I stood on the shore looking out over the Baraga county marina. The water was calm and the air was starting to cool down as it approached the evening hours. It had been an extremely hot day in the middle of July. Earlier that day while sitting at home trying to stay cool I started thinking. Theirs a good amount of perch in that bay and they come into the marina around spawning time. They hang in their for about 2 weeks, and their gone. Where do they go? Deeper water, or maybe into the weed beds? It was hot and I thought why not just take a first hand look. So their I stood with mask and snorkel in hand ready to enter the water.Fish locators and sonar’s are great but they don’t even come close to seeing it for yourself!If you have ever had a chance to swim lake superior in the summer time you know that even in the middle of July the water is still quite cold. What a way to cool off.

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Well it’s the end of March. You can see from the picture above the chance of an early steelhead run up the rivers here is vanishing quickly. Due to an over extended winter. However the ice is hanging in their on the lakes and is providing some good late ice fishing opportunities. Fishing here on the bay for lake trout and salmon is very heavy and producing some nice fish. There is also some nice fish being caught on the inland lakes. See the picture below 5 nice brook trout caught here on a local lake yesterday (03/30/08). If you haven’t read it yet, read my article on brook trout fishing in non designated lakes. As the weather improves I will keep you posted on our local steelhead and smelt activity. If you are from Michigan remember new Fishing Licenses are required the 1^st of April.

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Wow! I look outside here in upper Michigan. It is the end of March and it looks like the middle of January. With a temperature of 4 degrees. This is too cold even for us.I just thought I would touch on something that is often overlooked by many mushroom hunters. Pay attention to where you are picking the wild mushrooms. As the old saying goes “Garbage in, Garbage out”.

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Things have quieted down pretty much on the bay. With spring coming all ice fishing shanties have to be off the bay by the end of the month. The lake trout are still being caught in the deeper water. Some salmon also being caught at the head of the bay. The weather has remained cool. We need warmer weather for the steelhead to start their run up the rivers. Hopefully this will start to happen with in a couple of weeks. Smelt fishing here for the last several years has been very slow. I will keep an eye on it and let you know if anything is happening. If you would like to know when the steelhead or smelt start running subscribe to my feed and I will keep you posted. I hope you have a GREAT Easter

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There are many wild mushrooms species that have look a likes that are poisonous. It is crucial that you are able to positively identify the mushroom. The most dangerous species are members of the genus Amanita, which includes the well known Death cap, Destroying Angle and the hallucinogenic Fly Agaric. All with white spoor prints. If you have a good mushroom book or guide it will list the spoor print colors for each mushroom along with the shape and size of the spoors.To make a spoor print, take a full grown cap and lay it gill side down on a clean piece of glass. Cover the mushroom cap with a glass or jar. This keeps any breeze or air movement from blowing the spoors away. It also helps keep the mushroom cap from drying out. Left overnight the cap should give you a good print. Use a razor blade and scrape the spoors together to get a good color observation. Tags: wild mushrooms, mushroom hunting, edible mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms, hallucinogenic mushroom

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I pulled my little pick-up truck to the side of the road, and gathering my fishing gear. I walked back to the bridge that crossed the Menominee river outside the town of Vulcan in the beautiful U.P.( Upper Peninsula of Michigan) When I got to the bridge a new sign had been posted, “ No Loitering on Bridge“. “Well, I thought to myself,” I’m not loitering , I’m fishing! My favorite spot was on the rocks down below the bridge, but since my arthritis had got the best of me, I could no longer get to my favorite spots. But ,“ah ha”! my little Killer Bee will come through for me.I set my fishing equipment down against the rail. I picked my little Killer Bee out of the box and tied it to the end of my line. After placing a nice juicy night crawler on the hook, I cast it out.It was early morning. The sky was over cast with no breeze, a perfect morning for fishing. As I stood their waiting for a nibble, My thoughts drifted back to when I was a tiny Kid. I was born in Detroit Michigan. Every summer my family went on vacation. We always went to the “Lone Pine Lodge” which was located on Houghton Lake which was located in the Northern part of the Mitt. To us this was going up North. I loved it. And even as a tiny Kid, I hated to come back to the City. I loved the lakes and the trees and the wilderness. But as the years went by, the wilderness gradually disappeared.After I grew up, I moved to Pontiac Michigan. That’s where I met my Husband. When I asked Him where he was from he said,” Iron Mountain.” I said ”where in earth is that?” And he told me, across the straights in the U.P.” Upper Peninsula!” I said again. I didn’t think their was any civilization up their; I thought it was all wilderness. He laughed. Well, I was right and so was he. This is a real wilderness area with its forests, lakes and streams. But it also has its towns and good people.

