Back in the U.P.

I have finished my time in the Twin Cities. It has been fun, but I'm excited to be back up north. I tried to keep tabs on the rivers as I drove up 63 through Wisconsin. Many of the rivers appeared to be moving but were littered with small icebergs. As I got into Michigan, I noticed how many of the lakes were froze over. It must have gotten cold here shortly before I returned home. But that is good news, because hopefully we will be able to ice fish soon. I have stopped by a few of my spots but with no real luck. Flyfishing is still quite new for me, especially fly fishing in the Winter. I hope everyone is keeping busy and getting out to fish. Happy Holidays. This is a great time of year.

DIY Fly Tying Table?

Hey there everyone. I'm thinking about trying to build a nice homemade fly tying table. I was just wondering if anyone had any good pictures or ideas of how to make one. I made up a couple nice ideas but they just keep getting more elaborate. But that is part of the fun I suppose. Post any comments, let me know what you think. Thanks!

More Good Stuff

More searching around the net (kind of an awesome pun) has led me to a couple more great resources for you all to check out. First off is the Trout Unlimited Magazine archive. For anyone who didn't know, who hasn't had the time or funds to get a subscription, you can actually check out the past magazines online. I was so excited to find them, that I have read through most of them already. I would definitely recommend checking it out. They offer a lot of great information on different fish species, special interest pieces, and keep the readers up to date on several stream restoration projects.

Secondly, I recently came across a website that hosts a public television show called: Fly Tying: The Anglers Art. It is a neat little show put on by two gentlemen who love to tie flies and talk about fishing. I have already learned several great tips from these two and I think no matter what level of tier you are, it can be a helpful show to watch. Let me know what you think!

Please use the links below. I will also post this on the links portion of the website!

Fly Tying The Anglers Art

Trout Unlimited Magazine Archive

Enjoy!

A Warm November and Afternoon Rainbows

This past Saturday, I took advantage of the warm weather that is sweeping across the Twin Cities area. I headed to one of my favorite local lakes to do some fly fishing. Most of the time it has just been for practice aiming for panfish like bluegill and pumpkinseed. But with the cooler temps that we have seen the last couple weeks many of the panfish have receded to greater depths and I can't reach them anymore. But, feeling quite optimistic, I visited the lake anyway hoping that I could catch one of the trout that rumor has it, inhabit the lake I was visiting. As I proceeded to make my way around the lake I found a large amount of wildlife also out, enjoying the warm weather. There were numerous geese and muskrats paddling around on the water surface. I had ventured to a part of the lake that was sheltered from the breeze and therefore quite calm. The surface was very undisturbed and I threw out my popper hoping for some action from a bluegill. I was greeted with a little sunny almost immediately and as I worked to get it from the hook a large splash caught my attention. Something had made a decent ripple farther out from shore. As I continued to watch several more ripples began to appear. I hastily searched for a different fly in my box not sure what to pick because I didn't really see any bugs to speak of. In the process of switching flies I saw several fish jump out of the water, including a trout that jumped three times from the water within a span of just seconds. It was truly magnificent. Finally I settled on a fly that I had made my self which you can see below. To my absolute amazement, it worked, and I caught two very nice Rainbow Trout. They were roughly 16" and quite fat. They fought hard and it was truly exhilarating to catch a fish on something that I had made. I'll leave you with my best picture.

Enjoy.

Happy Halloween!!!

Hello everyone and Happy Halloween. Hopefully your out and about picking up candy or at a fun party somewhere. I just wanted to let people know that I made a few updates to the site. There are some new links on the Fly Tying page. There is also a new search box for the site, which should give visitors the ability to search for something in particular if they don't feel like looking.

That's all for now folks. Please be safe and have fun this evening. Also, take a moment to think about those who are unable to enjoy the festivities this evening due to the recent hurricane that hit the East coast. They have been through a lot and could definitely use some prayers there way. 

Like the pic? Here is the article if you wish to read further. Have a great night!

Finally, Some Updates.

