House Approves $475 Million for Great Lakes Restoration

The house past legislation last week approving $475 million towards resoring the Great Lakes. This, of course, is good news for all of us that have respect for our great lakes. I couldn't ever see myself living far from its shores and every penny that gets routed into restoration, prevention, and research is a penny well spent in my book.

The money will be broken down as follows:

• $147 million to clean up highly toxic rivers and harbors that feed into the lakes.

• $60 million to prevent and remove invasive species.

• $98 million to refurbish areas near shores and to prevent "non-point" pollution, such as fertilizer and oil run-off.

• $105 million to restore and protect habitat and wildlife.

• $65 million to monitor progress of cleanup.

I find it interesting that the lowest amount of money into invasive species prevention and removal.

Some of the more abbrasive invasives as of now (because I'm sure there are more to come...) are: Rusty Crawfish, Round Goby, Common Carp, Sea Lamprey, Alewife, Rainbow Smelt, and of course the dreaded Zebra and Quagga Mussels.

The money was part of the Interior and Environmental Protection Agency appropriations bill for fiscal year 2010. It passed 254-173. -Detroit News

A new Lock at the Soo Locks

Construction just began on a new lock to compliment the Poe Lock at the Soo Locks, connecting Lake Superior to Lake Huron. This new lock will make faster work of moving the 1000 foot class of freighter between the lakes. If anything were to happen to the Poe Lock it would "restrict 85 percent of our business," said Fred Shusterich, president of Superior, Wis.-based Midwest Energy Resources Co.

The Coffer Dams that re-route the river to allow work on the lock will cost $1.9 million. Around 8000 ships make the journey through the Locks each year and this high capacity lock will help keep things running smoothly, and will provide a backup for times that the Poe lock needs maintainence on it's hydrolics or anything else.

This will provide hundreds of jobs for the people of Michigan. More information can be found here at the Detroit News.

2009 Fish Totals, first half

Well, tomorrow marks the passing of the first half of 2009. It's time to total up my catch for the first part of the year. It's been a great start to 2009 and I can only dream of catching as many quality fish as I did in the waxing part of this year.

Here we go:

Yellow Perch: 499

Brown Trout (inland): 48

Rainbow Trout (inland): 5

Rainbow Trout (steelhead): 6

Brook Trout: 3

Coho Salmon: 4

Chinook Salmon (fingerlings): 3

Largemouth Bass: 10

Smallmouth Bass: 6

Sucker: 3

Sunfish: 2

Bluegill: 5

Rock Bass: 20

Walleye: 2

Northern Pike: 48

Total 664 fish

So all in all, it's been a great 6 months. From here out there will be a lot more bigger game fishing. There will be Bass, Walleye, and Northern Pike in northern Minnesota. Follwed by a shot at the Skamania strain of Steelhead, Brown Trout from Wisconsin harbors, more inland trout fishing in Wisconsin. Then will be a couple of months chasing Kings and Browns in the tributaries in Wisconsin, followed by the later running Steelhead strains in November.

I really can't wait for any of this, it's going to be a ball. Thanks to everyone that's fished with me, brought me to their "secret spot", and actually met me at 4:30 a.m. to get at some perch. I'm blessed to live in such spot so conducive to angling. I will keep at it as long as I'm permitted.

Round 2, here we go... See you on the seawall, the river, the lake, the dock, the pond, the dam, and under the bridge.

Kissing the June Perch Season Goodbye (litterally)

Out to home base on the sea wall this morning by 4:40. I had some equipment malfunctions that were unexpected. My trusty super rooster tail actually snapped in half today, I guess after catching 3 Northerns and close to 60 Jumbo Perch on it the metal gets a little brittle.

This was just fine, I was fishing catch and release today in respect to the great season lake Michigan gave me. I landed a few jumbos and a few smaller little guys that hit much harder than their lighter biting older siblings. The fishing was by no means on fire for me today, but guys using #5 shad raps were doing better than I was.

