Michigan Angler On Board

[belleswell]

I was browsing the forum the other day and the angling thread caught my eye. I love fishing.
That thread is what prompted me to join.

I'm a retired electrician, musician, and one of the best anglers I know. I have two
prior state records to my name. A Lake Michigan whitefish I caught surf fishing for steelhead.
The other was also an accidental catch caught while fishing for bluegills. A black bullhead.
These two fish put me in the record books twice which no other angler in my state has done.
Both of these records have since been passed, but I'm still the only one with two. Arcived*

My wife and I both retired a few years ago and moved to a very rural area in Michigan's lower
peninsula. There is a pond right next to our home which has some very niced sized fish.
I feed the hybrid bluegills from May through October. The largest I've caught was 13 1/4. Hybrids
are a cross between a female green sunfish and a male bluegill. They grow faster and larger than
normal bluegills. Largest perch was 16 1/2", the largest bass was caught by a boy scout as they
used to have jamborees and camp out on the property. It was almost 23 " and weighed 7 lbs on
an old de-liar. That's a huge bass for Michigan.

This last spring, I added some red-eared sunfish and it may take a year or two before I catch
any of them as they were only two to four inches when planted. I also stock fathead minnows for the perch to eat. Two gallons of them in the spring and another 2 gallons in the fall which gets
them through the winter.

Here is where I'll add some youtube vids.

A Satriani cover


I've played guitar for almost 60 years and have
a bunch of stuff at my Soundcloud page. The newest listed at the
top. A mix of rock, blues, country and jazz.

Belleswell


Some short pond vids

Feeding the Bluegills


Pond vid with surprise at the end


Knock Knock


Fan Boys









A partial list of completed phenos.

Katsu Kush Cut
Sour Bubble BOG
Bogglegum BOG
Blackberry Moonrocks Anesia
Future # 1 Anesia
Garlic Cookies or GMO Cut AAAAA +++++ A friend who has grown medicinally for a very long
time gave me some cuts. This strain has been tested at 37.4%. Most of the
highest THC percentages I've grown from seed have been around 30%
Papaya Cake Cut AAA
Gorilla Bubble GLG Tony Greens Tortured Beans
White Widow Seed Stockers
Gelato Good Buzz
GG#4 Cut AAAAA. Much better than the one right below from Expert Seeds
GG#4 Expert Seeds
OG Kush Sensible Seeds
Royal Gorilla Royal Gorilla from Royal Queen seeds. Suspected herm. This is the one
I suspect of sullying my daughters in a 4x4 run with 6 varieties. 2
oscillating fans in the tent and one blowing 425 cfm into the tent and
another pulling the air out. All of the circulation caused all of the
plants to produce seeds. The Royal Gorilla had the most and I also read
at another forum that this strain was known for going herm. I wish
I had known beforehand.
Gorilla Breath Humboldt AAAA
Slurricane Anesia
Snowcaine Twenty20 Mendicino through GLG
Sour Strawberry BOG
Blue Kush BOG
Skunk/Haze Sam the Skunkman
Vanilla Frosting Anesia


Aside from the cuts my grower friend gave me, ones I've started from seed I would do again
are Gorilla Breath from Humboldt, Vanilla Frosting from Anesia Seeds, Future#1 also from Anesia
seeds, Sour Bubble from BOG, Blackberry Moonrocks from Anesia, and my most recent is Snowcaine
from Twenty20 Mendicino seeds bought from GLG.



Pics

Pond pic

Eagle

Wood Ducks and Turtle

Extra basking logs, extra sliders - Painted turtles

Backyard Turkeys

Front yard Turkeys

Backyard Bucks

A Deer, a Blue Heron, and a Wood Duck
walk into a bar..........

Bartender says, "Why the long faces?"

Steelhead (rainbows)
This trophy weighed 17 lbs 4 oz and was caught fishing with waders
in the surf of Lake Michigan using a 2 lb test leader. It took almost a
half hour to "worry" him to shore.

Custom rods I build. Usually longer 10 to 15' noodle rods for light
line presentations. The thread art can take longer than the time it
takes to do the eyelets, cork, and reel seat.

