Fishing and Hunting Michigan

10/11/2023

Another fun day in the field with son Eric and dog gunner. Shor a bunch of pheasants, watched gunner work a bunch of birds 🐦

06/05/2023

Crawlers catch bass and walleye, by Jack Payne,
We spent a few days on Lake Mitchell and Lake Cadillac over the Memorial Day weekend. Folks, these two connecting lakes are my go to fun vacation lake. The fishing can be fantastic and a true angler’s smorgasbord. On Friday we caught bass, pike, perch, walleye, bluegill and crappie.
As many anglers already know, crawlers land plenty of bass and walleye. You can drift a crawler, slow troll a crawler, run it behind a bottom bouncer or a sinker. I remember my early years of fishing I remember fishing out of my uncles 12 foot Jon boat. My cousin Dave and I were casting nose hooked crawlers along a cabbage w**dbed. We limited out on crappie!
Four local guides that are members of West Michigan Walleye Club that I also am a member of shared some of their favorite ways to fish a crawler. Todd Venema from Third Coast Charters (231-740-0304) shared his thoughts.
“I use a lot of slow death hooks with a Mack smile blade” said Venema. And he typically fishes them at less than 1 mph. He will also use a two hook crawler harness typically with a Colorado blade in various sizes usually a 3, 4 or 5 depending on where he is fishing and what time of the year it is.
Craig Tipton of MI Time Charters (269-312-0562) will often find summer time eyes right near the w**d edges feeding on bait. Another great option is trolling small crawler harnesses over w**d beds. Sometimes you can locate eyes suspended over deep water, although tough to detect on sonar, these fish will feed all day long as they are out there foraging on schools of minnows. One key to this is look for a thermocline somewhere in the water column. Walleyes will always be where the food is stated Tipton.

Derek Nykamp of Freedom Charters (616-723-5964) stated that when the bite gets tough in the summer months this is an absolutely go to bait. From bottom to suspended fish it will increase your catch rate. The size of the blade depends on the body of water that he is on but one thing that holds true is 1.2 mph is the go to speed with a lot of turns.
“I'm not a guy that likes to go in a straight line as the fish will continue to follow it and I've learned they love to hit on turns (speed change) said Nykamp. You can determine if they want it faster or slower by the side they are hitting on during a turn.
Recently Nykamp has been messing with Berkeley SR to keep the mess of worms out of his boat! “When I do run worms I was them before they get in the boat” said Nykamp. When he says I wash my worms it's exactly what it sounds like. Once they are clean I put them in a little cooler filled with water and 2 frozen water bottles. They biggest reason is you need fresh water!! Not treated as it will kill them quick. Remember to not even put ice from a gas station in your water as it has been treated! When you are done you can take them out and put them right back in the dirt.

“My go to crawler presentation is by far a slow death hook. I particularly like the Northland Fishing Tackle Super Death Riggs with a butterfly blade on them. I troll them at .8 to 1.2 mph and I use a full size crawler”, said Bryan Buist of 2 B Caught Charters (626-293-0256)

I bounce back and forth with my crawlers. At times I use fresh waters with ice cubes that I make from my pond water and throw the crawlers into it. Other times I place three or four crawlers with some bedding, no dirt, into a sandwich bag. I add lots of frozen water bottles to keep them chilled.
My favorite crawler rigs I make. My favorite blades are the Mack Smiley blades. When I use a Colorado blade I only use a high quality blade in Gold or Silver. Half of the time I use the hammered blades and half not. If I want some added colors I scratch on some crazy lines using a Sharpie in whatever color I like. Remember, fish will see the back of the blade longer than the front, so mark it up a bit. Crawlers catch both walleye and bass. Remember to stop in at Grand Valley Sport Shop in Allendale.
If you are looking for a realtor, give me a call. Jack Payne, Best Homes of Michigan.

04/11/2022

Walleye fishing on the Detroit River has kicked into high gear. The best fishing over the past 3 days is on the Canadian side. From the Ambassador bridge downstream to the 2 rock and Steel Mill areas.

Guides Todd Venema of Third Coast Charters, Bryan Buist of 2 b caught charters and Ken Clark of Fish Mas Charters enjoyed 3 great days on the water. Blue Ice, pomp daddy and black ice were very good plastic colors.

Some anglers are using unpainted jig heads while a few others are using pink, chartreuse or two tone colors. we will be on the River starting Tuesday thru Saturday.