Upon catching my last jumbo (around 12") today I looked at it right in the eyes, said "see you next year my friend" and gave it a kiss on it's fish lips and tossed him back. I got some funny looks from other anglers, letting go such fine table fare. I'm ok with some funny looks.

I won't be out tomorrow, half the year is done with and I'll have a report coming with my totals from the fish log for the first half of 2009.

Thanks Lake Michigan. I'll be moving on to brown trout and skamanias in later July, Brown trout, steelhead, and salmon will be heading my way in a couple of months as well. It's been a great year.

Great Lakes Perch Fishing : 6/28/09

With only 2 days left in the season I arrived at my spot that now feels like home, and will be missed during the month of July. I set up in the dark and tossed my spinner far, I backed my braid with mono yesterday so it won't slip on hook sets. Due to re-spooling the braid that first cast sailed to the horizon.

The first to casts produced very small rock bass. The bite was not on like I had hoped it would be but I had taken 3 and put 3 back by the time the sun rose. It took a lot of moving today, and fighting with currents, the ebb and flow into and out of the harbor was dramatic, like whitewater at times. The night of 10-15 knot northwest blow was stirring the lake up.

At the time when all was said and done there were 8 fish on my stringer. I gave a couple to a fellow who was having trouble getting his fish for the day and took home 6 to add to the freezer stockpile for fish fries of lazy July evenings to come. The fish averaged only 10" or 11" today, smaller than the stringer full of jumbos on friday.

It was nice to get out and I'll miss it when June turns to July.

I'll likely be out for one last hurrah in the next two days, I'll kiss the last perch goodbye and send him out to one of my favorite lakes in the world and hope he brings back his friends next year.

See you on the seawall for one last go at it.

Grand River Sturgeon Poacher Caught

A few weeks ago I reported that across the lake, in Grand Haven Michigan, a man was caught on camera taking a 5 foot long lake sturgeon which he had snagged in the tail, netted, and then dragged to his truck.

The DNR had offered a $1000 reward to anyone with information leading to his involvement in this crime. Since the reward was offered someone has come forward with information and now a 30 year old grand rapids man will be arraigned on July 9th for taking the sturgeon illegally.

Sturgeon can live to be more than 100 years old, they take 15 or more years to reach sexual maturity, and only spawn every few years.

Chicago Perch Limit : 6/26/2009

After all was said and done today, in a short 2 hours 3 stringers had a combined total of 36 jumbos waiting to be filleted. I made it out with friends Mike and Keith, I got my limit of 15 by 6:30 this morning. They were willing to bite anything that swam today, shad raps preceded by bullet weights, flukes on jigs, paddlebugs, raw softshells, and my personal favorite, the spinner tipped with shrimp.

The action was relatively fast starting at first light, and lasting to 6:15. I found the trick today was movement. I see these reports coming out of Montrose harbor that baffle me. People sit there and fish for 4 hours shoulder to shoulder and only take a few fish. Since perch are creatures of a school, why would you sit there and drag your bait through empty water. Every time I moved to a new location today one of two outcomes would transpire, number 1, I'd hook up right away, and take 4-6 perch within a matter of 5 minutes. Number 2, I would get no bites for 4 or 5 casts and move on. I'm not at some secret spot, in fact I'm fishing a spot just like any other in the miles of Chicago lakefront. It just happens to be a spot I go to each day. I know where snags are and where deeper parts are. I start off fishing the shallow areas over rocks before sunrise, and move to deeper water when the sun heads for the empty space above me.

I think if these hundreds of people sitting in one harbor or another moved along down the seawall and found pods of fish, they would be much happier.

My limit consisted of 4 fish over 13", 8 fish between 11"-13" and the rest were smaller due to gut hooking, or just a frantic need to take a limit, no fish were under 8.5".

It was a beautiful morning, a little cooler finally, I was shivering a bit before first light, it felt nice. I'm counting down the days now and will do my best to get out there every dawn. I will not be keeping as many fish now that I have stockpiled a good number. I just want to enjoy the bite before it's gone.

Like I say at the end of every one of these posts... I'll see you at the seawall.

