These photographs are courtesy of Carson Klemp, my great cousin who shows us what it’s like at 10,000 feet shooting spinners into swift water, calm lakes, and glacial-cool water for Cut Throat and Brook Trout. Continue reading
… and they can weigh up to 60-100 pounds…
Every King Salmon, Coho Salmon, Steelhead, and Brown Trout that runs up the Betsie River to spawn must swim through here, from Lake Michigan, past Frankfort into Betsie Lake, and then on up the river where fisherman await them with rods, nets, flies, stringers, spoons, and waders. Continue reading
Today I took a younger cousin out to a family secret bit of structure in Crystal Lake, Michigan that used to be a secret spot for Yellow Perch. We took a few minnows from the wire minnow trap and oared out past the blue line to spot X. Continue reading
The great lakes angler can now be reached via Email. If you wish to ask me a question, give me some feedback, submit content (including photographs or stories) please feel free to drop me a line.
I’d be happy to post relevant user content, especially beautiful Great Lakes fish and scenery. Continue reading
2 Records in one week. A Canadian broke the old world record (held by his twin brother). That along with Tom Healy’s world record Brown Trout make this a week to remember for trout fisherman around the world. Continue reading
Grim news for anglers across Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. The rivers have all but dried up this fall. Southeastern Wisconsin on around the tip of Lake Michigan into the state of Michigan are finding their favorite fall Salmon rivers barely trickling. Continue reading
Tomatoes, beans, and green peppers. This is my first year with a real garden. It’s been a pleasant one aside from a small mid summer war with a rabbit and some mysteriously vanishing tomatoes this fall.
The joys that the sun and the water bring…
This Friday night the Great Lakes Anlger and Mike, from Angling with Mplant, another Chicago fishing blog, are heading up to stay with a friend named Tyler for the night. We’ll be fishing the Milwaukee river all day Saturday. Look for me in woods-camo hip boots, a black waterproof coat, and grey hat. Continue reading
With enough time to walk the pier on my way out of Muskegon this morning I decided a check on the north arm of the Grand Haven break walls would be fun.
Many anglers were out, only 1 salmon was on a stringer, caught half way out on a shiner on the bottom, landed on the north side of the pier. It was a King Salmon and looked to weigh roughly 5-6 pounds.
It sounds like pier fisherman have been doing well with glow spoons early in the morning (2-5 a.m.) there has not been much of a night or sunrise bite. Continue reading
A storm surged over Milwaukee County today, pushing up the flow of the Milwaukee river to perfect heights to allow salmon to pass upstream. The storm came from the South-West and missed Racine and Kenosha for the most part. Continue reading
Put the Kayak into the water this afternoon around 1:00 p.m. not exactly prime Salmon fishing time but I thought it would be worth it to log another hour or two dragging Dipsy Divers in the Kayak.
Paddled out to around 20 feet of water, dropped the #1 Dipsy, set at 0, put it down around 15 feet and headed toward the gap at Frankfort Harbor. One fisherman on the south pier reported no action. I trolled through the harbor and around the mudline. Two other boaters out dragging lines with no action. I decided to pull lines and recover a couple of spoons from the rocks that I saw as I floated over them. I successfully nabbed a nice glowing K/O wobbler and a Wonderbread 3/4 oz. Krocodile. Sweet. Continue reading
Hot off the virtual presses, available cover to cover online.
This is Fly: http://www.thisisfly.com/
Catch Magazine: http://www.catchmagazine.net/ Continue reading
Some impressive great lakes photography from both the professional and armature divisions in this photo contest.
Thirty Mile Point in Winter1st place, amature division, Gerri Jones – Wilson, NY Continue reading
Great Lakes Angler is moving on up. We’ve left the old, long blogspot address behind and have moved up to www.great-lakes-angler.com. The old domain name : http://greatlakesangler.blogspot.com will still get you here, but feel free to bookmark this new, permanent home for the GLA blog in the years to come. Continue reading
I hopped in the Kayak today and headed out toward the blue line. Rock bass were plentiful near structure in 25 feet of water. Perch were caught further out, in 40-50 feet of water. I tested out the Dipsey Diver, flasher/fly setup I’ve made for Lake Trout trolling and will head out for that as soon as conditions are favorable. Continue reading
I never thought I’d do it, but for the good of the Great Lakes Angler… Here we are, on Twitter. If you’re a twitter user, you’ll be able to find us at: http://twitter.com/GLAngler
Rolling onward and upward, stay with the Great Lakes Angler.
Great Lakes Angler is now available for viewing on Facebook.
Go ahead and click on the photo above, or the link on the left sidebar to navigate to the GLA Facebook site, if you’re already a member of facebook, I encourage you to become a fan!
This last weekend I took the Amtrak home from Milwaukee. Between Milwaukee and Chicago I took a few photographs while speeding through the beautiful golden fields of South-Eastern Wisconsin.
