Fishing Articles

Note this is a follow-up article from GLA June/July 2019, “Tricked Out Salmon Spoons.” Thank you for the feedback! Some of your shared setup tips, strategies and pics have made it to this article too! We’ve found sharing tips and info very rewarding, helping the Great Lakes Fishery a bit and for sure helping our fellow sportsmen, trout and salmon anglers in putting a few more trophies in the box! Nice Steelhead on a “Tricked Out” trolling fly. Have you ever noticed a steelhead with blue eyes? Tip #1: Stinger Hooks—From YouTube underwater trolling video footage, we notice more often...

For almost as long as I can remember, I’ve looked forward to the dog days of summer and salmon fishing on the Great Lakes. It pains me to report that I only live about 50 miles from Lake Michigan, but these days most of my summer salmon fishing takes place six hours to the East on the New York waters of Lake Ontario. Admittedly, the last two summers have produced some of the biggest Chinook salmon on record for Lake Michigan, but a big fish here or there does a poor job of making up for what overall has been...

If you’ve been following tackle trends at all of late, then you’ve noticed an increasing number of lures that have UV—for ultraviolet—finishes. Is this just the latest trend designed to catch fishermen first and fish later? Well, it’s a long story with a lot of twists and turns, but the short version is that if you fish for salmon or trout, UV lures can improve your catch rate. And it’s likely that other species of fish are able to see UV as well. The recent UV phenomenon probably started with commercial salmon fishermen in the northern Pacific a couple of...

Stream trout were the glamour fish of the early-to-mid twentieth century. Wild settings, clear water, solitude, and a “River-Runs-Through-It” kind of self assurance captivated the angling audience. The writings of Hemmingway, Wulff, Schweibert, Haig-Brown, and many others played no small part in the romance. The sleek, stylish profile is built for speed and splitting current. The jewel-like red, blue, or black spots, and the pristine habitats they thrive in continue to inspire literature by great authors and daydreams by the millions. Stream trout are spooky. A shadow overhead, a vibration sent through the ground, a glimpse of sudden movement, the...

As featured in Great Lakes Angler—April/May 2013 Each spring hundreds of thousands of chinook, coho, and steelhead smolts migrate from the Great Lakes’ tributaries down to the big lakes.  In some streams they are joined by pink and Atlantic salmon smolts.  Most of the species smolt in early to mid-May but young chinook salmon usually wait until early June to move down to the Great Lakes.  On a smaller scale this migration also occurs in the tributaries of our large, deep, and cold inland lakes that support populations of rainbows.  Most of these streams also support good populations of resident...