Spring Boating on Lake Michigan

It is quiet, calm, great breathing air and you can see as far as the eye takes you....that is spring boating on Lake Michigan off Washington Island. Sometimes you need a light coat, or fleece, or raincoat as it can be cool in Spring, but worth the effort for sure. Just to be the only boat on the bay is a delight.We were the only boat launching on a Saturday afternoon on Memorial Day weekend! Yup it is a lovely, uncrowded beautiful view to the horizon experience , that calms the soul.

Sometimes the harbor is very shallow but they have dredged out a lot of the launches on Lake Michigan and to our delight not only had the launch been dredged, but the Lake was also up in water depth by about a foot! The Commercial fisherman we know from the Island says the rising and falling of lake levels is a normal cycling of the lake and less to do with any weather, seasonal or global issues ,but i often wonder if all the communities using lake water for drinking and global warming must indeed be affecting it as well. It is an amazing natural resource and now there is a Great Lakes water protection act( can't think of the name??) that communities are signing to safeguard this wonderful gift from God. It restricts over use of lake water for drinking purposes as our water sources in the USA become less available, and more and more people are looking to try to pipe the water from Lake Michigan in the Midwest as far west as Nevada and as far east as Ohio( I have heard)!! No more talk of that however, as these state agreements will not allow the lake to be drained beyond functional levels.

Another great threat to the Lake is the blight of Zebra Mussels that continue to be brought in on the bottom of boats, especially large freighters going from one large body of water to another. These Zebra Mussels are clogging up water intake pipes for our drinking water ,as well as eating all the plankton in the Lake! Without plankton for the small fish to eat- well the small fish are disappearing ( like Perch)and thus soon so will the big ones disappear. Our friend ,the Island commercial fishermen, predicts that there will be no more commercial fishing in the Lake in about 3-5 years!! They are out of control!! The DNR could have controlled this but, as usual, they moved too slow and as usual they do little to protect our local and national natural resources as a result! We have seen beaches on the smaller islands that are made up of many piles and piles of Zebra Mussel shells that from a distance look like white sand but when you get closer to the islands you realize they are just shells. They are as sharp as glass- so no bare feet on those beaches!! Dave has a scar on his forearm that is about 8 inches long from diving near a pier on the island to retrieve a fishing lure that broke off on a fishing pole, when we came in to tie up the boat, and he accidentally grazed his arm on the side of the submersed pier only to be sliced by a row of clinging Zebra Mussel shells, that cling on to the pier as if put on with crazy glue- they are more sharp rock or pieces of glass that destruct and sculpt everything they touch in the lake. They are a natural disaster of sorts for Lake Michigan- something that now cannot be undone- so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a lighter note....Our mission on Saturday was to just take a nice boat ride to check out a new fishing gadget Dave had installed on the boat- one that would help take the fishing "down riggers" to the bottom and monitor keeping them off the bottom by a specific number of feet regardless of the changes in water depth as we troll along to fish. We fish for Salmon- yes there are Salmon in Lake Michigan!! (I didn't even know that till a few years ago when we started fishing for them.)It is a short season however, only mid June to mid August- just two short months, but oh my gosh how much fun is it to catch 1-3 big( 7-16 #) almost every time we go out to fish!! Who would have thought you could catch them almost every time you go out!! Plus you fish only at sunrise or sunset( my favorite) and a beautiful way to watch the sunset in the process. It can be breathtakingly stunning, often with big Lake freighters in the view!It is so relaxing I think we hardly care if we catch any fish at all, as it is so peaceful out there. Nothing have I ever experienced is so very relaxing and beautiful too. It is a real gift to be lucky enough to do this and I NEVER take it for granted- and am in awe EVERY time we go out!! I love the Lake and this experience makes me fall in love with all it offers every time we go out to fish. We have boated on the lake for many years but just in the past few years have we fished- so this is a relatively new thing for us and we are HOOKED!! he he