New fishing spots are always difficult to fish, and Houghton Lake was no exception.  Okay, so maybe this was the second time we had fished this particular lake, but, considering the first time only lasted about an hour, and since ice fishing the lake back in February doesn’t count, this still felt like fishing the lake for the first time; it was difficult to say the least.

Early on the fishing was very slow, and picking our way through the multitude of “fishing spots” was a task in itself.  Houghton is approximately 7 ½ miles long and 4 ½ miles wide, so trying to find the “spot” on this gargantuan of a lake was a crap shoot at best – even my pre-fish “scouting” didn’t seem to help.  And with the beautiful sunset that greeted us that morning a thing of the past, frustration was starting to set in.

Houghton is very shallow and has the grand daddy of all weed beds.  I seriously don’t think I’ve ever seen a weed bed that dense, that thick, that shallow, or that big; it was quite a monstrosity and definitely threw all of us for a loop.   We tried our luck at fishing the drop-offs on the edge of it, but after they only produced one small pike and one huge lost fish, which we can only dream as to how big it really was, we were seriously thinking of throwing in the towel.

Thankfully we all have cell phones.

After 3 hours of slow, slow, slow fishing, Jeff finally dialed us up on the cell phone and let us in on a little secret he had found.  Apparently, after talking with a local old timer who was fishing on the lake, Jeff, along with his son, Tyler, had found a honey hole for walleye.  And, though it was another family fishing tournament, Jeff was still nice enough to share this information and let us in on the secret.

We sped across the choppy water – I’m still sore from a couple of the “bumps” we hit – and headed for the walleye Holy Grail.  Though Jeff and Tyler were using soft tail jigs, I dug through the tackle box and located the rig I sought:  one of the walleye rigs that we used when we were fishing on Lake Erie.  Now, normally, these rigs call for a real night crawler, but not having any of those in the boat, it was time to get crafty – and that is when I remembered that I had some Gulp brand night crawlers in the tackle box, and it was about time they actually caught something.

With the boat positioned parallel to the “run” we wanted to fish, I dropped the rig over the side of the boat, letting it hit bottom before jigging it up and down in the hopes of a strike; it didn’t take two casts before I had a decent little walleye on board; my first fish of the day.  Sweet!  If at first you don’t succeed, keep trying.

The rest of our first drift produced a fish for my cousin, Randy, but didn’t produce anymore fish for me.  After motoring back to the top of the drift, though, I meticulously jigged the rod up and down – slowly and easily – in the hopes of putting the first keeper of the day in the boat and increasing our odds of winning this “tournament”.

Finally, I felt a nice little tug on the line and set the hook.  It was quite a fight, because, not only did I have to fight the fish and the weeds, but I also had to fight the quick drift of the boat – the winds were horrible out on the water.  After a couple minutes of battle, I brought the 15 ½ inch walleye onto the boat – and, since there was only about 20 minutes left in the tournament, I figured this fish was the one that would take home the prize.

But, I forgot I was fishing against Jeff.

Right on cue, and not 5 minutes after landing my fish, I happen to glance over and notice Jeff’s rod bending like crazy.  I started to wish that he only had weeds, but after watching the 17 ½ inch, 2 ½lb largemouth make it to the net, I knew our chances of victory were over.  Obviously, Jeff was going to take home the money.

The trip was worth every penny we had to pay, though.  For one, it proved that you can teach an old dog new tricks – I caught my first walleye actually using a rig and method that is meant to do so, and Jeff caught his first walleye; it only took him 38 years to do it!

It was a great time after a work-filled week.  And, though I lost another tournament to the fish whisperer himself, I still have another walleye fillet to add to the grill.

Yum!

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After a week of nonstop work, I checked the weather radar Saturday morning, and what I saw didn’t look very promising – a strong line of thunderstorms was making its way towards Michigan.  Being the optimists we all are, though, we headed out in the hopes that they would dissipate before they reached us, or go south and miss us completely.

And thankfully we went, because we only had to endure a little bit of rain – the thunderstorms never did show themselves.

With both boats launched before 6am, and with only about 4 hours sleep the night before, we motored up and headed out in the hopes that the fish would be active ahead of the front that was on the way.  As my cousin, Ron, powered back and settled us into our first fishing location, he kept the motor idling and began to play around with his Lowrance fish finder.  As with everything in my family, this morning was about competition – our second annual Family Fishing Tournament – so, not wanting to waste time or opportunities, I threw the Rattle Trap into the water while he played around with the electronics.

The first cast was a bust, but the second cast was much more productive.  It didn’t take many rotations of the reel before something grabbed the rattle trap and started to put up quite a fight.  The fight was a short one, but, even though the fish was over 2lbs, I was a little disappointed.  Why?  Because the rules of this tournament were clear – only bass and pike were included – so, this walleye that I just put in the boat wasn’t going to count.  It was legal, though, and it would taste dang good, so in the livewell it went.

After a few hours of fishing, we were still without a keeper fish in the boat.  We had landed many fish – pike and bass included – but just not any above the 14 or 24 inch mark needed to keep each variety of fish.

Finally, though, Ron sets the hook on what appears to be a great fish.  We knew that one good keeper fish, especially a pike, could help us and be the break we needed in the tournament.  I feverishly pulled the net out of its compartment, and netted the fish just as it broke free from the Rattle Trap’s grasp.  We had another fish in the boat – the problem we had, though, was that we had landed another keeper walleye.

We were having an unbelievable morning on the water, but, of course, we weren’t catching the right species of fish in order to win the tournament.  That didn’t manage to wipe the smiles off both of our faces, though, as we kept casting in search of a fish that was included in the tournament.  Though we knew we weren’t winning, having fish of such caliber in the livewell was making “losing” that much more bearable.

