Click here for my first Salmon I caught on Oct. 1, 1968

Archived Daily Log 
(Dating back to the year 2000)

2/9/20  Safety afloat is always a good conversation.  DSC, or digital selective call on your marine VHF radio could save your life.  Click DSC info
             Good news is marine radios with GPS have came down in price a lot from 200 to less than 140.  Prior to self contained GPS inside the radio you had to run a special transmit cable from your GPS to your radio for DSC to work.
             Maritime Mobile Service Identity, or (MMSI) is an assigned 9 digit number that's entered into your DSC radio for instant distress calls. Click apply for MMSI number

2/8/20  It pays to check Amazon's prices against China's Aliexpress.  Saved about 40% on an hour meter I plan on installing in the Grumman 16' aluminum boat to keep tabs on usage.  Recommended oil changes are at 100 hours in the 4 stroke 60 hp. 
             If I troll at lot with this boat? ...every 50 hours I'll suck out the oil.  Then, at 100 hour intervals replace the oil & filter.  Click Amazon vs. Aliexpress pricing
            This regimen allowed me to get to close to 8000 hours out of both of the original GM 350 V8s in my charter boat.  Even good oil is cheap compared to replacing engines.
            Only drawback with Aliexpress is the wait time that ranges from 1 to 3 weeks. 
So, if you're not in hurry?  The savings is there.  Never been scammed on Aliexpress like I have on eBay.  Besides, most all of this stuff comes from China in the 1st place.

2/7/20  Posted a photo of our soon to debut "6 Rod Special" at the webstore.  3 Combo deals are: 10" BTIs in XG Frog, Super Silver Bullet and Firedot with 2 fly meat rigs™.
             Spoons will include the 2020 XG A.I in 4.0 and 4.65 sizes.  Same with the XG Ghostbuster pattern.  Last 2 are the 4.65 Gold Bullet and the 4.0 Gold Orange Crush.
             These selections are proven to work all season long and have for many years in most cases.  Excluding the brand new 2020 A.I. spoons.  Click 6 rod spread pic
              My tackle is made to perform as a team at speeds from 1.5 to 3.0 mph.  The 3 combos are the best of the best.  The 6 spoons are my go to baits on the Great Lakes of: Huron, MI, and Ontario.  Tomorrow, the debut of our best 3 trolling flies on my boat.

2/6/20  Working on building tackle for the soon to debut specials.  Asked myself a question if I was limited to 3 flashers, 3 meat rigs™, 3 flies and 6 spoons to cover all parts of the big lake season?  Came up with the best of the best.  Proven fish catchers on the Great Lakes of Huron, MI and Ontario and have the photos from years gone by to prove it. 
             Went with the 10" flashers that present more options that can be run on riggers, divers, core, and copper.  Over the past few seasons caught more fish on the 10" BTI flashers.  Productivity influenced the selections in the "6 Rod Spread Special."

2/5/20  Past experience often is a hindrance.  Case in point: my Rogers City trip last August.  All warm water inshore, no temp break inside a 100' and some feet.  Yet, I still ran most of the spread deep, mistakenly looking for cold deepwater Kings that have done me well ...since I started fishing meat in 2003.  Old habit are reel-hard to break.
            Finally, figured out the adult Kings were all in the top 30' the second time off the dock, when it was time to head for home.  These warm water Kings 68° still hit meat along with the new 2020 A.I. X-Glow spoons on divers, 1/2 lead cores and 150' copper.
           Deceptive thing about high, top 30' Kings? ...is you usually don't mark them!
           Knowing what I know now?  Absolutely positive we'd have increased our fish take.  This was my 1st trip to Rogers City on Lk. Huron.  About the same longitude as my 2017 trip to Manistique, MI on Lk. MI when there was no cold water.  Our fish came out of 60° water.  Hindsight is always 20/20 and these are good lessons to relearn for 2020.

