steeliebob

I still see lots of floating ice on L Huron (mackinac island) just outside of my office. I was ice fishing on Sunday and caught a real nice steelhead on a tip up. If I can get a little steelhead fishing in first I will be looking to get out on the big lake. I need to get on the river for some chrome action soon.

We had good ice from 12/26/11 to 3/11/12 got some fishing in and some nice trout caught. I hope that I can fish open water next weekend.

I went out for the last time on 03/11/12 and set up on 3 inches of ice for the last trip. At 8:30 am the first flag went off and it was ripping line off from the tip up. I set the hook and so began a 25 minute tug of war. I use 8 lb mono with no backing so I have to be ultra careful to get the fish in. Finally I got the head to the hole a couple of times and he peeled 40 feet each time. The third time he came by the hole my partner reached in and grabbed it. I never weighed it but I have caught enough of them to make a good guess at 13 pounds.

If there was a way to harvest zebra mussels they could be boiled salted and fed to inmates like pistachios. A nice little snack. Another invasive species put to good use.

I happen to own a small business and I can tell you that the places on the internet do not support your kids school sports programs and many many other community programs. Buying local supports the local economy. Work with the business owner and you can get what you want when you want it.

I guess if you can't be 2 miles out on the ice you can get the boat out earlier. There is still 2 feet of ice in the EUP

Get the boat ready Blaze we have to get some salmon first. We need a cooler full of silver.

Oh yeah you have it down. Some nice looking chrome. Head north if you want to pull some through the ice.

The United States should use Asian Carp (they are edible) as a food source. Commercially harvest them there seems to be alot available to be harvested. Process them and send them to prisons and jails across the country. If we feed them to inmates we reduce the cost of feeding them by millions of dollars per year. I am certain that they could eat wild hogs and some other invasive species as well. If we could feed inmates 6 meals a week that consist of invasive species look at all of the money that could be saved.

No just metal and flies St Ignace

Tomorrow is your turn on the hardwater. We will be setting tip ups for some steelhead. Bring your track shoes and don't say I did not warn you about track shoes. Chasing flags in 20 pounds of boots can wear your legs out in a hurry. It will be fun.

I have seen the Sheriff Dept, Michigan State Police, Boarder Patrol,Coast Guard, and Tribal Police all power load their boats at one time or another. I guess that they all have too much boat for their trailer. The taxpayers must be doing a good job.

Finally found some good ice on a L Michigan bay and set up for some steelhead. Spawn bags on tip ups and the flags were flying on and off. The first fish to hit the ice was a 7 pound steelhead then a long drought. Then a screamer that had the tip up leaning but I missed. I got that tip up reset just in time to see another flag and land a 2 pound steelhead. Then another drought watch a couple of eagles flying around for awhile. Then another flag and another screamer set the hook and land a 4 pound steelhead. Had some nice fillets for dinner last night.

Some days I just laugh. I have been down there in the early am and every dock is occupied by a recreational boater who decided to spend the night. I have seen every dock occupied by sunbathers and swimmers. Always fun to be waiting for a blow boat to rig up while parked in the ramp area. Have seen lots of guys leave their truck in the launch ramp and test drive their boats for an hour or so. I saw a guy with a Michigan State license plate block access to two ramps once for 4 hours. He parked his truck and trailer so nobody could access the ramps. Fireworks night is always fun, your vehicle is always parked in even if you could get to your vehicle you cannot drive it to the ramp. Nobody pulls jet ski trailers out of the ramp because they are always wrenching on them.

Are you the idiot that is running planers 150 feet on either side of your boat in a congested area? Are you the idiot that has to follow 50 feet directly behind my boat? Are you the idiot in the blow boat...need I say anything else???? Are you the idiot that thinks that the launch area is a designated place to wrench on your ***** jet ski. Are you the idiot that just drove 40 mph in a 55 for the last 5 miles, now that I am passing you found 80.

Look in your freezer that is your best bet for now. Make a spiced rum and coke and wait it out like the rest of us.

I work all week.On the weekends I find a nice chunk of ice to sit on and watch wolves circle me licking their chops. During this process I try to catch a couple of steelhead on my tip ups. While watching the tip ups and wolves I hope that Michigan opens a wolf season soon so that I can stack them up like cordwood. Mabey soon my wife can have a wolf fur coat.

October 4, 2011 I was fishing for steelhead and had a hit on a spawnbag and brought in a 37 inch female that just tipped the scale at 30 lbs. No picture was taken as I did not have my camera handy at the time. My first 30 in about 10 years. There was a time that 30 pounders were not uncommon.

Mabey we should privatize and go after the Asian Carp. Take the money that we pay the USFWS and give it to private companies through grant monies and within a few years multiple companies will have multiple stratagies to attack them. Using multiple stratagies will help deflate their population and make them less of a risk to the great lakes.

I got out Saturday am and found that I had wasted a trip. Too much ice to open water fish and not enough ice to ice fish. It is supposed to cool down a little more this week and next week if that helps. Check on a site called iceshanty.com that might help you more.

Ice was about 1/2 inches thick. So here I am climbing out of bed at 5:30 am to go ice fishing again and no safe ice. After driving around looking for places to go ice fishing I went home without getting a line wet again.

May all of your wishes come true for 2012. For all of you that I have fished with it has been great. Play it safe in 2012 and many full coolers to all of you in 2012. I hope to see some great pictures and read some great stories, keep them coming. Good luck to all of you, a lightly set drag screams louder.

They are fishing munuscong already. No reports yet but I have heard of a few going out on foot only.

No rain this week but mixed temps right now it is 15 degrees out with a light wind. I think that it made some ice this week. I am going to give it a shot tomorrow. Good thing is that I don't go out far and I won't venture into too deep of water. If I can get a few feet off shore and into about 3 fow I will be good to set some tip ups. I will check several spots and hope that I can find some good ice .

It might be where or how I fish for steelhead through the ice but I have seen slammers miss fish at least 4 of 5 times. I think that they work good in deep water but I seldom fish over 10 feet of water. Most of the time I am in about 3 feet of water. The steelhead give the bait (spawnbags) a tug drop it then wait a couple of minutes before hitting it hard. Another issue with slammers is that most of the time I am fishing it is about 10 degrees or less out. Holes freeze up fast in that temp.