SPRING BREAK OUT

    When the first salmon were stocked in Lake Michigan to control the overabundant alewife population, no one knew what would happen. The alewife, an invasive species that migrated into the lakes from the Atlantic Ocean once the shipping lanes were established, exploded in population.
Though they only live a few years, once they became established, trillions of them died from natural causes each summer and their little bodies drifted with the ever changing winds fouling beaches all around Lake Michigan.

   The solution? Stock cohos. Would it work? Time would tell.

   It worked. And the first indication was when commercial fishermen with gill nets set to catch yellow perch in Indiana started catching “funny looking trout” in the spring. The funny fish turned out to be coho salmon.

   What wasn’t known then but is well documented now is that cohos prefer water temperatures around 50 degrees. In a lake like Lake Michigan, which is 300 miles long, the north end cools faster than the south end. As the lake cools in autumn, the baby cohos stocked from hatcheries months earlier migrate south to stay in water temperatures to their liking.

    By late November, all the salmon in the lake have pushed to the south end of the lake. Indiana’s end of the lake. The part of the lake where I work.

   And when winter ends, they are still here. Millions of them.

   When the nearshore waters start to warm in March, they swarm inshore offering the hottest and fastest salmon fishing in the world. That’s why you need to get out there with your own boat or hire me to take you. Where’s the best place to fish?  Where the fish are!

   Spring break is the perfect time to hit the water. Most schools schedule their breaks in late March and early April and that’s the peak of the season time to be out for Indiana’s “spring coho” bonanza. My spring break dates are already filling. If you want to sign on, give me a call soon. Don’t wait, don’t be late. I’ll be there with you or some other person. I’d rather be with you.   Go to www.brother-nature.com for contact info and prices.

LAKE ICE

One of the common questions I get is: “Does Lake Michigan ever freeze over completely?”

  The short answer is yes. A more concise answer would be rarely. The last time the lake froze completely was in 1992, so it’s been 20 years.

  I’ve certainly seen what looked to be a completely frozen lake in those interim years however. Here’s what happens. The surface lake water drops to 32 degrees. That means if it’s calm, ice forms on subfreezing nights.

This is a current shot of an Indiana Lake Michigan beach. 

  Add to this the fact that water can exist in both liquid form and solid form at 32 degrees. So the ice that forms on calm nights, in bays or on the upwind side of the lake doesn’t soon melt. Instead, it blows with the wind and if the wind direction stays the same for long enough, it all piles up on the downwind side of the lake. When the wind changes, the ice pack blows to the other side of the lake. By early February, if you are on a downwind shore, you probably can’t see to the open water several miles away. The jagged peaks of the pack ice makes it look as though polar bears should be roaming there hunting seals.

  As winter progresses, the amount of ice increases. In an average year, half or more of the lake’s surface is covered by this growing ice pack, and thanks to frequent north winds in the winter months, a lot of the ice pack is on our end of the lake.

  In addition to the ice pack, miniature glaciers form along Indiana’s beaches and breakwalls. Even before the lake water cools to 32 degrees, early winter storms with subfreezing temperatures and onshore winds send big waves crashing to our shores. The waves pile up, spray wets down rocks, beaches, piers and lighthouses. Each wave splashes a wet layer which quickly  freezes before the next wave comes. Soon inches of ice encapsulate the shore and shoreline features. Inches of ice become feet of ice and until the pack ice forms to guard the shore, beaches and walls may have 10 feet or more of ice extending to the water’s edge.

  So Lake Michigan normally doesn’t often freeze completely, but ice is a regular feature that helps mold and shape the lake’s environment.
 

RAINY DAY TEST

I’m frugal. Okay, I’m cheap. The thought of shelling out hundreds of dollars for rainy day wear once seemed excessive.

Whether or not it’s excessive, it is a lot of money. I could buy a very nice shotgun for the price of a quality rainsuit; several dozen coyote traps, a bunch of rod and reel combos - probably a one way ticket to Honolulu, if I shopped smart.

But when I turned “pro” and started taking people on Lake Michigan for hire, one of my first acquisitions was a Bass Pro XPS rain suit. What I then hoped would prove to be a worthy investment I now say is among my most important assets.  I love it and wear it on my boat everyday during the spring and fall, rain or shine. It’s the perfect top layer, warm and wind proof.

I would buy another one - probably.

But I might switch to a Frabill XFE Stormsuit. The folks at Frabill gave me one to try out.

Just my luck, it came during a drought year, one with record warmth. So it’s just been sitting there waiting for a suitable, rainy, dreary day.

