For the Love of Fishing
The horizon was void of boats. As Paul and I made our way out of the Baileys Harbor Marina I scanned the water. There was a small sailboat attempting to fill her sails in the bay and one or two pleasure boats near the county beach to the north. That...
It wasn’t much of a fish by Lake Michigan standards. In fact, we were not even sure we had a fish on at all. It was a classic “shaker”. Paul and I were trolling off Baileys Harbor in about seventy feet of water dragging our usually array of lines. We...
These are fish we boating in the last couple of days out of BH. All these were successfully released, although we did keep a few “eaters”
I don’t mind fishing alone. In fact, at times I prefer it. When I fish by myself, I am always the best angler in the boat. I never get out fished and if I get skunked, there is no one there to witness my shame. If I find a hot...
The warm weather in February and early March allowed up to get a head start on the brown trout action.
Standing on a sun-drenched beach, barefoot, up to my knees in cool saltwater, I slowly draw back an 8-foot saltwater spinning rod high over my head. With a steady swing of my arms, I send a 3-ounce pyramid sinker and circle hook draped with some bits of shrimp I bought...
I was driving back from Sturg after a haircut appointment. My new barber, Desirée at Razor’s Edge, had done a pretty decent job, considering what she had to work with. On the way back to Baileys Harbor, I decided to drive up North Shore Drive past the old stone quarry...
Seems like I have spent the first portion of this winter season not ice fishing, but fishing for ice. Even as late as Christmas I was still launching my boat into open water rather than dragging my ice shelter onto a frozen lake. (See my Merry Fishmas post.) The mild...
Christmas Day was always a special time. There was typically a crispness in the air and a lightness in everyone’s heart. A sparkling blanket of snow covered the ground, quietly waiting to be disturbed by skis, sleds and shovels. Christmas also brought a break from my job teaching high school....
I must admit that I take a perverse pleasure and maybe even a bit of pride in doing things that other people think are crazy. I relish any person’s reaction as I relate my experience at the Jacksonport Polar Bear Plunge, describing myself wading through the ice strewn water and diving...