2/4/20  Manistee, MI's 1st Street boat launch is in better shape than the photos posted about a week ago.  Damage was done to the top coarse, where high water/ice peeled away the top 2 inches.  This was most severe on the far E ramp.  All ramps look useable for now and that's reel-good news for all. Click E boat ramp
            Posted a photo of our male Labradoodle Scruffy yesterday as a stand-in for a groundhog.  We bred and raised this dog and might be a little biased.  Labradooles are a tick smarter than Labs and easy to make into a fine companion.  Scruffy weighs close to 80 pounds and is smart, obedient and don't shed like a Lab. Click for Scruffy

2/3/20  Had to use our chocolate Labradoodle, Scruffy for a stand-in for Mr. Groundhog.  Scruffy did not see his shadow.  Signaling another 6 weeks of winter according to folk lore.  Yesterday was a typical gray winter day in Manistee.  High temp was balmy 42° day for the 2nd day of February.  Above average temps have been a blessing this winter.
            Have some new photos of Manistee's launch ramp since the melt.  Lot looks decent with only the top coat of asphalt peeled back.  All ramps look useable.

2/2/2020  Four deuces update.  Check back later for the outcome of Groundhog Day.  Did find a surprise stand-in for Mr. G. Hog that will be revealed soon.  Worse outcome is only 6 more weeks of winter and that's perfectly OK by me.

2/1/20  T.G.I.S. Computer/digital free weekend for yours truly.  Let you know how Manistee fared on Groundhog Day tomorrow.

1/31/20  Goodbye January 2020!  gone is the darkest, longest and usually our coldest month of winter.  Excluding this year.  Predicted daytime high temps are all above freezing thru February 8th.  So, for the time, being our mild 2020 winter continues.
              February in 2020 is a leap year with 29 instead of 28 days that will still go by quickly. This month unfolds with Groundhog Day, then Valentine's Day.  Interest will slowly build in the 2020 fishing season the closer we get to spring. 
             In the near future will debut some tackle specials.  One I'm most excited about will be called: 6 Rod Spread package deal that targets summer King.  Everything in the 6 Rod Spread, 6 spoons and 3 meat rig™ combos that you've seen here in photo proof.
            This eliminates sorting thru countless hours of trail and error.

1/30/20  Hope to wrap up boat prep on my 16' and 22' by Monday.  It's well within reason we could get a jump on the Lk. MI season out of Manistee, in about 6 weeks. 
               Being ready ASAP allows for fine tuning all details.  The fishing business since 1983 has taught me personal time for boat jobs becomes scarce once the season is here. Tackle sales can keep me shore bound unless I'm ready at the drop of a hat.
              The way the harbor looks and the lure of no floatie ice on Lk. MI, I'm half-temped to roll out the 16 footer this coming Sunday when predicted temps are in the 40s.

1/29/20  Posted a photo of Manistee's Public Launch looking upriver towards Manistee Lk.  Please notice the drop-off in the parking lot asphalt compared to the concrete ramp.  The concrete is higher than the lot.  This could have happened from frost/freeze heave, or waves undermining the asphalt. Click for this 1/24/20 picture
              Checked the January 2020 history and there's only been 6 days Manistee has not broke the 32° freezing mark for the daily high.  This has been a warm January compared past years ...when it was the other way around.  Click for this data

1/28/20  Being a boat owner for over 50 years means I have no excuse to accept lower standards.  Cleaned up the spaghetti wiring from the previous owner. 
             Put the wires inside a loom that protects and looks a helluva lot better.  Needed the next size up on the loom, but worked with what I had. 
             These wires are covered up by the rear deck and no one will probably see them.  Know we're judged by the quality of our work.  Click wiring before and after
           Did some research on Grumman boats.  In the mid 1990s OMC owned the company.  The parent company, Grumman made the Wildcat fighters in WWII.  They built the bodies on UPS trucks.  NASA's Lunar Lander for the moon shot too.
            Checked the thickness on the aluminum in my Grumman 16 footer.  Anything structural is .125" (1/8").  Hull looks like it's .080 in the area where I could get mic on it.

1/27/20  Today's feature photo of Lk. MI was taken S of the harbor off 12th Street.  Making this the S boundary of the golf course.  Please note there's no ice.  No build up of high mounds of stacked shore ice.  Highly unusual for this time of the year.
               Open water should help deteriorate the debris washed into Lk. MI from high water.  Inshore floating root systems and weeds can make the beach unfishable.
               Thanks to Manistee, MI local, Wayne J for sending in his pic to share with you.  Generally, this is how the end of March looks.  Click 1/24/20 ice-free Lk. MI

1/26/20  On my 1/19/20 update I mentioned how high the water was at Manistee's pubic launch.  This high water has caused some damage with the asphalt breaking up above the inclined concrete ramp.   Ice broke the ends off a few docks too.  It remains to be seen how much damage there is until there's a complete melt off.            
               Early season fishermen have 4 places to launch on Manistee Lake.  Stronach is probably the best and furthest away from Lk. MI.  There's a nice boat launch at Penny Park in East Lake.  Another is the E side US31 known as Arthur St. a little S of Manchinos.
               One I like most is the hard to find 9th Street.  It's a small boat single ramp that's used mostly by locals.  So, no matter what happens there's plenty of alternatives for the early season (March-April) Lk. MI Manistee fleet.