05/20/2020

Duplication is the key in fishing, by Jack Payne
We just completed a few days on the St Clair River chasing down walleye. A few things came to mind. The small details and the duplication of them will always result in more fish, regardless of the species. Some of these are second nature to us and maybe you.
Mark a way point on every fish caught especially when the boat is moving. Pay attention to the exact location that the fish was caught. Was it caught on a drop-off? Was it along the w**dline? We limited out on walleye 4 times over the past 2 weeks.
In each case a pattern was easily spotted. We were fishing the edge of a river channel where it bordered a shallow flat. At times we caught fish on the flats especially when the cloud cover rolled in. When the sun was bright the walleyes drifted to the edge of the river channel or right into the deepest water of the channel.
Each river is different. Some rivers a deep channel might be 14-20 foot range, other rivers it might be 50-60 feet deep. The point is, walleyes and other species stage and hold in certain areas of a river for a reason. They look for current breaks, seams and hide behind objects that deflect current.
In a lake fish of any species love flats, w**ds, edges, points and drop-offs. Once again marking a way point is critical. Then seeing that way point on a contour map will explain things. We will often mark a waypoint where we see other anglers land a fish. We can then analyze what they were doing and duplicate it elsewhere.
Using a tracking mode on your graph helps a lot. We like to see exactly where we traveled. Then duplicating that drift or troll becomes very easy. You will see a pointer showing where your boat is and showing past drifts or trolls.
Fishing a w**dline it will show you if a fish was caught on the flat, on an inside turn or cup or on a point or opening of a w**dbed. It might show you that the bottom structure changed from marl to rock or mud.
We would much rather understand why a fish was there than on a certain color lure or bait. We talk to many anglers on any given day on the water. We never ask for their waypoints but will ask the depth, the general area, etc.
Patterns emerge quickly on any body of water. It applies to all species. Fish are in a given spot for a reason. Yes, there are times when you catch fish moving from one area to another location. Fish spawn in certain areas, feed on certain forage which can change location over the course of a season.
You can bet that bluegills and crappies will be within a good casting distance of a w**d bed most of the season. You can also count on them to suspend over open water. This is due to forage. Plankton blows off of the shallow flats and at certain times of the year hatches of insects emerge from mud flats that might be hundreds of yards from the nearest w**dline. Blood worms, wigglers etc. hatch at different locations.
Marking every fish caught will assist you in determining a pattern. Two more tips to share. I follow the minor and major feeding periods for each day. Make me a liar when I say that 80% of our caught fish will fall during one of these two periods.
Keep a log book on where you caught fish, the date and the air and water temperatures. When it comes to temperatures what I concentrate on is how it compares to the averages. Was the air temps 20 degrees above or below normal? Right that down.
We keep lures and baits fairly simple. Charlie Brewer crappie and walleye grubs, jig heads from a 1/32 up to a 1 ounce, Whip R Snap plastics, Black Moon teardrops, Hot Leg foam spiders, homemade crawler and bluegill harness rigs and a Buck fillet knife. The new model fillet knife makes a quick job on walleye. Duplication, using your waypoints and monitoring your travel paths will land you more fish.

05/20/2020

08/29/2015

Fishing Bo's Bluegill Spinners on B&M rods using Driftmaster Rod holders in depths pushing 60 feet. Fish nose to the bottom up to 40 feet and suspended fish out over 60 and sometimes 70 feet of water. Running .8 mph. Fished with Bud Lawson on Friday, Son Eric Payne on Saturday.

08/25/2015

Enjoying great bluegill fishing. Four trips out and excellent results. Trolling with Bo's bluegill spinners, sometimes on the bottom in 20-34 feet of water, other times suspended fish. Wen using my boat we run two sets of Driftmaster Rod Holders. Can run 6 rods easily without any tangles. Using pencil weights on a slider system to keep the weights away from the lures and easy to change weights.

08/05/2015

Great morning the water chasing bull bluegill with Denny Hettig. Used the spinners that Denny makes under the Bo,s Bluegill Busters. Lots of very nice wide shouldered gills.

05/18/2015

Catfish action has ben red hot as of late. Our boat caught 7 master angler cats so far and all were returned. Best bait, hotdogs soaked in anise oil. Next best, cut bait soaked in anise oil. Rachel Payne caught an 11 # cat as did Bette Jo Bell.

04/20/2015

Shoot a nice tom this morning. Tagged it, went to get my decoys and vest. Returned and watched by bird take off on a 100 yard dash. Good think I can still run a bit.

04/19/2015

Fished the Detroit river for walleye. Learned there are more fish near downtown Detroit and less snags than in the Trenton channel. Had two boats. Eric Payne, steve Moneybrake, Ryan Moneybrake, Keith Huyser with eric payne and friends in his boat. Used jigs, minnows and plastics

03/19/2015

Today I put on a free perch fishing seminar. Seminar was scheduled to run an hour, ended up at 1.75 hours. It was a lot of fun. If anyone would like a free speaker, give me a call. I have five other free fishing seminars scheduled at Evergreen over the next few months. Photos of Eric Payne, Jack Payne and John Huyser

03/19/2015

Mississippi crappie fishing was fun last week with Steve Moneybrake, Eric payne, Jared Lubbers and John Baar. We enjoyed rain, cool temps and more rain. We did land some really huge crappie, some pushing 3 pounds.

03/02/2015

Just put my Alumacraft Tournament Pro 170 on the market. Very sharp boat and need to sell it because I just bought the big brother to this boat.

03/01/2015

Spider trolling is a simple way to place your bait in front of a fish for the longest period of time in the most natural manner. Under cold water sand at ice out this means minnows or minnows and a jig. We run three rods per angler and you want each rod to sit exactly the same. This way if one rod tip changes position you will notice it.

We troll with the wind at our back most of the time because this will keep your rod tips super still. I run the Driftmaster rod holders or trees as many anglers call them.

03/01/2015

Heading to Mississippi for giant crappie on Friday with Eric Payne, Jared Lubbers, John Baar and Steve Moneybrake. Spider trolling minnows and jig/minnow combinations at a super slow speed.
Most often we need to throw out two drift socks to keep the speed down to the .2-.3mph.

02/25/2015

Getting Ready to go to Mississippi Crappie fishing with Jack Payne, Eric Payne and John Baar

02/12/2015

Replacing the carpet in my boat, then putting it up for sale. Next up, getting the new boat ready for our crappie trip to Lake Sardis in Mississippi. Going with Steve Moneybrake, Jared lubbers, Eric payne and John Baar.