishing up here. I showed a couple of guys how to do it and they are hooked on it. I mean addicted.