An Outdoorsman’s Journal: A Long Day on the Job PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 11 March 2010 10:54
Hello friends,
This past week I spent a day observing multi-species hunting and fishing guide, Kurt Weinland Jr. of Clintonville ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) as he guided a group of four fishermen that were from northwest Indiana. The theme of this week’s column is the long days that a fishing guide can put in and that fish are not always cooperative.

Saturday, February 20th
High 30, low 20

I stayed at Kurt Weinland’s house last night and we talked a lot of hunting and fishing. Kurt Weinland has a unique guiding business; he will travel for a day of hunting or fishing.

In early February, Kurt fished on the frozen waters of Lake Michigan for brown and rainbow trout as well as salmon with John Gillespie who is the host of “Wisconsin Waters and Woods” TV show. Their day on the ice was a success and as soon as the show was aired a week later, Kurt Weinland’s phone started ringing and has not stopped.

Here is the catch, and as I would find out, it is an exhausting one. The drive to Sheboygan is just under two hours and the other harbor that Weinland fish’s is Manitowoc, which is about a 90-minute drive from Clintonville.

When we called it a night, we jokingly said “see ya in three hours” to each other as the alarm was set for 3:00 a.m.

I have never fished Wisconsin’s great lakes through the ice for salmon or trout, so this day was a free lesson and all I would do was observe, Weinland, his four fisherman and about 20 locals that were spending a day on the ice.

The first and possibly most important lesson that I would learn is that you have to get on the ice early and secure an area to fish, which means drilling holes with a Jiffy ice auger, setting up a couple of portable ice shacks and preparing ten, “Automatic Fisherman” for a day of work.  

Kurt Weinland is a staunch advocate of using  “The Automatic Fisherman” over tip ups. The Automatic Fisherman is basically a rod holder and hook setter all in one, in which an ice fishing spinning rod and reel is placed.

Four eager travelers from Indiana arrived on the ice, and hopefully, the fish catching would begin.  I spent much of the day sitting in a portable fishing shack with Mike Kraft and Dan Autrey as they jigged for trout and watched Vexilars. These guys are well-traveled outdoorsmen that are construction workers when they are not hunting or fishing; they also had an excellent sense of humor.

I observed concern on Weinland’s face when neither, his clients or any of the local fisherman had iced a trout or salmon by noon.  Brats were cooked, lures were changed and when that did not work Kurt Weinland did a short move with two of the fishermen and almost immediately the spinning rod on An Automatic Fisherman straightened up which signaled a hit.  

Adam Candian’s fought what Weinland figured was the biggest brown of the season and about the time the big brown was coming out of the hole, escaped to fight another day.

Spawn and minnows are the two most popular baits for this type of fishing and we had one interesting experience when a merganser (duck) grabbed one of the minnows and Mike Kraft caught what he was hoping would be a trout or a salmon (easily released).

I made some good friends today and was invited to come fish for 11-18 inch perch on the south end of Lake Michigan this summer.
Despite the poor fish bite, everyone stayed in an excellent mood and was impressed with Weinlands, attitude, preparation and work ethic.
I think it would be a blast to ice, a pigasauras that is presently swimming below the frozen waters of Lake Michigan and will have to return!

Be Active!   Stay Healthy!      

Sunset

P.S. When we pulled into Kurt Weinland’s driveway, we had been gone exactly 16-hours!

Written by Mark Walters
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