Last Chance

The open water fishing season is winding down and I knew that Saturday's quick trip would probably be my last one with the boat for 2015.  Since my only success on Friday on M Lake had been spotting a couple of lethargic followers, and because it's a bit closer and so would afford a bit more fishing time, I chose to go to C Lake.

I had perhaps three hours of fishing time available, and so I focused on known fish spots and presentations that were successful at the end of last year.  I threw plenty of jerk- and twitch baits over the musk grass, and I probed the deeper water near my best spots with the Bulldawg that had attracted the previous day's fish.  I apparently moved nothing.  With only a half hour of light left and my Muskie Season on the line, I was confronted with a choice.  I could choose to do more of the same and rely on past experience with perhaps a little luck; or perhaps make some luck by doing something different.

I decided to cover some slightly new water as quickly as possible by trolling.  I chose to concentrate on the same familiar weedbeds, but on their very outer edge.  I ran one plug short and up high (for weed-free simplicity) while the other (a Bucher Depth Raider) was chosen to run just above the scruffy weeds in 10 to 12 feet of water or so.  With two plugs swimming weed-free at 4.2 mph or so, I could cover a lot more water in my remaining time than I could by casting.

Ten minutes later, the drag on my deep rod voiced its distress, and the bucking rod confirmed it was Fish On!   It was a smallish muskie, probably less than ten pounds, but it was the targeted species, and it came in the last few minutes of my season.

I think I made the right call to switch tactics!  It's never as exciting to catch them trolling as it is to cast and experience the strike, but occasionally catching one is important, too.  Especially when it is probably your last chance for the season!

  

Not the biggest 'llunge, but it is the first one that I've been able to capture in a self-portrait! The intersection of these fish with available cameras and charged batteries is pretty darn low; but I'm getter at all these things!

Bucket List Event - Part Two

I hit the road at 6:35 PM.  The day's work was done.  M had just crushed her last opportunity to join her last high school State Swim Team; and A seemed to be on the upswing from her fluey cold.  I was packed and ready to go; I even remembered to grab the EZ-Pass reader (so helpful throughout the Northeast), just in case it would work on the Toll Roads to the West; anything to make a drive through Chicago a little bit easier!

West Michigan smelled of woodsmoke the entire way to Indiana; I wondered about Particulate Monitors and Health Effects of Fine Particulate and how much of the benefits from my professional efforts were casually burned up with the leaves and scrub brush.  With 5-plus hours by myself and on a route I'd taken so frequently in what seems like a previous life, I couldn't help but notice how many former job sites I drove past; and revel in how fortunate I currently am.  But mostly, I thought of Brown Trout; their sizes, colorations, varieties of pursuit, Past and Present.

My opportunity to visit Milwaukee coincided with a televised National Debate; that helped explain my lack of choice of hotels.  Upon arrival, I noticed that there were cars from across the nation parked in the lot.  The neighborhood looked like it had seen grander days, but once I got past the lobby, the interior was clean and freshly decorated.  (I don't think I'd have been able to determine this if I were traveling with my girls, but it was going to be good enough for my current purposes, regardless.)  I wasn't there for long, and it offered a comfortable bed, hot water and free breakfast.

It was the day of the New Moon, and a horrendous front (with associated howling winds) was forecast for later in the day.  Captain H and I had decided to start early, at 7 AM in part to beat the weather, and as I approached McKinley Marina, the red morning sun hung low over a fairly calm Lake Michigan.  But the breeze was clearly freshening, and I was itching to get out!  I was there (per my comfort and custom) "Early for Being Early", but not outrageously so.  I poked around the park and generally prepared for my guide's arrival.   I remembered to take in Eminem's "One Shot"***, and visualized success.  And I had some time to do so.   Long story short; there were multiple texts, family illnesses, new logistics and traffic issues; but I still had a good attitude when we finally hit the water at 8 AM.

I've "followed" this guy in a thorough, but not stalking, fashion for quite a while.  I'd never fished here, on this boat, or with him, and yet we slipped into a quick, easy comfort that made the rest of the day enjoyable and realistically productive.  As we idled from the ramp through the marina, he outlined the day's plans and possibilities, and I could picture the spot to which we were headed.

We started with small brown trout egg sacs under small fixed floats.  The long spinning rods were outfitted with 6- or 8-pound braid and long 6-pound fluorocarbon leaders.  Our egg hooks were tiny and the drags were light; this was reportedly going to be finesse fishing.  But on the first cast, the float went down with authority, and I think anybody could have hooked up.  This initial fish fought hard and deep, and in the pretty darn clear water I had plenty of time to see my brown materialize and fight.  After a couple of minutes it was in the bag; and a successful trip was virtually assured.