Like yesterday!

By sunrise, the rain gauge showed over 1/2-inch and the drizzle was steady. Temperatures in the 40s. I had traps scattered over 4 farms and I’d need to attend to each one. Not just drive by and keep going if there was nothing caught. Each trapsite was water-logged. I planned to remove most of them.

The perfect test day.

My initial impression of the Frabill suit? It’s great. It fits great, it’s built for outdoor activities that require standing, kneeling, sitting down, climbing into and out of trucks, boats and onto ATVs. It features pockets inside and out, special spots for pocket cams, cell phones, extra protection at knees and elbows. There’s even a tiny towel on string inside for, ah, well, maybe to dry off your glasses?

The materials and workmanship look to be top of the line. At the end of the day, I was warm and completely dry. Will it hold up for the long run? Ask me in a few years, I’m betting it will and I’ll be putting that bet to the test. 

"GIFT" A TRIP

A fishing trip makes a great gift
for any member of the family.

It can be very difficult to purchase great gifts for outdoor oriented people. If the favorite activities for the “giftee” are shared by the “gifter,” it becomes a bit easier. When the gifter is not a regular participant, it becomes almost impossible.

For instance, I enjoy pheasant hunting. My wife enjoys Pheasant’s Forever banquets. That’s about as close to pheasant hunting she has gotten since she was a farm girl growing up in South Dakota and her and her sisters were the “dogs” while her dad and the other hunters did the shooting.  Her giving me something I could use on a pheasant hunt would be a tough prospect. Chances are, what her idea of something “useful” for me and my idea of useful would be miles apart. Chances are, if it were truly useful, I probably own one or more of them already.

The same thing goes for anglers. So here’s an idea for you “gifters” out there looking for the perfect gift for your fisher-person giftee. Give them a fishing trip!

Of course, I hope you decide to give them a fishing trip with me, on board the Brother Nature. You can choose a different charter, should you wish or even send them with a guide for a day of fishing for musky, walleye, bass or other species.

I “do” several gift-trips a year on the Brother Nature and have it down to a good routine. Here’s how it usually goes....

The gift-giver goes on-line and finds my website: www.brother-nature.com. They look over the site, where I fish, best times to fish, prices and all the rest then either call or send an email. Since I base my prices on the number of people and the length of the trip, the gifter can decide the amount they want to spend and see what that will buy. For example: at my current prices, a three-person trip for 8 hours is about the same price as a four-person trip for 5 hours.

Hopefully, there is a few days or more until the day the gift will actually be bestowed. What I do is send a personal letter on my letterhead to the gifter to put in a card and hand to the giftee on Christmas, birthday or whatever occasion.

It starts out something like:

Dear Pete (or Sherry or whatever name is appropriate):
Congratulations! You have been given a 6-hour fishing trip on the Brother Nature for you and two friends. Yadda, yadda, yadda....

Then I go on to explain my services, the fishing available and other details about the trip along with contact information, phone numbers and other information.

If you have a hard-core fisherman on your gift giving list and are feeling stymied about what sort of present to bestow, give me a call. We’ll work it out and make it a gift he or she will long remember!

WINTERIZED

The Brother Nature and the ol’ Burb are nestled in their winter quarters. I’ll drive the Suburban a few times over the winter to give it a bit of exercise, but it won’t be getting many miles on it. It always seems very weird driving it without having the boat and trailer tagging along behind since 99 percent of the time, you won’t see one without the other.

The winterizing went well. I lowered the lower unit and opened the vent and drain plugs to remove the gear lube oil inside. It was nice and clean with no milky look to it which means there’s no water leaking into the innards of the unit. I let it drain overnight, then refilled it with new lubricant.

The next step is to stabilize the fuel left in the tank to keep it fresh over the winter months. I measured in the Stabil, then took the boat for a ride so the gas in the tank would slosh around and mix with the stabilizing chemicals.

Motor Muff allows running the engine
while the boat is on the trailer

Back at home, I parked close enough to the house so I could attach a garden hose to the lower unit with a special muff. This handy tool allows the boat’s motor to be started with the boat on the trailer. Running the motor warms it up and burns the unstabilized gasoline in the carburetor.

The next step is to change the engine oil and oil filter. Not only does this step ensure the motor is stored with clean, uncontaminated oil, but it’s ready for spring fishing next March.

The final step is filling the engine with antifreeze. I have a five gallon bucket that I attached a boiler drain into. A short hose connects the drain to the motor muff. Four gallons of antifreeze go into the bucket.
When the motor is started, the drain is opened and the antifreeze pumps into the cooling system of the motor, displacing the water inside.

