Ice Fishing WITHOUT The Ice

February 4, 2012
By: Stephen Kent

It's that "Shiver On The River" time when fishermen from all over converge on the Saginaw River ice and try for Walleye. THIS year, however, there just isn't any ice. But that doesn't stop the fishermen. All along the river fishermen and women could be found on the shores where there was easy river access. Fishing boats dotted the river from Saginaw to the Bay.

Saturday afternoon found Greg Lobo and his nephew Branden Sporman down at the Cass Avenue boat launch fishing for yellow perch. "Grab this pole, Steve, and pull one in", Greg said to me. "We'll catch one every 30 seconds". I wanted to take pictures but you just can't resist a pole with a fish on, even a little one!

And Greg was right. It took about 30 seconds to hook a little perch. "This is great fun. Nothing's better than fishing" he laughed. It wasn't a sure bet that his $5.00 worth of minnows would last as long as they could stay.

Greg's nephew Branden Showed up about 4:00 and got a line wet pretty quickly. The fish were really small and were all thrown back, but they did come fairly quickly. "The big ones will start biting when it gets a little later", said Greg.

Two other friends joined the sport. They commented that a year ago today they fished here but there was a foot or more of snow at the time and the kids were out of school.

So there's no ice, but that's OK. Like Greg said, "There's nothing like fishing".