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Mike Schoonveld

Best management practices for winterizing boat batteries

Blogs, Featured, Features, Fishing, Michigan, National Fishing, Opinion /

There are dozens of opinions about how a boat battery should be treated in the offseason. Some say just top off the charge and pull the tarp on Ol’ Wavewacker.
“A fully charged battery is freeze-proof to about 90 below zero,” they say. “Even the U.P. doesn’t get that cold.”
Some people say, “Just hook a trickle charger to it and come back in the spring.” I’m sure it works for some, but certainly not for everyone.

Best management practices for winterizing boat batteries Read More »

Belly contents of fish can brew contentions among anglers

Blogs, Featured, Fishing, Michigan, Opinion /

I showed up at a fish cleaning station one day just in time to hear a friendly argument between a couple of fishermen, each claiming to have caught a bigger fish than the other. They’d been fishing together and the first fish of the day was a large lake trout. Both agreed the laker was a great specimen as it was placed in the cooler.
The second fish of the day, caught by angler number two, was another substantially heavy laker, almost identical to fish number one. Or was it?

Belly contents of fish can brew contentions among anglers Read More »

Changing water levels of the Great Lakes: Understanding tides, tsunamis and seiches

Blogs, Featured, Michigan, Nature Page & Night Sky, Opinion /

I was sitting on a Lake Michigan beach with my daughter, granddaughter, and other family members when my son-in-law asked if Lake Michigan had tides that raised or lowered the water level on a regular basis. 
Jeff isn’t from Michigan and hasn’t spent much time on any of the Great Lakes, so the question wasn’t illogical. He’s been to the ocean several times and experienced tidal flows there. The view from the beach looking across the lake is very ocean-like.
Most people familiar with the Michigan’s Great Lakes would answer Jeff’s question with a simple, “no.” That would be the wrong answer.

Changing water levels of the Great Lakes: Understanding tides, tsunamis and seiches Read More »

Try this orange test for sticking fish hooks

Featured, Features, Fishing, Michigan, National Fishing /

What seemed to be half my “off-season” free time used to focus on sharpening my fishing hooks.
I sharpened all my old hooks and as I stocked up with new lures for the next season. Each of the hook points on each of the fresh-from-the-factory hooks got a few strokes on my whetstone to get their points finely tuned and ready for spring. The technology used to manufacture fishing hooks that were “sharper than a tack” didn’t exist, at least for the stock hooks many lure makers used to finish their products.

Try this orange test for sticking fish hooks Read More »

Tribal gill netting bad news for Michigan fisheries

Featured, Fishing, Michigan, National Fishing, Opinion /

Several years ago, I was fishing for walleyes on an inland lake with a well-seasoned guide (meaning he was probably 20 years older than me) and in casual conversation I learned he’d come from a family with a long history of commercial fishing in Lake Superior.

He told me he’d started accompanying his dad, uncles and cousins on the netting boats in the 1950s. One sentence in our conversation stayed with me through the years.
He said, “Once we switched to nylon gill nets, our catches were incredible. If they (the Michigan DNR, then Conservation Department) hadn’t shut us down, we could have caught the last fish in Lake Superior – they were that effective.”

Tribal gill netting bad news for Michigan fisheries Read More »

Great Lakes river mouths are transition zones for salmon

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, Michigan, National Fishing /

It’s easy to understand why Great Lakes salmon and trout gravitate to the places where streams or rivers flow into the Great Lakes in late winter or early spring.

The lake’s water may be hovering near the freezing point while the water flowing into the lake is often warmer by 10 degrees or more. It’s more comfortable for both predators and prey.
So why, in late summer and early autumn, do salmon gravitate to the waters near Great Lakes pierheads and the mouth of some Great Lakes tributaries? The water temperature in these nearshore waters is seldom salmon-suitable and even if there are baitfish in the area, the salmon are no longer actively feeding.

Great Lakes river mouths are transition zones for salmon Read More »

Making sense of GPS lingo among Great Lakes anglers

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, Michigan /

Due to the unprecedented spike in the birthrate after World War II, the next decade or so after the war was called the “baby boom.”
It could be that the boating industry someday will view the years starting with the COVID pandemic and immediately after as America’s “boating boom” due to the unprecedented numbers of newly minted boats and boaters that were an offshoot of the upheaval caused by the virus and the attempts to bring it under control. The boating boom has resulted in a surge in Great Lakes boating and fishing, as well.

Making sense of GPS lingo among Great Lakes anglers Read More »

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