Long Rods - Light Line 2 lb test leaders - Small Hooks = Large Trout

25 lbs of walleyes

 

[Agreenpassion]

 

[HBZ]

Welcome! Love the pics!

 

[Bodean]

Welcome to Phenohunter! @belleswell

 

[Gentlemancorpse]

 

[BH]

Aloha Mon!

 

[DemonTrich]

Welcome fellow michigander. What area in mi are you in? SE here

 

[Bullfrog]

Welcome dude. Looking forward to seeing your grows. I'm born and raised in the Tip of the Mitt. Beautiful property you've got there. Is that a natural pond?

I used to be passionate about fishing, my fishing buddy died on me and it just isn't the same anymore. I do miss it though. I keep pretty busy with other projects that are also important to me so it's all good. I loved fishing with light line, got a 23 inch Brown out of a local lake through the ice using 1 pound test once, took nearly half hour to get it up through the hole.

Love the pictures, thanks for sharing.

 

[belleswell]

Welcome fellow michigander. What area in mi are you in? SE here

Welcome dude. Looking forward to seeing your grows. I'm born and raised in the Tip of the Mitt. Beautiful property you've got there. Is that a natural pond?

I used to be passionate about fishing, my fishing buddy died on me and it just isn't the same anymore. I do miss it though. I keep pretty busy with other projects that are also important to me so it's all good. I loved fishing with light line, got a 23 inch Brown out of a local lake through the ice using 1 pound test once, took nearly half hour to get it up through the hole.

Love the pictures, thanks for sharing.

View attachment 183401

We are in the central western section of the state.
We moved from the big city when we both retired a few years back and bought
this wonderful rural home with some acreage, and a pond right next to the home.

We have a 60' x 120' garden for our veggies, berries, and fruit trees.

Wildlife galore. The pond is a wildlife magnet.

The pond was dug to a depth of 14' about 25 years ago. There are many natural springs
in the pond as the excavator found out when he was digging it. I have 2 aerators that
run 24/7. There is a thicket/swamp/fen right next to the pond that's about an
acre and the wood ducks use it to nest. I even put 2 nesting boxes in the thick of it
for them. Our best year was two years ago when 3 hens had 22 ducklings between them.

Here is a pic from late winter a couple years ago when all of the ice had gone
on the pond and we thought spring was right around the corner.
Old man winter gave us one last dusting

We have a ton of deer, and in the winter when they are yarded up, we've had up to 60 of them
come out of our woods heading toward the hay field next door to browse. I have a couple of spots
where I planted sweet clover and other varieties of plants they like to browse on, which keeps
them in our yard a little longer for some pics, as they work their way toward the hayfield to browse.

I've seen over 75 species of birds and ducks because of the pond.

Best of all is being able to take pics of all of the wildlife without leaving the house.
Our first year here, we watched a doe drop twins in our backyard, and then this last
spring we watched another doe give birth to a single fawn on the far end or our pond.
Too cool to be able to see that.

Here is the doe from last spring licking the placenta off the fawn to keep it scent free.

Here is the one the first year with her twins. While she was giving birth to these twins,
her twin bucks from the prior year were watching from about a 100 feet away. Too cool to
witness right our of our window.

The following year, this same doe had triplets

I've never had to rescue one of the turkeys, but occasionally one will fall through the ice
next to the open water, but they've all been able to fly out and shake themselves off.
Somewhat embarressed I'd guess.

The muskrat is not the first thing one notices in this pic.

The outdoor channel

Ice fishing our pond. I only fish the pond a few times a year to assess the size and health
of the fish, but all are released. When ice fishing I avoid going near the open water where
the aerators keep it open as the ice gets thin there. However, the rest of the pond gets
enough safe ice for me to fish it.

Hybrid Bluegill posing for a quick pic. All pond fish are catch and release.
I have too many great lakes nearby where I can catch easy limits for the table.

13" perch filled with eggs. Released

Garlic Cookies aka GMO Chemdog x Girl Scout Cookies.
Some serious fire. Best I've ever had and that's saying a lot..


____________________________________________________________

Title track off my 2nd lp

 

[BH]

Amazing pictures !

 

[Bullfrog]

Heaven on earth brother! Keep up the good work.

