Well the action in Kenosha has slowed significantly since yesterdays flurry of perfect conditions for brown trout fishing. A combination of west winds, great pods of alewifes, and fresh rain pushing nutrients into the harbor turned the Brown Trout on to a feeding frenzy that started around sunset on Friday. Continue reading
“new invasive species have appeared in our lakes, new worrisome chemicals have emerged from our industrial processes, our knowledge of the ecology of the region and how to protect it has grown considerably. In its current form, the Great Lakes Agreement does not sufficiently address the needs of our shared ecosystem.” -Hillary Clinton Continue reading
I just recieved a call from the photography firm I’ve been eagerly trying to get a job with for the last year. I start full time on Monday. This may slow me down a little this fall but you can still expect that I’ll push myself hard to get ontop of Salmon and Trout as much as possible. Continue reading
According to Dale Bowman over at the Chicago Sun-Times the Illinois DNR will be holding a confiscated and abandoned property auction on August 29th at the Jack Perschbacher Service Center Warehouse in Pawnee. This is the first auction since 2005. Continue reading
August anglers along the walls at Belmont and Montrose Harbor continue to find perch, many are not as large as some of the Jumbo Perch being caught offshore above weed beds.
Boaters off of navy pier continue to catch regular limits of perch between 11-14″ and most baits will produce fish including kastmasters, minnows, and other artificials. Continue reading
Trail creek is at a very fishable level, but fish are not in there as thick as they were three weeks ago in July. Fish can be found in deeper sections of the river during the early morning and evening hours. Finding sections that don’t see pressure from public access points are likely to bag you more trout. Continue reading
Well the time is neigh for Salmon coming from the depths to kiss the walls in the harbors all along the Chicago lake shore.
In Waukegan reports have been streaming in of Coho Salmon, King Salmon, and Brown Trout being caught from the south rocks during good west winds. Continue reading
Late August is upon us, and the swing from deep water to harbors is fully underway for salmon and trout.
I have a friend who recently graduated from UWM with a degree in conservation. He works at the small state park off of summerfest grounds in the harbor. He wrote me and let on that there has been a sharp increase in Brown Trout and Steelhead in near the rocks at the state park. He has been able to observe them feeding on alewifes from shore. The word he used to describe them was “footballs”. You know what that means gang. The only thing that is keeping you from catching a hail mary football trout is that you’re reading this blog right now, and not out casting. Continue reading
Since I have friends and family that don’t know what I mean when I launch into a salmon fishing tangent I figured a Salmon Vocab section was appropriate. Here it goes:
Salmonid: in or belonging to the Salmon family, includes Salmon, Char, and Whitefish. Continue reading
I had 45 minutes to fish in Milwaukee on a quick pitstop while taking care of some bussiness in town. I swung into grant park and am happy to report that in the 45 minutes there, prior to the sun setting I saw one fish taken. You could feel your spoon hitting dozens of alewifes on the way in on each cast. I snagged 5 alewifes in the half hour of casting that I got done. This tells me that salmon should be in close. The water temperature was favorable as well, the spoon came out of the water very cold, like it just came out of the refrigerator. Most snagged alewifes were similar in size to my 3/4 oz. little cleo and my 1 oz. kastmaster. Although some were much larger, about the size of a magnum trolling spoon, roughly 4.5-5 inches. Continue reading
From Dale Bowman at the Chicago Sun Times : Asian carp closer to barrier than expected reports that Asian Carp have been found in the Brandon Road Pool, just downstream from Lockport Lock and Dam. Monitoring prior to this recent finding never found Asian Carp that close to the Barrier. Continue reading
Today marked the 1000th visitor to this blog. Thanks to the 1003, unique visitors who have visited a total of 1,733 times racking up 3,309 page views. (since June 1st when I started running analytics)
The Great Lakes Angler Blog has brought in Visitors from 28 countries and from 48 of the 50 states, I don’t know why but you folks out in South Dakota and Hawaii just don’t want to hear about the wonders of the clear blue waters that are the great lakes. Continue reading
It’s finally here, the real beginning of the near shore salmon season on Lake Michigan. As of right now you have the following options.
Steelhead : Trail Creek Skamanias, Michigan City : Float fishing with crawlers, shrimp, or spawn, flies including egg patterns, leeches, streamers. Spinners and crank baits pulled through pools produce fish as well. Remember to try and fish these presentations by casting upstream and pulling the bait back toward you. Fish face into current, also important when you observe swirling circular pools, you may have access to fish not just faced “upstream” Continue reading
For the first time in over 100 years, naturally produced salmon are found in what was once New York’s premier salmon stream according to the United States Geological Survey:
August continues to be one of the better Augusts in the last few years for Perch fishing near shore. The cold june and july temperatures delayed the exodus of perch into deeper water. Limits have been taken as recently as yesterday, August 7th (which happens to be the Great Lakes Angler’s Birthday for anyone out there who’s interested) at Burnham Harbor, Northerly Island. Minnows on jigs fished just over weed beds have taken fish. It sounds like it has become primarily a minnow bite again, softshell crawfish have stopped producing as well. Continue reading
Salmon are in sight. Kings are being taken from the Montrose Harbor horse shoe and seawall. Other harbors with break wall access to deeper areas of Lake Michigan have been producing King Salmon on days with brisk west winds. Continue reading
Well, as much as I love swimming in the great lakes, taking fish from those crystal clear waters, I’ve always been an advocate for forgetting what they say about it being dirty and just get in there and enjoy it. This news from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel might make me start singing a different tune:
Many of the storm sewers are discharging traces of fecal waste. High percentages of water samples taken all over the Milwaukee area show contamination. Read the full story here.
