Fishing Information

If you're looking for a change of pace from the usual fishing for bass, trout and panfish fare, here's an overlooked gamefish you might want to have a go at — the chain pickerel. 

Most people fish with a rod and reel, but you don’t have to limit yourself to just one type of fishing.

If you've ever traveled around the shores of Lake Michigan or Lake Superior during late April or early May, you may have seen a dazzling array of beach fires and individuals seining the ice-cold waters. Smelt, like many of the other Great Lakes species, instinctively swim towards gravel shores or spring-fed tributaries to continue their lifecycle during this time of year, bringing them close enough for anglers to catch a few. This annual event is one of the largest migratory runs of freshwater fish anywhere in the world.  

Fishing lure manufacturers have displayed uncanny ingenuity in making plastic, metal, and wood offerings that can shimmy, wiggle, gurgle, pop, dart and quiver. But no artificial fishing bait can ever display that totally alive, frenetic movement or the scent appeal that a real natural bait can.

A rod and reel: Who needs them?

Even as temperatures rise in the spring, sometimes fish need to be "shaken" out of their winter lethargy. Colder temperatures slow them down, and fish can also be lazy. So it makes sense to start thinking "scents" right about now.

As an angler, you already know about the close relationship between predator and prey in oceans and rivers. This video, "Little Forage Fish are a Big Deal," hammers home the importance of small, sometimes overlooked "forage fish" like anchovies, sardines and smelt in the life cycle of the bigger predator fish that we love to catch.

Like its big cousin, the walleye, saugers provide a dependable early spring bite in many systems. There are tips and tricks to make sauger more than just a bonus catch when targeting walleyes.  

Leonard's Three-way Options