Capt. Ken

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/2/3/2/8/dscf3100_edit_1.jpg' alt='dscf3100_edit_1.jpg'> Today's trip was with Dave Larkin from neighboring Wisconsin. We started out at the north end trolling harnesses along a weedline that's been very good to me this year. Trolling with planer-boards was new to Dave and he quickly got the hang of it. We caught several throwbacks in the weeds, but no keepers. Pretty much all the fish were coming on purple colored blades. The water temperature had dropped to 58 due to the north winds, and I quickly realized we weren't probably going to do much in that spot. We tried several different locations, tried trolling, tried drifting, caught fish...but all small ones. It was almost 11:30 and our half day trip was getting close to being over. We were getting pretty discouraged when we decided to get out the jigging rods and work some breaklines. I'm glad we did...in the next 45 minutes we had 8 keepers, several more throwbacks, two sheepshead, a carp and a pike. We were pitching 1/4 oz. jigs tipped with crawler halves. What was going to be a horrible half-day trip turned out decent after all. It just shows you that you have to be very versatile out here to be consistent (and sometimes being lucky doesn't hurt either). Here's a picture of today's catch, good luck from all of us in the Bay de Noc area. Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend.

Today's trip was with Hal, Joe and Al from the Munising Michigan area. We left the Gladstone Yacht Harbor shortly before 7 a.m. and headed to where Jay, Tom and I left the fish yesterday. We kept it simple today using Walleyes Choice 1/4 oz. in-line weights and harnesses. The fish were on fire the first couple hours of the day, however getting keepers to bite was the hard part. We did manage 6 or 7 keepers before making a move to some deeper water where we marked some nicer fish. We didn't have our baits in the water 30 seconds and we had a double with one being 22 inches and the other a 28 incher that Hal wanted to keep. I didn't mind after seeing all the blood in the live-well, the fish would not have made it anyways if we had released it. Our best bite for keepers was from 11 a.m. until about 2 p.m., then it slowed some and we headed in. Overall it was a great day on the bay, with close to 40 undersized fish released. By far our best color on the spinners today was I-76 (purple). We also caught quite a few on I-62...which is always good when the fish are feeding on wigglers and mayflies. We ended up with 14 keepers for the guys to take back to Camp. Here's some video of our catch, good luck from all of us in the Bay de Noc area!!!

My good friend Captain Jay Nieman and his dad Tom and I went out for just 3 hours or so yesterday afternoon to try out a new way to present crawler harnesses that we have been working on. It basically combines an in-line weight with the harness. Jay had tried it a few times on Lake Erie last summer with pretty good results. It worked pretty good on Little Bay de Noc too!!!

Today I had the pleasure of sharing the boat with 4 great guys...Mike, Jeff, Eric and Zack from lower Michigan. We got on the water around 7 a.m. and headed north from the Gladstone Yacht Harbor. I haven't been on the water the last few days, but everybody has been saying that the bite has been tough. Today, however, we actually found some biting fish. For the first two hours of the morning we could not keep all the lines in the water. Most fish were on the short side, with many, many undersized walleyes caught, but we did manage 12 eaters for the guys to enjoy back home. Walleyes Choice harnesses were awesome, with I-76 and I-51 definitely tops of all the colors we tried. We caught fish pretty consistently until about noon, then things slowed down and all we could get was undersized fish. We made a move south to try for some bigger fish trolling leadcore and crankbaits for the last hour, but we didn't have any luck doing that. Lots of boats on the bay today, staying away from the crowd seemed to work best for producing the most fish. Good luck from all of us in the Bay de Noc area.

After seeing some pretty good walleye fishing the first two days of the season, the bite on Monday, Tuesday, and today, has been very tough. All three days have seen way too much calm water with no wind to speak of. But........the good thing about the flat, calm, sunny days is that it has allowed the water temperature to rise dramatically with some areas already up into the lows 60's. If we could get a strong south wind for a day or two, I think the bite would really kick into high gear. The perch are biting though. Some nice ones too!!! The really good early summer bite is still a few days away though. How do I know you ask??? Because the Lilac bushes have not bloomed yet. When the lilacs are blooming, the fish are biting! I have noticed that for several years now. See you on the water...

