Great Lakes Angler

Great lakes angler gets in the car at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow to make the 5 hour drive to Crystal Lake, Michigan, which used to be a fantastic perch fishery, as well as a producer of huge lake trout and at one point, Coho salmon. It is now, like so many other places… not any of those. It does have a huge amount of mean rock bass though. We’ll see if I can’t find a little school of perch swimming around somewhere. Continue reading

Just this week another issue of This is Fly was released on the internet. It features over 100 pages of awesome graphic design, beautiful photographs, and what we all read it for… Awesome images of fish.

One of my favorite articles in this one is about shooting fishing photographs, both of which are a couple of my greatest joys in life, one of which (photography) is my profession. Continue reading

I’ve had my fingers and feet cut dozens of times snorkeling and wading in the great lakes by sharp little Zebra mussels, and round gobies are so aggressive that while fishing for Yellow Perch this summer I’ve had to greatly edit the way I fish to avoid a goby instantly on my hook. Now along these two invasive species are a serious annoyance, but together there is something even greater to fear. Continue reading

More bad news involving Great Lakes invasive species today. This article delves into a net dragged across the bottom, 3.5 miles offshore of Grand Haven Michigan. The ship named the Laurentian pulled up 300 pounds of quagga mussels, a few zebra mussels were mixed in, along with a single slimy sculpin. Continue reading

This information is from the Michigan DNR, reguarding the fin clips of steelhead stocked between 1999 and 2008. Remember different strains of steehead take from 3 to 5 years to spawn and will spawn more than 1 year. Finding a fin clip and comparing it to fish stocked 3-5 years prior to your catch can help to identify the strain and stocking location of your fish. Continue reading

For the next 10 days I will be chasing Walleye, Perch, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, and Muskellunge up in Northern Minnesota. Reports full of photographs and stories will follow me home, so until then… I’ll see you in the north woods.

Tom Chandler, over at the Trout Underground, displayed this clip from youtube over at his top shelf trout angling blog.

Quite an interesting idea to draw people to a storefront. The clearly farm raised trout make for a quick eye catcher to draw people into eating at this German seafood restaurant. Continue reading

There was a time last fall, living 6 blocks from the Milwaukee River, when I could throw on my boots, sling a messenger bag on my shoulder with a long fishing rod sticking out of the top, bundle up as tight as I could, and go stalk steelhead on cold November mornings between classes. Continue reading

In an associated press article about Great Lakes charter fisherman detailing the lull in business this summer I couldn’t help but think of times fishing from the pier last fall, watching the charter boats with 2 or 3 salmon/trout hooked up at one time. The clients plastered with toothy smiles as they fought these great lakes beauties in to the boat. Continue reading

“An eco-friendly bacteria that kills invasive mussels will be tested for the first time in Canada at the Decew Falls hydro plant.Ontario Power Generation will monitor the specialized microbe’s ability to kill zebra and quagga mussels, which threaten power production at the combined 170-megawatt power stations on Twelve Mile Creek in St. Catharines.” Continue reading

With winds gusting to 30 knots this week it’s looking like a good time to make the journey up into Wisconsin looking for a pier with cool water surrounding it. As warm surface water gets forced toward Michigan, cool water wells up to replace it, making the water temperatures plunge. Surface temps last night in Sheboygan were 51 degrees. Continue reading

I, like many other curious anglers do research to figure out when their favorite fish are spawning in creeks, streams and rivers all along the great lakes. When it comes to Steelhead, anglers have the advantage of being able to fish for this glorious gem of a salmonid almost year round. Here is some information from the Wisconsin DNR on three of the most heavily stocked species of Steelhead. Continue reading

This is why I strive to find a way to get my hands on underwater camera gear. I want photographs of Salmon and Trout going at a bait ball of Alewifes, I’ve seen them get active and chase schools around and I’ve even seen a pod of them thrash the top of the water only to have a big Chinook burst through the surface chasing them. Continue reading

The day started at 2:30 a.m. the alarm clock went off, I threw on my swim suit and cloths, and hopped in the car, met a friend or three and got on the highway by 3:00 a.m. out of Chicago and on down to Michigan City to fish for Skamania Steelhead on Trail Creek. Continue reading

In recent chicago news, some stimulus money coming the way of Chicago’s effect on the great lakes.

Some $5 million will go toward the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal Aquatic Nuisance Species Barrier System, which will help keep Asian Carp out of the great lakes. Continue reading

I had a chance to escape to some of my favorite St. Croix and Pierce County Wisconsin streams this last week. To my surprise on both the Kinnikinnick and the Rush there were large hatches of small flies. Naturally matching these produced best results. Smaller dries took fish, as did small terrestrials, grasshoppers were fished without luck. Continue reading

Dan and I were planning on a return trip to the Trail Creek in Michigan City tomorrow to get at some more steelhead. Unfortunatly this super precise downpour practically only rained on the creek this evening and ruined our chances. Continue reading

Since July fishing has been slow here in Chicago, with the Perch season closed for another week, and Trout and Salmon out of reach, I’ve been delving into archives of some of my favorite great lakes news sources and here’s another find. Continue reading

Another great online magazine called “Catch Magazine” has a new issue out. This magazine is not printed and is only available online. It is certainly worth taking a look at just like “This is Fly”, another beautiful magazine filled with mouth watering spreads of places you’d give your last fly to fish at. Continue reading

The nice thing about having a small watershed, is the quickness with which the river can return to fishable levels. Unfortunately it didn’t return to a low level with time for me to go wet a line. I expect to return to fight with some Skamania as soon as I get the chance. Perhaps Monday. Continue reading

A fantastic documentary about Yellowstone Cuthroat trout and the environment in which they dwell. A sound recordist named Mike, who’s hobby is swimming in this river takes cameras along and documents the Yellowstone Cuthroat trout and the challenges they face, such as stocked lake trout, osprey, and other mammals looking for a meal. Continue reading