Walter

This is Walter.  He is a pure bred English Lab.  He shows an uncanny ability to burry scores of bones, then find them months later.  He will do the same thing with your gloves, watch out.

Bull Humpbacks

After walleye season shuts down for the year, it's typically time to explore all the smaller centarchid lakes that have been in the back of my mind all winter- in search of mondo gillz.  I like to hit lakes that I've never fished before.  They usually are under 200 acres and are loaded with largemouth bass.  Lakes that have only LMB as the apex predator will have an over-abundance of stunted one pound bass.  An extremely high bass density will always keep bluegill populations lower, creating an environment that yields enormous individual bluegills.  Because there are less gills to catch, I have to work hard to catch them, but ridiculously overgrown humpbacks are usually the bounty.

Whitefish

Let’s face it, those who have the privilege of enjoying their favorite hobbies on a daily  or weekly timeframe have got it made.  It doesn’t really matter what that hobby is, but for everyone, it’s surely an activity that makes you happier.  But what happens when that hobby has lost it’s flavor.  There always comes a time when you need to expand that activity to keep your interests, um, well... interesting.  

As with most Wisconsin outdoorsmen during these ever-lasting winter months, my hobby is fishing, and this of course means drilling holes in pursuit of walleyes and panfish.  But as with any hobby, things eventually get repetitive and eventually become boring.  So, you need to spice it up and experience new things associated with your activity of choice.  For me, I spice things up by pursuing whitefish on Lake Michigan.

The ONE fortunate thing that arises from these bitterly frigid winters is that good ice cover forms on the Great Lakes, allowing it possible to fish through the ice on the biggest water the region has to offer.  To shake the winter blues this time of year, my destination is Green Bay, and my bounty is the hundreds of delicious whitefish that lurk under the ice in the surrounding big water.  Pounding whitefish is my way to keep ice-fishing adventurous, interesting, and fun.

Armed with a portable ice-shack, auger, medium action jig rod, flasher, and a couple of swedish pimples; I venture out onto the seemingly overwhelming sheet of ice.  To the contrary of what most think, the actual pursuit of whitefish is actually quite simple and easy, and surprisingly not overwhelming.  

If you are an ice-fisherman looking to switch it up, and have second guessed the possibility or your ability to try for whitefish on Lake Michigan, I promise you that it is easy.  You have the option of choosing from multiple boat landings along the coast, and every one of them is an adequate option.  There will be several vehicles parked at each landing, with scores of ice shacks two to four hundred yards off shore for you to have a good starting point.  I usually start in about 25 feet of water and move as far out as 35 feet.  There is no real rhyme or reason for a potential starting point, just start fishing.  

Whitefish feed directly off the bottom on larval stages of aquatic insects.  It often is key in the jigging technique to interrupt the sediment with the swedish pimple, as whitefish will become attracted to this disturbance.  Typically, an inch long pimple tipped with wax worms will do the trick.  Most anglers will tie a small stinger hook tipped with a waxie roughly 14 inches above the pimple; this is an excellent technique and will double your catch-rate.

What to do with all the your whitefish?  I prefer to pickle them.  Whitefish are a little tricky to fillet with an extra band of Y-bones, and the meat is quite flaky, so pickling the meat is ideal and allows me to dip into Ball jars whenever I’m craving a fishy snack months in the future.  A nice change of culinary pace to go along with the different angling experience, a double whammy.  Email me if you want more tips, or for a good pickling recipe.   

Muskies - My Best of 2013

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