Pat Magee

Honestly though, it was a great trip despite the slow fishing on Saturday and Sunday. It was nice to fish with Mitch, Paul, and Paul's father in law. They all taught me a few things over the course of the weekend. Bill was a crappie slayer and Mitch could catch just about anything in the water. Mitch even unloaded his latest and greatest baits he made which were an added bonus to the weekend. I have fished with Paul quite a bit and you will never meet a guy who remembers every dock corner and cove he caught every darn fish on in the entire lake like he does. If you ever need someone to jump in your boat at LOZ, you couldn't do much better then Paul (or Mitch for that matter)

Paul how come you left out the Friday night tacos that gave everyone the squirts?

I clearly do not know how to make a fish look flattering.

Another bonus is almost always being offered a beer by someone who is sitting around the wood burning stove. It truly is one of my favorite stops for gear even though it may be a little pricier then some other places.

He even has long arming down!

They are there but I think they may be only available in certain frames. You can select it from the menu on the side of the "shop costas" page.

I have the 580 glass in green and they work great until the sun starts to go down or you're in some darker shadows. In the sunlight I swear you can see far deeper in the water then you could with any other lens. I don't have any experience with any other colors. One thing I had an issue with is weight. The glass lenses are going to weigh a little more then a plastic lens and it can put pressure on the bridge of your nose making sunglasses hard to wear for long periods of time. When mine break again I am going to try the 580 plastic lens.

That's awesome! Nicolet Bay was one of the spots I wanted to try but ran out of time. I stumbled upon it when out on a bike ride while in Peninsula SP. It is so great to hear you did well up there. Looks like the weather cooperated too! Hope you fattened up on some Wilson's Ice Cream too! When you get into the goby like that I hear the drop shot will keep them off the hook since they are bottom feeders.

Well I have to have a son first....we only have the little girl now!

I keep my fingers crossed that my 5 month old will grow up and enjoy a day like this with me!

That place is fantastic I enjoy that and the White Gull Inn's cherry stuffed french toast every time I go up. I would also suggest the Waterfront in Sister Bay. Great place to take the lady friend after pissing her off while you are out fishing all day. Bring some $$ though....it's pretty spendy.

Good idea on not hiring a guide....well at least don't hire the one I did if you do! It's a long story for another day. If I were you, I would head further North up 42 to you get to County Road ZZ in Sister Bay and then go right and take that into Rowley's Bay. You can rent a kayak at the little marina down there for pretty cheap. The reason I am suggesting this spot to you is because it was one of the only places I could find where you could sight fish all day long. You have a couple options, the best one is to go straight out of the bay and head out to the point on the far right. It will get a little choppy here if the wind is moving so I would suggest bringing a cheap anchor and finding some way to keep yourself stationary. It is on the Lake side after all. There were a dozen bass boats just sitting on this area last Saturday during a tournament. The other option would be to fish the mouth of the Mink River. The water is a bit warmer over that way and it is also the shorter paddle. The only problem is that the fish aren't as big over there. I caught a hand full of shorts on a Megabass Knuckle 60 and a War Eagle spinnerbait in charteuse/white/grey. If you want to get some more details, feel free to PM me and I will tell you everything I know. I fished Peninsula for about 4 hours but the wind, rain, and waves made fishing extremely difficult that day and I never hooked up with one. The one area that I will try next year will be in and around Nicolet Bay in the park. They have a nice little dock and parking area there. I just went to a nondescript spot labeled "Kayak Ramp" and fished from there but the coves were pretty shitty for fishing. Enjoy your trip, I freaking love it up there!

Big thanks to MoSmallies and Smalliebigs! MoSmallies helped me install my anchor trolley and some additional baits. Smalliebigs is hooking me up with a some yak rack items for the family truckster. Hopefully I can add some pictures of some nice smallies after I return. Thanks for all the help fellas!

That seat is pretty similar to the Sea to Summit seat I had on my old Malibu Mini-x kayak. I can tell you two things about it. It takes a lot of time fiddling with the straps to make it stiff enough that it's comfortable. It also likes to kick out when you lean back, meaning the part you sit on wants to move towards your feet when you lean back. It is slightly annoying and I had to use a combination of bungee cords to keep that from happening. The other thing is that you will get kayak butt if you are in it all day long. My boat was one that put your legs straight out in front of you and the seat wasn't elevated so it would cause my butt and legs to fall asleep all the time. I wound up buying a Coosa from a forum member because it was driving me nuts! If you can figure out a way to make it work well for you, you are a better man than I am!

I had one of my worst days on the Bourbeuse River. I knew the stretch we went on was rarely fished so I had high hopes. It was about 115 degrees with the heat index but the water looked pretty good for the first two miles and after that we had to drag the kayaks about every 300/400 yds because the water was so low. To make matters worse, I had never been there before and started to freak out once it started getting dark that we weren't at our take-out yet. Turns out the slow/non-existent water flow makes an 8 mile float take 14 hours! It is the last time I float a new river with no idea of where I am or how far I have floated. To top it all off, when we finally got to my Jeep, my buddy realized he forgot his tie-down straps. That meant one on the roof and one hanging out the open hatch of my Jeep.......on dusty gravel roads. I still, 2 years later have a light film of dust covering hard to reach areas in my Jeep. Total fish: 4 short Largemouth

I am going to put the Coosa to good use. Hopefully getting the anchor trolley installed will make it more use-able on bigger lakes. I am hoping you can get your ducks in a row for a weekday trip soon!

