Team Trout - Bass Workshop Rescheduled
Before I get into anything else, I want to remind everyone that the Bass Electronics Workshop for SPI is rescheduled for March 16th at 6:30 pm at Buck Creek Church in Wyoming. It’s unfortunate we got hit with a storm that night but I’m grateful they cancelled it. It took Amanda an hour and a half to get home from GR that night and the roads were a real mess. I did get a warm up for it with an opportunity to speak with the Zeeland Fish Hawx high school and middle school teams. I spoke about electronics and how to use them to your advantage with an emphasis on interpreting what you see. That’s the biggest thing with electronics isn’t the worlds best settings it is being able to determine what is really on the screen.
If you are involved in high school fishing at all, you need to pay attention to what that program is doing. They have over 50 kids involved and they have worked hard to raise money through sponsorships and events. It really is impressive and I wish them good luck this year. Definitely going to have to attend their banquet at the Holland Fish and Game club next season.
Other than that things have been just slowly plodding along. I feel like we are going to get stuck in some sort of eternal late winter/spring but that is ok. We’ve made the the most of things this winter and this is one of the few years where I’ve been fishing in a boat 12 months out of the year. There’s still a lot of perch in Muskegon Lake and a few other local bodies of water are kicking them out as well. Probably should start thinking about catching a bass but honestly there just isn’t as much adventure in that as exploring some of the other opportunities we have around. The only problem with those other opportunities are that weather windows are brief and you’ve got to be flexible on when to take advantage of them. The other problem is my boat is still in storage so I’ve got to rely on friends who will listen to my silly ideas (thanks Dave) or time it right where Drew and I can go. Stay tuned if the stars align for an adventure to the north this weekend.
Regarding the trouting, there is so much opportunity for catching lakers and whatever else on bass tackle when the water is cold on Lake Michigan. One day when I’m able to have both rigs at my disposal all year, I will really get a chance to dial it in (hopefully some local burbot too). Anyway we just had a short trip but we knew it would work. I snuck in a trip out there a couple years ago which got cut short due to some battery issues but it confirmed the opportunity was there. Armed with blade baits and swimbaits we confirmed the opportunity was there again and learned a lot more about what exactly those fish are doing. It’s interesting because it doesn’t seem like the fish set up directly on the structure but instead cruise around it. I really need a full day out there of moving around and really exploring the area to figure it out. We also scored a bonus whitefish (that is going to be dinner tonight), all the trout seem to be grown ones there and just a bit to big for me to want to eat. But if those 2 species are around than I am sure there is a burbot nearby. I need to try some different tactics for them but I know it will happen. Looking forward to the next time the wind allows us to get out there. Hopefully we don’t have to wait long!
Lastly I know that ice fishing never really got started this far down state but in much of the ice belt it did happen. I’ve got another article in the most recent Clam Outdoors Ice Team Magazine about one of my favorite ice fishing presentations. (Click here for the article)