1/25/20  Working the whole story about ice damage to Manistee, MI's 1st Street Public Launch.  Asphalt above the ramps has been broken & pulled away above the concrete ramp incline.  More melting is needed to see how bad this is. Click  ramp ice damage
              A great big thank you from all of us goes out to Wayne J. aka "Take Five" for taking the time for the photo shoot and emailing in the picture.
              Undoubtedly, this will effect all early season fishermen.  The City of Manistee is proud of their facilities and will fix this ASAP.  This, I'm ultra sure of!

1/24/20  T.G.I.F!  This weekend's focus is boat prep.  There's some spaghetti wiring issues on the 16 footer that needs to be addressed.  Will photo before and after.
              22' Sea Ray is almost ready awaiting a quick interior clean and some tackle sorting.  Oil change and tune up was done last fall along with fixing a tire with a slow leak.
              Being ready now well before our busy season comes with the territory.  Looking forward to getting a lot done with above freezing daytime temps predicted to last thru Ground Hog Day, February 2, 2020.  High 30s are a blessing for this time of the year.

1/23/20  Can't wait for T.G.I.F.  Digital free weekend coming up for yours truly.  I've had all I can stomach of Windows 10.  This OS has removed a lot of former user functions and installed Microsoft Store to send us suggestive ads.  Knew Windows 10 was nasty when they gave it away free.  Newly SSD 1TB cloned C: drive is working as it should.
              Going to work on boats this weekend in case the weather breaks early like it has before and we'll be fishing Lk. MI by mid-March.  Click 3/16/12 1st launch
              Working with my hands is a joy compared to pulling mental IT brain levers.  It's therapy not to be sitting in the office staring into a computer screen.  Have plenty boat ready work in the pole barn.  Temp is supposed to be pushing 40 the rest of this week.

1/22/20   Outstanding news!  There's only 59 days of official winter left.  Spring 2020 begins March 20, 2020.  Taking into account, March, with it's longer days can break either way.  Thus far, winter 2020 has been on the mild side.  Only had to plow snow 5 times and that goes back to October.  Predicted weather for the next 7 days says we'll be above freezing in the low 30s.  Not bad, considering this is supposed to be the coldest of winter!

1/21/20  Spoon production continues today.  Yesterday was able to restock the popular Gold Orange Crush.  Ladder-back spoons, Green Hornet & Gold and Black were added too.
              Round 3 of computer wars took up most of yesterday afternoon when I cloned a new 1TB SSD from the existing 500GB SSD in our main office computer. 
              SSDs, or solid state drives have no moving parts, are more reliable and a bunch faster then the older style spinning multiple disk drives. Click cloning a SSD
             WIN 10 Disk Management system leaves a lot to be desired.  Had to use Partition Master 13.8  program to expand the C: drive disk space.
             Cloning a disk with Acronis is a piece of cake.  Takes about 2 to 3 hours to clone a 500GB drive.  Been using Crucial SSDs for about 10 years.  They've came down in a price a lot.  This is the offseason and can get time consuming computer jobs like this done.

1/20/20  Hope to debut a couple of preseason tackle specials for 2020 on, or around Super Bowl Sunday.  Specials will include what I run  on my boat for summer Kings that you've seen proven here in 2018 and 2019, or in my videos.
              Windows 10 with our Zebra thermo printers has been a fight.  This printers were state of the art in 2004 and still are in my opinion.  There's no easy fix, because Zebra has discontinued support for these printers/shipping label makers.  Finally, some hours later got them up and running perfectly like they were before the Win 10 OS switch.

1/19/20  My last Lk. MI trip of 2019 was on October 30th.  Noticed the high water at Manistee's 1st Street public boat launch.  Click Manistee launch March 2019
               Water was maybe 8" from flooding above/over the ramp into the lot.  Normally, water levels are the lowest of the season in the fall.  Not so last year.
              It remains to be seen where we're at with Lk. MI water levels this spring.  What brought this to mind? ....was Kewaunee, WI closed their launch to high water last year.
         Backyard snowometer guesstimation is at 52" for the 2019-2020 season.