I have been quite busy the last few weeks, if you haven't noticed by the gap in my posts. Working on the passenger rail in the Twin Cities is a lot of work. But I have tried to fish when I can. A couple weeks ago, I was able to make it up into the U.P. of Michigan. My girlfriend and I finished moving and I was able to get out for a bit of fishing. It was very exciting and quite surprising to see some steelhead moving up river! But sadly, I had a little mishap and fell in the river. I think I may have startled the fish because I was unable to get any bites.

I also had a great fall fly fishing for "sunnies". That is one good thing about the lakes here around Eagan. They are loaded with panfish and that provides many good fly fishing opportunities.



I wanted to chuck ad in for this knot tying tool because it looks to be a very good and useful tool. Please check it out if your interested. Let me know what you think. I also included the link below because this gentleman has a fabulous website with many designs regarding tube flies. I'm very anxious to tie some of his creations.

Steelhead Alley Flytying


Do enjoy and please stop by again, I'm hoping to get some more pictures up.

Enjoy!

Bring on the Fall Colors!

Although I have been a little sick lately, I have been trying to enjoy some of the fall colors that are starting to appear around Eagan. I have sought a sort of refuge in Lebanon Hills Park, because frankly, it reminds me of home. It is a big park and there is not many people around. I have been enjoying some fly fishing, walking the shores casting out for bluegill and bass. It has been a real treat and hopefully it will get me on my way to becoming a better fly fisherman and hopefully catch some of those sneaky trout.

The fall colors and smells are quite something this time of year. The air is getting cooler and crisper. The smells of wild apple waft through the woods. Critters skitter upon the fallen leaves. I think this is my favorite season. Whats yours?


Enjoy!

Fish Lake Adventures

So here are some pictures of my adventure at Fish Lake today. I've been out the past couple days there, but I haven't had my camera. Today I finally brought it. Fly fishing has been good, but the wind was a bit of an inconvenience sometimes. I also met this cool kid name Carl who is a really good fisherman for how young he is. He caught quite a few bass, bull heads, and panfish.
Hopefully all this fly fishing I've been doing is helping to improve my skills.I also paid a visit to Holland lake to see what that looks like and I'm very excited to do some fishing there this week. They have a very nice dock to cast off of and a great park in general. Finally, I got a picture up of a brown trout I tried to draw last night along with some new zonker flies I tied. Let me know what you think.

Enjoy.

Recent Events,

Well as you may know, summer is coming to a close. The leaves are starting to fall and kids are heading back to school. I was recently back in the U.P. and I got out to do a bit of fishing, but with no luck. Everything was pretty dry, rivers were quite low and there hadn't been much rain. Since then however, there has been some rain, so hopefully the fishing has picked up a bit. Hopefully the big brookies will start to appear as well, since they should be starting to spawn soon.

I went out last night for a bit of bluegill fishing down the street from my apartment in MN. Fly fishing for bluegill is quite fun and I certainly lost track of time last night. It seemed that most of the time I just got small ones but there was one that I got that was quite magnificent. The coloring was incredible and it fought really well. Next, time I will get a picture for you because I didn't have a camera at the time.

Keep up the fishing everyone.

Enjoy

In-Fisherman Radio

The other day, I was in the book store reading some fishing magazines and I found another great issue as well as another podcast for people to listen to. For anyone who didn't know, In-Fisherman magazine puts out a really cool podcast that gives short, to the point, podcasts that offer tips on catching all sorts of fish. I have been digging through their website ever since looking for more useful information. Please click the logo that I got from the website, below to check out their website and join the podcast.



Enjoy.

Fishing on the St. Croix River

This past weekend, my girlfriend and I had the pleasure of heading up to Wisconsin to visit Taylor’s Falls and St. Croix. We got to stop and see fish at the hatchery and also do a little fishing on the river itself. It was a real treat to fish on such a big, open river and the scenery was amazing. There was a lot of wildlife present. It even appeared that there was a juvenile eagle flying around that looked like it was trying to catch fish from the river.

