If you have been reading the articles I have posted. You probably realize I always say get by with the lightest pound test line possible. What is the main reason for this? Some fish seem to be more line sensitive than others. An example is Brown Trout. I don’t think I have ever caught a Brown when using over 8 lb test mono tolling here in Keweenaw Bay. Usually I am trolling for salmon with heavier line. When I have a guest on my boat I will put down an extra line or two. Out of necessity one of the rigs will have lighter line. And like it is magic that line will produce at least one Brown Trout and maybe two. Crappies are another great example. One time I can remember being out fished big time by a buddy of mine. For fishing lures both him and I were using 1/8 oz pink and white crappie jigs. The only difference was he had 6 lb test mono and I had 8. I caught two fish. He caught his limit of 25. What a huge difference.Carry extra spools of line with you. One a little heavier and one lighter then what you have on your main rig. More factors come into play than just the fish. How many snags are their? Four pound test monofilament line will break a lot easier than eight. You have to be able to fish. Being hunk up and breaking your line all the time in snags is not the way to do it. Your only solution may be to use the heavier line. Also fishing with lighter line you need to use a lighter drag setting. How much room do you have to let the fish run? Do you have to be concerned with holding them in to a tight area? These are all questions you should ask yourself when choosing what pound test line to use.

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The wind really blew here Saturday making fishing very difficult. So we waited till Sunday and decided to do some crappie and gill fishing. Along with the wind on Saturday it was very hot here. A cold front moved into the area on Sunday. The cooler weather-especially the 1^st day usually slows the fishing down but we decided to go anyway. We did not catch a lot -but did wind up with some very nice fish. Enough for a good meal.. We started out using crawlers and flies on the gills then changed to ¼ oz pink and white jigs toward evening for crappies. All in all it was a nice fishing trip.Just a few quick tips for crappie fishing.Use as light of line as possible-preferably 4 or 6 lb testThe fishing jig colors that seem to work best for me are pink and white, black on black and black and white.If you are fishing from shore use a weighted bobber with a 1/32 or 1/16 oz jig. This will help increase your casting distance. The bobber will also help keep the jig out of the weed beds and bottom snags.

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 It is the 1^st day of the Annual Lake Trout fishing Tournament her in L’anse Michigan today. It is very windy making a tough start . It is an offshore wind which helps a lot. Even though the bay is choppy the turnout seems to be very good. Lake trout fishing in the bay has been good over the past couple of weeks. This contest ends Sunday afternoon. If the wind doesn’t go down bobbing for lake trout will not be possible- it will strictly be a trolling game.Just a quick tip on trolling for salmon and lake trout using downriggers. Use a slider line- cut a piece of monofilament line the same pound test you are trolling with- about 10 to 15 feet long. Attach a swivel to both ends. Lower your main line down attached to your downrigger release. After you have it set into place use the swivel on one end of the line and attach to your main line. Put a fishing lure on the other end and feed it into the water. The swivel will slide down the main line and come to rest in the bow of the line from the current caused by the trolling movement. You now have a suspended line helping you cover a lot more depth area.This works really well if you are trolling for lake trout. Lake trout usually run deep but salmon will usually be suspended. Run your main line deep and attach your slider. This method gives you a good shot at both.