1/18/20  Dodged a big bullet when I found the free upgrade tool link that I shared yesterday.  Was prepared for a clean Win 10 OS install, or start from scratch, then stuff existing programs into each of my network's 4 computers ...not a fun task!
              Some programs that are only available as downloads like my video editor and 3D printing software would have been a big hassle.  This would have required reactivation emails and reentering product keys. Click free Win 10 download tool
              It will be nice to get back to making tackle.  Good riddance to computer hell week that's took up the last 3 days, including 2 all-nighters.  2am till 8am my satellite internet does not count towards the metered monthly 20GB usage.
                     Not having to buy 4 licenses of Win 10 Pro is a godsend.

1/17/20  Pressed for computer time today.  On the 14th of this month, Microsoft discontinued support for Windows 7.  In the process of upgrading this box to the dreaded Windows 10 ...I thoroughly dislike.  If you're in a pinch to go to Windows 10, you can still download it for free according to PC Matic's newsletter.  I'm testing this now and it has downloaded Win 10 Pro OS with zero grief!  Click free Win 10 download tool
             Win 10 is a 5.6GB download that will take a long time.  Be sure to backup all files before attempting this upgrade.  Other than fish, computers are the most important part of my business.  Everything is controlled by the love-it, or hate-it box.
             Found a shell program that can turn Win 10 into Win 7 start screen that I like a lot.  For me, it made transitioning easier. Click Win 10 to Win 7 screen program
             Like within all things in computerville, you do so ...at your own risk.
       Backyard snowometer guesstimation is at 42" for the 2019-2020 season.

1/16/20  Personal attainable goals? ...this gives us something to strive for that can be accomplished.  Then, we all can say, "yep, I did that."
              In my case, catching Trout and Salmon out of all 5 of the Great Lakes, being: Lakes Superior. Erie, MI, Huron and Ontario is a heck of an accomplishment.
              Scratched off the list of the 7 major species of Salmon and Trout when a Lake Superior State expert visually identify/confirm an Lk MI Atlantic Salmon John J and I caught back on May, 17 2018 off the beach, close to shore, just N of Big Point Sable.
              Species of fish that I've seen taken on our Salmon Buster spoons include, Catfish, Pike, Whitefish, Spotted Bass, Coho, Chinook/King, Brown Trout, Lk. Trout, Pink Salmon, Steelhead, plus a Rainbow Trout from Crystal Lake in Benzie County, MI.
              That's 11 different species of fish on Salmon Buster™ spoons & more to come!

1/15/20  New 60 hp 4 stroke Suzuki outboard is installed and in-house waiting for spring.  Knowing both my boats are ready well before season is a good thing. 
              16' Grumman aluminum boat is rated for a 60. Weight of this 60 is the same as the 40 hp model.  Cost wasn't that much more over the 40, or 50.  I like the older tin boats, because the gauge of the aluminum is thicker.
              This small boat opens up a lot of advantages with a lot less grief to launch and retrieve my 1979 22' Sea Ray.  On the right day, this boat can troll down the Lk. MI shoreline.  Ice-out Lk. MI perch season is coming too. Click new 60 hp
             The Boat House in Irons, MI sold and installed the motor.  Prices are fair and I trust their work.  There's a lot of new tech with a 50 rpm increase troll mode switch and a tach that tells the hours on the motor when you first turn the key on.
             One of my goals for 2020 is to catch a smallmouth and a largemouth bass on our Salmon Buster™ spoons.  Already caught a spotted bass and this will round out the big 3.  More on the species our spoons have caught tomorrow.

1/14/20  Picking up my 16' Grumman aluminum boat today with a brand new 2020 60 hp. Suzuki 4 stroke.  Used to think Suzuki were the less desirable brand outboards until I purchased a Suzuki fuel injected 15 hp 4 stroke kicker that starts and runs flawlessly.
              Specifications on the DF60 Suzuki have a leg up on Honda, Yamaha and Mercury with a higher rpm range and a larger output alternator (except Honda).
              If Suzuki stats are to be believed? ...this 60 trolls on .1 to .2 gallons and hour.  This is a 57.4 cubic inch 3 cylinder motor with 12 valves.
             Weight is 229 lbs. vs. 197 lbs. on the 40 hp 2 stroke Evinrude it's replacing.  This swap is a lot closer to even when you figure the Evinrude 1.8 gallon 2 cycle oil tank full of oil is pushing close to 20 lbs.  Click for stat sheet comparison