Milwaukee Harbor; First Cast; and then we moved from the boat to the dock to capture this brown buck's photo in the early morning light.

This fish was neither a Personal Record nor even as big as I'd dreamt; but it was certainly a beautiful specimen caught on fine tackle and a very promising start for the day.  It broke the ice for us as partners, and established some real Fish Cred for each of us. It made the rest of the day easy!  

We stayed here in this spot a bit longer.  I caught another nice brown quickly, followed by a couple of tiny steelheads.  Then I hooked, turned and lost a broad-tailed fish of considerable size.  The commotion of that fish on the surface seemed to have scattered the school, and so then we changed tactics; it was time to cast crank baits!

Second fish from the first spot; and I missed another nice one.

His cranks of choice for casting were simply common bass and walleye baits.  I was equipped with a nice Abu 6-foot, 9-inch (or so) medium light spinner with a beautiful Abu Revo reel and 8- or 10-pound braid.  I could cast my Strike King square-billed crank quite a ways and easily feel it vibrate through the water on a slow to medium (but definitely trending towards slow) retrieve.  Meanwhile, he baitcasted a Strike King flat-sided shad, and collectively we covered water.

It was pretty low-tech fishing, but I'm pretty sure you could make it as complex as one wanted. We were looking to take advantage of some pretty obvious clues (jumping fish, bait balls, diving birds, busting fish or current lines), but in their absence, it took me a while to transition from my structure-fishing tendencies and rely on faith that wind-aided long casts and covering water would out-produce covering specific spots thoroughly.

This fishing proved rather slow; in fact we had no action at all as we moved deeper into the labyrinth of Milwaukee Harbor.  By now the wind was blowing 25+ miles per hour and it was rough and wet in the more exposed areas of the harbor.  We worked our way into another dead-end and parked the boat along a secluded section of seawall.  A few minutes of scouting from shore located a couple of pods of sizable browns that were very worthy of our  fishing efforts.  It was back to eggs and floats for these fish.

Brownie 3 of 4 for the day.  Grand Rapids has fine urban fishing; but so does Milwaukee!

Again, the first fish came rather quickly.  After that, they were not easy!  But by moving stealthily and giving them their time and space, by not attracting the attention of others, each pod in time seemed to cough up the occasional biter.  You never knew how big it might be either, because I saw more high-teen-and-up browns in a few hours than I have in the previous 30 years of living elsewhere within the Great Lakes' watershed.

The rest of the fishing day alternated between stalking these finesse fish and casting cranks for more active fish.  I got hit once on my crank but didn't connect, while Captain H caught a smallish brown and a late, red coho.

The fish of the day might have been our last brown on eggs.  It provided a cool visual strike that barely moved the float.  I can still see the gaping, white mouth appearing below the descending egg sac and then closing over it.  This might have been the biggest, too (but none of the fish were measured or weighed, so it's not certain that it was bigger than the first), and it certainly provided the most hotly contested fight of the day.    Captain H's enthusiasm was counter-balanced by my calm execution, but I sure was excited inside. 

A fish worth traveling for; repeatedly!

I'd chosen casting for browns over trolling and perhaps more opportunities for multiple species.  I'd gotten what I asked for, but that didn't stop me from asking, talking and learning about other options. Trolling is always possible here, and spoons, sticks and shads are all in the mix.  Divers and up to 3 colors of lead can provide some depth coverage, but otherwise it all sounded very familiar to me.  And where-as our realistic Brown Season in West Michigan's portion of Lake Michigan is (at most) two months long (and usually much more hit-and-miss than that statement suggests),  one can target browns here (by adjusting one's tactics) just about all year!

The Captain's favorite technique might be casting and slowly swimming 4- and 5-inch plastic swimbaits/jerkbaits on 3/8 ounce darter heads.  The same factors go into selecting the locations; breakwall gaps, current, bait, birds and obvious fish.

"Strolling" with jerk baits can help locate fish.  Should one choose, hair jigs or tubes, crawled along the bottom or suspended under floats can produce fish.  Carolina rigging spawn or minnows, or perhaps suspending crawlers, red worms or jig-n-wigs under floats will get bites.


I'd absorbed a lot in a short time.  Of course I'd have liked more and bigger fish, or perhaps to have not lost any opportunities, but in 6 short hours I was exposed to enough to know that I can do this.  I'd love to share it with some friends or family.

Boat or shore; hard water or soft; your choice; let's go!

***OK, so maybe the real title is "Lose Yourself"; it resonates as "One Shot" for me.

Bucket List Event - Part One

A recent harmless posting on Facebook about open dates from a guide I have followed via various social media outlets for quite a long time led to me sending him an email about his possible availability for Wednesday, November 11.  I get Veterans' Day off at work and I always try to get a good fishing session in, because my boating season could close with the next cold front that roars through.  When he hadn't responded after a couple of days, I figured he was already booked and started to make plans for another local muskie event.  I was therefore doubly surprised when I then received his reply on an otherwise forgettable Tuesday work morning indicating that he was available.  Three minutes later, I was booked! 

