SHORELINE
Outdoors Spring/Summer 2014
A special publication of the Ludington Daily News
Inside
Free fishing weekends - pg. 2 Small boat salmon fishing - pg. 3-4 Walleye fishing - pg. 5 Bass fishing bait - pg. 6-7
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LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS/SHORELINE OUTDOORS
MICHIGAN’S FREE FISHING WEEKENDS:
An annual tradition Two days twice a year, families and friends can enjoy one of Michigan’s premier outdoor activities, Michigan Fishing, for free. The 2014 Free Fishing Weekends scheduled this summer are, June 7 and 8. All fishing license fees will be waived for two days. Residents and out-of-state visitors may enjoy fishing on both inland and Great Lakes waters for all species of fish. All fishing regulations will still apply. For many, the annual Free Fishing Weekend has become a tradition - a time to get together and have some fishing fun. While some may find time to reflect while fishing, there are no limits to variations on a great theme! Experienced anglers who offer a child or young adult the chance to take their first fishing trip can provide a rewarding experience for all. People who fish tend to understand the natural aquatic network of plants
and animals that help to sustain fish as well as the regulations that govern fishing in Michigan. Research shows that young people today do not have access to fishing opportunities that were enjoyed by generations before them. Some of the reasons are living in urban or suburban areas where fishing access is not readily available, competition for time by an ever-increasing schedule of special activities, and too little time for unstructured leisure. Michigan offers some of the finest freshwater fishing in the world, with more than 3,000 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, more than 11,000 inland lakes and tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams. Included are more than 12,000 miles of trout waters, for which approximately 1,000 miles are considered Michigan’s finest. So grab a rod and your family and friends, and let’s go fishing!
| MONDAY APRIL 28, 2014
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MONDAY APRIL 28, 2014
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| LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS/SHORELINE OUTDOORS
Use a small boat for fun when salmon fishing BY BRIAN MULHERIN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Summer means salmon and there’s not many ways more fun to chase salmon than in a small boat. Sure, you have to watch the weather and pick your spots, but a 16-20 foot boat can be loads of fun on Lake Michigan. Any boat will do, it’s just a matter of how you solve the problem that anglers have been dealing with since the late 1960s — how to get your bait in front of the fish. What follows is a primer
on how to get lures down A downrigger has a weight, 60-200 feet. often a keeled weight, where a release is attached. A reDownriggers lease is simply a mechanism that attaches fishing line to The most popular way to the weight. When a fish hits, fish deep is downriggers. it releases the line and lets There are other methods the angler fight the fish on that are more productive at just fishing line with no extimes, but it’s a rare mid- tra weight. summer day when boats on The old reliable release Lake Michigan aren’t fishing continues to be a rubber with downriggers. band for the vast majorDownriggers are simply ity of anglers. A fish hits, a spool of wire with an arm breaking a rubber band, the attached to them. The nicer line goes free and the anones have electric motors, gler watches the fish the less expensive ones have crank handles on them and SEE SALMON FISHING, PAGE 4 owners with Popeye arms.
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LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS/SHORELINE OUTDOORS
| MONDAY APRIL 28, 2014
SALMON FISHING: A look at tools to help start you off right
before heading out with these lines.
FROM PAGE 3
pull 140 feet of line off the spool. That’s the fun of salmon fishing. Other releases may have line pinched in a fancy alligator clip with pads on it or twisted around
Weights Once called drop weights, weights are now generally clipped onto the line and retrieved rather than dropped to the bottom of the lake when a fish strikes. There are fancy weights shaped like torpedos and other diving shapes, but they’re all fundamentally a hunk of lead or other heavy metal that you need to reel in and pop off of the line before a fish can be landed. Some of them are shaped to dive deeper and that’s a good thing, but each one has its own characteristics and depth curve that varies by speed. They’re a good option for boats with a wide beam — the measure from one side of the boat to the other. Small boats generally stick with riggers, divers and lead core or copper line.
If you’re just getting started in salmon fishing, you’ll want spoons for spring, plugs for fall and a little bit of everything in between. a knob. Tournament anglers often use adjustable releases. They cost more than rubber bands, but anglers who use them, swear by them. Downriggers have become somewhat less popular in the last two decades, though, as anglers who once automatically put down five downrigger lines now put down just two or three. The clearer water of Lake Michigan is thought to have something to do with this. Two downriggers is a great way to start salmon fishing. I recommend a rivermouth lake or harbor mouth in late August or early September. Half of learning to salmon fish is learning to manage the lines you have out and successfully land fish
without losing equipment. Two downriggers and a couple of J-plugs will provide some action in late August and early September more often than not. Just keep your speed under 3 mph, don’t run over the other boats’ lines and try not to let them run over yours.
