Rob Garner's Comments

Rob,
Thanks for the response. I'd like to tangle with some Kings and Brown Trout. Although it sounds like the Coho are great to eat and are starting to show up. I hear that these fish can be caught close to shore.

Thanks,
Greg

Bought a couple "Automatic Fisherman" to use while ice fishing the harbors, but never made it up there.

Rob,
Do you ever take your boat out on Lake Michigan and fish for Trout or Salmon?

I check out Eric Hattaja's site (www.wibigfish.com) all the time and I'm amazed at the quality fish they catch. I want to come up and try it some time, using my boat. Sounds like certain times of the year the "near-shore" and harbor bite can be good. A lot of fish caught vertical jigging Gulp minnows and jerk shads. Or trollin planer boards using crankbaits and spoons / flies.

I've got a 17' Lund, so I don't want to venture out too far, unless it's relatively calm.

Just curious to see how much of this type fishing you do?

when your on turn up your chat volume. this is what you do, go to the top of the page, click chat on the right (its on the menue bar) then when you get there put up the volume which is next to the smilie face, and the computer volume because the beep is very soft. this is because if someone trys to talk to you the chat volume is on mute. if you want to talk to someon just copy and paste this message.

mid july just out of the launch

nice photo Rob, we must fish the same lakes eh? good luck to ya, I'm heading to geneva sat for a first time fishing. Hope I can bring some home that size

The most common bait that is used in Lake Erie is shiner minnows---fished from a spreader or a crappie rig. I prefer a crappie rig myself.

I don't believe perch get that big (15") out here....at least not that often.

One has to get 4 of these for a "master angler" award:

Qualifying Lengths to Receive
a Fish Ohio Pin


Brown Trout – 25 inches

Carp – 26 inches

Channel Catfish – 26 inches

Crappie – 13 inches

Flathead Catfish – 35 inches

Freshwater Drum – 22 inches

Hybrid Striped Bass – 21 inches

Largemouth Bass – 21 inches

Muskie – 36 inches Northern Pike – 32 inches

Rainbow Trout – 28 inches

Rock Bass – 10 inches

Saugeye – 21 inches

Smallmouth Bass – 20 inches

Sunfish – 9 inches

Walleye – 28 inches

White Bass – 16 inches

Yellow Perch – 13 inches

I am a jumbo perch hunter myself! I target them hard in the winter though. The pike fishing you got sounds amazing! Someday I will have a 10wt flyrod to go after them!

Thanks for the comments Rob! I was very fortunate to get the oppurtunity. It was awesome! Have you been out lately?

Rob, I acquired the name "Musky Mod" back in 1983 during my first year as a musky fisherman....known as the fish of a thousand casts, I successfully landed 19 fish over 40" during my first season....I rarely fish for them now, but the name lives on....This imprint was created in the early 80's and can be seen at the end of Johnson Motors pier at the Waukegan lakefront.

Rob, the sharpener I use is called the accusharp...it is available at most Ace hardware stores.

Like using crankbaits to catch big bull gills? Join the crankbait group!

Thanks for the comment on "The Wait" photo! She is really pumped that all you guys liked the picture. We are going to blow it up to 11x14 and frame it! Thanks again!

Actually, I have some nice relationships with several editors of mags and papers and they are usually anxious to recieve my articles. But you are right...it takes years to get good working relations in the outdoor writing industry. See ya...Jim

Hey Rob...just so you know, I make very little money writing for magazines. Probably fewer than 10% of 'outdoor writers' actually make a living at it...most have other jobs that pay the bills. A good year wring for me will net me about 3,000 bucks, no more. But, it's a lot of fun and pays for all my fishing stuff. I work at a local park as a maintenance man full time.

Hey Rob...I have been writing for fishing mags and columns for a little over 30 years now and I still write about mostly bluecollar types of fishing that the average guy can do. I fish for just about everything but tend to favor panfish and small lakes and cats and smallmouths. Suppose to hit a pond on Thursday that was drained and restocked about 5 years ago....before all that it had given me my biggest gill at 11 3/4 in and bass at 24 in, so I am excited to see how the reclamation has turned out. The small pond eventually got fished out and abused.

Hey Rob...I actually live in Maryland and catch yellow perch from our local lakes, tidal creeks and from DeepCreek Lake through the ice. DCL is an outstanding fishery for big perch and I have some nice pix of jumbos on my photos section. I have taken a 2-2 and a 2-8 from DCL icefishing and both fish looked like they were going to explode. Thanks for the scoop on thos Great Lakes Perch! Jim

We ventured onto Geneva last Sunday morning...gave up by 10 am....we typically find beds in 13-14 ft....try Geneva bay east of the bible camp in these depths....throw a marker if you catch a big spawning male....temp was 70 deg, they should be red hot within the next few days.

Hi Rob....I haven't been to Geneva yet this year but I may give it a shot next weekend...surface temps are in the high 50's