EdB

Nice job Jason! We have minimal ice on our lake west of you. Been 2-4 inches all season, just when I start thinking of putting my shanty out, it warms up and we lose a couple inches. Looks like it won't happen this winter.

I think it is a water temp or seasonal thing. I never leave the dock in the dark in the spring. Most times at St Joe with the long trip down the river, we are setting lines as the sun is rising. The best bite is mid morning most days. We are always setting lines in the dark in summer. The first hour bite is definitely stronger in summer than spring on Lk Mi.

Our prayers and wishes for a speedy recovery.

Got it, can't lend any info on that make and model. Hopefully someone will see this that can help out.

With all the boats for sale in the great lakes region, I'd stay away from a salty.

To go to the St Joe fishing yesterday. Hit the road around 7AM in steady light snow and temps about 15 degrees. When we got west of Kzoo, the light snow turned into very heavy lake effect with squalls cutting visibility to 50 ft at times. Saw a number of wrecks and a couple roll overs, hope they were OK. It was a white knuckle ride the last 45 miles. Took almost 3 hrs to get there instead of 2. Only one charter out fishing, not a single rec boat on the river, at least we had a lot of water to ourselves. Air temps warmed a couple more degrees but it was a cold ride to our first hole. The snow never stopped and it started to pile up in the boat. Got about 4 inches while fishing. The river was border line chocolate milk. After 5 hours on the water with no hit's at all, we pulled back to the launch with a double skunk. We use the USGS steamflow site to gauge when the river is blown out. The gauge height and discharge looked good but it was still way to muddy with about 4-5 inches of visibility. It is a good tool for river fishing but we learned something today. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=04101500 There is a relatively new turbidity graph on the USGS site. Not all monitoring sites have them but the St Joe at Niles does. As you can see, turbidity was coming down nicely but turbidity around 30 (where it was yesterday) is still to murky for fishing. Has some big spikes in the graph too. At least we learned something from this fishing trip.

If the fish are not biting, I will work 2-4 rods in the spread pretty hard changing baits every 15-20 minutes in the same section of my spread on one side or the other. I don't like dragging a rod for hours that is not popping fish unless I know that rod has been real good lately. I've had lot's of a time when I take fish within minutes of changing a dead lure.

Like!

Their customer service has always been outstanding. Me too. Thanks for sharing the clincher info, I'l have to order a couple.

Skin off here.

Our prayers go out for his recovery.

Nice job Mike!

Had a good day drift fishing spawn, I had the hot hand today landing 3 and losing a few more. Had some great fights with rising temps. My buddy hit 3 and landed 1. This was the best fish of the day. I like this pic of letting this steelie go. He is racing for the deep water. Had some jumpers and some screamers. All came on orange and pink steelhead bags.

Bummer Aaron, as you saw, it was there the day I posted it. I bet they were racking up a lot of memberships when that offer was going. Must have expired??

Get a $25 Bass Pro gift card to join the NRA. Preserve and protect our constitutional rights. You can join the NRA for free. Well done Bass Pro! I'm going to be sure to spend some money there. Here is a link: https://membership.nrahq.org/forms/signup.asp?CampaignID=bassprowy&EK=Y1CWPPAD&pubID=%20217.AAG&hid=4487688

Stocking is being ended at Fairport and the Grand River plant, they will still stock the net pens in Grand Haven.

Way to go, not many years you can go trolling in January.

Thanks Ryan.

Did you make it to the Sea Grant Seminar yesterday? If so, what did they have to say about the fall forage trawls and the 2012 year class of alewives?

Nice catch!

Nice job, was eating my heart out I couldn't go yesterday. Sure was nice weather January.

Nick, totally understand. Maybe we'll have to have a St Joe fishing outing. Won't have to plunk down for a hall then. We can get together at a local watering hole.

I'm trying to make it, would like to meet everyone. I won't know for sure until Friday.

My buddy and I hit the river yesterday. The sunshine was nice, just a few other boats outs. We hit 4 fish and boated 2 of them. I booted my only bite. The fish made one run, jumped and came unhooked. John had the hot hand going 2 for 3. We were drift fishing spawn sacks. The river is as low as I've ever seen it. You have to be real careful driving in places.

Nice finish to the season Kevin.