When I respool my reels, putting on fresh line, I only use a top shot of fresh line. A top shot, is, what saltwater anglers call it, a section of a specified line atop the normal spool of line. Using this technique of top shotting, I can make a new spool of line stretch quite a bit further than if I were to strip the entire reel’s worth of line off, putting fresh line on. Let’s break it down a bit. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Michigan fishing
Coffee, customers and bass fishing
An interesting trend the past few years has been the inclusion of coffee scent and/or grounds into soft plastics. Strike King Lure Company first came up with this concept, and there are a couple of theories swirling about how it actually came about. Suffice it to say, however it happened, it’s here, and probably here to stay. Continue reading
Gas Pricing—The frustration
Fuel prices are creeping higher and higher, yet prices are something that we all have to deal with, and running a couple of busy fishing guide businesses means more time at the gas pump than I’d like. Maybe I should have invested in buying an oil company instead of boats! Continue reading
Too Many Species!
April is such a great time to be alive, and is an equally exciting time to be an angler. There are so many species to fish for, it makes me dizzy. Freshwater species like walleyes are beginning to run in the rivers, looking for spawning habitat. Bass fishing is truly heating up, with big fish being caught on jerkbaits, blade baits and rattle baits like the lipless crankbait family. Bluegills and crappies are much more active, and steelhead are still running the rivers on their annual spring run. Big brown trout are being caught at pier heads and river mouths around the Great Lakes. Continue reading
AD Maddox
I’ve been a big fan of the artwork of AD Maddox for quite a few years now, and I’m lucky enough to be able to also call AD a friend. My wife and I have several of AD’s originals in our home, which we both absolutely love.
I am proud to announce that my coffee company, Deep Blue Coffee Company, has recently created a new coffee offering called The Angler’s Blend, and adorning our new blend is AD’s work. I cannot express how excited I am to be collaborating with AD on this, and I firmly believe that this coffee blend is as fantastic as the artwork represented on The Angler’s Blend label. Continue reading
Geeked about the warm weather possibilities
April in northern Michigan means spring steelhead. It also means that there’s something brewing to our south in southeast Michigan. The spring walleye run on the Detroit River. Continue reading
Introducing My Friends Part 3: Captain Andy Odette
Captain Andy owns Intimidator Sportfishing Charters, and is a top charter captain out of the port of Frankfort, just south of Traverse City. Andy specializes in trolling Lake Michigan for huge limits of king salmon, lake trout, and steelhead. Big brown trout are also quite common early in the season. Continue reading
Introducing My Friends Part 2: Captain Kevin Long
I met Captain Kevin close to a decade ago, and we’ve been good friends ever since. It was with Kevin that I filmed our “Out of the Water and Into the Kitchen” television show pilot. While this was a show featuring walleye fishing on the Detroit River, it was actually on a bass boat while fishing the world famous Lake St. Clair for smallmouths where we felt most at home. Continue reading
Introducing My Friends Part 1: Captain Kyle Buck
Whether it’s vertical jigging for walleyes on the Detroit River or running a charter boat out of Muskegon, Captain Kyle does it well. He also fishes the Muskegon River and the White River for salmon and steelhead in the fall and early spring. Continue reading
Unseasonably warm
I love spring. I also love summer. If it’s nice and warm out, I’m a happy guy. Normally. I’m not exactly sure what all of the reasoning is—changing climate, rotating jet stream, freak weather—or some combination of everything, but what I do know is that we seem to have bypassed a normal spring here in northern Michigan, and gone right to summer. Mid 80’s weather and full sun in mid March? I would have said that would have been the case if we were down south, but not up here in the northern Lower Peninsula! Continue reading