Unfortunately, the fishing tournament came to an end without Ron or myself landing a keeper bass or pike.  And, because of that, we had to give Jeff and his son, Tyler D., the win because of the two keeper bass they put in the boat.

Ron and I still had a great time, though.  And even if we didn’t win the tournament, we had a great time catching fish, and we managed to take home 4lbs worth of walleye, which will taste amazing.  Also, I managed to end the fishing curse that had been haunting me so far this year.

And I’ve decided I really enjoy catching walleye, even though I’ve only caught two in my life – both on Duck Lake.  One was 7lbs, and 28inches, and the other was 2lb, 19 inch specimen I caught this morning.

And you can bet that walleye will be included in the list of species that count during our next family fishing tournament.

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I missed out on last weekend’s outdoor festivities, because I was fighting my nasty skin infection.  This weekend, though, I more than made up for that.

Saturday was all about turkey hunting preparation.  Jeff and Matt, along with a few of the kids, will be out trying to put a couple of turkey breasts in the freezer on Monday.  So since everyone was getting ready for their seasons to start, I took the opportunity to get the wife sighted in and ready as well.  Our season doesn’t start for another couple of weeks, but who I am to sit back and let everyone else shoot.

Jeff got his youngest stepson sighted in and ready for his first turkey season, my wife is sighted in and ready to put down her first bird, and we even managed to get another one of our cousins to shoot a gun for the first time.  After a little lesson on how to shoot the gun, she managed to put a few shots right in the kill zone, so Jeff may take her out sometime this week and let her try her luck, especially since Michigan has its wonderful new Apprentice Hunting License.

Then, yesterday, the wife and I bundled up little Abby and took her out to the 10 acres that her Papa and Grandma own.  This is the place that has the private pond, and is just a little piece of paradise that all of us are fortunate enough to be able to enjoy.  We blew all kinds of bubbles, rode around very slowly on quads, played in the sand pit, sat around the campfire, and I accomplished the one thing I set out to do – catch Abby’s first fish.

Considering it’s the early season, the fishing was a little slow, but I still managed to land one little bass – with Abby’s help of course.  You never know how the little ones are going to react to new things, but Abby didn’t have any problem reeling in the fish…….touching the fish…….or laying a Jimmy Houston kiss on the fish.  It was hysterical, and made for an awesome afternoon.

Spring has definitely sprung, and with it the outdoor activities are really starting to ramp up.  Turkey season begins on Monday, and camping will be here before we know it.

This weekend was perfect.  I got the wife sighted in and ready to kill her first bird; we managed to recruit a young girl for hunting; and I managed to make a memory that will last for a lifetime – catching Abby’s first fish.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Author’s note: And, though I loved getting outside during the winter months, it was still nice to be able to head out this weekend, let Abby play outside and have a good time, and not have to dress like we did in this picture.  Oh….winter in Michigan.  You definitely have to wear plenty of layers:):)

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Thankfully, my cellulitis is finally on the mend; I almost feel human again.  Almost!  I just have to take it easy, not do anything too strenuous, and let the antibiotics do their thing.

In the meantime, and while I get geek-ed up and ready to get my wife sighted in this weekend for her first year of turkey hunting, check out the new video we have posted on SOTV.  It’s a typical fishing experience for those involved – sitting back and watching Jeff catch all the fish.  But it’s worth watching for Jeff’s safety tip at the end.

And, not only will you learn something, but you’ll get to see what all the rest of the SimplyOutdoors’ crew was doing last Sunday while I was almost dead.

Jerks!

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Walking on the ice has always felt unnatural to me; it always feels like something I shouldn’t be doing.  And as we rolled onto the ice on Saturday, it still felt odd….but I sucked it up, and pressed on.

My inaugural ice fishing trip took us to Duck Lake, near Springport, Michigan.  Duck is probably one of the best fishing lakes in southern Michigan, and since my sister and her boyfriend live on the lake, we headed there to see what we could pull through the ice.

Riding on the back of Jeff’s quad, with a sled full of gear in-tow, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t puckering just a little bit.  I’m not sure why it feels so strange to me, but it does.  Since there were trucks on the ice, though, I relaxed a little; and once I noticed the 9 inches of ice Jeff had to drill through to get to water, I relaxed even more.

Using Jeff’s hunting blind as a “shanty”, we started to setup.  Of course, the 20mph winds blowing across the ice didn’t help to make setup any easier, but it was nothing that anchoring the blind to a couple quads couldn’t fix.  And with that, it was time to fish.

This trip was actually quite the family affair.  There were 8 of us total – Jeff, Matt, Ron and his wife, my sister, Melissa and her boyfriend, Justin – all within hearing range of each other…… in three different shanties….. it was fun.

And now here comes the point that everyone has been waiting for:  What did Arthur think of his first ice fishing trip?  Honestly, I loved it!  We all had a blast hanging out, I managed to pull my first fish through the ice (there really is a fish in that first picture, even though it’s hard to see because of the lighting), and even though the fishing had slowed somewhat, I still had a good time.  Plus, ordering, and then eating a pizza in the shanty was just icing on the cake (they have a party store at the launch that sells pizza, and we had quads to make pick-up much easier, so we figured why not).

I could have stayed on the water all day and thought nothing of it.  It felt great to be outside, being able to see the fish in the “lighted” hole was definitely a one-of-a-kind experience, and I can’t wait until we get to go again.

And for anyone who truly knows me, they know what an incredible thing that is for me to say.

It was a great time, and I’m honestly sorry I haven’t been doing it until now.

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