Fishing Report - June 10, 2013 from Mr. Muskie Charters

Muskie Season kicked off last weekend with a bang! The MOMC held their opening tournament and most anglers had good success fishing different areas around the lake. The winner of the tournament caught a 37.6 pound Muskie that was 52 inches long! We had some good success, with our first Muskie boated at 48 inches. We ended up 3 for 5 and fished the dumping grounds area. This is the start to a great season.  With huge fish like this being caught, the door is wide open for many trophy Muskie and a possible new lake record!

The Bass fishing continues to be excellent as we have been catching 5-7 dozen bass each trip. Most days you can expect to get some other species like Rock Bass, Sheephead, and Silver Bass as they have entered the lake as well, and are filling up the Detroit River. The action has been very good around the mile roads in 8-12 foot of water.

Michigan Law Changes

We wanted to give you a update to some new regulations for fishing Muskie in Michigan waters. The D.N.R. has now implemented a new Muskie tag that is needed to keep a Muskie. I know we practice catch and release but we may encounter a Muskie that dies or we may have it in the live well and they could say that it was in our possession. So the thing to do is obtain a Muskie tag, which are free when you purchase your Michigan licenses. It is also necessary to have both the license and tag in your possession on all fishing trips!

Canada Law Changes

Canada has a new policy that they have implemented to protect their boarders. They have made it so everyone has to check in with their boarder agency C.B.S.A., whether it is a personal trip or on a charter. This would be the same process as if you were crossing their border by land, only we are able to do it over the phone.

We will be calling in on all our trips into Canadian waters! We will have a daily manifest with everyone’s name and birthdate, before we leave the dock. I will handle all the calls and deal with the boarder security issues. This being said everyone will need some picture ID along with some proof of citizenship. We should have no problems or delays due to the calling in to the C.B.S.A. However Canada has different laws than we do, which is where a problem may occur.

They will NOT allow anyone into their country that has been convicted of a felony. Canada considers any drunk driving offences as a felony, however that may be over looked due to number of offences and time lapsed from the offence. It is at the discretion of the officer on the phone. They have restated the law to allow lenience to the drinking offences due to the number of people who had them, so they have left it up to the officer taking the call. Now this will only affect our charters to the extent of fishing in Canada. We don’t anticipate any issues, however if it is found that one of the guests on the charter is NOT allowed in Canada, we can still do our charter and will fish in Michigan waters. The fees for the Canadian licenses purchased will not be refundable. We will not cancel nor reschedule any charters due to the denial of entry into Canada.

This law has been in effect for many years but just recently has been enforced with stringent penalties for noncompliance. We have also found that it is a simple and easy process that is not intended to inhibit any fisherman but only to protect their boarders from illegals and from terrorists.