Lake Michigan, the ocean size body of water that is truly an amazing fishery had drawn my attention on and off for several years through magazine articles and a few TV shows. I had never really thought of going there to fish it until about a year ago I read yet another article covering Lake Michigan’s prolific Brown Trout fishery. In the article I read stories of 20-30lb Browns and saw picture’s of a 33lb and 27lb fish!

Well that’s where myself , Casey Kelly President of Pautzke Bait and author and journalist Chris Shaffer first started throwing around the idea of going out and trying the ocean size lake and we were not the only one’s thinking of making the long trip there. Last spring I had the honor of hosting fellow Brown Bagger and TTG’s very own Rick Arnold and webmaster Mark K. for a Tahoe DVD shoot and we all agreed that it was a spot on a list of destinations that we would all love to try someday.

Well in October I got a call from Chris and he stated that we were going to go in early March with some research he booked early March for us with Eric Hataaja of WIbigfish.com and boy the wheels started to wind inside my Brain. The date could not come soon enough but it did come in good time and I would like to share our experience with all the TTG readers.

We flew in to Milwaukee on March 3rd got settled and checked the meeting area and then the weather report. Oh no! 20-30 mph east winds, it was to be bad and that is an understatement! We met at 5:30 am and headed out in 20 degree temps with 20mph winds and light snow flurries. Even our guide was skeptical about leaving the ramp, but we did into rough water and we attempted to tie up at one of the captain’s favorite spots. That lasted about 3 minute’s as we got pinned against the harbor wall and nearly flipped! We took away and decided to troll a little and were greeted with spray and freezing water all over us. After some talk we decided to head for the ramp trolling and managed to get into 4 small browns after hiding behind a smaller breakwater. Trolling techniques differ everywhere and all I can say is we had fun but between the dipsy divers , weights , and planer boards you really hoped the fish would strike the downrigger rods which would better the fight. By now any ideas of fishing on our own from a shore spot had given way to a warm room and nap before the Bucks Basketball game.

Day 2 we had decided to meet at 8am as the winds were to subside and we wanted to let the lake lay down a bit, even though the fishing grounds were inside a breakwater that sits a mile or so out . We were greeted with perfect day and flat calm water, time to go fish! We got to the spot tied up and started fishing using spawn sacs on 6lb line and ultra light spin gear and also threw 1oz dart heads with Gulp Minnows. We got into fish right away with many of them running 4-7lbs and a few bigger ones mixed in. Most were Browns with an occasional Steelhead mixed in and some by catch of Goby, Suckers, and Gizzard Shad. We did get some of the larger Browns exceeding the Western magical 10lb mark, fish that ran from 10 to 13lbs which are awesome fish but only good size in Lake Michigan! Our captain got into the bigger fish first with a couple that were around 11lbs, and then I got into the action with the 13lber. On 6lb and ultra light spinning gear it was a hoot and that one fell to a spawn sac fished on the bottom. Lots of fun but wanting to try something else I asked if I could throw the plastics while the others fished the spawn sacs. These were 1oz dart heads with Gulp minnow’s attaches in various colors. This was a blast as we threw them out and worked them back slowly across the bottom and this would induce powerful strikes and provide a great fight. This was done on 8lb test spinning gear and medium action rods that made for great fun on fish up to about 11lbs. We then trolled for 4 more fish to 9lbs and called it a day. 4 Browns boated over ten lbs was awesome but can and does happen at Lake Michigan often.

Day 3 we were up and at the harbor by 5am with a westerly wind of 15 mph but fishable. We got right back into stride as the bite was happening as soon as we got wet and while catching fish we were entertained by fish rolling and surfacing all around us. This led me right back to throwing the plastics and we enjoyed about an hour of solid catching. A few other boats moved in and fished around use and the bite really slowed down. While there were fish being caught a few boats moved off to troll and try their luck but we stayed along with one other boat and it paid off. The other boat was catching a few up to about 7lbs and Eric our captain and Casey were putting the hurt on the fish but my line was dead and when I did get bit they kept coming unbuttoned with one being the biggest I hooked on the trip! Oh well, Casey got a 10lb class buck Brown and several nice fish to 8lbs along with losing his best of the trip after a lot of line being pulled off in every direction. I went back to spawn sacs and started catching again but just enjoyed working the plastics so much I kept throwing out and fishing that. Well it paid off again as I was rewarded with an 9lb Steelie , an 11lbs class hook jaw , and near 10lb seaforrlen hook jaw that was almost spotless. Eric boated another 10lb Brown and I dropped the spawn sac down again and got one more Brown over the 10lb mark! What a fishery! We then landed a bunch more fish and went in around 12pm to prepare for the trip home.

The trip was truly a ton of fun and Captain Eric Hatajaa was knowledgeable and fun to fish with. I do recommend the trip as it is very unique in many ways along with the Browns in Lake Michigan being as big as anywhere I know of. Plan yourself at least a few days so you don’t hurry yourself to much and in case you get blown out a day or two. On a closing note I will say that we Western fisherman are truly spoiled that we are able to fish for Trophy’s in such pristine lakes in most of our own backyards!

Mike Nielson