2/21/97: I haven't received many Fishing notes this winter, and have ony gone perch fishing a couple times myself. The Derby at Big Bay was slow, a 19" walleye took first, a 26lb pike was tops in that category. Generally, the snow has been way deep from early in the season, making for bad ice conditions... the harbor here at Marquette shows no sign of freezing up due to wind and above normal temps for February. There's been rowboats seen out over the bubbler at the Upper Harbor, but I haven't heard any stories... I've heard of some ice fishing success at Munising, mostly for whitefish.
9/2/96 The second annual Marquette Bay Trout and Salmon tournament was held Saturday and, by golly we did it again! It was a 90degree day, no wind, the fish weren't biting very well, the ice was melting and the beer was getting warm (we had to start drinking it shortly after sunrise), but Team Bug Tussle was putting lines down at 6:20am and had a 13lb'r in the boat at 6:28. Turned out to be a $50 winner for biggest trout. Got 4 more in the next 2 hrs, then the fish got laid off of something, cuz we fished 'till 2:15pm and only got 4 more fish. But 3 of the first 5 were 10lbs or better, and we ended up with 46.44lbs to beat the second place boat by only .4lbs. Our biggest trout won the $50 prize by only .05lbs! There were 52 boats entered this year, the same as last year. So hey, it was a pretty good day for
Whitecap and Team Bug Tussle, now I got money to buy the thermostat kits for the motor so my plugs don't foul out in the cold water in June next year, and maybe gettin the engine up to temp will let the carb open up and rev out to more than the 2500rpm I'm stuck with for now. Hope to have some photos posted here in coming weeks.
8/4/96 Weather's been suckin, have only been able to get out a few times in the last few weeks. Wind's been high, fog, rain, etc. Then got a nice day Saturday and the belt pulley for the water pump comes loose and down we go for the day an' sure 'nuff the weather sux again now... Oh, well, got a couple small salmon last week at sunset, at least the wind's been down enough by sundown to get out late for an hour or two once in a while. Guys getting out early morning before the winds have been doing pretty well, with lakers still suspended as high as 35ft in the still cold (55deg) waters of Lake Superior.
7/11/96 Beautiful sunny day yesterday, but dog-days fishing remains slow. Had an 8 lb'r in the net, then the sonofagun 'jumped' out. Boated another 5lb mackinaw close to the Lighthouse. Surface temps still as low as 51 away from Presque Isle.
7/8/96 Between weather, minor electrical and mechanical problems, and Harbor Food-4th July Fest, haven't been out in a while, but the remainder of this week looks promising, once the current weather front passes. Its 4pm and the temperature hasn't reached 50 today in my foggy front yard. Last week lakers were being taken at or near the surface, where water temperature is still around 50 close to shore.
6/23/96 Trolled for salmon in 60' to 70' waters along Presque Isle to Black Rocks from 6am to 9:30. Downriggers at 30' and 40', no strikes, although had some good marks around 30'. Marked good numbers of laketrout at the bottom, landed one 6lb native Mackinaw after dropping to 45', called it a day.
6/19/96 Trolled for salmon from Presque Isle Marina, around the bubblers, over to Black Rocks and back. Used a surface line and and a downrigger at 40'. Had a monster release at Black Rocks but missed the hookup. Got a 3lb coho near the lighthouse on the way back in.
6/17/96: Went out from 6 to 9 this am, started at the ore dock and stayed in 20 to 50' all the way to the Chocolay where I got a 5lb laker 25' down, about 10' off the bottom. Real nice fight there, took about 15min to land it, they sure can get scrappy in shallow water, and I use a light rod, 6' Abu Garcia casting rod w/12lb line. Tried several lures on the way, wasn't marking anything on the graph. Got the laker on an orange nailer w/yellow back and white stripe. Got back just before heavy fog rolled in. Saw Catch-a-Finn heading for the Rock at 6, there was a Suburban from Wisconsin in the parking lot.
6/15/96: Went fishin with Joe and Clarence on Cooler By The Lake this morning and we boated 11 fish, you betcha. 9 Lakers (5 on a pump rod), 1 baby chinook, and a 4lb steelhead off one of those planer board rigs; we were out there a couple miles NW of Shot Point, from about 8 to 11 am.
6/3/96: 1pm. Went to Presque Isle Marina. Saw Cooler By the Lake coming in with a nice catch of 3 to 4 lb lakers from the Sandhole. Jim Maki (Catch-A-Finn) was there and reported that he'd made a trip to Stannard Rock last Saturday and did well, with some 20lb lakers taken. Floting ice is still a problem around the Marquette harbors, but should be melted sometime before 4th of July weekend.
Notes from our fishin' pals:
From:
jbuys@up.net (D. Joseph Buys)
To:
Bob Meyers
>Sounds like you guys did OK out of Marquette. I will keep you informed
>on my home page on the status of the salmon when they show up in our
>area. They were not in yet at memorial day and we had to "bob" for lake
>trout. It was fun though.
Capt. Bob, I checked out your page some time ago. Nice job. Love those
salmon but they're elusive little devils.
>I tried bobbing out by white rock a couple of years ago in May. Did
>real well so I know that the bobbing is good off of Marquette.
>
I could write a book about what I don't know about bobbing for trout.
Don't know why hardly anyone does it around here but from Lanse NW, it's
common. Surprised you did it here, and did well. Mostly trolling. Got any
tips for me as I really think that's where the big ones are. Went to Isle
Royale last year and tried bobbing and didn't do that hot. On those rare
occasions I go to Stannard, I don't do that well there either. Guess that's
why I troll. Do you depend highly on your fish graph to find them first?
