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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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

​
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

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.
​
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.
​
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.

Spider trolling is a simple way to place your bait in front of a fish for the longest period of time in the most natural manner. Under cold water sand at ice out this means minnows or minnows and a jig. We run three rods per angler, and you want each rod to sit exactly the same. This way if one rod tip changes position you will notice it.
​
We troll with the wind at our back most of the time because this will keep your rod tips super still. I run the Driftmaster rod holders or trees as many anglers call them.

Walleye fishing draws a lot of anglers during the winter, but the perch fishing can be real good," said Brenda from Outdoor Adventures (231-627-5273).

Anglers can chase perch or make it a combination perch and walleye outing.

Mullett is one huge lake and receives less pressure than its famous brothers Black and Burt lakes.
Mullett offers good numbers of decent size perch.

"There are many locations that hold fish, but the following four locations are perhaps the best places to start," Brenda said.

Scott Bay is located on the south end of the lake. Parrott Point borders it on the west and Red Pine Point on the east.

This location has it all — a diverse structure with drop-offs, deepwater flats and a saddle between the points.

The depth varies between 20 feet and 60 feet.

This is an area where a graph comes in handy and paying close attention to the exact depth that a fish is caught is vital.

The second place is straight across from Scott Bay.

Small, but well worth a few minutes of effort, a sunken island sits just off of the marshy shoreline with 20 feet of water surrounding it.

A third location would be on the west shoreline between Veery Point and Long Point.

This area varies in depth, running tight to shore and then back out again. There are a couple of long shallow flats in this region.

The fourth location is on the north end of the lake, bordering Dodge Point and the public launch.

Concentrate on the area between the two public boat launches, staying between 10 and 20 feet.

This section of the lake is one of the few areas where there's any shallow water. Some places have sunken logs and a bit of rock or gravel.

You'll find sand grass and cabbage weeds here.

"One of the keys is fishing the flats in the vicinities listed," Brenda said.

The flats can be 10 feet deep or they could be 30 feet. Perch love flats!
Minnows and wigglers land the most fish, Brenda said.

Some anglers use a slip bobber and a plain hook, while others like using a teardrop or a small spoon like the Rocker Minnow.
​
Keep things simple, and use light line. A graph and small sled are welcome tools when attempting to cover this vast lake.

Published on ESPN and in Fishing and Hunting News 2/04/2005.

Late November and into December is an excellent time for whitefish and Menominee on the piers of Lake Michigan. Muskegon, Grand Haven, Port Sheldon, Holland, Saugatuck and South Haven are top piers starting in November and lasting through the winter. Fishing in the dark is best but cloudy days with a chop will produce fish.

In addition to these connecting waters, we have some dandy inland lakes. Most are up near Benzie County such as Crystal Lake but don’t forget Higgins Lake just north of Houghton Lake.
“Fishing conditions can be tough but the action rewarding,” said John Barr, a regular on the after dark whitefish crew. On top of the weather conditions these fish bite soft. Normally the best action takes place on the inside or channel side of the piers.


​​The first wave of whitefish feed heavily on the eggs from the king salmon. As the water cools and the steelhead move in some anglers switch to skein in hopes of catching both. Most whitefish anglers use a single egg when chasing this delightful and wary fish. Single eggs from a female steelhead are the best.
An egg sinker with a small orange or red bead just above a barrel swivel is the basic technique during daylight hours. A number 8, 10 or 12 egg hook tied to a leader completes the rig.

The ideal day has a chop similar to the perfect walleye day. The length of the leader is based on the size of the waves. Flat seas require a 6 to 8 foot leader. Two-foot waves work best with a 3-4 foot leader. Anything over 4 foot swells and a 6-inch leader works best.

Anglers need to hold their rods or keep a very close eye on the tip. One tap is about all that you will get before your bait becomes dinner. Savvy pier anglers often paint their rod tips with glow in the dark paint or some bright color for easier visibility. A seven to eight foot rod with a fast tip and a decent backbone works great regardless of the technique.

The Muskegon pier generally sees action before the other piers in West Michigan.  The action starts north and continues south with the cold water. Safety reasons dictate not to fish when the waves are crashing over or if they become icy.

Hopkins spoons are a favorite at night with the anglers. A long rod is used and most of the action is taken while vertically jigging. The smallest spoons that you can find work the best. Other good choices would include Kastmasters, Rapala and if you can find them the Zip Spoon from Blitzer Creek. We make our own using the Do It Molds and add glow in the dark tape with a red eye!

The key is to tick the bottom and lift up 6-12-inches. Drop down and repeat while paying very close attention for a hit. Snagging fish can be a problem with spoons and all snagged fish must be released. There is no size limit on whitefish or their cousin the Menominee.

The diehard anglers pull a shopping cart onto the pier. Most anglers mount PVC rod holders and carry a five-gallon pail. Inside the pail anglers carry tools and small plastic tackle boxes with all of required gear.
Parking is provided near the piers at all of the ports except Saugatuck. Saugatuck requires a mile walk from the Oval Beach in Douglas. Muskegon pier is the longest with a lot of riprap rock along the pier. South Haven pier borders the downtown district with plenty of parking and good lighting.
​
There are few fish that can match the quality of eating on a grill or in the broiler better than a whitefish. Some of the piers have a cable that you can lean over and not worry about falling in, and on others you need to pay close attention.

Remember to bring along a long-handled net or you will be lying on your belly sucking in Lake Michigan water while trying to net a fish. Been there and it was not fun. Give whitefish a try before the ice fishing season starts.

Published in the Cedar Springs Post 11/27/2013.