Report From Grayling, MI

Doug called from Grayling, MI, Sunday at 5:19 p.m. His report is as follows: "Not a very impressive start to the Trout Season Opener. The weather has been just crummy, it finally stopped raining late Sunday afternoon. Besides the weather, the fishing has been terrible too, only 3 fish as of Sunday afternoon. Hopefully things will improve for Monday and we'll head for home on Tuesday."

Trout Season Opener

Joe, John and I packed up the camper and left early Friday morning for Grayling, Michigan for a weekend of trout fishing on the Little Manistee. Hope to send some updates while we're here, but if not, we'll be back Tuesday. Hope everyone enjoys the warm weather this weekend!

What a Difference a Day Makes

Fished with Doug and Chico. The temperature this morning was in the mid 40s and by the time we quit it was in the upper 60s. The wind was less than 10 knots out of the Southwest with very little waves. The water temp is 50 degrees. Another nice day on Lake Erie. Heard a report this morning that everyone was catching fish last night, so we headed back to Turtle Island to give it a try. Must have been 200 boats fishing by the island. Slowed down and made a pass through the pack of boats and did not even mark a fish and never saw anyone catch a fish, so we headed out to the radar buoy. Marked a few fish but never had a hookup so we left there and went to the East side of the dumping grounds. Nothing happening there so we headed over to South Otter Creek and Chico caught a nice Smallmouth Bass and that was it. Decided to fish the West side of the dumping grounds and we finally marked some fish. We had a few hookups but only caught one walleye. A tough day fishing but a least the weather was nice.

First Trip of the Year

Fished with Daryl and Doug. Temperature this morning was in the lower 40s and by the time we quit fishing it was in the upper 50s. The wind was light out of the Northeast with hardly no waves. The water temp is 46 degrees. Today was the first trip of the year and I had a very rough time trying to start the boat. It just would not turn over. Got it started and away we went, just a beautiful day to be on the lake. Coming out of the harbor we saw some boats by South Otter Creek so we headed there. Did not see any action so we went to Turtle Island just over the Michigan line in 10 feet of water, 41 46 060 / 083 21 790. The water was dirty but that was OK because we were using blade baits and hair jigs with minnows. Marked a lot of fish and on the first pass we caught a couple. We stayed in the same area all morning and would catch at least one walleye on each drift. The only problem was we lost a lot of fish. We went 8 for 18 for the day with all the fish being males. A good way to start the year.

All Done Shore Fishing

Fished with Doug Sowa. Temperature this morning was in the lower 40s and by the time we quit it was in the middle 50s. The wind was out of the Southeast less than 10 knots, just a nice day to be near the water. Today we made the Grosse Ile tour for the last time this spring. We hit all the usual spots and the fishing was slow. We caught a lot of perch at Smitty's but the fish were all small. We managed two keepers for the day but we let them go. Next trip will be from the boat.