Two of my favorite things are grouse hunting and salmon fishing. I conduct my fall retirement around these activities. When I retired I got a bird dog, well described in articles about our Brittney Dottie, and a salmon fishing boat. We live about five miles from a harbor that is one of the stocking sites for salmon in Lake Huron so when the salmon come in to spawn starting in September I can be fishing within 30 to 45 minutes depending on how far out I go. We also live within 15 min from some premier grouse cover that is maintained for grouse by a partnership of the Ruffed Grouse Society and the Michigan State Forest people. Grouse season opens here September 15 so from then until we leave for the winter in mid October I usually have one major decision each day. Do I hunt grouse in the morning and fish for salmon in the evening or vice versa? As I get older getting up early for fishing when the morning temperature is in the 40’s or 50’s isn’t much fun so I usually hunt in the morning since I don’t need to go out until 9 or 10 am for the grouse.

Fortunately for me my wife likes to eat grouse and her favorite fish is salmon; she can be counted on to order salmon when we go out to dinner if it is one the menu. (Her favorite is grilled salmon with blue cheese grilled into the top side.) Therefore she doesn’t complain when I go out fishing in the evening even though it means she has to eat along and walk the dog if we haven’t been hunting that day. I find that we are finally adapting to the wonders of cell phones so I call her a couple of times to let her know how the fishing is going and when I will be home, or if I am going to be within sight of our cottage so she can look through the telescope to watch me. She needs to know when I will be home as it takes both of us to back the boat into the garage without hitting the doorway.

I should note that until last year there were salmon around all summer although they stayed out in 100 feet deep water which requires a day without big waves. My 21 ft boat is comfortable to fish in waves of three feet or less. The boat can handle bigger waves but it’s hard work for the boater/fisherman and it increases the probability that I will fall overboard so I only fish in three foot waves or less. Beginning last summer the salmon disappeared around our area due to lack of bait fish. They have been around in some nearby areas but not where I normally fish. Therefore I and others wait until fall when they return to the harbor for their spawning period. I sometimes fish around the outside of the harbor but the fish caught there, although usually 12 to 15 lb fish, are beginning to turn brown and my wife prefers to eat the shiny silver ones. For reasons I don’t understand smaller fish seem to come along with the spawning fish but they stay out in deeper water. Perhaps they are there all along and I don’t catch them earlier for some reason.

This fall nature conspired against my grand plan. From late August to now the waves in the lake have been four to seven feet on almost every day. I think I was able to go out once during September and didn’t catch any fish. However, I did listen to another fisherman on the radio who was catching fish north of where I was fishing. The next time I went out, just to fish around the harbor, he was putting his boat in just ahead of me. He filled me in on exactly where he had been catching salmon and on what lures. I was eager to try the area but had to wait two weeks before we got a day with small waves. Of course I was able to console myself with grouse hunting, which the dog insists I do as often as possible.

Well yesterday the wave forecast was finally for one to three foot waves. However, I could see that there were four footers or more all morning. Finally at 1:00 pm I noticed the waves were a little smaller. By 4:00 pm they looked ok so I went out and headed north. Of course I was imagining that the salmon were either still where they had been two weeks earlier or maybe they had moved. Luckily they were still there. I started fishing where he told me at 5:30 pm and before I had my third line in the water I caught a 10-12 lb king salmon that was a shiny as a new dime. By 7:30 I had my three fish limit although the next two were smaller but just as shiny. I caught all three fish on the same type and color lure, very similar to what the other fisherman recommended. We now have our freezer stocked with fillets and salmon steaks for the next month and enough to give neighbors some. I could smoke it but I had already smoked a 15 lb salmon that I caught the night I fished by the harbor. It had just started to turn brown and was still very good to eat.

The wave forecast for tomorrow is also good but I got a glare from my wife as she was up until 10:30 last night holding a light while I filleted the fish and then washing and packaging them for the freezer. She says she has enough in her freezer and I better let the next few I catch go free.