Charter Fishing Lake Michigan
I generally fish from the shore along the Huron River and I generally fish for quantity over size, however, I have always been attracted by the idea of catching a really big fish. Unfortunately, the really big fish aren’t normally found in the Huron River. I went fishing on the Au Sable River with my brother John early last spring with the idea that I might catch one of those big Steelhead trout. We even took a charter boat down the river with a guide, but we didn’t get a nibble. We did see some people who had caught the big fish, so I know that they are there. I went back to the Au Sable later by myself, but I couldn’t convince myself that I had a chance and I gave up without a bite.
Last summer, I went out on a charter into Lake Michigan for the first time from Grand Haven with some relations of Linda’s that we were camping with. I had heard a lot about charters and their “guarantee” of fish. We certainly did well, with a half a dozen big fish in the boat. One fish was a really big Lake Trout that Linda’s nephew Jeff reeled in. Jeff also reeled in a small salmon, which was great, because I can eat salmon. We grilled up the fish that night and it was wonderful.
I was ready to try it again this year. After some effort at organizing, I convinced my brothers Mark and Paul to accompany me and my Dad on a charter trip. Dad lives in Traverse City, so I drafted Dad into finding an appropriate charter, since I thought I was too far away from any good ports to figure it out. I expected that Dad would pick something out of Leland near Traverse City, but it turned out that he knows a charter captain from grade school that runs a boat out of Frankfort. So, a date was set for a Sunday morning in early August. We all planned to meet at Dad’s on Saturday and we’d drive to Frankfort on Sunday morning and then drive home Sunday night. It would be a lot of driving, but it would work.
Mark and I road up together in my car on the Saturday to Dad’s place. It’s at least a four hour trip from Ann Arbor, but I always find it a pleasant drive. We arrived early enough so that we got a chance to visit with our parents. Dad brought up that he had some “Bonine” which we could take in the morning to prevent “sea” sickness on the charter. Well, I had been out before and hadn’t had any motion sickness at all. I also don’t like to take pills. I don’t even take aspirin if I can avoid it. I was sure that I wouldn’t need pills on this trip. I think I may have convinced Mark too, even though this was his first charter on Lake Michigan, since he decided he would do without also.
We kept expecting Paul, but it got dark and he still hadn’t arrived from Chicago. When he finally arrived we heard his horror tales of road construction and delay. He spent 4 hours on the road before he even got to Michigan. But we were all together and ready. The weather looked iffy, but the forecast didn’t look too gloomy, so the trip was a go. We all went to bed early, since we were due at the charter in Frankfort at 6 a.m., and that was a 45 minute trip from Traverse City.
It was still dark as we ate breakfast. Although it was hard to tell in the dark, the weather didn’t look too bad. It certainly wasn’t raining. We all took our cars in a caravan to Frankfort so we could leave from there when we got in. We all had to be back to work on Monday morning, so we wanted to get as early a start back as we could. There wasn’t a lot of traffic this early on a Sunday morning. Just about the only cars we saw were a couple of police vehicles at a donut shop. We arrived right about on time in Frankfort.
This was my first time in Frankfort, but I didn’t get to see much. We found the marina and some parking spots. The captain and his mate took us on board and stowed our gear and we pushed off into the harbor.
Living as far away from the sea as I do, I’m surprised sometimes at how excited I get when I get around the big lakes. In the Frankfort harbor, they have a huge ferry boat tied up and you cruise right by it on your way out of the harbor. There are breakwaters sticking out into the lake with a lighthouse at the end. It was still pretty dark, so early in the morning. The sun was just getting to the eastern horizon as we pulled out onto the lake.
I’ve never really felt that I was missing something, growing up in the Midwest, in terms of the sea. When I look out across one of the big lakes, the water seems to go on forever. There is no way that you can see across to the other side. The water is always moving and can really get rough in a storm. What more can the ocean offer in terms of a view? The Great Lakes are kinda like the ocean without the salt. When the surfing craze hit in the early Sixties, I did notice that we don’t have really big waves that you can surf on, but I don’t think I really missed anything.
Anyway, Lake Michigan is big. There were already some boats out on the choppy water, cruising slowly back and forth, South to North, North to South, roughly parallel to the shoreline. The boats all congregate out where the shallow water near the shoreline drops off to about 100 feet deep. The captain and the crew quickly rigged up the spoons and lines onto the downriggers and we were trolling 7 lines behind the boat.
From Frankfort, we worked our way Northward, with the wind, which was beginning to pick up some. The ride was pretty rough and I began to regret that I had not taken up my Dad’s offer of seasick pills. Sure enough, it was not before long that I was leaned over the railing emptying whatever was in my stomach.
In general, this kind of fishing was pretty boring. You can’t really see anything, because the lure is dozens of feet below the surface and far behind the boat. You just sit around and talk with the other fishermen and crew and wait for the rods to signal that you have a fish on a line.
That did happen, and we took turns cranking in the yards of line to get the fish into the boat. These were big lake trout and bigger fish than I ever caught fishing in rivers and the smaller lakes. The excitement peaked when my brother, Paul, hauled in the biggest fish of the day. It was a 30 pound salmon. The Michigan DNR had been planting these normally saltwater fish in the Great Lakes for some time and they apparently were doing well.
The trip was exhausting, but we hauled in quite a few fish. It did feel good to be back on dry land that was not lurching back and forth. We divided up the fish, but I only took a bit of the salmon, since I am allergic to eating trout. I can eat a little salmon, as long as I don’t get too much.
It was a great experience, but not really the kind of fishing I like. I don’t really go fishing to catch fish. I am allergic to most of them and can’t take them home to eat. I mainly fish to get out into nature where the fish live. I want to see beautiful scenery, with birds and turtles, and feel the quiet. Bouncing around in the middle of miles and miles of open water is not the same type of experience. So, I would go on another charter out into the big lakes, but I don’t think I would organize one for myself. I will just concentrate on the many smaller, more intimate places to find fish.
