Fishing America

Paul Hale

STATE # 29 - MICHIGAN

AUGUST 2018 - LAKE MICHIGAN, MUSKEGON LAKE, LAKE HURON, ST CLAIR RIVER, LAKE ST CLAIR

SPECIES CAUGHT - Lake Sturgeon, Lake Trout, Walleye, Northern Pike, Silver Bass, Small-mouth Bass, Yellow Perch, Large-mouth Bass, Rock Bass, Rock-head

I was fired up for this trip with five guides booked in this state with so much water around and in it. I spent the night of the 5th in a deep sleep at Grand Haven under the influence of a motion sickness pill anticipating rough water the next morning.

When I woke up to the sound of an electrical storm, I took another one and headed to the marina where I met guide Kirk Heilman before daylight. I remembered that one of the reasons I booked Lake MI with him was that he didn’t cancel.

His huge boat with enclosed cabin was equipped as well as could be for bad weather. We started slowly toward the main body of the lake and when the electrical part of the storm passed, we hit this great lake head-on. After going miles offshore the wind and rain never let up.

The thing about motion pills is they always work for me, but I have still never found one that does not make me sleepy regardless of their claims in writing on the bottles. As this drowsy angler visited with Captain Kirk, his first mate hit the deck rigging down lines while this large boat tossed about.

When Kirk went back to the wheel, I hit the handy cabin bed by the door of the deck. The rain-soaked kid on the deck could tell I was going to sleep and asked, what do I do if you get a fish on. He looked bewildered when I replied, just holler loud, “FISH ON”.

Normally the guy in the middle of it all, the power of that pill was overriding my desire of everything else. He hollered “FISH ON”, and I woke and jumped up and officially put my name on catching a lake trout. That was enough to keep me awake to get a second one. A dream or two later we were back in the windy marina.

My next stop was in Muskegon just a few miles up the road. After checking in early to my favorite hotel of all my travels (The Shoreline Inn) I slept off the motion pill and storm in luxury and in preparation for my night trip with Justin Sattory for a contrast of same-day experience.

The only movement in this dead calm Muskegon Lake was what little wake Justin’s open boat created. After fishing under the starlit shining lake until 2 am I retreated with fresh walleye back to the Shoreline Inn to my oh so comfortable luxury suite.

The day that started me out like Jonah finished with me admiring the heavens and all of God’s lights while peacefully fishing with a new friend. The next night found me on the other side of MI fishing with CaptainTodd Dobberowsky Sr. the ex-truck driver and owner of Rods-A-Poppin.

We didn’t need the enclosed cabin of Todd’s big boat for anything but the radio blaring both my favorite kinds of music - Country and Western. With a deckhand helping with the multiple rods set a few minutes after Todd set all 4 anchors in the St Clair River, all four anchors gave way to the strong current.

Only a few minutes after re-anchoring a little after 6 pm I hooked and boated my target fish getting my first lake sturgeon ever. After a war with this powerful bottom feeder, I decided to keep this 42” fish and kept fishing anchored solidly in the current.

I thought, at this rate, I’ll catch a ton of these by 2 a.m. I was sport fishing after this because the annual limit of one was tied to a rope. Just after midnight after catching some other smaller fish, another one hooked up and I immediately announced this one is bigger.

Another tug of war proceeded and wore out my shoulder. For a couple of seconds, the war went silent and I told Todd I lost him. He said no you didn’t-watch this (don’t know how he knew). That fish shot straight up out of the water like a rocket going completely vertically airborne. He was hooked good, but he still wasn’t going quietly.

It was truly a thrill and a relief to win the fight boating this beast in the midnight hour. We got a picture with this one that measured 48” and then turned him loose. Fishing with Todd was lots of fun. The old truck driver and I had lots in common. We made plans for another trip the next night, but not before my next guide.

I met Anthony Moreschini, owner of Finn’s Sport Fishing the next evening on this same water at the town of St Clair and fished for multiple species and catching them. Most memorable were the awesome small-mouth bass I limited on. These were so fun to catch in the clear water that reflects one of the most unique colors.

The water there looks completely baby blue instead of clear, medium blue, aqua, deep blue, ocean blue, or other normal colors of clean water bodies. I have never seen another like it before or since. I can still see those silver bass and smallmouth bass emerging from the baby blue water of the North Channel of the St Clair River.

Anthony is as nice a person as you will ever meet, most professional, and put me on 6 different species of fish. This was an awesome evening of fishing. I am happy to count Anthony as one of my new friends I have made across this country and wished I had booked another day or two with him.

Anthony also fishes for sturgeon, musky and a couple of more specialties and knows how to implement a backup plan so well. He knows how to find all of them and makes it look easy. At this time (after 9 pm) I was getting worn down from the action but refused to admit it.

I met Todd back at his house at about 10 pm driving there straight from where Anthony filleted my fish. Todd was getting his little boat ready to take me into Lake Huron for a walleye handlining trip. This was new to me. Action time was back.

I had never fished in a way that resembled this before. Before I knew it I was in Lake Huron again fishing in the midnight hour in the somewhat foggy air. I was about to experience some wild excitement in this great lake.

The big spring-loaded reel on the side of the boat required me to pull out about 40 feet of string with the huge ball weight that helps pull it down once underwater then beats along the bottom fore-running the baited hook that makes walleye bite when they won’t bite any other way.

When the fish were hooked, I had to pull them in by hand as the spring-loaded reel pulled the line out of my way re-spooling it. When the fish start to come out of the water you have to yank on them and make them land in the boat.

What a crazy way to have fun. Out in Lake Huron after midnight back and forth from partly clear and foggy with an occasional giant ship barely visible in the distance, a few more people just as crazy as us fishing, and the lit-up Blue Water Bridge standing so majestically over 200 feet tall bridging our country and Canada together, yanking walleye into the boat.

I asked Todd while in the fog once, how far is to Canada? He laughed and replied, we are probably in it. The next day after fishing until 3 am I somehow kept a 7 am appointment with another guide on Harsen’s Island in Lake St Clair. I didn’t know 2 years later the images of MI would still be so clearly vivid in my mind.

The storm in Lake MI, the starlit calm Lake Muskegon, the sturgeon rocketing out of the water in the light of Todd’s boat, the unique baby blue water of St Clair, and the walleye flying through the air into the boat with that bridge lit up behind the fog are all still so clear.

Along with those stuck in my mind was a kid riding a bike down a gravel road on Harsen’s Island with a rod-n-reel clutched in one hand against the handle and a tackle box in the bike basket. If Norman Rockwell could have seen that kid at that place on that day! This scene would fit right into Moe Bandy’s Americana.

I recommend all these guides named. Anthony can be found on the web at Finn’s Sport Fishing. All four of them can be found on fishingbooker.com. After completely exhausting myself Fishing America in Michigan, I headed to Indiana for an easier pace.