I woke this morning at 3:30 a.m., headed down to the already packed car and got on the road. I arrived in Michigan City at a stretch of Trail Creek that I am familiar with. Unfortunatly the creek was not chalk full of eager fish like I had hoped it might be. After the recent rain I expect a new wave of Skamanias to be holding in the deeper holes, this was not the case. I saw 3 steelhead caught among the 15-20 anglers fishing there. Most were caught between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. on worms or spawn on the bottom. Drifted spawn did nothing today, neither did spinners, spoons, or crank baits. Continue reading
Here is the DNR, stocking 17,000 brown trout in the Kenosha Harbor in the summer of 2008. Every year they do this. It’s a beautiful thing.
Amazing.
The recession is taking a toll on the St. Lawrence Seaway. So far in this year to date the seaway has seen an overall drop of 21%, and a commercial shipping drop of 28%, which frankly is fine with me. The less ocean going ship traffic in the Great Lakes the better. I’m sick of catching scores of Round Gobies and having to fight invasives to get at native fish such as Lake Trout and Yellow Perch. Continue reading
I had the pleasure of photographing a Lake Trout caught from McKinley Pier in Milwaukee, WI that a fellow angler caught last night around midnight. His name is Keith and I thank him for giving me the opportunity to break out the macro lens and flash to light this large trout up in the dark. Continue reading
By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel Continue reading
This photograph that Tom Chandler over at the Trout Underground had on his blog yesterday, shows one of the reasons that Asian Carp are a terrible, terrible invasive species that has gotten way out of hand.
An asian Carp, hitting the shooter in the back of a Carp boat, this woman’s jaw was broken and according to the Trout Underground, this outing was all her fiance’s idea. Continue reading
This photograph, shot by “Ryan” of Northern Waters Fly Fishing, happens to be one of my favorite fish photographs that I’ve seen recently.
This perfectly timed photograph catches the action, and the trademark red stripe of the rainbow trout, as it rolled on top of the water. Incredibly lucky, my hat is off to the photographer on this one. That stream looks like a slice of heaven as well. That looks like quite the pod of trout holding in the shade just above that fish. Beautiful.
Well, it’s not going to take care of them entirely, but it may help to dissuade them from latching onto things we don’t want them to.
A recent study has confirmed that Zebra Mussels will not attach themselves to things coated in copper. This, applied to things that are particularly Zebra Mussel vulnerable could help save states millions of dollars. Continue reading
After my first week of full time work since graduation from college, I found that Friday night was upon me, and that it was time to grab my 10′ 6″ casting rod, and make my way to a Southern Wisconsin harbor for a shot at some brown trout. Continue reading
These strong west wind’s we’ve had over the last couple of weeks have chilled the water to frigid levels. Temperature readings as low as 48 degrees on the surface have been reported. This means a variety of fish are reachable from the ends of piers all along the coast of Lake Michigan. Continue reading
Lake superior and Lake St. Claire are up between one and two inches in the last month, and the overall water height in the great lakes is up around half a foot from this time in 2008.
This is good news for most property owners with docks along the lakes, for boaters and freighters who now can breath a little easier when worrying about their draft in shallow areas. Continue reading
I’m back from a 75 hour week of photography in Texas, we photographed Bass Hall for Schwarz architects. A beautiful place, having never been to Texas before it was refreshing to see a little of the state. Fort Worth is not a bad town. Continue reading
From the Luhr Jensen Hook Sharpening Guide. The anatomy of a hook, including the point, gap, shank, and throat.
It’s a good guide, it goes into the depths of hook sharpening and advantages of different types of hooks. The more you learn, the better fisherman you become. You’ll need sharp hooks to get into those tough Salmonid mouths. Sharp hooks are a sign of a good fisherman.
Headed out to Montrose Harbor sans rod and reel today, just to see what was happening. The pier was thick with fisherman, and the road was even thicker with traffic. I saw many bags coming out with near limits of medium sized perch with jumbos mixed in here and there. Continue reading
Last year, when Barack Obama was on his campaign tour he made a stop in Milwaukee in the height of the Salmon run. I joked with my friends that I’d love to show him how beautiful the Milwaukee river was, in a canyon of yellow maple trees in full color, with King Salmon around every bend. It turns out, he might have wanted to join me. Continue reading
I recently watched some National Geographic footage of some conservationists on the Eg and Uur rivers documenting a species of trout that is becoming more and more endangered (big surprise)
This trout, the Taimen, can grow up to six feet in length, making it the largest of the Salmonids. Resembling some strains of brown trout in appearance, this trout is certainly no exception to the beauty of the trout family. Continue reading