Well I guess I will have to scratch it from the list of trips to go on Smalliebigs. It's a shame because I was going to see if you wanted to join me

I knew I would botch the pictures! I was thinking about keeping this place in mind for a winter float. I know it isn't the most picturesque part of the current but it is a perfect length for a one day trip. I will definitely make plans to head back for the winter.

I decided to head out to the Current since I was off work and wanted to float a stretch where I could fish for smallmouth while also targeting trout. I floated from Cedars Grove to Akers Ferry with a shuttle courtesy of Jadwin Canoe. If you ever are in need of a shuttle during the week, definitely give them a call, they were friendly and cheap! When I got to the put in I noticed the river was up from all of the rain the last few weeks and was a tad off color as well. Visibility was maybe 2-3ft. Completely float-able and fish-able so I didn't care. There were a couple other people parked up the road putting in canoes but it was a pretty calm morning. It took awhile before I caught my first fish and it I was struggling to find a pattern and there wasn't much chasing going on so I decided to change it up a little. I normally don't use live bait but I heard some great reports on this stretch fishing minnows. I decided it was worth a couple minutes of my time so I pulled the kayak over into a shallow area and set up my minnow trap. Before I knew it I had around 20 minnows and a couple of crawdads as well. I decided to fish the craws first and never had any luck so I switched to the minnows and was promptly rewarded with a smallmouth. I caught quite a few bows in this area as well and all of them were 15" and up. The smallmouth bite however never seemed to get going and I only caught one other dink before arriving at Welch spring. All in all I saw probably 40 canoes or kayaks and rarely any others fishing. I enjoyed the hell out of my little solo trip and look forward to taking another trip from Akers to Pulltite in the near future. **I have never attached any pictures to a post so hopefully I don't booger it up to bad.

Oh I am definitely not afraid to ask for tips. I have been texting him pretty frequently regarding tackle and how I should outfit my kayak. My biggest fear is going up there and only catching some 8" goggleye! I have yet to catch a 20" smallmouth and if I can't do it here I will be pretty pissed off.

Sounds like I will be leaving when you are coming in. Darn! I have stayed in Sister Bay before as well. Peninsula State Park was going to be one of my launch spots since I have heard that some people have had good luck along the sandy/rocky shorelines. Now I may have to reconsider. My guides name is Brett Alexander and he comes well referred by a bunch of people. He also is a great walleye guide and they catch them by the boatload. He catches his fair share of smallmouth but he spends alot of time guiding walleye/salmon trips. We have been texting back and forth and he seems pretty excited about someone asking to go out in a kayak instead of a bass boat. He said they catch a lot on a drop shot so I will be giving it a try even though it puts me a little out of my normal comfort zone. I have gone back and forth about buying a fishfinder to help put me on fish but I don't have the first clue on breaking down the info on a FF just yet.

I have been going to Door County for a few years and this year I am finally going to forego the golf and bike trails to head out in pursuit of some amazing Door County smallmouth. I will be fishing out of my kayak so I have hired a well respected guide who occasionally likes to chase smallies via kayak. I also plan to check out the Mink River as well as a couple of other rivers within driving distance. We are staying in Egg Harbor but everything is a short drive along the upper peninsula I know some of you have been up there to Sturgeon Bay and other areas in Door County and I am wondering what I should prepare myself for? I have been doing a lot of research and feel like I am well prepared but I would love to hear from some people who have made the trip. I am sure my guide will put me in some good water but I don't just want to fish that one area and I don't want to fish with a guide everyday either. I have a few places to launch from and a long distance paddle to one of the few islands doesn't intimidate me. I have already started rigging my kayak (anchor trolley, lights, etc.) for the big water. My Jackson Coosa is probably not the best kayak for that body of water but I feel that as long as I can keep the boat in one spot I will be able to make it work. I'm not asking for any secret places or anything just some general ideas of what to expect. I would hate to come back to the STL wishing I would have planned differently or approached the fishing differently. I have checked out a lot of the forums but I honestly struggle to find anything that is recent. Any knowledge you want to share is welcome and appreciated.

I don't know why I always talk myself out of a solo overnight trip, this looks like a wonderful time and a great way to get away for a day or so.

I would definitely be interested. I talked to Smalliebigs about the ones he has but I am looking for multiple racks because I am currently trying to rig not only my Jeep but also my utility trailer. I started making one out of SuperStrut but I really wasn't happy with it. Ideally I would like to be able to haul at least three on the trailer for long trips and for the shorts trips I would love to add one to the roof of the Jeep. PM me pictures if you get a chance.

If I know Smalliebigs as well as I think I do, you probably left with more then a kayak and paddle. I went there for a kayak and came back with a bike somehow.... If you still have any of trailer/transport items, let me know. I would be very interested in them.