 

[Bullfrog]

If you don't mind me prodding, I was wondering about those rods you've built. I've built a couple rods myself and I've always wanted to have one of those steelhead rods I see guys with but I could never seem to locate the blanks. What type of rod blanks have you used?

I'm by no means a rod builder but have dabbled, my favorite I’ve built is a Quickline jig stick. 7' one piece. Really nice feel to it. Never got as far as thread art but I did play with some handles. The quickline handle I put together.

 

[belleswell]

If you don't mind me prodding, I was wondering about those rods you've built. I've built a couple rods myself and I've always wanted to have one of those steelhead rods I see guys with but I could never seem to locate the blanks. What type of rod blanks have you used?

I'm by no means a rod builder but have dabbled, my favorite I’ve built is a Quickline jig stick. 7' one piece. Really nice feel to it. Never got as far as thread art but I did play with some handles. The quickline handle I put together.
View attachment 183433

Great job on the contrast in the butt section. Me likey.

It's just a fun hobby for me as well.

Probably the ones I've used the most are blanks made by Loomis. * expensive.
Others are Lamiglass, Fenwick, and some I can't remember the name of but many
of these I purchased online through Cabelas. Another outlet for blanks is called
The Mud Hole. My last purchase of blanks and some very expensive Fuji SIC, (silicone carbide),
single foot eyelets, cork rings, and reel seats, along with quite a few different colors of thread for tying was through Cabelas about 15 years ago.
I bought 5 blanks. Two for me and three for other people. Also bought the cork rings and eyelets in bulk through Cabelas.

More thread art

Lamiglass blank built a few eons ago.

Rod Tying Jig

Morels

Barred Owl

Good Dog

 

[Rozgreenburn]

Welcome to the crew, love the pics.

 

[Psychobilly]

Man I've only caught one Bullhead in my entire life. I legit thought it was a baby Flathead at first, but then got set straight on that LOL. I'd love to have a pond! I'd fill it with Channel Cats and Flatheads, and some Bullheads... Probably some Carp and Sunfish too.

I really like the idea of Rod Building, though I don't trust my skills enough to try. I prefer S-Glass for my Rods; It's very flexible, durable, and doesn't bust easy. I've also looked into E-Glass, but I haven't tried one as of yet. I'm on the other side of the state north of Detroit.

Nice to see someone else around the state enjoying some GMO too Ran that outdoor this past season. It was just bagseed I'd gotten in a sack from a dispensary back when I was in those haha. I love it though.

I've been to Grand Rapids before, but haven't ever been any further than that going West.

You've nailed some nice fish. Have you ever seen a Madtom ? the DNR here told me the different species we have, and apparently there's even a protected one, but I have not ever seen one in the wild before.

 

[belleswell]

Man I've only caught one Bullhead in my entire life. I legit thought it was a baby Flathead at first, but then got set straight on that LOL. I'd love to have a pond! I'd fill it with Channel Cats and Flatheads, and some Bullheads... Probably some Carp and Sunfish too.

I really like the idea of Rod Building, though I don't trust my skills enough to try. I prefer S-Glass for my Rods; It's very flexible, durable, and doesn't bust easy. I've also looked into E-Glass, but I haven't tried one as of yet. I'm on the other side of the state north of Detroit.

Nice to see someone else around the state enjoying some GMO too Ran that outdoor this past season. It was just bagseed I'd gotten in a sack from a dispensary back when I was in those haha. I love it though.

I've been to Grand Rapids before, but haven't ever been any further than that going West.

You've nailed some nice fish. Have you ever seen a Madtom ? the DNR here told me the different species we have, and apparently there's even a protected one, but I have not ever seen one in the wild before.

Here is the prior state record black bullhead. It was a little over 2 lbs and around 16 1/2 inches.

I have caught a few of the madtoms your referring to in some of the cuts we fish on Grosse Isle. We launch at Trenton in the spring for walleyes and after a
successful morning fishing and a limit of eyes for the two of us, we will go to some of the cuts on Grosse Isle to get limits of perch. Some days we also get limits
of perch as well as the walleyes. One particular cut on the opposite side of the Trenton channel in the lower Detroit river, just upstream from lake Erie, is a
spot where we've not only found perch, but sunfish and bluegills as well. We caught some of those madtoms there which looked like baby bullheads to me.
I never knew that's what they were called.

