FISH REPORT 2025
Link to HOME, OLDER FISH REPORTS
Friday, May 30, 2025
Opening Camp
Fish camp started a little later this year. Marge had an appointment in Green Bay on Thursday the 29'th. We got home Thursday night later in the day after we had a little fender bender in a roundabout. Found out that us old timers don't know how to use them. Anyway, the house was full of boxes to go up to camp. Willy and Dave were already there when I arrived on Friday about noon. We unloaded our trucks, moved into the camp and then put the floating dock in. Fred and Bruce came and the Kala Moiakka was launched. Now all we needed was some good weather. And some wisdom from Whitefish Willy.
Willy brought some morel mushrooms
Getting a 4X4 ready
Jetting a pole
Saturday, May 31
Fishing Day
There was a cool north wind blowing 8 to 10 when we headed out in the morning. Winter jackets was the choice of outerwear. The 200 foot hole we wanted was empty so we picked a spot and put the anchor down. It wasn't too bad as the boat was anchored off the bow and the cabin broke the wind. It wasn't too long and Fred hooked and lost the first fish. Then Bruce put one in the boat. The action was slow and steady with some nice fish being caught. Dave caught one that was in the eight pound range. We quit at 2:30 with 14 nice trout.
When we got back to the dock, I was busy with the lines and hooking up the electric. I got off the boat and my crack crew was busy cleaning all the fish. I didn't have to help at all as they had Dave slabbing, Bruce and Willy taking the rib bones out and Fred washing the fillets. Kind of nice to have a crack crew. The fish were cleaned and then up to the camp for some of Dave's famous Bloody Mary's.
Fred, Bruce, Willy, Dave
Dave with big fish
Bruce with geppo and Dave
Dave and Fred creating a good salad
Drinks are ready to go
Fred is supervising
Sunday, June 1, 2025
Sunny with light wind.
Todays plan was to try another hole that has produced fish in the past. We motored out and there already was a boat in the spot we wanted so we dropped anchor and of course ended up in the wrong spot. We ended up pulling anchor and resetting again so we could get into deep enough water. Once we got to around 200 feet of water we start to catch fish. Our technique to day was slow jigging and even letting the jig rest on the bottom. You would lift it up slowly and feel a fish, then sock it to him. We quit with 12 in the box this day. The weather had warmed up and we traded our winter jackets for just flannel shirts.
The crack crew cleaned up the fish and my job was to get them some cold beer from the cooler on the boat. We were going to sit out at the picnic table but with the warmer weather came the bugs. The Bloody Mary's were good as usual.
Asparagus, morels, eggs. A good breakfast
Lucy is looking for a treat.
Note the seaplane in the background.
Monday, June 2
Dead calm
Just a beautiful calm day on the big lake. It was hazy with the smoke from the Canadian wild fires. There were huge flocks of geese migrating north and that is a good sign that the trout are there. We see and hear them every year that we catch fish. We tried drifting and that worked for a while. While drifting we located two different bunches of fish. We hit a couple of spots with doubles and triples. Then a slight breeze came up and we couldn't drift any more so down went the anchor. Lines were pulled at 1:30 with 12 fish in the box. This was a very successful start to the year. It sure was quiet in the boat without all the wisdom coming from Whitefish Willy.
Bruce feeding the gulls
Olive oil, Zesty herb and garlic, smoked paprika, fish ready to go
Fish is directly on a hot grill.
Saturday, May 3, 4, 5, 2025
Willy, The Man, the Myth, the Legend.
Willy and I went up to the Keweenaw and open up the camp. It was a nice day so we stopped at one of the local streams and tried for menominee whitefish. We managed to get two, not quite enough for supper. Opening of the camp went well, the furnace started, the wood stove fired up and then we tried to put the water system on. The cold water side went well but the hot water tank didn't want to fill up. It turned out that someone left the drain valve open on the hot water side. Don't know for sure who left it open. Only Willy and I were there and Willy said that he didn't leave the valve open so that just leaves the other old fart in the camp. Anyway the valve was closed and the pressure came up.
Willy fishing
Sunday we went to Copper Harbor to try for more menominees. When we got to the parking lot, there was eight cars trunks in the parking lot. We walked down to the beach and there were ten guys sitting there and they were all rigged out for fishing. Most were in their twenties, one had just graduated from Tech. I started talking to one of the dads and he said that over twenty years ago, he and some friends were fishing and had caught one menominee. They didn't even know what it was. This guy walked down and started fishing and proceeded to catch nine menominees. It was Whitefish Willy. He showed them how to catch them and the rest is history. They have been coming up every year and they keep telling Whitefish Willy stories. They were thrilled to meet the legend. They gave us a couple of fish to add to our fish fry.
Lake Medora is still frozen
Menominee whitefish and one herring
We checked out the Little Gratiot for smelt Sunday night. They actually ran. It didn't take long and we caught half a pail. Mostly one or two per dip. A meal of fresh smelt sure was good.
Smoked fish
On May 6 I looked out and it was calm. I called Frank and we went fishing off Marinette. The bugs were terrible. We did manage to get 2 whitefish.
Check out the bugs on the top of the boat. Us too.
Friday, April 12, 2025
Found them?
Dave and I met up with Steve and Frank. The boat launch was full so we had to go park our trucks and trailers at Frank's house while we went fishing. There were boats everywhere while we made our way out onto Green Bay. The walleye run must be on.
The bay was calm and we headed out, Steve and Frank to one of the places we fished last year. Bruce and I decided to try near some humps that we saw last week. It didn't take long and Steve and Frank both has fish, Dave and I were still searching. We tried on top of some humps in 60 feet but no luck. We ended up on the side of a hump that was so steep our fish finder didn't work right. Pretty soon I finally caught one, then Dave caught one. Steve and Frank moved over and between the two boats we ended up with 14 nice fish. Maybe we found them? Maybe not.
Look at all the boats at the mouth of the river
Dave thinking about all the fish he is going to catch.
Steve and Frank fishing hard.
Cooler of whitefish
Friday, April 2, 2025
Shakedown Cruise
I got up and checked the camera that looks at Green Bay, the bay was flat calm. We have been waiting for a day like this so I called Dave and said, "Let's go fishing". He said, "how soon". I said, "right now". That started our fishing trip.
It was a shakedown cruise so we expected some problems. One tire on the trailer has been giving me trouble and sure enough it was low on air. We put air in it and we're good to go. The boat launch was full when we got to the bay. Dave went to get the parking permit by using his credit card. The card worked but the machine was out of paper so he didn't get the permit to put on your dash. Of course we had a ticket when we came in from the lake.
The motors started and the lake was calm. We headed out to our fishing spot and it wasn't long and a whitefish came aboard. Then Dave caught one. We had a couple more bites and lost a couple of fish but I was restless to try a couple more spots. Well, we left fish to find fish, bad plan. A couple more spots were tried with no luck. We quit fishing at 2:30 with just the two fish in the box. Remember, DON'T LEAVE FISH TO FIND FISH!
Calm seas for our first trip.
Dave, ever hopeful and looking for a bite.
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