OT: MGoAnglers

It's a trash fish, but I landed a 41" longnose gar. According to the State of Michigan, that makes me a master angler. The best lure is always live bait.

I sold the boat, but before I did - 

 Trolling on an early Sunday morning about 3-5 miles offshore at 6knots with 2 Shimano Tiagra 30Ws and 2 Shimano Talica 25II's hunting the greatest fish on the planet - Wahoo.

For bait - Islander lure with a ballyhoo. Keep it simple for trolling.

Mahi's are always fun (and tasty), but nothing beats the speed and power of a 30lb wahoo on the hook!

Regardless - a bent rod and a screaming reel are the best things about being on the water!

As a kid, mainly bass, bream, catfish. I did go deep see fishing 3 years ago. Off St Thomas and caught a decent mahi-mahi. Lost another one. Good fun. I don't get out much now as I don't have any fishing buddies in town.

Technically I didn't catch it, but I was at Hoffmaster State Park when a 6 and a half foot long dead sturgeon washed ashore. I am not a talented fisher and can't brag about any of my catches.

Musky fishing only for me..

I just started getting into fishing this year. Managed to pull a few largemouth out of the water this morning, so I'm off to a decent start. Working with a spinning reel setup that was gifted to me. Got one on a lipless crank bait, one on a booyah pond magic, and one on a plastic worm Texas rigged. Trying to dabble with a few setups and see what suits me best.

Steelhead and Chinook Salmon is one of my favorite traditions. It's world class fishing.

use Loomis and Shimano. 

As far as my favorite spots, they're, ya know, around.  :)

What are some decent spots in Ann Arbor? I'm going out for the first time here and have no idea where to start.

My favorite fishing is the fall salmon run on the Betsie River where my family has a cabin (one of a number of great, or once great) salmon rivers in Michigan.  Unfortunately, the chinook salmon population is starting to dwindle, but the rivers used to be just overrun with monster chinook salmon.  You can still catch some huge ones, there are just a lot less now than there were 5-10 years ago.  My ideal fall weekend probably combines time spent on the river with Saturday afternoon spent at the Big House.

Aside from that, I love pike and bass fishing on inland lakes in the summer, and going out to the Grand Haven pier to try to catch steelhead although for me, the catching has always been incredibly slow on the pier.  

Big one that got away?  I guess the biggest bummer was on a lake where we go pike fishing all the time and catch a ton of 20-27 inch pike, but very rarely anything bigger than that.  I hooked and basically landed a 38 inch pike (a monster by my standards).  Unfortunately, the fish didn't completely fit in the net we were using, so my dad was able to scoop the pike up, but then he was afraid to put the net in the boat because he thought the pike might squirm out of the net and bite him I guess.  So, instead, the pike squirmed out of the net and back into the water (unhooking itself from my lure in the process).  Honest mistake, but needless to say I was beside myself as I've never seen a pike close to that size before or since.  Definitely the one that got away.

Here's a picture of one of the bigger salmon that I've caught (edit: picture seems to be extremely distorted... oh well):

 

Can we have more fishing threads? Kind of like the Friday night drinking threads, but more of a "what did you catch this weekend?" thread. I think this was a great thread!

I used to fish a lot. 250 days a year. Then life intervened. Now it's maybe 40 times. Winter time I usually have more time because of fewer things going on with the family. What I like about icefishing is how you can specifically target multiple species simultaneously. I can have a huge creek chub down for pike, a small chub/ fathead for walleye and a jig for panfish. Reeling in a perch or bluegill will often attract pike and muskies that will hit the chub. I keep a chub tank in my garage in the winter. It's a lot of hassle but the first time a monster esox grabs a chub it's all worth it.

