SHARE A CHARTER

  There are many reasons a person may want to go fishing. I could list the reasons from Action to Xcitement alphabetically, but the important words this time in the above sentence is “a person.” Singular, “a person” by him or herself, loner, a lone traveler or perhaps the only person of a larger group possessing the urge to go fishing.

AS LONG AS YOU ARE IN THE AREA
LET'S GO FISHING! 

 Imagine a person is traveling to Chicago or Northwest Indiana on business, to visit parents or other relatives. Imagine an avid angler  person sharing a vacation to the area with his or her spouse but the spouse has no desire to go fishing. Perhaps a fishing oriented person has heard of the world class fishing available on Lake Michigan and wants to sample it but has no regular fishing partners who share the same desire. Pick a reason, A to X (or Z).

I CAN HELP! 

  I set the prices for fishing trips on the Brother Nature trying to make them affordable for smaller groups. Still, I can’t afford to make a trip for two half the price of a trip for four or a trip for a single fisherman half the cost of a pair of fishermen. Basically, a single person has to pay the same as I charge a pair of people. Two people can’t go with me at the same price per person as three or four people.

  For some - several each season - price is not enough of an issue to cause them to shy away. They plunk down the price of a two person trip and off we go, just me and him.

  I’m sure there are many others who check out my website, check out my prices but decide the single person rate is just more than they are willing to spend. I don’t fault them. If nothing came with a price, we’d all be driving Cadillacs.

  Over the winter I heard of a company called Share a Fishing Charter. Their business model is simple. Charter captains like me list with them. Individuals or couples go to their website (www.shareafishingcharter.com) pick a date they’d like to fish and sign-up for it. Or they can look at what date others have pegged and see if that day works for their schedule. Either way, once three people sign up for the same day, all are contacted (along with me) and the arrangements are made.

  The individual anglers get to go fishing at a very more affordable rate than going alone, I get a booking for the day and Share a Fishing Charter earns a small commission. Everyone wins except the fish!

 

Check out Share a Fishing Charter and sign up for a fishing trip with me. If you are planning a trip other than to Indiana, check out their other listings for sharing partners in other places. I know I will.  

"I WARM" IN "I FLOAT"

   In my mind, if the ice an ice fisherman is planning to traverse is such that wearing a PFD seems sensible, it seems more sensible to find some other activity to pursue. How about waiting for ice conditions to improve? How about waiting for the ice to melt away so it's possible to fish from a boat? How about traveling to a place where winter is sufficiently absent to allow fishing from a boat all year long?

COMFY FISHING IN SUB- FREEZING CONDITIONS

   Last summer the Frabill company unveiled a new product in their line-up of cold weather wear called the I-Float Jacket (and matching bib overalls) as an "ice fishing" garment. It won national awards in the fishing industry.

   The parka’s name, “I-Float” alludes to its multi-tasking purpose. Much of the insulation material in the jacket is made from a closed cell, buoyant material - the same stuff used to make life jackets. There's enough of the flotation material used and incorporated in the right places inside the jacket to allow the U.S. Coast Guard to put its "seal of approval" on the garment as a certified, wearable, personal flotation device.

   I start my Lake Michigan fishing season in late winter (usually mid-March) and since the cold water in Lake Michigan delays spring-like conditions often well into May, I'm no stranger to winter parkas. I’m also well aware of the increased danger associated with boating in extremely cold water. So Frabill’s "I" parka didn’t appeal to me as an ice fishing necessity, but it did peak my interest as a multi-tasking coat, actively able to keep me comfortably warm on my boat in extreme conditions and passively providing me a comforting level of safety I hope to never need.

   I had the chance to try out my new I-Float Jacket and bibs on an early February crappie jaunt to Lake of the Ozarks. LOZ is just far enough south to preventing it ever freezing; far enough north to warrant warm clothes needed, most February days. It’s available in stores and on-line at a variety of prices. Shop before you buy.

A CONUNDRUM OF LAWS

Law number one: Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.

  What a great rule to live by. If the car was running when it the key was switched off yesterday, expect it to start up and run today.