1/13/20  Great news!  There's only 65 days of winter left.  Days are getting longer too.  We're gaining the best part of 2 minutes of daylight everyday.
              In the process of re-powering my 16' Grumman tin boat.  Evinrude 2 stroke 40 hp. was over 20 years old.  Know most their next boat to be larger. 
              Had a big boat with  twin GM 350 V8s and an 11' beam that could be tailered if you got the route and paid $25 for the permit issued from the MDOT. 
             Cost to operate includes a seasonal dock and filling up the 150 gallon gas tank on the water could easily exceed $400.  Fuel mileage on the water was 1.2 miles per gallon on a good day with a flat sea and a little chop to break surface tension.
              Last weekend's rain, snow and ice storm fizzled out.  Only ended up with 4 inches of snow.  Not the foot that was predicted.  Which is fine by me.
               Backyard snowometer estimation is at 38" for the 2019-2020 season.

1/11/20  Good weekend to take a break.  Rain, ice and snow storms will take out my satellite dish for most of the weekend.  Be back Monday when the storms are done.

1/10/20  It's entirely possible could be fishing Lk. MI out of my home port of Manistee in about 9 weeks.  Looking forward to April after checking the 2019 stocking records for Brown Trout (60k).  Last season, April was all Lake Trout & my boat never caught a Brown.
              Spring Browns on the beach are not a hard fish to catch.  Young, 1st year Browns are eating machines.  They'll eat spawn, smelt, alewives and chow down on gobies.  Growth rate on yearlings in late March is around 1.5 lbs.  By the end of April they've grown to chunky footballs pushing 4 lbs. Click gobies in a Brown
             Only worry is our current state of high water that causes beach erosion and washes in a lot of weeds along the beach that makes trolling impossible.

1/9/20  Checked the MDNR stocking data base in Manistee for Brown Trout.  In 2018 the DNR did plant 33k in the Manistee River at (21N 17W 11).  My sketchy decipher of the lat/lons put this stocking site inland from Lk. MI and N by a good distance.
            2019 shows a hefty increase in Browns to 60k at the same above location.  These were good sized stocked Brown Trout ranging from 6 to 7 inches.  
            In the 1990s thru about 2001 April Brown Trout fishing in Manistee was world class with several state records being broke. Click Michigan stocking data base
             2020 looks like it could be a promising season for Brown Trout that used to provide an excellent small boat and charter shoreline fishery. 

1/8/20  Saturday, February 1, 2020 is the annual Sea Grant Meeting held at Ludington's West Shore Community College.  Click for agenda & registration
             This meeting is where you're fed propaganda about the state of our Lk. Michigan Fishery.  MDNR and Sea Grant lost me when they relayed a mis-fact about Steelhead's diet.  Saying it was mostly alewife based.  Caught 1000s of Steelhead out of Lk. MI.  Seldom, if ever are Steelhead packed full of just alewives.  Most of the time it's a mix of lot of bugs (both terrestrial and aquatic). Click Steelhead Stomach Contents
             Charge is 30 bucks for what should be free.  Especially, if the any of the speakers are getting paid.  Remember above all else, these are the policy setters with full responsibly for our current D-minus MI King Salmon fishery.  In fact, the MDNR must be ashamed and has stopped publishing the 2019 number of Salmon captured from the Little Manistee Harvest Weir that goes back 52 years to 1968. Click for missing weir 2019 data

1/7/20  Mentioned the lack of anything close to safe ice on inland lakes around my place for the hard-water fishermen.  Open water on Lk. MI is a good thing that let's light penetrate to keep the food chain moving.  Lk. Huron lost their alewife population after it froze over for 2 consecutive years.  So, to we need Lk. MI to stay ice free.
             Did run across a good, in-depth article about winter ice cover on all 5 Great Lakes with graphs and long-term ice averages.  Click Great Lakes Ice info

1/6/20  First full week of January 2020 after the holidays.  This is when business gets back to normal and industry moves forward full swing.
             Moderate temperatures is the reel-story from Manistee, MI.  Above freezing temps has has kept what little ice there is unsafe.  Lakes I've drove by close to home look treacherous.  Still open water on Manistee Lake.
            Saga of this website continues when I purchased top level Michiganangler and MichiganSportsman domains in .com during the winter of 1999.  This was just after buying my first computer that was plagued by the Windows 98.  This OS was highly unstable and would crash with blue screen of death often.  This was a handicap for any newbie.

