Friday, May 16, we open the bait shop for our 21 st summer, and that is getting very close. The weather has improved, slowly but surely, today a high of 72. After rain, thunder and sudden heat there have got to be some very happy mushroom hunters out there.

Lorie and I have toured around the lakes [ Long and Grand ] several times recently, and we are seeing huge runs of suckers, beautiful walleye in the  streams, and  a lot of deer, and water fowl. It looks very good for this year.We have also had encouraging reports from local DNR reports, who also have seen the fish runs in the rivers, and reports of nice steelhead catches at the Grand lake outlet. That is the river that runs from the very north end of Grand lake, into Lake Huron. There have been many smaller boats trolling the Thunder Bay, right out from the Blair Street pier. This pier is right in front of the KFC restaurant, and they are launching out of the small boat harbor in Alpena.  I would expect that there will be many areas where the walleye will be caught as they move to their comfortable temperatures. But this area is easy to navigate, easy to see from land, and very productive, at times, like right now. A lot of folks use Rapalas and a variety of stick baits, but night crawler harnesses  [ aka Lorie Rigs}work quite well here too.

We look forward to seeing those blue covers come off the boats, and seeing boats in the water.The freeze is over, the season is here, so we’ll see you soon.

Be sure and stop in and get a supply of what you need, and check out these new Lake Huron 36′ Lorie Rigs, as well as our other fine merchandise.

We will be open Friday, May 16, from 7 to 5, for the entire summer.