​Ororo Heated Vest Review

            After a seminar speaker at West Michigan Walleye Club mentioned a heated vest, I was intrigued. With that I visited five various hiking, back packing and outdoor sites for product testing and reviews.

            I wrote down the pro and cons of each vest tested and did the same with the reviews. From that list three vests emerged as strong possibilities. After checking out the warranty and the reviews on manufactures web site I settled on the Camo vest from Ororo.

            Christmas was drawing near so I mentioned it to my wife. And yes, on Christmas morning a vest was under the tree. I tested the vest out fishing on Stearns Bayou after Christmas, fishing from shore along the Kalamazoo River and on long hikes. One hike was in the open with a pretty good breeze blowing.

            The vest has multiple heat settings and will default to the lower setting once all warmed up. Trust me, it will keep your chest and your kidneys nice and toasty.

            All I wore was a regular shirt, the vest and a light jacket. It was not bulky and none of that smushed up and tight clothing fit that is common when wearing multiple layers. When wearing a neck gaiter, it was darn warm on the low setting.
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            The vest was not the highest priced vest but more expensive than about 70% that were tested. I am happy with it and that is all I can say. 

There are many good locations for walleye anglers to enjoy, and a few simple methods to use for a successful catch.

Start with the Kalamazoo River.

The pier heads are always good this time of the year, as is the area just upstream from Saugatuck. The section between the two bridge over passes are hot.  Don’t forget to work each support pillar for a hungry lurking walleye.

Another good location is the area near New Richmond. Fish upstream to the Rabbit River and downstream to Old Allegan Road.
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The Grand River is productive at Indian Channel, the old gravel pits and Sixth Street Dam in downtown Grand Rapids. A sleeper spot is above the dam almost to Lowell. This area is vastly under fished and makes for a great float trip.

Fremont Lake is another good pick for this time of the year. It will stay good through Memorial Day and the best locations are anyplace where you can find green cabbage weeds. The lake also has a minimum of ten small underwater islands. A good map and graph will point these spots out.

Any of the piers along Lake Michigan provide good action. The best fishing takes place after dark. The action is best when the smelt are running or when the baitfish are near the piers.

Muskegon and White Lake are both good locations to hit, but the action depends on the water temperature. If the water gets to warm and the shad move in, chase another species because the walleye action will be tough.
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Pike season has also opened and each of the listed areas are good with Muskegon, White and Fremont being the best.

Pike anglers do real well casting Rapala Husky Jerks or Smithwick Rogues. These suspending body baits are a real killer and work great at night off of the pier. My favorite is a frozen smelt on a quick strike rig.
Walleye anglers do well with a jig and minnow combo.

Remember to drag is to snag. Hit the bottom and lift up. Repeat until a walleye hits. Use a jig head that is heavy enough to hit the bottom and stay as vertical as possible.

My favorite walleye setup is a three-way rig or the old fashioned wolf river rig.
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Tie on a three-way swivel. Add a dropper line to your sinker and this can vary between one to two feet as a rule. On the other swivel tie on a leader in the four- to six-foot range. Add a Northland Floater and a minnow, leech or a crawler and you are in business.

Another version of this is the drop shot rig made popular with the tournament bass anglers. Tie your hook directly to your line and place you sinker at the end of the line one or two feet below the hook. You can substitute the hook for a floater. This is a great rig to use when traveling slowly or when working a school of hungry fish.

Windy days are a challenge when trying to match the current of the river. With some practice you will be able to learn this. Both the 3-way rig or the drop shot rig are easier to work with in the wind.

​Not much is better tasting than a golden walleye fillet. Well maybe a few morels and a fresh turkey breast to go with it would be nice. Enjoy the good walleye fishing that is close at hand.

Published in the Holland Sentinel 5/14/2008.

Bass

• Slow roll spinners

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Bluegill

• Use a float and fly

Crappy

• Crappy anglers look for wood or brush and fish vertical early in the season. Sleep in, get out once the sun starts warming up and look for areas that hold muskrats and turtles.
• Use jigs minnows

Steelhead

• Use a leader that is twice as long as the clarity in the water. Most fish will be a hair deeper than the depth that you can see.

Walleye

• Use jigs minnows

1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
​1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Mix together, brush over fillets, place in bowl, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Grill first side for 4-6 minutes or until just getting crispy, flip and grill second side 3-4 minutes or until done. Can wrap fillets with bacon!

Grill Tip: Slice a spud lengthwise. Run in one direction over grill racks once heated up. You should hear the hiss sound. This creates a nonstick surface.

1 full ham sliced or a sliced ham
1 large can of sweet potatoes drained
2 apples sliced
1 can of cranberry sauce
1-2 cups of water or apple cider
​(apple cider is my favorite)

Place into a crock pot or an electric roaster pan, sprinkle the cranberry sauce, brown sugar and the apple slices over the ham. Pour the liquid into the cooker and cook on low heat if using the crock pot 4-5 hours. The liquid will keep the ham moist. Excellent for Easter.

1 cup of cheese flavored crackers
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup margarine or butter
​2 Tablespoons of Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, crumble crackers and then mix with sesame seeds, parsley, salt, pepper and cayenne.