Some real excitement came when we started fishing. I was casting from shallow water out into some riffles using just a small spinner. I was weary of using anything with large hooks because of all the wood and rocks along the riffle. However, when I had gotten my second cast reeled to within 10 feet of myself, I felt a huge tug and at first I thought I snagged something. But what ever it was started thrashing and I saw a flash of white and quite a large tail and then it got off. I never got it close enough to identify but what ever it was must have been at least 24 inches.

Shortly after, my girlfriend started fishing but we didn’t have much luck after that. We got one other fish that wasn’t nearly as big that looked like some sort of silver, bassy-panfish. There were also several fish jumping throughout the river. It was a lot of fun and hopefully we can get out again to try for some more fish.







Enjoy 

Fly Fishing the Big Horn River

Tonight, Ask About Fly Fishing will have a new podcast available to listen to which starts at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central). Here is a quick blurb from an official email.

Michael Mastrangelo is a professional guide on the Bighorn
River in Montana, which is considered one of the finest
rivers in the world for fly fishing. Listen it to hear
Michael share his secrets about fly fishing this incredible
fishery.

If your at all interested please click the link below and tune it. These shows are great to listen to and very informative. I hope some of you are excited as I am.

Book of The Week: Fishing Flies....

This is a great book that I have been wanting to get up for something time. Please check it out. It has been absolutely amazing to look through. If your looking for flies to tie, this is definitely a book to check out!


   

 Also, don't let me forget. Here is another book that may strike your fancy. If you are planning to soon build a small cabin this is another great book to check out!


Enjoy!

Zonker Flies!

I finally acquired some of the zonker rabbit skins and was able to make some rabbit leeches. I also got a pack of the Fish Skull sculpin helmets. It has been an absolute blast tying these flies and they look really great when they are done. I still have a to put these eyes on a couple of these.

If you haven't had the chance to make one of these flies, check out the Fly Tying Materials section and click on the Flymen Fishing Company link. That website has information regarding the skulpin helments and zonker flies.

If you wish to order some sculpin helmets you can use the Orvis link below.




Enjoy

Blue Ox Bar and Grill

Also on our trip to Bemidji, MN, we located a really great restaurant called the Blue Ox Bar and Grill. The meals seen below were amazing; a plate of nachos, a Hawaiian panini, and finally a Walleye dinner. These were absolutely delicious meals. The restaurant is also located in a old train station, so a bit of history here as well. I definitely recommend this eatery and the service was good too!

Cabelas Adventure, Rogers, MN

So on our way to Bemidji a couple weeks ago, we made a couple stops at the Cabela's of Rogers, MN. It is an absolutely amazing store. It is jam packed with anything you could want to do outdoors. I also must say it was a real treat to visit somewhere like this, when I'm typically visiting/relying on a small Gander Mountain in my home area. I would definitely recommend visiting this store! The fly fishing selection was amazing, too!

Here are some pictures of our adventure.

New Links!

I have found a bunch of great new links that I will be posting on the fly fishing page. You can click here or navigate to the top of the page. I have also posted links to the Ask About Fly Fishing page. Please click through those links on my page. It is a great radio podcast that I recently found and I absolutely enjoy listening to it. They also have great giveaways! Recently a couple people won a Fly Rod and an amazing pair of waders!

Please check out the links because I think they have a lot of useful information!

Enjoy!

Vacation to Bemidji, MN

Hopefully everyone is having fun fishing and getting out to enjoy the nice weather. I apologize for my lack off post in the last couple months. Since I moved to Minnesota, I have been very busy working in the Twin Cities. But for the Fourth of July weekend, my girlfriend and I got to travel up to north to Bemidji, MN.

It has been a lot of fun and I hope to post some pictures of our trip soon! Also, if your in the area, check out Taber's Baitshop and Historic Cabins. It has been a lot of fun staying here and they have very reasonable rates!

In the meantime, check out this video of a coyote fishing that I stumbled upon. It is quite awesome!

Fishing Coyote!

More coming soon!