Park it just so in the garage. Pull the drain plug to completely empty the bilge and THINK SPRING!  

PROP BUSTERS

You can tell by the location of the damage
the prop damage occurred when the
boat was backing up.

I could understand a ramp being built in a Lake Michigan marina “too short” in 1987 when the water level in the lake was at a modern day high level. The drought of 1988 solved the high water problems. None of the Chicago skyscrapers fell into the lake and Lake Shore Drive wasn’t flooded, as doomsayers had been predicting. However, the falling water levels continued into the 1990s when the Portage Public Marina was being designed.

So with water levels heading down, and no scientific consensus about what the future water level would be, why not engineer the boat ramps to include another few yards of concrete to ensure the ramp would be sufficiently long, regardless of significant water fluctuations? No answer, but by the end of the decade, receding water levels had rendered the ramp useless for most boats suitably-sized to be safe on Lake Michigan.

It was a two pronged problem. Most boats and trailers, these days, are designed so the boats can be driven onto the trailers. Nose the boat into position, apply a bit of throttle and the boat slides up onto the trailer supports. However, the prop wash caused by power loading on a too-short ramp dislodges the sand or silt at the end of the concrete resulting in a drop off. Imagine, backing your trailer in far enough that the trailer wheels drop into the hole at the end of the submerged concrete. In most cases, you are stuck and in many cases people were stuck.

A complete rebuild or well engineered retrofit would have been very expensive. So instead, a patch was made by hauling large rip-rap sized stones to the ramps and pushing them into the water to fill the hole at the end of the launch ramps. Signs were places warning boaters that power-loading was prohibited.

The launch ramps are open for use 24/7. The marina is staffed from 7 to 7 in-season; 8 to 4 early and late in the boating year. Even when it’s open, the launching and loading of boats is only loosely monitored. One doesn’t have to watch very long on a busy day to see boaters violating the power-loading prohibition.

Currently, the lake is as low as it was in 1987 (due to last summer’s drought and other factors) and only an inch or two shy of the historic record low level reached in 1964. With the water level down, tons of softball to soccer ball sized stones shoring up the ill-designed terminus of the ramp and plenty of power-loaders unknowingly causing damage, my propellor became a casualty.

I was at the marina one day in mid-summer when additional rip-rap was pushed into the hole at the end of the ramp. In retrospect, I should have guessed what was happening. With the lake level down, even the large rocks were being “blown” out of position as high-powered boats were goosed onto their trailers. Where did those displaced rocks go?

Add caption

They formed an artificial reef to the rear of the hole and when I lowered my propellor into the water and backed away from the ramp, it impacted on the displaced rocks. Pictured is the result. This damage is from a single launch. The prop was perfect, previously.

So beware at Portage and beware at other locations, as well. I doubt the marina can or will do anything the rest of this season. Normally, water levels in the Great Lakes drop over the winter so be doubly aware in the spring. And if you sneak in a “power-load” after hours for convenience, cut it out.

BUCKET LIST KING

        I can’t say Steven Berg grew up on my boat, but he, his dad and uncle have fished with me many times since Steve was old enough to turn the crank on a reel. Actually, Steve started when he was almost old enough to crank a reel.

       A favored “fish tale” on my boat is the about the first day Steve fished with me, caught a limit of cohos and never lost a fish. Lot’s of people can say that, but not a 6 or 7 year old who took about 15 minutes to reel in each fish, mostly while the fish swam freely, lure dangling from its mouth, swimming hither, yon and anywhere else it pleased as he awkwardly and intermittently managed to reel.

His time on the Brother Nature must have made an impression on him to some degree. Now in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Hood, Texas and awaiting deployment overseas, Steve was home on leave. While on leave he had a bucket list of favorite places to visit, food to eat and things to do. Among them, fish Lake Michigan on the Brother Nature.

          I explained it’s late in the season, the fall run has been sporadic, at best - actually one of the worst ever - but if he wants to go, we’ll go.

We went. At the crack of dawn, I started deploying the lines and lures we’d be using. One line set, start on the next and, “FISH ON.”  It was lucky there were no other lines out and only one downrigger wire. This fish came to the boat hot and had there been other gear would have tangled and possibly been lost. Bad luck for the fish, good for us.

So we had great catching for the first 10 or 15 minutes, then settled in for a morning of great fishing, the remainder of the time - great fishing, just short on strikes or catching. But Steve caught a nice king salmon,  has a fishing tale to tell his Army buddies when his leave is over and a memory to rely on when he goes overseas.