This is no time for Murphy's Law to apply. 

  Except, I also believe in Ed Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Some people add “and at the worst possible moment.”

  These two laws illustrate the yen and yang of using mechanical items. Machines, toys, engines and fishing tackle often seem to behave spitefully towards their user. Proper maintenance is a good way to stave off Murphey’s Law. A well maintained machine is less likely to “go wrong” than one long ignored.

  However, maintenance goes directly against the “Don’t fix it...” rule. A conundrum, to be sure.

  For years, when it came to my fishing reels, I (mostly) adhered to law number one. Other than reels affected by Murphy’s Law, I left them alone. More than just years, more like years and years and years for some of them.

   The reel was working when I retrieved the last lure yesterday. It will surely work tomorrow. Won’t it? Or will Murphy show up?

   So in my “off season” this year, I broke law number one. I collected all my most-used reels. I found long-filed-away schematics for each model or looked up the exploded views on-line. I purchased new drag washers for each reel, gathered reel grease, household oil an assemblage of small tools, degreasers and swabs.

  Then I “fixed” them. At least, I carefully disassembled each reel, cleaned all the inner workings, replaced  the drag washers, then and greased, oiled and reassembled. It’s not rocket science though I do have a new respect for watch makers.

  What could go wrong? We’ll learn much of that answer in mid-March when the reels are put back into service, clean, shiny with no pressing need to be fixed for another decade or so. Unless Murphy decides to go fishing with me.

GET A GRIP ON IT!

  I always think it’s odd when a person on my boat catches a fish and then goes all “icky” at the thought of actually touching it. Some of the time it’s because of the size of the fish. Grabbing a crappie or bluegill flopping on the dock is one thing, but grasping a salmon or trout almost three feet long is something else.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Most of the time size doesn’t matter. Many people are just plain reluctant to grip the fish they’ve just caught whether it’s a panfish or the biggest fish in the lake.

  Some of it is unfamiliarity. It’s easy to figure out how best to hold a puppy or a cat. It’s not so easy to grasp just how best to grasp a fish.

  Granted, some fish have sharp pointy things on them such as teeth, spines on their fins or sharp stingers like catfish do. These can hurt. Trout and salmon do have teeth, but no spines or stingers.

  Mostly, I think, it’s the fact fish are generally wet and slimy. Is it a human trait to have a natural aversion to grasping things wet and slimy?  I don’t know. If so it expresses itself (most often - not always) in women and youths.

  These days, I don’t even ask when a youngster or one of my female fishing guests catches a “photo-worthy” fish. Instead of trying to coach or coax the fisher person to correctly grip their fish while the photographers on board get their “happy-snappies,” I just pull out my Fisherman’s Handy Hook.

This fish has a date with the deck. Should have used the Handy Hook!

  Basically, it’s a tough plastic tool with an easy to grip handle on one side, a strong spike on the other and a plastic divider to ensure none of the “icky-gooey” stuff on the fish gets on the hands of the person holding the fish. Easy to use, all I have to do is slide the spike under the fish’s gill flap and out through the fish’s mouth. Now the happy angler has a fish with a handle on it and chances are I’m not going to have the clean the icky-slimy stuff of the floor of the boat after the fish has been dropped a few times.

  Check out www.thefishermanshandyhook.com for more details and purchasing information.  
 

OVER THE TOP

  A person catches a fish. Perhaps it’s a nice specimen. Perhaps it’s the first fish he ever caught or perhaps it’s the first musky, lake trout, name a species, he or she has ever angled from the depths. It could be the angler’s biggest fish ever or the largest musky, laker or whatever. What comes next is almost inevitable - the hero photo!
 

Dan Small's Facebook Post

You’ve seen them, I’ve seen them, I’ve been behind the camera and in front. For the most part, they are awful.  At best they are moderately interesting.

  A friend of mine posted a hero shot on Facebook recently. He’d caught a nice muskie on a fly rod and posed for the inevitable happy-snappy session to record the catch for posterity.

  The comments on Facebook were the normal, “Nice fish,” “Way to go,” “What did it weigh?”