Fly Fishing Material

I've been cruising the web and I found a couple more great websites. Please check them out!

Creekside Flyfishing

Feathersmc

Enjoy!

Fish Lake, Eagan, Mn

Welcome to Eagan, MN. We have moved into our new place here in town and it is pretty awesome so far. After Em and I got a general idea of directions down, we did some searching on the web and located a nice lake to try out. The lake was called Fish Lake, which according to the park information, was home to pike, walleye, bass, panfish, and bull heads. We had fun catching some bluegill and one of them Em caught was even brilliant blue. There was also a fella there who said he has some great luck with bass the night before a storm. Can't wait to get out again. Tonight is full of large hail producing thunderstorms, so we'll be hanging out inside tonight!

The city of Eagan put together a nice guide to the fishable lakes in the area which you can access here: Eagan Fishing

Enjoy!

Ask About Fly Fishing!

I have found another great resource for fly fisherman. While recently stumbling the web, I found a web page called Ask About Fly Fishing, which is an internet radio station that features different fly fisherman every couple of weeks. These fisherman talk about all sorts of things including building your own pole, tying flies, and fishing through out different parts of the world. They also have a podcast available for download and an archive of all their shows. I have never used a podcast before, so I'm trying to figure it out still. If anything else it is something fun to listen to during long car trips.

Check it Out!

Summary and What's to Come!

So the past week and a half I have been downstate visiting some family. While there, my girlfriend and I tried to catch some fish without any luck but did hear great reports of Steelhead fishing. We also did very well finding the elusive Morel Mushrooms; even sold a few pounds. But now the time comes for a change of scenery! I got a summer job through Michigan Tech and will be moving to Minnesota for the summer! So for the coming months I will be telling fishing stories from the wilderness of Minnesota. Hopefully it will be quite the adventure! I hope everyone keeps visiting and enjoying the site! Good luck to all of the fisherman of the Keweenaw and enjoy this wonderful weather!

Fishing in Michigan's Lower Peninsula!

After school got out, my girlfriend and I have traveled downstate to visit my family and among all of the stuff were doing, were getting to do a bit of fishing! Today we spent some time at the Mill Pond in Northport. We were trying to catch some stocked trout from a recent fishing derby. We also have tried to catch some fish in the local marina which included pike, steelhead, and a monster carp! Stay tuned, hopefully there will be news of a magnificent catch!

Updates!

I wanted to make a post regarding some recent updates! Now that I'm finally out of school I have had a chance to update a few things that have been nagging at me. First, I have updated the Fly Tying page with several more websites regarding fly tying patterns. Hopefully this can become a good resource for you. I have also updated the Lakes and Rivers page with a couple more descriptions that I hadn't filled in yet.

Photo from: www.kiene.com/

Enjoy!

Book of The Week: What Fish Don't Want You to Know: An Insider's Guide to Freshwater Fishing

Found another neat book today. A brief glance through offered some really nice artwork and also some helpful tips on thinking like a fish to help improve your success while out fishing. Check it out!

Bites Still Slow to Come

Well as a treat to myself, being done with exams and all, I spent the afternoon doing a bit of fishing. It was fun even though it was not that exciting. However, I did get one nice surprising bite, but I lost it due to my over zealous response. Still being new at fly fishing, I chose to practice doing a few different casts. It is definitely different casting with the fly ride. Hopefully this warmer weather and this nice spring rain tonight will help to perk the fish up some!

Enjoy 

Long Time, No Blog

I know it has been a few days since my last post, and I apologize. Exam week as Michigan Tech has kept me quite busy. I plan to get out and do a bit of fishing this coming week. Hope everyone has been getting out to enjoy the nice weather. Feel free to post if you have had an luck lately!

Good Luck. More coming soon.

Good Eats!

First off, thank you to the people who commented on the previous post, that helped clear things up!

Second, this may seem a bit random, but I wanted to put this up because I figured if anyone is new to the area and they are looking for a place to stop for a meal, then they should definitely hit up the Loading Zone II in Lake Linden, MI. This place has got great, well priced food and I have loved stopping there for dinner. You also get a free meal on your birthday! I suggest the ribs, they are delicious!

