Can you identify this?
We’ve had a mild winter up here in the U.P. and most ice fishing anglers (including yours truly) are still waiting for ice to form on their favorite spots. Copper Harbor has had ice, but not enough and now with the warm temps, it’s gone again. Keweenaw Bay is ice-less, so the only places to fish are inland lakes. Gratiot Lake has produced some walleye and pike, although the walleye are small, with few 14 inches or more.
Last summer’s and previous plants of Splake in Copper Harbor (over 32,000) and Marquette County (about 28,000), have drawn anglers to this fun to catch and very tasty fish. Plants have been in the 7 to 8 inch range and with higher growth rates than the 2 parent fish (brook trout and lake trout) they can reach the legal size of 15 inches just one year later.
Walleye fishing has been disappointing in our area, except for Gratiot lake in Keweenaw County, where the fish are small, but plentiful. Our local fishermen have joined forces (Copper country Walleye Association) to bring back the fishery by planting 1 million fry last spring and more planned for the future. The DNR has also planted over 500,000 walleye last year in Houghton County. See the Marquette fish hatchery here: Marquette State Fish Hatchery.
It’s been many years since we were able to ice fish for Lake Trout in Rabbit Bay since the ice has not formed up very well, but one of these years, we’ll get out there again.
We are still looking for guys interested in going to Detroit for the big boat show at Cobo Hall.
Brian Helminen