  I don’t usually make comments like that. However, in the hero photo posted, he’d made one alteration to the usual grip and grin pose. He’d positioned his fly rod behind his neck, balancing it on his back over his shoulders.
 
 “Interesting pose,” I thought, and decided to make a decidedly different sort of comment on his Facebook post. “Nice balancing act with the fly rod,” I wrote.

  Few of the comments I make on Facebook go viral, regardless of how astute, asinine, insightful or germain they may be. This comment engendered a long list of follow-up comments.

  Who knew?  I’ve seen hero shots with fly-rodders holding their rod and reel in their teeth. Those are weird. The over the shoulder pose, less so and plenty of fly-flickers let me know the balance-on-the-back pose is now a widely accepted.

 

What’s good for one is good for all. So when Marc Garringer caught this steelhead on my boat recently, we went with the new-age pose for his hero photo.  How do you like it?

FIRST, FOG AND FUN

  The 2016 season is off with a bang. Actually, there was no bang, but it was a bang-up start. Unless I’m shooting ducks from a boat, there’s nothing involved that should go bang. Nothing did.
 
  There was a bit of noise in the form of a fog-horn. Early season fishing often entails finding the warmest water possible. These warm oasis areas are fish magnets compared to the ice-water cold liquid in the rest of the lake. The warm water also boosts the metabolism in the salmon and trout making them more likely to strike our lures.

  So I headed out from the East Chicago Marina at a comfortable 7AM and headed for the Indiana Harbor where two different steel mills pump heated water to keep the harbor ice free and extend their shipping season. Two miles out of the marina, we hit a fog bank that gave us no more than 50 yards visibility. We slowed and made our way but in the harbor, we had to watch for both other fishermen, the rock-lined walls of the harbor and potentially, giant ore boats hauling taconite pellets from the northern lakes.

  That’s when the fog horn sounded. Something was coming so I steered a course to the west (shallow) side of the channel knowing whatever vessel was exiting would stay in the deepest part of the channel. It was a tug, pushing a barge. We were plenty far away by the time the working boat passed and as a salute, the captain waved and then blew his fog horn one last time before heading into the misty, open waters.

  The fog horn must have woke up the fish since seconds after that last blast, a rod doubled down with a spunky salmon on the line, then another on the other side. The first fish of the season is always special, starting the season with a double is extra fun.  We hadn’t even got the fish out of the landing nets when another salmon bit and so went the fun of late winter/early season action on Indiana’s end of Lake Michigan.

  Minutes after the fog horn tooting tug left, the fog disappeared and a welcome, warm sun kept us toasty on board. We didn’t really have time to worry about the cold, anyway. The fish kept us too busy.

  It’s the “spring break” time of year but you don’t have to head for a Florida beach to get in on some hot action.  Give me a call.

THE PLEASANT UNCERTAINTY

Time to hook 'em up

  I love the trip from the boat launch to where I plan to set lines and begin fishing. Sometimes in early spring, that may be only a few minute ride. Other times in the heat of the summer it might be a half-hour or more. Whatever the length of the boat ride, those minutes are filled with what I call the “pleasant uncertainty.”

Check it out

  There’s no sure thing when it comes to fishing. I’ve had spectacular fishing one day go as flat as possum on I-65 the next. I’ve had days when the results of the day’s fishing far exceeded expectations. In short, each day faces uncertainty but since I’m “going fishing” it’s a pleasant uncertainty.


  Right now, I’m in a slightly different sort of pleasant uncertainty. It’s time to drag the Brother Nature out of it’s winter hibernaculum, clean out the vestiges of last season, then make sure the early season lures and other gear are stowed on board.
  Then, drag the garden hose out of winter storage, hook it up to the lower unit and see if the motor can be coaxed to life. A quick check of wheel bearings, a bottle or two of HEET in the fuel tank and then just wait for a weather report good enough to run with.

Catch some fish

  Can I get it all done?  Will everything work as well on the water as it does at home? Which marina should I visit?  What time should I aim to hit the water.

  I’m uncertain.... But it’s a pleasant uncertainty!