Awesome double cheeseburgers! Had to show it off.

Stop by if you get a chance! Enjoy

Mysterious Fish ! ? Please Comment

So, I was out to one of my favorite spots this morning and I happened to catch another little trout, but I'm not sure what kind. I have caught a few of these before and I love their coloration and design. I've looked at pictures in a few fishing books but still haven't found anything concrete as far as identification goes. The closest thing I have found is a picture of a "golden trout" that my friend found for me.

Let me know what you think please? Very curious.

First Fish of the Season

So this past weekend, my girlfriend and I went out for a canoe ride! We were very surprised to see the most beautiful, calm lake. It was absolutely picturesque and not to mention I caught the first fish of the season! It was a decent sized pike which we through back. Even though it was the only fish of the trip it was really great canoe ride. We hope to get out again if the weather cooperates this weekend!
 
Enjoy the pictures!

Book of The Week: Fishy's Favorites

The book I picked for this week is: "Fishy's Favorites" by Jay Fullum.  I got this book for Christmas and have found it very enjoyable ever since. Jay is a very knowledgeable fisherman with a great deal of experience when it comes to tying flies.  The book is full of great stories and instructions for tying these unique flies. This is definitely worth checking out if your into fly fishing for trout, bass, and saltwater fish.



Click the cover above to check the book out on Amazon. Enjoy!

Artwork!

I've been posting artwork once and awhile because I love to draw and hopefully visitors to the site find it neat as well. If you have any outdoor artwork that you would like to show off, please send it along! Click Here to email your photo!

Enjoy!

River Report 3/24/12

On Friday afternoon, I finally got to go out and do a bit of fishing. I checked one of my favored sites and was surprised to find a few people parked nearby. The people there didn't stay long, however, and I ended up having the river to myself.
With the snow melt finally drawing to a close the rivers seem to be slowing down a bit and it seemed like a good time to check for some trout! I began with a fake crawler and had no luck. I then switched to a dead crawler I found nearby, which also resulted in no bites. My next choice of bait was a bit more exhilarating; trying a daredevil spoon, which resulted in a very nice rise from some sort of fish. But being far away kept me from seeing what it was for sure. I tried a few other baits and got a few more rises, but the fish just wouldn't bite!
Point being, there are some fish moving up the rivers, just have to find the right bait for them! Good luck!

Steelhead Flies

I recently found an amazing site while searching the net:

The Caddis Fly

It is an amazing website that is loading with great information about fly fishing in the state of Oregon. They also have lots of great videos for tying flies. Since people are getting back out on the rivers, I figured they might like a good resource for restocking their fly box with some very intriguing Steelhead flies.

Enjoy.

River Report 3/20/12

As of yesterday the rivers in the area were running really fast and high. The radio even reported a flood watch for some areas in the Keweenaw because the water level was getting so high. On Saturday, I checked out the Traverse river and that still had ice on it, however I imagine that to be gone by now. Eagle River on Sunday was was flowing very heavily, pushing a lot of debris out into Superior. Last night, the Tobacco River in Gay was roaring into Lake Superior and it looked a bit too rough to fish. Most of the banks were washed down to the big rocks and there were several trees sitting at the mouth of the river that had been pushed down stream! The power of water is quite impressive!

Stay tuned and enjoy the pics.

Falls at Eagle River

Tree that washed down Tobacco River

High water on the banks of Tobacco

Rivers Are Heating Up!

With all of this nice warm weather, the snow is melting quick and that means that the rivers are starting to flow freely with the spring melt. As the ice melts on the lakes, many fish will begin to make there runs up river or start to spawn and that's a good time to fish.

Fishing The Pier

A couple of gentlemen I ran into the other day said, that the warm weather is making a few fish start to run but its been pretty hit and miss. It will be fun to hit a few streams this week and see if anything is moving yet. Pretty soon there will hopefully be runs of steelhead and smelt!

