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walleye express |
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 Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | After yesterdays pleasant but disappointing trip to AuGres, I decided to hit familiar waters late this afternoon and tonight with another friend. The flags on our way up the Saginaw River towards the mouth, unfortunately were not lying today. And even though the bay was calm virtually all day, the NE was starting to whip her up again, as we cleared the Coast Guard buoy tender at the mouth and started towards Linwood. About half way there, we both knew it was only going to get worse. I slowed the boat and suggested we fish the leeward side of the man-made island at the mouth. "Your the Captain" my bud answered. I spun the jet boat around and we were fishing by 6:30.  On our first pass in 9 FOW, past the shallow sandy point the juts out from the southern tip of the island, the outside board with the #13 Silver/Blue Husky was keel hauled underwater. I thought it was snagged, but the throbbing rod told a different story. The fish fought very hard and stayed down, but I still thought it was not a walleye. I got a slight glimpse of the fish before it got off right as I was lifting it into view and thought it was indeed a walleye. But after we both settled down we decided it was just to big. But after we landed the next two, we kinda changed our minds about that assessment. We were back at the ramp before dark, as the wind finally found us behind the island as well. All this action in less than 2 hours and about 2 miles (as the crow flies) from my own house. Think I'll make shorter field trips this spring.  :) Edited by walleye express 4/17/2005 8:46 PM Attachments ----------------  4-17-05 Sag Bay..JPG (86KB - 81 downloads) | ||
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| sworrall |
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Location: Rhinelander | Nice fish, sir! Our season is still closed here, so Sue and I went after crappies on a local 230 acre lake. Water temps were in the low 50's and the fish were very uncooperative. We found them in 12', but couldn't get them to go at all. We came home and had sloppy joe sandwiches for dinner.  | ||
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| walleye express |
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Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Forgot to mention and post another picture I took Sunday on the Bay. It's a very strange picture to say the least, and is of a Pelican that was standing near the man-made island, on that sand point I mentioned on my original post above. The picture is not the best as it was far away. But the familliar outline in the middle of the picture of the Pelican, even in the small picture is obvious. In my 1/2 century of fishing and hunting the Bay, I've never seen a Pelican anywhere near it. It was indeed a rare two hours on the Bay. I heard Pelicans will scarf down Comorant chicks like candy. We can only hope. I e-mailed my DNR biologist bud the picture and asked him to comment on my sighting. He e-mailed me back with some facts. Dan: I believe that is the White Pelican. They are a rare ocurrance in the Great Lakes but not unheard of. They winter on the gulf coast and then migrate up the central flyway for breeding. That usually takes them up, east of the Rockies along the Great Plains. They were a common ocurrance on the big Missouri River Reservoirs in South Dakota where I used to work. There was a small breeding colony of white pelicans in Green Bay some years back and they have been observed as far east as the Beaver Islands. This is the first time I've heard of any in Lake Huron. Was there just one of them? To my knowledge, they eat only fish. I've never heard that they eat cormorant chicks and I highly doubt that. Unlike cormorants, however, these big birds are not good divers and instead tend to catch more shallow, smaller fish species. I have seen them work together to corral a school of shiners up against the shore (trapping them) and then eating away at the mass of fish. They scoop up both water and fish and then tilt their head back to let the water drain out the sides leaving just fish that they swallow. When they fly, you can plainly see their big distinctive yellow beaks and the under side of their wings have a large black back half to it. Many have wondered (and feared) if white pelicans might not begin to colonize the Great Lakes one day. They would be yet another predator on our fish stocks. However, my opinion is that they would be less of a predator and more of a competitor. There numbers would have to get very huge to have a measurable impact. I'm pretty sure they are also protected by the Migratory Bird Act, same a cormorants. I presented at the day-long Sea Grant Charter Boat workshop in Bad Axe on Saturday. I thought I might see you there. We're going to do another round on Saturday, April 30th in Oscoda. The big issue is the future of Chinook management in light of the nearly absent alewife prey base but I talked too on what's going on in Saginaw Bay with walleye and perch. You were probably wisely fishing on Saturday instead of sitting in a dark room listening to a bunch of DNR types droan on. Can I share your pelican picture and report with some others? -Dave Edited by walleye express 4/20/2005 9:41 AM Attachments ---------------- IM000894.JPG (14KB - 102 downloads) | ||
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| Rob Stratton |
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| sworrall |
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Location: Rhinelander | |||
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| jerry |
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