Greg Keefer.

APRIL
Salmon
Lake Michigan At St. Joseph
Spring angling opportunities for offshore salmon are good but often require a go-and-find-them attitude.

Salmon can be just about anywhere this time of the year and their locations depend on the weather. When surface temperatures hover near 54 degrees, salmon are usually found on the surface or near the shoreline. As summer water temperatures begin rising, the fish will move to deeper water.

Abundant numbers of salmon are caught in St. Joseph every year. When fish are feeding near the surface, fly-fishing can be exciting.

If anglers can find schools of alewives or other baitfish, the salmon should be nearby. You might tag a 10-pounder, and then tangle with a real rod-bender in the 25-pound plus range from the same school of fish.

A public boat launch is located on Marina Island in St. Joseph, while smaller boats may use the DNR’s Jasper Dairy access. For more information, contact BJ’s Sporting Goods at (616) 429-8271.

MAY
Largemouth Bass
Wamplers Lake
Although it boasts a good population of bucketmouths, Wamplers is often overlooked as a bass lake. Summer is notoriously a hard bite but Wamplers has the habitat to make it bearable.

Bass angling starts to take off as the water warms. The fish will be in shallow water along submerged weedlines, emergent vegetation and woody cover. It may take some work to tempt one to bite, but it can be done. Early mornings and late evenings are the best times to try.

The lake is in the Walter J. Hayes State Park near Jackson. Boat ramps are located north of the beach on Wamplers Lake Road and on Round Lake that lies east of Wamplers but is connected by a navigable channel. A park sticker is required for entry.

For more information, call the DNR’s Lake Erie Management Unit at (248) 359-9040.

June
Northern Pike
Fletcher Floodwaters
Fletcher Floodwaters may be the most productive northern pike water in the Lower Peninsula. Largemouth bass have boomed as well, but they can’t compare with the 30-inch northerns that dominate the lake.

There is no one best spot on this structure-filled lake. The northwest section is loaded with submerged stumps and scattered weeds. The old river channel runs through the main-lake basin and is another good spot, with the riverbed being slightly deeper than the surrounding flats.

Most of the lake is only 6 feet deep with stumpfields covering hundreds of acres of water. The stumps were cut off at water level and are very hard to see. Dented aluminum boats with small motors are the mainstay and trying to operate anything larger is just asking for trouble.

Fletcher Floodwaters covers 8,970 acres in Alpena and Montmorency counties. A public ramp is located near Fishing Site Road on the north side of the lake.

For more information, contact the DNR’s Northern Lake Huron Management Unit at (989) 732-3541.

One of the finest pike fisheries in the Upper Peninsula is the

Manistique Lakes Chain that includes North Manistique, Big Manistique and South Manistique lakes. A recent DNR survey netted 10 northern pike over 40 inches in a day, a feat that isn’t repeated often on any pike water. One of the northerns measured 49 1/2 inches.