I was going to spend Veterans' Day in Milwaukee fishing for Brown Trout!  Milwaukee might currently be the epicenter of World Class Brown Trout opportunities right now.  This is truly a Bucket List Event for me.  I've been wanting to get there for this for more than several years, and this particular guide is why.

I've had a thing about brown trout for quite some time.  My first came from a forgotten tributary of New Hampshire's Saco River when I was 12 or so.  While my Dad stretched, smoked and gave his butt a break from our aluminum canoe seats, I ventured up the small stream with my ultralight spinner and a few worms.  I pitched my unweighted offering upstream into an undercut bank and the local boss came out to eat.  My first brownie wasn't that big (10 inches?), but it sure was beautiful.  At that time I'd caught my share of hatchery rainbows and brookies, but this might have been my first wild trout.  I wanted to show my Dad, but instead chose to release my catch.  So I went back fishless, but that was OK, because Dad soon caught a beautiful brookie, which he, too, chose to release.

Trout are a huge deal here in Michigan, and one of my first here was an early November Lake Michigan tank of a brown.  It slammed a blue and silver Little Cleo that I was casting off a local pier, and was my only strike of the day.  It was monstrous, easily over 20 pounds, and I was very tempted to keep this fish and get it mounted.  But I had virtually no money at the time, and I stupidly expected to easily catch more, similar fish in my future.  I like to tell myself that I was probably leaning towards releasing her when I accidentally dropped her back into the lake.  Oh well, it was an exhilarating experience, and surely there would be others!

Except there hasn't been another.  I briefly connected with a similar giant that skyrocketed out of the water as it ate my spoon off a very shallow rigger in about 10 feet of water.  My boat-mates and I saw her too clearly silhouetted before she threw the hook.  We were speechless, and even the brace of 9-pounders we landed that evening are not as memorable as the one we lost.

In the early 2000's I had a pretty good day trolling for browns on Lake Michigan on April 12.  I remember the date, because I shared my success with a buddy, who chose to try my stretch of shoreline and general tactics the next day.  It was a beautiful day, but I did not join him.  I'd caught mine, and April 13 is my daughter's birthday.  My buddy scored a 24-pounder that day; truly a memorable fish for all involved!

I have caught about a half dozen Browns in the low teens from Lake Michigan and the Grand River, and I saw a couple that were probably in the high teens while on a trip to Arkansas' White River.  These are all World Class fish, but they still are not in the same class as that first Lake Michigan Brown from so long ago.  

My personal Bucket List is ill formed, fuzzy and incomplete.  I'm not looking for a Personal Record, but I do hope to learn a lot on this trip (I will no doubt have the confidence to try this by myself or with buddies once I get my bearings.)  Mostly, I hope I don't learn that my list bucket is full of slop.

Fishless October

It pains me to admit, but I’ve just had a Fishless October.  Now, I didn’t fish much; Numenon splashed only three times this month.  Two of those sessions targeted local muskellunge, and so it’s not exactly surprising that no fish were caught.  And truthfully, a couple of yellow perch came aboard while we fished for pike in the other.  But I’ll forgo acknowledging their capture and just admit it; I had a Fishless October.

Big winds and a mild injury generally kept me off the water; my schedule otherwise prevented me from attempting anything grand.  Of course, the actual results don’t really matter, but this is Big Fish Time and I’d like to partake!  An astonishingly large, state-record smallmouth bass was just captured here in Michigan; and probably dozens of TV Fishing Shows have been recently shot on our smallie lakes up north.  Inland and Great Lakes trout are nudging shallow, and muskies and pike have put on their feed bags.  Most fishermen have transitioned into the woods for whitetails, and the lakes are never crowded.  Despite the barriers imposed by weather (of which wind is the most meaningful component to me), it’s a glorious time of year to be on the water.

This glory has kept my mind alive with memories and hope, usually of the piscatorial persuasion.  There hasn’t been much time actually on the water, but there’s been a lot of time spent thinking about it.  And even if it hasn’t paid off this October, this time might be an investment in future success.  Tackle needs, new knots, patterns and presentations have all been addressed, and I’ve visualized success.  So I should be prepared to execute when the opportunity arises.

A mild start to November is forecast, so there’s still a chance for me to redeem my fall fishing before the season is truly over.  It’s not really over until Numenon gets put to sleep for the winter.  I’m not inclined to put her away until I am forced to by weather, schedule or Holidays, so who knows what I might have to share by the end of November.