Stay tuned!

Book of the Week: The Treasury of Angling

I have been reading a great deal of fishing literature lately and thought it would be cool to start a book of the week section that deals with good fishing material. For this week I wanted to tell everyone about the following book.

This is a really amazing book that my grandmother dug out of her house for me. It is full of great pictures, old stories, and lots of fishing lore. There is also a good break down of fish species with some related information on how to catch them. Click here to check out the book on Amazon: The Treasury of Angling

How to Spear Northern Pike

This past year, I have had the opportunity to take up fly fishing and  I have enjoyed it immensely. Now, I want to endeavor on a new style of fishing, spearing. I know its the end of the fishing season for pike and walleye and the ice is starting to melt, but I figured that a how to article on spearing would be kind of neat. If anyone has input or comments, please feel free to leave them.

Although I have yet to try spearing, I've gathered this much on the topic:

1. Park a closed shanty (darkhouse) out on the ice, in roughly 6 - 10 ft of water. Look for a weedy bottom since this is good cover for pike.
2. Acquire a proper fishing spear and tie at least 15 ft of line to the end. 
3. Acquire a few large suckers and a large wooden, fish decoy.
4. Using a line and hook, lower a sucker down into the water and let swim freely. This will help to bring in pike.
5. Using your preferred decoy, lower it down into the water on a separate string, keeping a hold of it in one hand.
6. Swirl it around in the hole to help draw in pike.
7. When a pike does come in that is legal in size, carefully lower the spear into water above the base of the pikes head. Push the spear down hard into the water. 
8. Slowly pull the pike up and remove from spear. 

Here is a really awesome story out of the NY Times about spearing in the Upper Peninsula. Click Here

Fishing Tournament

I received an email last night from Tech's fishing club regarding a fishing tournament in Chassel this Saturday. The information is as follows:

• Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 
• Entry fee of $25 per pair
• Single largest Crappie or Perch and heaviest 15 fish per team
• Teams must be signed up with dues paid by 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon. 

This event is being put on by the owner of the bait shop in Chassel and it sounds like it should be a good time with nice weather. By the sounds of it, there is still a decent amount of ice so, I hope people get out and catch some fish.

Warm, Warm Weather!

As the warm weather starts becoming more prominent it will be time to start dusting of those fly rods if you haven't done any winter fly fishing. Coming up shortly, I believe the 14th or 15th, the fishing season for walleye, and pike ends. We'll have to turn our eyes back to trout and panfish.

Stay tuned for stream reports, as I will hopefully be getting out to do some stream hiking soon, weather and pocketbook permitting. Also, the Fish Species section is about finished, so check that out if there are any fish that you were looking to identify. Also check back as I will be adding a depth charts page for people interested in finding out more about the lakes they like to fish on!.

Enjoy the nice weather!

Michigan Outdoor Magazine & Panfish

One of my good friends recently introduced me to the "Michigan Outdoor News" paper. It is full of wonderful articles relating to fishing, hunting, and anything else that deals with the outdoors. In the latest issue, there is an article (pg 11) that discusses a method for gathering panfish bait. 

Many people know that panfish like wax worms. But what happens when you run out of bait on your trip or you don't really feel like running to town to the store? Trying looking for some dried up goldenrod stalks! I was very surprised to find that the lumpy ball (officially called a "gall") usually contains a little worm very similar to a wax worm in the cold winter months. Simply, make a shallow cut around the ball and then try to pry it open. These worms can make a nice alternative source of bait for those winter fishing trips!

Good Luck!

Click Here: Michigan Outdoor News

Pictures from:
http://archimedesnotebook.blogspot.com/2011/11/goldenrod-galls.html
http://biology.vassar.edu/gallery/goldenrod.html

Pike Eats Baby Duck!

My girlfriend sent me this really crazy YouTube video. Check it out !!

How To Set Up a Tip-Up

I know its getting to late in the season, but I wanted to set up a "How To" for setting up Tip-Ups. They are a great tool for fisherman to use when they want to cover a large area out on the ice. Enjoy.