Lake Michigan Jumbo Perch Report : 6/25/09

At long last, I had one of those days... One of those days on Lake Michigan that makes up for all those slow sunrises taking home a stringer with a single perch for two or three hours of fishing. I got to my normal spot today and decided to forgo fishing a double jig rig with artificials. I went straight to the super rooster tail (1/4 oz.) white with silver blade. I hooked some shrimp on the double hook and gave her a toss. A hit on the first cast but no take. The next three consecutive casts landed me three decent keepers, two of them being 12". My hopes were starting to get high, but I have been tricked by a burst of perch in the first 10 minutes before and didn't let them climb to any real height.

8 of the 10 keepers, the fattest of those 12" perch had an 8" girth!!

When all was said and done I had landed 14 perch from the lake, 10 of which were keepers, 6 were over 12", the rest were close but I try and keep only ones greater than 10". Lake Michigan was good to me this morning, the sun was bright and hot, the lake was clear, I could actually see fish hitting the spinner, and the ones I landed were large and made for a great lunch for myself and two friends.

One thing worth noting is that I picked up most of my perch from the Lake Michigan sea wall right before the sun came up, it then slowed down and after half an hour of slow fishing I decided I'd move into the harbor where things were deeper, darker, and still shaded from trees and the hill that is lake shore drive. I immediately started picking up fish upon doing this.

The perch bite on Lake Michigan is finally heating up, I'd get out there sooner than later... there are only 5 more days to chase these guys before the season closes for a month, to re-open when July turns to August.

I'll be out at the lake Saturday, Sunday, Monday if I can manage, more reports to come.

Lake Michigan Water Levels Up This Year

In years past I've found myself walking smooth white sand along quiet beaches in spots that used to be where I might have body surfed in the spring. This year there is a different story.

A friend of mine and I have a beach we tenderly refer to as "the secret beach", it is a place where I have never seen another foot print and it lies where garbage used to be poured into the lake in one fassion or another. We find sea glass, fishing plugs that find there way to shore, and other metalic oddities from the height of the factory days along the lake.

This chart from the NOAA is a great visual representation of their always in depth data.

We got down there for the first time this summer to find half the beach missing. I have since done some research and find that water levels are up somewhere right around a foot from last year at this time. Beaches that slowly slope down to the lake can get eaten up quickly by a foot of extra water.

Evening Perch Bite : 6/23/2009

I got on the bike and headed out into the 90 degree heat and chicago traffic and battled my way to the sea wall. Once I got past wrigly field the temp began to drop, it was something like 15 degrees cooler on the sea wall.

I was only fishing near one other fellow who was later joined by his girlfriend. He was a really nice guy, we exchanged some words, and he helped put some fish on my stringer as he didn't want to keep anything that wasn't a jumbo. I ended up taking home a few fish in the 10-11" range.

The bite was slow, very slow, but turned on for 20 minutes or so, on the front and back end of that the ocasional rock bass was landed.

Tonight I switched things up and fished with that wonderful Super Rooster Tail (1/4 oz.) but this time I attached some shrimp to its double hook. This trailer seemed to entice the perch into biting. I like this bait a lot as it needs not be assisted by any split shot or bullet weights or jig heads or anything of the sort, the blade spins at the slowest of speeds and it can be swung, popped, dragged, or just a nice retrieve that makes it glide just above the bottom flashing and fluttering as it slides through lake Michigan.

I ran into some wonderful asian tourists and answered all the regular skyline questions, as well as a kind vietnamese man who was far more excited than I was about the size, quantity and quality of my fish. He seemed to think they were perfect and asked what kind they were, I told him they were yellow perch and he said "ohhhh very good!", just further reinforcing my understanding of how good life is.

They still aren't around in numbers, and the season draws to a close. 1 week left here, I'll get a few more shots at these guys and then the time for Skamanias comes, along with inland trout and some Minnesotan bass, northerns, walleye, maybe some panfish and who knows... even a musky could be on my horizon.

I can't find a job for the life of me, but I can keep enjoying every morning I can get and any evening I find myself alone in the house I can't keep myself from getting on the bike and heading for the blue wonder of this great lake.