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.