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The stars were starting to fade now. I could see a hint of daylight in the eastern sky. I looked down at my stringer just below the surface of the water. Attached to it, I could see the outline of three monster small mouth bass. What a night it had been. My brother Don had been over to the house the day before. “You have to try it” he said. “ I have been getting to the lake at about 1 or 2 in the morning.  I’ve been catching some big bass. Fish the North shore. With Rattle spoons.” “ What “I said? “Use rattle spoons” he said. Ok surface I could understand-but rattle spoons? “I’ll give it a try”. I laid in bed that night. God it was hot! I couldn’t sleep and I keep thinking about what my brother had said earlier that day. Hell with it! I jumped out of bed, it was midnight. I was heading for the lake.The lake was perfectly calm except for the occasional ripple of some bait fish breaking the water. The stars were bright in the sky with no moon. The lake was dark, but even so you could see the outline of tree shadows on the water created by the lights from a near by town. This lake has a campground on it and is very hard to fish in the summer due to jet skis, water skies, and any other water sport you can think of.

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Depending on your state laws brook trout fishing in non designated lakes can really pay off. Here in Michigan if a lake is not designated it is open to fish trout year around. This creates an excellent opportunity to go ice fishing for trout. Also be sure and check the size limits for your state. Here the limit is different for a lake then it is for creeks and rivers. Lakes to look for are the ones that have trout creeks running into them to populate the lake. In the winter time the water temperature and the feed will draw them in. Summer or winter these fish really know how to scrap. It is best to use an ultra light spinning or casting reel on your ice fishing rod. This way you have a drag you can work with. I use a mini casting reel on mine, it works very well. For line weight, as usual - use the lightest you feel you can get by with. I use 6# mono. This will handle a pretty good size fish tough the ice.For bait, pan fish jigs along with a wax worm works well. Night crawlers or spawn bags also can be used with some success, it is best to take an assortment of bait along with you. If you have small live minnows available these work very well. Don’t be afraid to try something different. I remember one time I couldn’t get a bite. I put on a pink and white crappie jig. I could see the brook trout following the jig up to the bottom of the whole, but they would not hit it. I rigged another line with a wax worm and set it at the same depth as the jig. When the fish came in to look at the jig they would see the wax worm and take it. I walked off the ice with my limit that day.These fish are a lot of fun to catch and some great eating.So get out your state rules and regulations and if you can fish brook trout in non designated trout lakes year around. Go for it. I think you will be surprised at the results. Tags: ice fishing, trout fishing, brook trout, trout lakes, fishing tackle

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Home made apple & grape wine. What a treat. I had a great year in 2007 that produced an overabundance of apples and grapes. I decided to mix the two and the result was a great tasting wine. Although this blog is not about wine making I thought it would fit in nicely with our wild game and fish recipes.If you have never made wine before there are complete wine making kits on the market, that will walk you though the whole process.( Their are also some very good books on Wine Making)  These are not all that expensive and will last for years. You can make wine out of almost any fruit. So if it’s a great year for wild berries, apples, chokecherries or wild cherries you can make yourself a fine tasting wine. Equipment you will need:

Wine making Kit or

Hydrometer

Primary Glass secondaryAir lock, Siphon, Nylon fermentation bag, Bottles,Wine capper andBottle corks.

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With the coming of spring many of us are looking forward to foraging for morel’s. These mushrooms being easy to identify are favored among many mushroom hunters. They are very good and found in very large quantities in many parts of the country. They are even picked and sold commercially.Here in Upper Michigan we first see the black morels around the end of April. With the white or yellow morels starting to appear a couple of weeks later. This mushroom should not be eaten raw only fully cooked. It took a lot of exploring when I first started hunting morels to find some good spots I could depend on year after year.Hunting for the black morels I seem to have the best luck on the edge of fields with the mushrooms being scattered among the poplar trees. Also old apple orchards are pretty good areas to check out. If you have any forest areas near you that have burnt in the last couple years these are also good places to search in.For white or yellow morels old gravel pits are the best places I have ever found, search the wooded edges as well as the bottom of the pit. I have seen them growing pushing the pebbles right out of the ground. Walk down and look. They are real good at hiding and will blend right in with the white rocks.Take your time and walk slow its easy to go right by them. I remember one time, I had been searching for what seemed like miles and had found nothing. I decided to take a break and sat down to rest on a log. After I had been sitting for a few minutes my eyes started wandering around. To my surprise there they were right in front of me. I had walked right by them.

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