Today I was blessed with the opportunity to teach an amazing 11 year old how to fly fish, and needless to say, the day needed no Salmon to make it any better. This young man picked up my eight weight and was throwing a woolly bugger like his life depended on in less than an hour. Continue reading
Today was a rare day, a day where at one time, there were zero clouds over any of the lakes. The sun was shining on every square inch of the great lakes this afternoon. Here are the satellite photographs to prove it. Amazing. Continue reading
Two weeks ago I took my Nikon D300 and some lenses out under a full moon to Point Betsie and put this series together. These corrugated steel piers jut out from the seawall in front of Point Betsie.
Corrugated Steel and Fresh Water Continue reading
I stepped out of a friend’s car at around 9:00 p.m. yesterday and began my walk out on McKinley Pier in Milwaukee Wisconsin, the beginning of the Salmon hunt. I came equipped with a box of spoons, 2 boxes of crank baits, 1 box of spinners, a box of my salmon flies, and 3 fishing rods. Continue reading
“Is it ok to eat fresh Salmon from Lake Michigan?”"Are there certain layers of fat I should cut out?” “Should I remove the skin before I cook my Salmon or Trout?”
All commonly asked questions by anglers who intend to fillet and eat the Salmon or Trout that they catch from our beautiful Lake Michigan. Continue reading
The Great Lakes does it again!
This 43.75 inch 41 pound 7.25 oz. monster Brown Trout was landed on the Manistee River, Michigan yesterday. The fish was taken on a crank bait and was landed by Tom Healy while fishing with Tim Roller’s charter service. I’ll bet that’s a few hundred dollars he doesn’t regret spending. 
Continue reading
Finally, the rain has started to fall. Last night we got a better than forecasted downpour of rain. This new flow of cool water out of South-Eastern Wisconsin tributaries will push staging salmon up the rivers.
Salmon feed heavily the first 8-12 hours they enter rivers so directly after rain the lower sections of the Root, Pike, Oak, Milwaukee, and Menominee rivers are sure bets for fresh from the lake Salmon. Continue reading
If I had to bet on a river to fish tomorrow I’d pick the mouth of Pike Creek.
If I had to bet on a river to fish this weekend, I’d take the Milwaukee river.
The Milwaukee River is what I consider my home turf. In the years preceding this I spent 4 falls at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, I began to understand and learn stretches of that river like they were my back yard. Continue reading
Reason 1 : The fellow that runs it, David Heyman is a great guy, a good writer, a scholar, and a hell of a fisherman. Continue reading
From Dale Bowman at the Chicago Sun Times, interesting that they caught it on a number 7 black/gray shad rap, I caught perch on those this year… Continue reading
The alarm sounded at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time this morning, I sprung from the sheets and found my long johns, 41 degrees on the thermometer, the first of many days to come wearing long underwear this year.
I hoisted the kayak on the car and headed out to do some scouting on the Betsie river, as I know the King Salmon have started their annual migration up the rivers.. I put in off of Traverse road between Beulah and Frankfort. There were a couple of fellows drifting spawn and casting spinners there under a bridge who said they had been there all night with no success. Continue reading
Sheboygan : Chinook Salmon and Steelhead have entered the river and can be found in some numbers in the lower sections.
Milwaukee River : Nearing a prime state of fresh fish entering the river, and not a whole lot of angler pressure. Next weekend looks promising after low pressure, west winds, and recent rain. Continue reading
A new e-magazine, Fish Can’t Read debuted this month. I’m a big fan of these magazines that have photo essays and fishing journals from a variety of fishermen around the world.
You can check out this first issue of Fish Can’t Read (Singlebarbed is one of the editors on this one) by clicking the links or by searching for it on Google. Continue reading
The Great Lakes Angler’s family has a proud tradition of fishing. The men in our family are no strangers to the rod and reel. This photograph of a bull of a Montana brook trout was sent to me from my good cousin Carson Klemp. He went backpacking to a spot I’ve been to a couple of times, and one he has been to on 4 or 5 trips over the last decade or so. The mountain lakes and connecting rivers of Montana flow thick with trout. The 4 day excursion that I last took I recall landing somewhere around 200 trout. The biggest Brook Trout of mine was 19″, and the largest Cut-Throat Trout I landed from the shore of a large lake was pushing 22″. Continue reading
From the Telegraph Journal.
A 150-year-old record for the largest catch at Wilson’s Sporting Camps was broken at Coldwater Pool Aug. 30, compliments of a 15-year-old first-timer.
The camp’s new record holder, Braden Tierney of Massachusetts, grabbed a fishing pole to go Atlantic salmon fishing for the first time at Wilson’s. Chances are when he took to the water he didn’t think he’d be breaking a record that had stood for more than a century. Continue reading