​Dip fish into butter, then into crumb mixture, bake 20-25 minutes, top off with the Parmesan cheese.

We just completed a few days on the St Clair River chasing down walleye. A few things came to mind. The small details and the duplication of them will always result in more fish, regardless of the species. Some of these are second nature to us and maybe you.
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Mark a way point on every fish caught especially when the boat is moving. Pay attention to the exact location that the fish was caught. Was it caught on a drop-off? Was it along the weedline? We limited out on walleye 4 times over the past 2 weeks.

In each case a pattern was easily spotted. We were fishing the edge of a river channel where it bordered a shallow flat. At times we caught fish on the flats especially when the cloud cover rolled in. When the sun was bright the walleyes drifted to the edge of the river channel or right into the deepest water of the channel.

Each river is different. Some rivers a deep channel might be 14-20 foot range, other rivers it might be 50-60 feet deep. The point is, walleyes and other species stage and hold in certain areas of a river for a reason. They look for current breaks, seams and hide behind objects that deflect current.
In a lake fish of any species love flats, weeds, edges, points and drop-offs. Once again marking a way point is critical. Then seeing that way point on a contour map will explain things. We will often mark a waypoint where we see other anglers land a fish. We can then analyze what they were doing and duplicate it elsewhere.

Using a tracking mode on your graph helps a lot. We like to see exactly where we traveled. Then duplicating that drift or troll becomes very easy. You will see a pointer showing where your boat is and showing past drifts or trolls.

Fishing a weedline it will show you if a fish was caught on the flat, on an inside turn or cup or on a point or opening of a weedbed. It might show you that the bottom structure changed from marl to rock or mud.

We would much rather understand why a fish was there than on a certain color lure or bait. We talk to many anglers on any given day on the water. We never ask for their waypoints but will ask the depth, the general area, etc.

Patterns emerge quickly on any body of water. It applies to all species. Fish are in a given spot for a reason. Yes, there are times when you catch fish moving from one area to another location. Fish spawn in certain areas, feed on certain forage which can change location over the course of a season.
You can bet that bluegills and crappies will be within a good casting distance of a weed bed most of the season. You can also count on them to suspend over open water. This is due to forage. Plankton blows off of the shallow flats and at certain times of the year hatches of insects emerge from mud flats that might be hundreds of yards from the nearest weedline. Blood worms, wigglers etc. hatch at different locations.

Marking every fish caught will assist you in determining a pattern. Two more tips to share. I follow the minor and major feeding periods for each day. Make me a liar when I say that 80% of our caught fish will fall during one of these two periods.

Keep a log book on where you caught fish, the date and the air and water temperatures. When it comes to temperatures what I concentrate on is how it compares to the averages. Was the air temps 20 degrees above or below normal? Right that down.

We keep lures and baits fairly simple. Charlie Brewer crappie and walleye grubs, jig heads from a 1/32 up to a 1 ounce, Whip R Snap plastics, Black Moon teardrops, Hot Leg foam spiders, homemade crawler and bluegill harness rigs and a Buck fillet knife. The new model fillet knife makes a quick job on walleye. Duplication, using your waypoints and monitoring your travel paths will land you more fish.

​Ice out and early spring is perhaps the best time to panfish. Nothing beats cabin fever better than hauling in a plump perch, a platter size crappie or a bull bluegill. This is the perfect time to enjoy the water with a young angler.

“Early spring fishing is best once the warm sun has warmed the surface”, said Jim Sprague. Jim is an avid bass and panfishing angler and owner of K&E and Stopper Lures. To me this means sleeping in, enjoying a second cup of coffee.

“I search out dark bottom areas that warm up the quickest” said Sprague. An overlooked area would be docks that are not in yet or docks where the boats are not in the water. Often times when starting up an engine a small blow out area is created.



​Other dark water or warm water areas include cat tails, marshy shorelines, seawalls, any brush standing in water regardless of the depth, old lily pad locations and where ever you might spot turtles or muskrats. Never pass up a channel or man-made canal!

One of my favorite locations would be at the mouth of a creek or a drainage ditch or a culvert. The fresh warm surface water running into a back bay will stack up the fish. A calm day is a near must during the first 4 weeks after ice out.

Panfish expert Bill Ferris searches out the new weed growth. New weed growth of any type will draw plankton and aquatic insects for the panfish to feed on. “Often I will find early season fish in depths of 2 feet or less”, said Ferris. “These shallow water fish are spooky so keep some distance from them.”

Some of these shallow water locations can be fished from shore. Politely asking a homeowner can result in access. Perfect when taking a youngster along.

“In addition to the shallow water locations mentioned I also look for rings on the surface”, stated Jack Horning, a local panfishing guru. “I fish very light tackle with a super soft approach in the spring,” said Horning.

His favorite technique is casting a missile float from Stopper Lures which is similar to the old plastic casting floats. Some of these floats you can add water to them for more distance. The beauty of these floats is that you can fish a surface fly or a slow sinking fly behind them.