......with all the noise about gear, skill and tactics is far more important and neglected. I own multiple Sage rods but my 1950's Heddon 6 wt. 8 1/2 ft Bamboo does everything and more. (I'd sell them if I didn't have kids to use em) Reel.... 1495 Pleugar Medalist (bulletproof). Line.....Barrio (half the price , world class performance)... made in same factory as Airflo. Tips- in no particular order of importance.... 1.Cast less, stalk more. 2. monitor water temperature... buy a pocket thermometer (think of it as your kicking game.... it's necessary) 3. sunglasses 4. "open up the playbook".... use drys, wets, nymphs and worms depending on conditions. (I'm not an ideologue, I'm a fisherman and as such, I use worms with my fly rod) Before you fish, get in the water and turn over some rocks fergodsake. Find out whats crawling around under the water. While color plays a role, size and silloute need to be matched first and trump color in order of importance. 5. keep it simple....while fly tying is a sport itself, using three patterns (Adams Dry, Hares Ear and wooly bugger) covers you completely... It's like having Anthony Carter, John Wangler and Butch Woolfolk in your pocket. Heck, even an Adams and Hares ear are plenty.... many times I just go with hares ear alone. 6. Take notes: after each trip, write down something you learned or a successful trick you picked up noting weather n water conditions. 7. Select a particular stretch of stream or river and fish it all summer in all conditions..... you'll be surprised. Why 7 tips?...in honor of Rick Leach. (It would take too long to write 75 for Bubba Paris) Why teach kids fly fishing? They learn to think critically, they don't get bored, fewer tangles, they catch more fish, they learn a skill to last a lifetime and when they get their driving license, they bring you fish.

Freshwater fishing with my dad in Oakland County, where we had a cottage. Later, my mom and dad bought a place in Ft Lauderdale and my dad and I would fish off the beach, on party boats, on small boats we rented in the Keys, and on charters. All of those things were great, because it was something I got to do with my dad, and later with him and my wife and kids. One time all of us went salmon fishing near Ketchikan, which was great. We caught the limit, some of which i brought home to CO and put on the smoker. Two years ago I took him and the family to Marathon and we caught the limit of yellowtail. The common denominator here is family, not the fishing. Like how the commercial on ESPN says "lobster is just a fancy way to eat butter," so it is with fishing. Don't get me wrong--there have been some fantastic hauls, but it's always been a means to spend time with some pretty important people.

Fishing is favorite thing to do in the world. My favorite is fly fishing and deep sea fishing. Since I'm on the West Coast I tend to fly fish the Sierras and Tuna fishing out of San Diego.

Some of my favorite brands are Shimano and Daiwa for almost anything. I use Allen Fly Fishing for my fly rods and reels.

every morning before work when I was younger and self employed.
There was a private-ish lake near kalamazoo that had monster Largemouth.

Since marriage & kds and multiple moves away from friends the fishing is few & far between.(which is pathetic because i live a 1000 yrds from a lake)

I still fish a few local lakes in SE Mi for bass, and fish up north in Canda for smallmouth & pike.

I love flyfishing for them as well, particularly the smallies but catching a 40" pike on 4lb line is a blast too.

I fish a tiny bit in the Florida panhandle but am always ill-equiped and under-knowledged to have much success.

fish bamboo.

I've caught a lot of trout over the years. But the most fun I've ever had and the biggest fishing memory I will ever have so far is the five and a half pound bass I caught off my dock casting a two and a half inch little purple worm into the water off my dock on Arbutus Lake in Traverse City. No photos, just my mom and dad and my best friend watching me catch that damn thing off my dock in the lake on a stupid little cast you got have a line in the water.

Not scenic, and often filled with riff-raff, but one of the most interesting places to fish in Michigan is below the Berrien Springs dam on the St. Joe. You never know what you'll hook.

There are spots to fly fish, especially when the river is low and you can wade to the center island, but flies or wobble-glos on spinning gear is the best way to go.

At this location, I've caught steelhead (summer run skamania & winter/spring run to about 12 lbs), chinook (to about 20 lbs), coho (3-4 lbs), atlantic salmon (only once--a 12 lb fish), browns (to about 10 lb), lake trout (early winter they come up to spawn, up to 35 lbs), as well as walleye and bass.

When I want solitude and nature, I head to the Pere Marquette, but the St. Joe is fun and you can be on the water in 2 hrs 15 mins from Ann Arbor.