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Using surface lures for fishing has always been one of my favorite techniques. It doesn’t matter if I am Pike Fishing, Bass Fishing or fishing for gills. If there is any sign at all they are feeding on the surface-I will try it before anything else. I guess one of the best fishing tips I can give you with this type of fishing is take your time. I have caught many fish while the lure was floating on the surface doing nothing. There is a variety of fishing tackle that you can purchase for this. You are probably aware of most of it such us, Hula Poppers and Jitterbugs and ect… I pretty much use them all. For the purpose of this article I am going to focus on one you don’t here a lot about. The Smithwick Devils Horse.I remember back when I was first introduced to this fishing lure. I owned a sport shop at that time and was working on my order to restock my fishing tackle for the month. One of my customers came in and saw me going though the catalogue and asked me if I could order a Devils Horse. I had never heard of them before but they were in the catalogue. So I ordered a couple extra for myself. That was 30 years ago and I still use them. They are not real easy to find. Not here in Upper Michigan anyway. Bass Pro shops does carry them in their catalogue, I have not been able to find them in Cabelas. I am sure if you look around you can find more sources. For colors I like the silver with a black back and the perch color. These seem to do well for me. As far as size. I like the larger size- 3/8 oz.When you make a cast and the lure erupts the surface take your time and let the ripples settle down before you begin the retrieval. Many times you will get a strike before you even have a chance to move it. So be prepared. Depending on the distance of the cast I like to stop the lure at least once or twice before it gets back to the shore or boat. I can’t count the number of fish I missed because after I stopped the lure I started monk eying with something, or stated talking to one of my fishing partners and missed setting the hook.I can remember a time a buddy of mine asked me if I wanted to go try fishing a back water in Leona, Wisconsin. It was a great day for fishing. It was cloudy with a chance of rain and very little wind. The area had a lot of dead trees extending out of the water along with some very decent weed beds. The Pike Fishing was suppose to be good. I dug into my tackle box and pulled out a perch colored Devils Horse. I made the cast so the fishing lure would parallel a weed bed just outside a drop off. While I was waiting for the water to settle down from the cast before I started my retrieval I turned to talk to my partner. His eyes were locked in the area where my surface lure had landed. “Where did that log come from” he asked? It was not a log- it was a very large Northern Pike. Poised floating on the surface with its back extended out of the water ready to make its killing strike. The water exploded and the battle was on. I think that was the largest Pike we caught that day-in the 40 inch range. We landed many more that were over 30. Every perch colored Devils Horse I had was ripped to shreds by the time we ended our fishing trip.So the next time you are updating your fishing tackle add a Smithwick Devils Horse. It will soon become one of your favorite surface lures.
Tags:fishing, pike fishing, northern pike fishing, fishing tackle, surface lures, surface fishing

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I think we all have had a day out fishing that the fish weren’t biting. But they were really jumping. Jitter bugs, Hula poppers, crazy crawlers, devils hoarse -you threw it all at them and nothing would work. Something to keep in mind is that things are not always as they appear. By appearance you would think that those monster bass are jumping at bugs on the surface. But in all reality it could be a feeding run on a school of minnows under the surface. I guess what I am saying is look at the big picture. Anyone that says they catch fish every time out either doesn’t fish or they are much better at telling stories then I am. But there are ways to increase your chances. Something that works for me quite often in this situation is a number 11 floating Rapala. Weighted with a split shot sinker. The idea behind this is to get the lure to sink a little deeper and weighed enough so when you stop retrieving the Rapala it returns to the surface very slowly. Almost suspending it self just below the surface of the water. When you are retrieving the lure stop a couple of times and let the lure make its way toward the surface. Don’t be in a rush. Take your time. The strike will usually come while the lure is slowly floating upwards. This also works real well if you are fishing a river in a current. The split shot will hold the Rapala just below the surface.This article was really not meant to be an ad for Rapala- its just the way it came out. This may work equally as well with other brands of crank baits. But the floating Rapala is the one I have had my best luck with. Another good time to use this technique is when you have one of those outings that the fish keep following the lure in but wont take it. This will allow you to stop your retrieval 10 or 15 feet from the tip of your rod, with the lure suspended in the water to give the fish a chance to strike. And they usually will. So the next time out when the fish are throwing you a curve ball. Give this a try.

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It had stormed violently the night before. Thunder, lighting and heavy rain fell for a good hour. I was now kneeling in the long marsh grass along water works creek. The air was fresh, with only the kind off freshness you can get after thunderstorms pass though an area.This creek was very small. It feed into a much larger river that had a good Brook Trout population in it. If you looked at this creek after a dry spell you would think it could hardly support a minnow. But after a heavy rain this little creek was dynamite for Trout fishing. The erosion caused from the very short lived high water would deposit worms and crawlers into the water for the trout to feed on. Then the trout would come up into the small creek from the river to feed. These weren’t small fish either. It was not uncommon to catch Brook Trout in the 14 to 16 inch range.

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