line. The disc can be dialed so the weight is off to one side of the keel or another, causing the diver to pull to the left or the right. Divers allow anglers to get their lures down deeper and also to get their lures off to the side of the boat. The drawback of divers is that with today’s clear water, anglers often Divers put long leaders between A diver or “Dipsy Div- the diver and their lure, er” is a keeled diving disc meaning that fish that that attaches to fishing hit those lures have to be
pulled in hand over hand, or copper line, you know rather than reeled in for the pain of this type of the last several feet. fishing. First, the lines are time-consuming to set and reel in and secWeighted line ond, they can be pure A third option for an- drudgery even without a glers looking to get their fish on. lures down deeper is a When there is a fish on, weighted line of some the line often deadens sort. Lead core line and the feel of the fight. copper line both serve Still, there are times to take lures much deep- when nothing else will er than monofilament work. alone, but the drawbacks The depth that weightare the weight of the line. ed lines run is speed deIf you’ve ever reeled in pendent, so check with 600 feet of leadcore line your local tackle shop
Lures If you’re just getting started in salmon fishing, you’ll want spoons for spring, plugs for fall and a little bit of everything in between. Rotators and flies or rotators and meat rigs are popular all season, with the possible exception of early spring. The most popular colors continue to be chromes, blues, greens and yellows, with glow more important as fish set up on Big Point Sable and into August and September.
MONDAY APRIL 28, 2014
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| LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS/SHORELINE OUTDOORS
Aggressive tactics for walleyes on artificial baits (ALL CREATION OUTDOOR MEDIA) — Walleye fans are a passionate group. Few foul conditions or other potential barriers stand between us and the pursuit of our marbleeyed quarry. We’re also religious in our devotion to time-honored tactics. But oftentimes, thinking outside the box can lead to epic catches. Take the use of live bait. Even as our tackle, electronics and fishing platforms have evolved into modern marvels, our reliance on natural baits to trigger strikes borders on addiction. It’s not that we don’t have options, either. Advancements in artificial softbaits for tipping jigs and rigs have given such offerings the ability to outfish live bait in a number of situations. “One reason more walleye anglers don’t embrace artificial baits is we’re creatures of habit,” says longtime guide and decorated tournament champion Scott Glorvigen. “Beyond that, though, some of the hesitation stems from not using plastics to their full potential, which is often a matter of not fishing them aggressively enough.” Glorvigen’s initiation to power fishing occurred decades ago. “Back in high school and college I guided on Lake Winnibigosh in northern Minnesota,” he explains. “We jigged minnows spring and fall, and rigged leech-
Above, a walleye is caught. At left, a hair jig and soft-plastic trailer is a deadly combination.
es or nightcrawlers in between. Artificial options weren’t on our radar.” But one fateful summer day, just as the live-bait progression was shifting from leeches to ‘crawlers, he witnessed firsthand the power of aggressive artificials. “I was in a pack of about 30 boats dragging leeches around a rock pile on the north end of Winnie,” he recalls. “It was a painfully slow, painstaking process, and only produced a walleye every so often.” A hair jig and soft-plastic trailer is a deadly combination. Then a lone boat appeared in the distance.
Like an aberration, it plowed steadily forward at a fair clip as its captain methodically jerked his rodtip high into the air. “This guy was ripping hair jigs right where we had struggled to finesse a few fish into biting, and he had walleyes coming over the rail like they were on a conveyor belt,” says Glorvigen. “That was the first time I saw legendary guide Dick ‘The Griz’ Grzywinski in action on Winnie. And the way he caught those fish so aggressively, without any live bait, really made an impression on me.” Following this introduction, Glorvigen added rip-
jigging to his repertoire, mainly when standard tactics failed to produce fish. “Standard procedure involves forward trolling, letting the jig fall, then sharply snapping your rodtip from an 11 to 2 o’clock position,” he says. “Let the jig fall, then snap it back up again.” Gradually, he and his brother Marty also began factoring plastics into presentations at tournaments on the Detroit and Mississippi rivers. “We figured out that smelt-type baits like a Berkley PowerBait Minnow worked well in cold, flowing water,” he recalls. In current, such presentations excelled
when fished similarly to their natural counterparts. “But in lakes and reservoirs, especially at warmer water temperatures, being more aggressive produced more walleyes,” he adds. He also found that upping the ante in jig weight was a key when switching from slowly jigging live bait to power fishing plastics. “Let’s say I was passively fishing a ¼-ounce Northland FireBall tipped with a minnow,” he begins. “If I wanted to rip-jig an Impulse Smelt Minnow, I upsized to a 3/8- to ½-ounce Gum-Ball jig. Besides the extra weight, this jig has a long-shank, wide-gap hook, which produces better hooksets with plastic trailers.” Line choices hinge on the presentation. “When making long casts to a weed edge or other cover, I prefer braided superline such as Northland Tackle’s Bionic Walleye Braid or Berkley FireLine Crystal,” he notes. “These allow me to feel everything the jig touches, from weedtops to a walleye’s mouth, even at long distances.” For short-range rip-jigging while forward trolling, however, 8-pound-test monofilament gets the nod. “Mono offers several benefits for this presentation,” he says. “With the boat and your jig already traveling at 1 to 1.5 mph, no-stretch braids move the bait too far, too fast, to trigger strikes from inactive walleyes sulking on
bottom. Mono also produces a slightly slower fall rate, which is key because that’s typically when fish hit. Finally, mono’s stretch and forgiveness make it harder for fish to feel resistance when they grab your jig. They’re less likely to spit it out, and more apt to turn with it, giving you a much better chance to make a solid hookset.” Rod options are a bit less technique-specific, as a 7-foot, medium-fast action spinning rod like St. Croix’s Legend Elite shines for both casting and forward trolling applications. Pre-rigged plastics like Northland’s Impulse Rig’n Tails are handy options for putting artificial baits into play. A variety of softbait styles take fish. “Experiment with different designs, including paddles, twisters and split-tails,” he says. “The fish will tell you what they want. In general, trailers in the 3- to 3½-inch range work well for aggressive jigging.” He notes that sometimes bigger is better, however. “Marty developed a summer pattern that pushes active jigging to the extreme,” he explains. “He pounds 7-inch soft-plastic flukes along weedlines where you can’t buy a bite on a slip-bobber or live bait rig, and routinely catches walleyes 5 pounds and up.” The pattern, he says, reinforces the need to fish artificial baits with a strong hand.