Although tip-ups have many different shapes and designs, they all follow the same basic principle. There is a support structure that sits over the hole, a reel with line that descends down into the water, and some sort of mechanism for tripping a flag when a fish bites.

When the fish strikes it causes the wheel/spool to spin, which releases the flag causing it to spring into the air...TIP-UP! Setup is quite simple:

1. Drill a hole in the ice where you would like to fish, clear hole.
2. Bring your tip-up, bait, and a depth finder to the hole.
3. The line can be lower to what ever depth you like, but since many fish swim near bottom (pike, walleye) you can clip the depth finder to your hook to sink the line all the way to the bottom very rapidly. 
4. Wind your the wheel until its tight and then give it a few more turns. This brings the depth finder (and your bait) off bottom for fish to see. 
5. At this point you can also attach a mini bobber to your line, to mark the depth. That way you don't have to remeasure each time a fish bites.
6. Wind up the line, take the depth finder off, put your bait on, and drop the line back down. Fold the flag into position and wait for a bite! Good luck!

A Word of Caution.

Hey there, just wanted to caution everyone about going out to ice fish. I've heard recent reports that with all the recent snowfall in the area, it could actually start to weaken the late season ice. Be careful ice fishing but have fun!

Also, I hope to soon have new pictures up for a Emily Lake.

Thanks

From Emily Lake to Pike Lake

Saturday morning presented a great time to go fishing, light winds, not terribly cold, and a bit of flurries. Not to mention, the scenery was absolutely perfect, especially at Emily Lake. The fishing was slow. There were no bites out a Emily lake. I was set up at Emily Lake in about 15 - 20 ft of water off the boat launch, looking for bluegill and trout. Then I trekked to the back side of the lake looking for a 40 ft hole but I ended up missing it. Had I found that hole, I think I could have managed a few good fish.

Afterwords, I made my way down the road to Pike Lake. After a decent walk (the road was blocked), I got out onto the ice and managed to find the 45-50 hole. I set tip-ups with medium sized minnows and bobber fished in a bit shallower water for panfish with wax worms. This is what I used at Emily Lake). 


If you have time to get out fishing and want to try somewhere new, try either of these lakes, which are located a bit south of Twin Lakes. They are not terribly large, so walking isn't too bad. The entryways were also all plowed out to each. However, the road to Pike Lake is being used by a logging company so be careful.

The ice is good. Try to get out before it starts getting to warm!

Time to Tie Flies

Start dusting off the rods and reels because Winter will soon be drawing to a close and it will be time to get out the other types of fishing equipment.  That also means it will be time to start fly fishing and if you lost a few flies last season it could be time to restock. If you enjoy tying, here is a great purchase to make:

Fly Tying Grab Bag, by Orvis. Sold on Amazon.com (Medium, Large) --- Click Here

So far, it has been a great gift from my girlfiend. I got several new types of materials which have helped me to make a few new flies. Definitely a good purchase for the price. Fifteen and twenty dollars for the medium and large respectively.

Enjoy.

New Pictures

I finally got some photos posted on the photos page! I'm excited to get photos of fishing trips from the Keweenaw and surrounding U.P.

So if you got a great catch that you want to show off, email your pictures here. Be sure to include some information, like your name, fish, size, and where you caught it. Thanks!

Zip, Zero, Zilch 1/31/12

On Tuesday morning this week, I got up early (well before the sun was up) and headed up to Gratiot Lake to try my luck for some Walleye. Long story short, didn't get anything. Not one bite. I though I was in a decent spot and it looked like there was lots of activity from other fisherman. By the sounds of it though, it sounds like this is a slow year. The local paper had an article talking about the recent fishing tournament in Escanaba. The winner won the grand prize with a 4 oz. Perch.

Until Next Time.

