raywriter
03-20-2012, 08:49 PM
Two friends and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather to get my boat out on the bay. I launched from a friend's lot on the Escanaba River and motored out to the mouth and into the bay because I needed to run old gas out of my built-in tank and take a shake-down cruise. The ice pack is still close to shore but rotting quickly. We trolled salmon spoons on the chance that some trout were attracted to the river area. We had no action in this effort. The most interesting sight we encountered was the drifting carcasses of two ice fishing shanties moving around with the wind and current. They were almost submerged, so later they may become navigation hazards for early season boaters. We also pitched light jigs tipped with two-inch minnows around shoreline brush and pilings but found no crappies. I think if I could have motored farther upriver I could find some panfish. My locator failed to function early in the trip, so we fished blind. Lots of floating debris out there other than the shanties. The current is very strong right now. Still, how often to we get to put boats out on Little Bay in March?