Back from the U.P.

[icecleate]

Returned home today from a week of fishing South Manistique lake in the U.P.  Walleye fishing was real slow.  My partner and I only caught 9 eyes all week with 3 keepers.  DNR checked us one day and said he had not checked a boat that has caught an eye that day.  We talked to one of our local buddies in town and he also told us the eye fishing was really slow.  We caught a lot of pike, several big largemouth bass (around 16") and a lot of rockbass.  The state implemented a temporary northern pike regulation on this lake (and some other lakes) to help reduce the number of small pike.  The new rule is you can keep 5 pike with only 1 over 24".  The weather also did not help.  Saturday the air temp reached low 70"s and water temp was 63.  Sunday we had a cold fronth come through with rain.  Sunday night through Thursday night the temps got down to 32 to 33 degrees with highs in the upper 40's low 50's.  Water temp dropped to 59 degrees.

[hounds]

Nice Fish Mark, That Chesterton hat is starting to become pretty faded it must be your lucky hat!!!!!!!

[Jig_Head]

Nice Fish Mark, That Chesterton hat is starting to become pretty faded it must be your lucky hat!!!!!!!

Ahh! I was wondering what the C stood for! Guess i shoulda known being that i graduated there haha

[Jig_Head]

Nice pictures, good to see u caught some fish even with the cold front

[pastaboy]

Sounds like you had a good time!  Nice pic's and thanks for sharing.

[Boomer]

Too bad you had to come home to the land of the trolls. At least you got a few fish and had a good time.  Did you get one of those roasted chickens from the general store?  The boy said On Saturday that if we do not go to Minn. Next year then maybe go back to Curtis.  Good deal either way.

[icecleate]

Actually the C stands for Cabela's but Chesterton will do.  Yes we had a good time.  This is my sanctuary form work.  Any fish I catch on the trip is an added bonus!

[hounds]

How big were the Pike?

[rico]

Great pics.  I look forward to getting back to Curtis with my friend Yooper.

[icecleate]

The pike were 20" to 21" That we kept.  We dit not keep anyything smaller than 19".  I am not very experienced at cleaning pike, and I found out if they were smaller than 19" i had trouble cleaning them.  The only time I clean pike is when I go up to the U.P.. I think I can clean 6 or 7 eyes to every one pike. LOL.

[icecleate]

Great pics.  I look forward to getting back to Curtis with my friend Yooper.

Yooper said he was going up in a couple of weeks.  The house I stay at is 1 bay south of where he stays.  Hopefully the eye fishing will pick up.  The bluegill fishing was starting to turn on and the local said the bass fishing was getting reeady to turn on as well.  Good luck

[abishop]

Actually if you look on google on how to remove y bones you will find that there is only 1 additional cut. Not all that hard. I do believe the bigger the fish the easier it is.

[icecleate]

Thanks.  I did Goggle and found a couple of different ways to clean and remove the Y bones.  I ended up doing pretty good because we only found 2 bones in the two fish frys we had.  They were note the prettiest pike tenderloins, but hey sure did taste good!