A Day on the Water

Shorter colder and tougher day today.  Over a 100 Cormorants and Mergansers were cleaning up on shad dying in todays colder water.  You could frequently see the shad fluttering spasticly at the surface.  There were also many tiny slender shiner type minnows visable.  Even in the near freezing water, several times I saw big fish break the surface, one was in slow motion pursuit of slowly moving minnows driven to the surface. I Started at 12:00, by 3:00PM I only had one fish that hit a 3/4 ounce Silver-Blue Stripe KO Wobbler spoon but it got off after a couple...

Caseville Pier, Monday December 27, 2021 All the ice that had been jammed up against the deep channel side of the pier had blown out, more ice was jammed against the shallow beach side of the pier.   Dozens of fishermen were spread out along the 1/4 mile pier and catching lake trout from the shallower water by the parking lot all the way out to the pier end.  Clearer water with 5 feet of visibility with a strong cold, offshore wind at our backs is what I found.  There was room to flycast in the middle or the pier, out...

Hiked out to the pier end at mid day, a dozen guys were there, most had caught some Lake Trout.  Ice had blocked off most of the deep channel side of the pier but room was still available out here near the end.  Nothing happening for an hour using Cleo type spoons, then after 15 minutes with the 3/4 ounce KO Wobbler, some Lake Trout moved in and I quickly got 3 on the 3/4 ounce Gold-Orange stripe KO Wobbler.  Another slow spell with only a few fish caught and most people left.  Later I got the others, 5 in...

The ferrule between the butt and middle sections had been badly stuck for a long time.  Nothing worked, 2 people, sitting and using the legs-open scissor trick, nor trying after leaving it out over a very cold February night.  This is a pretty stout ferrule with 3 inches of overlap.  This preparation made it easy to safely deliver perhaps 90 pounds of tension force.  It was so easy it probably popped with less force that that.  This is the two rod sections after they were pulled apart.  The rope loops on the butt section were looped over an anchor object. ...

I floated fished jigs under a bobber in the Au Sable river mouth between the parking lot and the pier head.  Casting them out far with spinning tackle and walking them downstream on the cat walk and then down the pier.  I saw occasional fish breaking, maybe spawning Lake Trout, drop back Atlantic Salmon or whitefish.  The lakers were out near the end of the pier where the wind was whipping up 5 foot swells bouncing back and forth between the pier heads.  No need to add any twitches to that constant movement.  I was fishing 11 feet below the bobber.  One hit on a...