Lake Michigan Trolling with DNR

                Being able to access Lake Michigan at a moments notice is often overlooked in Wisconsin until it is nice enough weather to hit the beach. Well my buddy Captain Dominick and I decided that the mid 30 degree weather, and wind was a perfect time to troll for some trout. When we get together there is always seems to be a lot of snacks, jokes, and oddities to make the adventure memorable.  Well, this trip was no different.

                We launched the Lund Alaskan in the early afternoon from a sandy launch on Lake Michigan and headed towards a few of the more well known spots hoping to get on some fish. Once we got to the first spot, spot lock was activated, and the casting began. We were casting baitfish imitations towards a bit of structure while we watched the locators waiting for pods of fish to swim through the area. There were a few boats in the area and it seemed that trolling for fish was the key to turn the day into a success. We headed to our next spot after a good effort of casting.

                We get to our next spot and set up the planer boards. Trolling is an interesting thing, it takes coordination to ensure that the lines don’t get tangled, knowledge of depth, speed, and color. But the benefit is, lures stay in the water longer, and you cover a ton of distance trying to locate fish. We hook into a few small Brown trout and quickly get a few pictures and release them. We reset the planers and continue to troll. Then we hear someone yelling “Hey guys!!” from shore.

                The guy yelling identifies himself as a DNR agent. So we reel our lines in and troll over to him. He explains to us that there was a complaint about some possible leakage into the lake leaving a oil residue on the surface. We explain to him where we were trolling, and that we have not seen anything. Then Dominick hits him with the “want to hop on and take a look while we troll”. He says “sure” excitedly and runs to his truck to grab his life jacket. Since the area we were in was no wake, we set up our lines and began trolling while he scanned the area for any abnormities. We joked with him about how cool it would be to hook into a fish while he was with. After a few minutes, it happened. A rod started dancing and the pressure was on.

                Nothing is more nerve wracking than trying to reel in a fish, while the DNR is in the boat with you. “am I fighting it to long”, “how’s my technique” are a few of the questions that went through my head. Dominick was on top of things as always, quickly disconnecting the planer board so I can finish reeling the fish in. while I am reeling Dominick asks our new boat guest “What do you think it is”, he guessed a brown trout. He was right. We got the little brown netted quickly got a couple pictures and released it. the DNR agent decided that the water seems to be normal, so we turned around and trolled back to where we picked him up. He was a great sport, dealing with jokes and weird questions while remaining professional. After we dropped him off, it was back to business.

                With the planer boards back in the water, we decided to troll back to where we launched and call it a day. On the way back we had one more fish hit. It ended up being another brown trout, the same size as the others. It was a great way to end the trip.

I highly recommend Captain Dominick for guiding. He is a great guy, has a ton of knowledge, and makes you feel comfortable in the boat.

Thanks to the WI DNR for making this trip more memorable by doing what it takes to keep our waters safe.

 Chris Hernet