Tie the float to your main line. Then on the other end tie on a section of fluorocarbon leader material. Keep the entire length just shorter than the length of your rod. On the business end you can use a gnat, a fly or a spider. The gnats and black flies work best when the water is real cold, the spiders start coming on 3-5 weeks after ice out.

Cast this delicate rig out, let it sit until the ripples are gone and then slowly twitch it in 4-8 inches, stop and continue this pattern. Some days adding a spike or a wax worm helps. A second rod is equipped with the same missile float but an ice fishing teardrop is added. A glow moon teardrop or a moon glitter tear drop tipped with a mushed wax worm is hard to resist.

“The Big Top Float is one of my favorite spring tools”, said Ferris. The Big Top Float is a float that lies on its side. When a fish bites the float will stand up, thus the lightest of hits will quickly be telegraphed back to the angler.

Bill uses a lot of the 2-4 pound test Gamma line, fire tiger and white tiger colored teardrops, Skandia Tungsten teardrops and plastics. He is a big fan of plastics especially scented plastics. Garlic scented plastics are a steady producer for him.

The Impulse scent impregnated plastics from Northland Tackle are very popular. They come in many shapes and styles reflecting the type of insects that you will find in the water. Some are shaped like blood worms ants, water fleas, spiders and very small creatures. All are very thin plastics that dance and wiggle with the slightest of movements.

The Stopper Whip R Snaps and Whip R Knocker plastics are favorites of Sprague, Ferris and Horning. My experience with these small plastics goes back 10 -15 years. At times we land more on the plastics untipped than with meat. I doctor my unscented plastics with garlic scented chap stick, it works!
Brian Brosdahl a nationally known panfish angler and innovator loves the Impulse Line. Many of the products are names as the Bro Bloodworm, etc. This guy studies panfish as does Northland Tackle. Working with the University of Minnesota, many hours of observation and data were collected. The smaller and more life like the plastics the greater interest from the panfish. According to recent studies scented plastics enjoyed a whopping a 140% higher success rate than non-scented baits. Anglers should study the catalog and see all of the life like aquatic insect baits that Northland offers.

“I also like UV baits”, said Brosdahl. UV baits when charged up with a UV flash light glow much longer and work great in deep water or in muddy run-off spring back bay type areas. One suggestion from Brian is fish slowly. Bluegills and crappies are not designed to turn quickly nor show great burst of speed as does a pike or a bass. Fish slow, pause and give the panfish time to devour your morsel.

“Pay close attention to how the fish bite and watch the point of your hook” said Brosdahl. Some days it really pays keeping the point of the hook covered with meat or plastic. Brian also suggested watching your temperature gauge; a few degrees can make a huge difference. Wind, sunlight and clouds all can change the temperature. Warm run-off water will increase the temperature as well.

“As the waters warm up I love fishing a Rival plastic worm”, said Horning. Consider the Rival worm a miniature Bass Stopper worm. This 2-3 inch plastic worm flutters and dances much like a leaf worm and has two razor sharp small hooks built in. It can be cast out behind a missile float or with one super small split shot. Work it back to the boat with short lifts and drops.

“An over looked bait that was hot years back would include the original Pinkie Jig and the Tumble Bug”, said Sprague. Both of these hair or marabou style jigs work awesome under a float. Stick with the smallest sizes, never heavier than a 1/16 ounce jig. They can be tipped with a minnow for perch and crappies or a wax worm for the gills. A very simple rig that can be fished in skinny waters, used with a long rod in bushes or timber or cast in front of flowing current and drifted back.

Across Michigan there are many great lakes and backwaters to fish. Some are a few acres in size; others might cover a thousand acres. Small bodies of water and backwaters are everywhere. If you are looking for a destination spot then consider the following.

Hamlin Lake is great for panfish. The upper sections of Upper Hamlin are very good. From Victory Park and going upstream to a shallow water area that is chocked full of weeds in the summer. In the early spring perch move into these large flats spawning and feeding.

North, South and Middle Bayous on lower Hamlin Lake are great for crappie and gills. Plenty of stumps, logs and brush with protected shorelines that warm up quickly.

Houghton Lake is a great location. Early spring anglers should concentrate on the canals and channels. There are miles of canals and channels to fish and these are excellent locations until the boats start docking and using them.

Lake St. Clair is a panfishing Mecca. You could spend a week just fishing the miles of canals, channels, marinas and docks that draw in thousands of panfish.

Some of our reservoirs and drowned river mouth lakes hold great panfish in the early season. Most of these waters have cuts or inlets off of the main section of the lake, a current source and a marshy area or two. Lake Macatawa, Muskegon Lake, White Lake, Hardy Pond and Croton Pond are a few that come to my mind that I have fished.

Perch love the current areas and areas with dead and decaying vegetation at ice out. A topographic map will show inlets but it might not show culverts and ditches flowing into the lake. Armed with two rods, each set slightly different anglers should enjoy a nice mixed bag of fish.
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Early spring panfishing can be easy but locations can change with the weather. Remember deep basins are their winter holding spots, then the first drop-of or breakline that is the closest to the shallow water haunts. Last, try plastics and small flies this spring, you will be surprised.

Published in Woods-N-Water News 4/1/2017.