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LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS/SHORELINE OUTDOORS
| MONDAY APRIL 28, 2014
Bass will bite about 75 percent of the time BY BRIAN MULHERIN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Spring
Bass fishing is not complicated. Bass are eager eaters and they’ll bite what you put in front of them 75 percent of the time. It’s that 25 percent that separates the wannabees from the pros. Learning to bass fish is fun. Bass like weeds. Fishermen don’t like weeds. If you can navigate the weeds, you can catch bass. It’s really that simple. What follows are some tips for catching bass as the season wears on.
The spring period can be divided up into prespawn, spawn and postspawn. On a lake like Hamlin Lake, there will be fish in all three phases at any given time you fish. Start your search near eight-foot-deep flats. Fish will be staging off the edge of these flats early, spawning on them later and moving up to shallower water adjacent to them after that. Pre-spawn fish are aggressive and will crush a jerkbait or crankbait. If the temperature dips
and they slow down, you need to slow down your retrieve and switch to a suspending model crankbait or jerkbait that will hang in front of the fish. Spawning fish can be tough or not. If you can sight fish them, they can be so simple to catch it should be illegal. Come to think of it, it was for many years. To catch spawning bass, drop something on their nest. If they don’t pick it up immediately, jiggle it a little bit. Soft plastic worms, lizards and crankbaits as well as tube jigs are top picks for this
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be slow rolled, burned, bulged or retrieved with a stop-and-go action to catch fish. While suspending crankbaits and jerkbaits will work all year long, they won’t stay out of the weeds in summer. In the summer you’ll want to switch to buoyant lures that will effectively back up when you stop reeling. In this way you can fish right up to weedlines to catch the fish that stay tight to them. Soft plastics are typically fished shallow early in the summer. You’ll hear different
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time of year. Post-spawn fish are hungry again. Males will still be deeper near the nest, but big females will move a little shallower. Emerging weeds and sunny bays are great spots to look. Spinnerbaits slowrolled along emerging weedlines will work, as will crankbaits and soft plastics.
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references to worm rigging. The most basic is the wacky rig, which is just a small circle hook, say a size 1, hooked through the middle of a worm. When it’s twitched, the worm comes back in a bending U shape, then straightens out again. Something about this drives bass crazy. If you buy the right worms, like Senkos, they’re heavy enough to cast without additional weight. You can also use a weedless hook to get through the thick stuff this way. SEE BASS FISHING, PAGE 7
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| LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS/SHORELINE OUTDOORS
BASS FISHING: Suspending jerkbaits become the go-to bait as the water cools FROM PAGE 6
Texas rigging is simply pushing the hook about a quarter inch into the worm, turning the point and pulling the hook out the side of the worm. Then the head of the worm is snugged up against the eye of the hook and the hook point is re-inserted into the worm so that the worm hangs straight and weedless. Typically, people use a bullet sinker in front of a Texas-rigged worm. The sinker can be pegged in place snug against the worm head or left to run up and down the line. Carolina rigging is just Texas rigging with a heavier
Carolina-rigged plasAs summer wears on are tic worms. Deep-diving crankbaits can also be a and the weeds get good pattern. thicker, fish move deeper to escape the Fall Fall is like a reset button heat. from summer. The eightfoot line again becomes a gathering point for bass. Fish go on the feed again and jerkbaits are again a fantastic choice. Spinnerbaits will work while it’s warm, but suspending jerkbaits become the goto bait as the water cools. Work the lure as fast as the fish will bite it. If you’re not getting bites, slow down.
sinker held 18-30 inches away from the worm by a swivel tied into the line. Floating worms and lizards are good choices for Carolina rigging as your offering stays above the bottom weeds. As summer wears on and the weeds get thicker, fish move deeper to escape the heat. Tube jigs are still a good option, as bmulherin@ludingtondailynews.com
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LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS/SHORELINE OUTDOORS
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