Perch, Perch, Perch 1/22/12

The fishing trip today took place at Lake Bailey, just a few miles west of Copper Harbor. Earlier this week, the word at the bait shop was that a gentlemen had caught a fair amount of very, decent sized perch out at Lake Bailey. Ten plus inches! This was very exciting news since I have never had much luck fishing for perch because they always ended up being tiny.
Upon my arrival, there was evidence around the boat launch of other people who had been here to fish, but nobody appeared to be out on the lake. I followed some old tracks looking for a spot indicating some serious action. I walked to the end of the tracks and found several spots that looked like holes in the ice, so I tried my luck.

Trouble Finding Fish?

Need Maps or Depth Charts? If your looking for a quick way to find some information on a lake there are two fairly convenient places to check!

Check out the DNR website for a list of lakes by county with their respective depth charts. Another spot to check would be your local library. Recently, I visited Michigan Tech's library and found that they actually have a large section of depth charts for local lakes that you can review and even scan onto the computer if you wish.

By using these maps, you can get a better idea of the lake and where the fish may be residing at any time of the year. Good luck and happy fishing!

Ice Fishing Saturday 1/14/12

On my last post I mentioned that I was going to head north this weekend to check ice conditions and hopefully get out to fish.

Ice Report:  Copper Harbor looked a bit sketchy. It was thin and it still looked like there were a lot of floating ice chunks. Hopefully it will be frozen over soon. Lake Fanny Hooe is frozen solid, with good ice that was several inches thick. Lac LaBelle also has good ice. Bit of a slush layer on top but very solid underneath. The same goes for Gratiot Lake.

That being said, how about the fishing? Fanny Hooe proved to be a bit discouraging, but I was not there terribly long. There weren't any bites, but I wasn't in the best spot either. Lac LaBelle was a bit more exciting. Within about ten minutes of setting up, I had a nice pike on the line. It was a bit small to keep but other than that it was a very nice fish. Sadly though, I must have missed most of the morning action because there wasn't another hit until round lunch time, which turned out to be a tiny perch.

Later that afternoon, my girlfriend and I headed to Gratiot Lake to hopefully have a little more success. She predicted that we would get a walleye that night and that we did! It was the only fish we got, but it was very exhilarating.  Hopefully in the coming weeks, the stories on the ice will be much longer and more exciting!
 

First Ice...Out to Fish

I finally got settled in after my return to the U.P. and was definitely excited to get out and fish. The ice in Keweenaw Bay was non existent on my drive up, but Chassel looked like it had good ice and there were several people out fishing. I got down to Lake Linden on the 9th to find good ice but heavy winds. It wasn't very enjoyable, not to mention that I didn't get anything on tip-ups or a perch rig. Looking forward to venturing North this weekend towards Copper Harbor.

Finale on Fishing in '11

A Northern Pike Fiesta

The fall of 2011 brought great prospects for fishing. I had recently taken up fly fishing and my girlfriend was anxious to get out with me to explore and fish. However, the first few weeks were not as good as I hoped. The lingering summer heat seemed to be turning the fish away from our lures or we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Finally though, some cooler weather began to make it's way through the Keweenaw and our luck began to improve. We took our new canoe out on some of the lakes in the Twin Lakes area and found decent stashes of bluegill and bass. We had a big bass that lingered under a dock at Emily Lake. We called her "big mama." But other than that, nothing big yet.

Finally we decided to explore farther North into the Copper Country. One afternoon, I journeyed out to a little lake that is off U.S. 41 maybe a mile. It is a neat little spot next to some logging roads, hard to get to and not much access for anything bigger than a canoe. Some old roommates and I had visited this lake once before but only found one small perch. However on my way out to deeper water, I actually saw a small pike swimming away through some lily pads. Things had just got a bit more interesting.

Welcome to Fishing the U.P.

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog. I started this blog in response to my growing love for the outdoors, fishing, and all my stories that are beginning to pile up. I moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a few years ago when I came here for college. Living in the heart of the Keweenaw Peninsula has led me to find so many amazing places while out on numerous fishing adventures. Being here has inspired me to share my experiences with people who love the outdoors and love to fish.