Well, the day started out pretty chilly with frost on the windshields of all the vehicles at the resort. The fishing for us started out cold as well. I had Dale DeWildt and his son Mark from Wisconsin with me today. Dale has fished opening day with me for several years and we've always managed to do quite well. After the first couple hours of today's trip...I was thinking that our streak might be coming to an end. However, we stayed persistent, stayed away from most of the boat traffic, and about 10 a.m. the fish started biting. We caught several fish while trolling Walleyes Choice harnesses behind bottom bouncers in 30-32 fow. Then the wind picked up just enough to do some drifting. We put the trolling rods aways and drifted with floating jig heads tipped with crawler halves for a good part of 3 hrs. The wind died, and we had just enough time to put the boards back out, however this time we headed shallow to some weeds and we caught 4 more keepers while trolling harnesses and in-line weights along a weedline. I-34 was very good for us today as well as I-62. We released many undersized walleyes, some white bass, a sheepshead, and two suckers! Reports from guests at the resort varied from limits to some not catching any fish at all. Water temp went from 51 in the morning to 55 by the time we came in. I think it will get better as the water steadily warms up this week. Here's a picture of today's catch, good luck from all of us in the Bay de Noc area.

A new group has recently been formed called Walleye Restoration. With the support of the Michigan DNRE, the goal is to simply make a good fishery even better by planting more fish! Since no state funds are being used in this project, donations are greatly appreciated. With that in mind, I have made it very easy for anyone to "donate to the cause" by making a donation in our on-line store on our website http://www.sallmarresort.net/On-line-store.html. The fall walleye fingerlings, which are larger 7-10 inch fish, cost almost $2.00 each. Anyone wanting to donate, can "purchase" fall fingerlings in our on-line store for $2.00 each. If you buy at least 5 walleye, your name will be entered into a drawing for 7 nights of free lodging at our resort. We will draw 3 names for the free lodging. I think we have until mid-July to raise as much money as we can. I want to thank everyone who contributes to the future of Little Bay de Noc...

At that time of year the fishing usually starts to pick up pretty good in the "Black bottom" area of the outer bay south of Gladstone. Most fish are good eaters in the 15 to 20 inch range and trolling harnesses behind bottom bouncers is by far the best method. However, if we get a strong cold front that shuts them off a little I like to drift with floating jig heads tipped with just a 1/2 a crawler. The water depth in that area varies from 26 to 40 fow. If the fish are not there, then we usually pitch jigs/crawlers along weed edges in 6 to 12 fow and catch a lot of fish this way too. Stop in and we'd be happy to show you some other spots on the map too. If you're looking for big fish...we can point you to some good areas also. Good luck fishing...

Here is some video my brother just shot tonight. It looks like the warm day we had brought on another run of spawning walleye...

My brother Kevin really cracks me up sometimes. He wanted to have fun announcing that our store would be carrying all 433 crawler harnesses made by a local guy up here. So he made a music video! He calls it his salute to crawler harnesses...

Here is some video that my brother Kevin took of the walleye spawning up here at Little Bay de Noc. Happy Easter everybody...

My brother Kevin and his wife Theresa were set-up and fishing by 4:30 this afternoon in 36 feet of water. They were not marking too much at first, so Kevin went out to try a little deeper (38 ft). He caught a couple dinks at first. Then he caught a nice 11 3/4 inch perch on a #5 Glow Rapala. He wished he would have had some minnows with because he said the school hung around for awhile, but he could not get anymore takers on the Raps. By then it was getting close to "primetime" so he went and tried a little shallower. Once again, he started off with a couple dinks. Then he says he spent a good 5 minutes trying to get a little bigger fish to hit and it finally did. It turned out to be a nice 19 inch eater. About 10 minutes later, Theresa yelled for him to come get a picture of her. I'll be darned if she didn't catch her 2nd hog walleye of the season. A nice fat one too that was 28 inches on the nose. She released the 28 incher after a quick picture. They went back to jigging, but had no more takers. Kevin said he wished "primetime" would last about 3 hours!!! I'm hoping to get out Wednesday. See you on the ice... Rou6cie3U10

"Nailer" We have 12-17 inches of ice.

"Local" Bill Druding stopped into our store yesterday with one for the wall. It was 31 inches and 11 1/2 pounds. He caught it on small #5 GGT Jigging Rapala. Congratulations Bill! My brother Kevin also caught a decent fish yesterday. He only caught two keepers, but the first one was 27 inches. Lot's of fun on a jig pole. Both of his fish were also caught on a fairly small lure as he was using a size 6 Holographic Trout Ice Darter.