The Misery Continues

Fished with Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70s. The wind was out of the west about 10 knots in the morning and then it switched to the east for the last couple of hours. The waves were less than a foot and the water temp is 62 degrees. Started fishing where we left off on the last trip with crawlers and 2 oz. weights set at 70 feet back and dipsy's and spoons set at 75 feet back. Caught the first fish right out of the gate off the dipsy. Fished for another hour and we only caught a catfish so we pulled off the crawlers and put out jet 20s set at 60 feet back. Trolled around for another hour without a hit so pulled off everything and went to all crawlers. Did that and we had a fish within 10 minutes. Trolled this way for the rest of the trip and we only caught silver bass and white perch. Another long day of fishing with very little to show for it. When we got back to the harbor we heard a report that they caught some fish last weekend fishing in the same area using jets and spoons. Maybe the catching will start to pick up. We kept 2 walleye today.

Still Cannot Find the Fish!!!!

Fished with Doug. Temperature this morning was in the middle 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. The wind was very light so we had no waves. The water temp is 61 degrees. The fishing reports are still bad so we started at the same spot that we fished on the last trip. We ran crawlers with 2 oz. weights set at 90 to 100 back on one side of the boat and 3 oz. weights set at 70 to 75 feet back on the other side of the boat. Started to catch some fish off the 2oz. weights so we put them on both sides of the boat. We caught most of the fish at 41 49 600 / 083 18 400. Our main problem was the white perch, we could not keep them off the lines. We constantly had to check the lines or we would drag white perch around. Doug actually caught 2 white perch off one crawler harness. I think it might be time to go back to fishing with spoons or plugs. We kept 4 walleye, had one throw back walleye (13 inches) and 1 perch about 10 inches. Put some gas in the boat and it is $4.45 a gallon. After we got done fishing we attended the open house at TBM and it turned out very nice, a large crowd, good food and a lot of happy people.

Still Slow Fishing

Fished with Daryl, so that means I finally got the boat in the water. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind was light out of the east with no waves. The water temp is 59 degrees and it was very foggy today. We started the trip off in a light rain and while we were fishing it rained a couple of times very light, but over all it turned out to be a nice day. I went through old fishing reports and over the last 4 years we have been catching fish at 41 49 250 / 083 17 610 this time of year, so that was our starting point. We found a spot where the water was dirty and half way clean so we stayed in this area. We trolled crawler harnesses with 2 oz. weights set at 80 to 100 feet back and with 3 oz. weights set 70 to 80 feet back. We kept the trolling speed under 2 miles an hour. We were marking fish but there was not a lot of marks on the screen. We picked up 3 keeper walleye, lost one behind the boat and had 1 throw back that was 13 inches. Only had a few problems with the boat and they will be fixed by Tuesday. The fishing is very slow yet and this year we have dead walleye floating in the marina and no one knows why they are there.

Slowest Spring Walleye Fishing Ever

Fished with Captain Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 30s and by the time we quit fishing it was in the upper 50s. The wind was out of the northwest less than 10 knots and the waves were less than a foot. The water temp is 53 degrees. The reports that we heard was that the fishing was very bad and we proved those reports to be true. Started fishing in the dumping grounds where the water was very clean jigging blade baits and hair jigs with shiners. We had no bites so we moved to Turtle Island where the water was dirty. We jigged we for awhile without a hit, so we went to the Michigan/Ohio border and started trolling. We trolled the mud line towards the Toledo Light House without any hits. Pulled lines and headed to the E Buoy where the water is clean and tried jigging there. Again no bites. Made one more move into 14 feet of water in front of Toledo Beach Marina and never had a hit. We marked very few fish for the whole trip. Caught no fish today!

The King in His Chair

Left on Thursday to go trout fishing with Joe, John hurt his back and could not make the trip. The weather has been terrible for the last 3 weeks, rain and very cold temperatures and today was no different. We lost our fishing location in Grayling because politics and special interest groups changed the way we could fish the river. We decided to give the Pine River in Lake County a try this year. When we pulled into camp the river was very high and very dirty. We talked to a local owner of a trout fly shop and she told us that the river is 5 times higher than it's normal height. We thought about going to a different river to fish but it was getting late in the day and raining pretty hard so we just set up camp and thought we would try fishing here anyways. Fishing on Saturday was terrible, high and dirty water on the Little Manistee and the Pine. We only had one bite for the whole day. This was the first time in 32 years we did not have a trout dinner on opening day. We were sitting around the camp on Saturday evening and lo and behold John pulled up. Not sure how he found us but we were glad he made it. The three of us fished the Little Manistee on Sunday morning with no fish caught. Finally on Sunday afternoon we started to catch some fish on the Pine River. By this time the water had dropped 3 feet on the Pine River but the water was still dirty. By Monday morning the Pine River was fish able and we picked up a few more fish so we had our trout dinner. We had to learn a different way of trout fishing than the way we are accustomed to. But as the saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". We kept 10 trout for the trip, 9 brown trout and 1 rainbow trout. We have a new Trout King this year. John caught a 16 1/2 inch brown trout to win that title. Go figure, he shows up late with a bad back, leaves early because of a meeting and then he catches the largest fish. We all had a good time and the trip turned out better than we thought it would.

Trout Season Opening Weekend

Left Thursday, April 28, for our annual Camping/Fishing Trout Season Opening Weekend. We left early this year because we are fishing the Pine River instead of the Little Manistee River in Grayling, and we wanted to check out the area a bit before opening day on Saturday. Just Joe and I this year, as John hurt his back. Will be home Tuesday, May 3.