1/5/19  Touched briefly of Sport and Fishing shows that will be happening in the next two, or three months.  Used to be, these shows is where new tackle débuted.  The internet has changed that with the loss of much needed personal contact.
            Did these shows for about 25 years.  Some as a factory rep for Big Jon when BJ had their Pro Team representing their products.
            Most of the shows I did for myself to book charters & river trips.  It's a lot easier to catch fish than it is customers.  Goal was to book 200 plus days a year.
            Did shows in the SE MI/Detroit area at the Cobo Hall, State Fair Grounds, Novi, Flat Rock and Warren MI.   Statewide in MI was at Grand Rapids, Flint, Birch Run & Lansing MI.  Out of state shows include Louisville KY, South Bend IN, Cleveland OH, & Erie PA.
            Worst thing about shows is living out of motels and tear-down when the show closes.  Everybody rushes to load-up and clear the building to get on the road home.

1/4/20  Posted a photo that shows just a part of my show booth that consisted of four 4' by 7' panels, a 9' light bar over the top and twenty, or more 24" by 36" pictures to display our charter results/catches.  Enough stuff to fill up a pickup with a 8' box.
            Got lucky with this photo when friends, Chuck Cartwright, aka Mr. Silver Streak was visiting with Capt. Bud Raskey at my booth.  Bud has his back to the camera with the red hat.  We were at Flint Steelheaders Show in March of 2001. Click for this photo
            This was back when dialup internet speed was around 50k, if you had a good phone line?  That's why the resolution on the pic is only 640 x 480 to load quicker.
            Both Bud and Chuck passed a away several years ago.  They were icons of the Great Lakes fishing fleet.  Bud would go on to be inducted in the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and Chuck's legendary Silver Streak spoon is still catching fish nowadays.
            Took the long way around to explain what went into hauling my show booth to 30 days of sport shows a year.  That's why I bought my 1st computer in 1999 and was dumber than a stump when it came to running one.

1/3/20  Keeping with the theme of our 20 year celebration, the genesis (motivating factor) behind my involvement with the internet began back in 1996.
             Was doing the Grand Rapids sport show to book Lk. MI charters and Manistee river trips.  My booth was next to Randy Even and got to know him very well in the 4 day show run.  Randy, the inventor of the Slide Diver told me he had just booked a couple of charters on this thing called the internet?  Randy passed away about 5 years ago.
             Needless to say, this "internet" word peaked my interest, because I had to drag my dog and pony show a 100 and some miles to GR, set up a booth, pay about 1200 bucks for the show, out of town meals, and lodging. Click for my show booth
             Needed to learn more about the thing called, "the internet."  Even though I had yet to even own, or know how to operate a computer.  All I knew this the "internet" thingy could book trips right from your home base.  Eliminating a heck of a lot of hassle.

1/2/20  Great news!  There's only 78 days of winter left before the 2020 Great Lakes season begins.  In less than 3 months it's forward into the yet to be written future.
            It's a big deal to celebrate 2 decades with this website.  1st 3 years (2000-2003) was still a full time skipper/river guide in the charter business.  Click Past Results
            That's how this site began.  Seen this website as a useful tool to keep track of my charter's names and results.  Posted every trip too.  Not just the glory days that do not show a reel picture of what goes on every day throughout April thru October.
            Sure, we had some 4, or 5 fish charter catches back on Lk. MI during the early i2ks, but most of them were heavy boxes and happy charter cliental.

1/1/20  Happy New Year!  Today, it's my joy to officially announce our 20 year website anniversary that celebrates 7300 daily updates and counting. 
             Also, the 2020 season marks my 52nd year on our 5 magnificent Great Lakes.  Fished all five, being Lakes: MI, Huron, Superior, Ontario and Erie.  Now, that's the ultimate definition of reel-fun to the highest degree and there's more on the way!
            Posted a photo titled "Kid's Day" by Derek L with a respectable Manistee, MI King Salmon from last August.  This pic of his son and big King gets this website off on the right foot and sets a positive tone for for 2020.  Click for Derek's photo
          Snowometer backyard estimation is at 38" for this snow season thus far.

Continued below back to the year 2000: