Spring / Summer Update

So much for weekly updates. The better part of the summer has passed without updating. This might be a reflection of just how busy my summers get. We'll see how the late summer and fall work out for updating. Either way, I'm going to attempt being more regular.

The spring bite was odd this year. With the late winter, the fish seemed to be scattered over April and May. If you recall from past updates, my preferred technique is to fish the arms of the channel during this time period. The normal bite is mid to late April with a few fish still around in early May. This year the fish started showing up in mid April but we were still catching fish late May into early June. There were a couple of days where better numbers of fish were caught, but it seemed as though they just kept showing up. One technique I picked up this spring was pulling deep divers through the sand inside the arms. Seemed odd to me, but after watching a guy land his limit night after night, I had to suck up my pride and ask him what he was doing. Surprisingly he was very forthcoming with information and he and I now have a "fishing" friendship started. We bump into one another on the lake and share information.

Memorial Day on Lake Erie was outstanding. Sorry you missed it. I made three trips to Erie this year and had great fishing experiences. I had several new people book trips with me this year, and they loved it. One person has two trips booked for next year already. If you haven't fished Lake Erie, you owe it to yourself to try it.

Everything on Muskegon Lake seems to be two weeks behind the normal timing. Generally we start picking up walleye in early July. This year it was mid July. It was almost as though someone threw the switch when the bite finally took off. I fished July 21st in preparation for a charter on the 23rd. I landed two nice walleye. The entire week before I landed a total of two fish. On the 23rd we landed 3 fish, and the numbers have steadily climbed every week after.

I have to tell you about the night I had July 24th. There is a small tournament held every Thursday night during the summer on Muskegon Lake. Adam's Angler Archer hosts these events. It's a group of local fishermen that get together to fish and talk stories after the event about the catch, or the one that got away. I really enjoy fishing these every week. On this particular night my fishing partner for the night and I decided that we would try jigging Hopkin's spoons for an hour before starting a trolling pattern. The tournament starts at 6PM and goes until 10PM. We left the launch and headed to a little spot that I have had moderate success jigging in the past. I dropped the silver Hopkin's over the side and made 4 jigs when I wondered if I had snagged the bottom. After confirming it was a fish, I announced to my partner to get the net. He was laughing when I started with the "please don't be a sheepy" ditty. A minute later the laughing stopped and he got very serious. A nervous glance my way and in the boat came a 9.4 lb walleye. Needless to say, there was some serious "hi-five'n" going on. I worked the fish into the livewell and my partner got back to work. I was just reaching for my pole when I heard him say "T, I got one". I looked up to see his rod doubled over. I grabbed the net and watched the battle. A minute later a 9 lb walleye hit the floor of the boat. Wow, what a night! But it's not over yet. Thirty minutes later, and three more fish, and we were sitting on just over 31 lbs of walleye to weigh in. The tournament allows 5 fish to be weighed in. We won that tournament and made some really good memories that will last us a life time.

Please check back as I plan to update a little more often. I'm working on gathering some pictures from this years trips. I hope to have them posted soon.

Captain T

January Fish

Before moving along, I had to add a picture of my good friend Shane and his fish caught on a Muskegon Lake trip last Winter. This fish was landed using 8 lb Berkley XT line and a Rapala jigging shad rap. Shane had a blast working this fish for over an hour. There was a nice crowd gathered by the time he landed it. We shared a few laughs, a couple quick pictures and let this fish go. It was worth standing around Shane's hole for the best hour of the day just to see him land this fish.