Where I used to live in Lansing, The Grand River in town has a warm water discharge from the Board of Water and Light. We use salmon spawn still in the connective
membrane called skein and in a few short hours of fishing after dark during the winter months, we can catch and release over a hundred cats. Most are channel cats but we always get a few flatheads as well. We catch and release all of them as I'm sure they are almost as polluted as say the Saginaw/ Tittabawassee rivers up in the thumb area of our state.
There is a dam there that stops the upward migration of salmon, and the eggs in these dead or dying salmon at the end of their life cycle is something the catfish have homed in on. On a good evening fishing for a few hours we always manage to catch a few over 20 lbs which are some nice sized cats.

 

[Psychobilly]

Here is the prior state record black bullhead. It was a little over 2 lbs and around 16 1/2 inches.

I have caught a few of the madtoms your referring to in some of the cuts we fish on Grosse Isle. We launch at Trenton in the spring for walleyes and after a
successful morning fishing and a limit of eyes for the two of us, we will go to some of the cuts on Grosse Isle to get limits of perch. Some days we also get limits
of perch as well as the walleyes. One particular cut on the opposite side of the Trenton channel in the lower Detroit river, just upstream from lake Erie, is a
spot where we've not only found perch, but sunfish and bluegills as well. We caught some of those madtoms there which looked like baby bullheads to me.
I never knew that's what they were called.

Where I used to live in Lansing, The Grand River in town has a warm water discharge from the Board of Water and Light. We use salmon spawn still in the connective
membrane called skein and in a few short hours of fishing after dark during the winter months, we can catch and release over a hundred cats. Most are channel cats but we always get a few flatheads as well. We catch and release all of them as I'm sure they are almost as polluted as say the Saginaw/ Tittabawassee rivers up in the thumb area of our state.
There is a dam there that stops the upward migration of salmon, and the eggs in these dead or dying salmon at the end of their life cycle is something the catfish have homed in on. On a good evening fishing for a few hours we always manage to catch a few over 20 lbs which are some nice sized cats.

Bro that's awesome!!!!! Hehe, I'm not surprised the Cats have learned the Salmon thing and clean them up pretty quick. Channel Cats run surprisingly early. Took me a while to figure that out honestly lol, every book I've got on Catfish says they don't spawn until the water hits over 75 degrees, but in some areas, I'm not sure it ever gets that high.

The biggest Channel Cats I've seen, that I landed, were 3 of them that were over 10 pounds. Biggest was like 13 pounds. Same size as my largest Lake Trout.

You know, my Grandpa landed a Sturgeon from shore when I was young, and knowing the Reel he had, I've got no idea how he got it in lol. It was an old Penn. Either a 9m, 109m, 209m, or 309m. I can't remember honestly, but a Sturgeon from shore on that, lol I can't imagine that was over quick.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[belleswell]

Our two largest at the warm water discharge in Lansing fishing in the winter was a flathead that was just over 30 lbs and the largest channel cat we've caught was 26 lbs.
Very respectable fish. They are probably still swimming. We used to fish the Hot Ponds on Saginaw bay which is a man made river discharge for a coal generated power plant
at the mouth of the Saginaw river. Huge carp and cats can be caught there, but I would not want to eat anything that comes from the Saginaw river as DOW chemical
has done a pretty good job of polluting it. I caught a carp there once that weighed 41 lbs. It was actually a sub species of carp called a buffalo carp. 6 lb test and 45 minutes before I saw it. It dragged us and our boat about a 1/4 mile dowstream to Saginaw bay before we netted it, weighed it, and released it. My personal largest weight fish I've caught in Michigan.

 

[Hugh Jass]

You know, my Grandpa landed a Sturgeon from shore when I was young, and knowing the Reel he had, I've got no idea how he got it in lol. It was an old Penn. Either a 9m, 109m, 209m, or 309m. I can't remember.

You tell the best stories!
"I had a television once. It was a Zenith."

 

[Frimpong]

Welcome! Love the Corgi