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The last 3 photos are from
Lake Huron. Ports I fished that are missing on Lake Huron are
Lexington, Port Sanilac, Caseville Harbor Beach, Port Hope, Grindstone
City, Port Austin, Oscoda Alpena-Thunder Bay and Harrisville.
Marysville to Decker's Landing on the St. Clair River
Missing Lake Michigan ports are Glen Arbor, Onekama, Traverse City,
Charlevoix, Pentwater and Petoskey. I've fished all these ports, or
waters adjacent to these ports in a career that dates back to 10/1/1968.
Non mentioned Lake Erie Ports are Port Clinton, OH. LaSalle and
Monroe/Raison River, MI
Line of Sight
Navigation
Traveling north and south on Lake
Michigan's eastern shoreline is a piece of cake. There's no shoals,
or reefs to hinder traveling. As long as you stay in 50 feet of
water and travel sort of parallel with coast, there's not much to worry
about, except the trap nets in the Muskegon area. The trap nets are
marked with flags about 6 above the water. Beware and keep a constant
vigil when in the Muskegon area.
The trip I made south on 5/3/03 from Manistee to South Haven was fairly
simple, with clear skies and visibility to the horizon. It has been
told to me, due curvature of our planet.....the horizon is about 17 miles
at about 5 feet off the water. The higher up you are the further you can
see, but I'm no geometry expert.
When I leave and head south the first thing I want to do is maintain a
straight course to Big Point Sable. Straight lines save fuel and
when you have a vessel that gets a little over a mile to a gallon, saving
bucks looms large in your mind. I generally pass the big point's
lighthouse in
15 feet of water, because I'm very familiar with the water there.
My next major landmark is Little Point
Sable, south of Pentwater. You can't really see the little point,
but tiny lumps of shore will appear once you pass in front of
Ludington. I give the little point plenty of room and stay in at
least 30 feet of water.
The smoke stacks from the electric power plants in Muskegon is my next
clue, as I'm passing in front of the White Lake Harbors channel. I
stopped to fuel in Muskegon and was on a semi-sight seeing tour too.
The WW II submarine, the USS Silversides is docked on the south part of the channel by the
Coast Guard Station pretty close to the harbor's entrance.
Furthermore, Muskegon has a old passenger ship called the "Milwaukee
Clipper." Keeping in mind, that passenger travel on the Great
Lakes during times up to the later forties was highly in vogue. So,
Muskegon was not a dull port and visiting there by water was a wonderful
experience.
Once again the tall smoke stacks off Port Sheldon is my hint I'm getting
close to Holland. When passing the Port of Holland you'll notice a
major clusters condos both north and south of Holland.
Saugatuck's landmark is a large round radar ball that used to house a
early radar warning system, built during the height of the Cold War.
The unique dome, or ball is high a top a large hill, just south of the
piers in Saugatuck.
Now, if the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant is
running, finding South Haven is a piece of cake. Just look for the
large steam clouds that can be observable from the
Holland area. If the plant isn't going?
South Haven is about 20 miles
south of Saugatuck. Unless you have the nearsightedness vision of
Mr. Magoo, ...you can't miss it.
All of the above mentioned landmarks are on any nautical chart along with
the lat-lons of every port. You will have to do some math and use a
little bit of windage, but you can come close enough. And of course,
there's always the new fangled GPS's with the C-maps the shows you exactly
where are. If you were traveling in restricted visibility the C-maps
would be a wonderful asset.
As luck would have it, I replaced
several switches on my Cherokee the evening before the trip and the GPS
wouldn't power up. I keep track of my progress with a Loran-C, once
the state of the art navigational system, which has been made obsolete by
GPS. Incidentally, I was on the 8970 Loran-C grid. As a side
note, if you purchased a Loran in the early 1980s, a decent one could
have pushed the 3 grand range. 3 G's was a reel-healthy chunk of
change back then.
Not to neglect Lake Huron, port pictures are
needed from all the ports from Lexington to Rogers City. If you can
help me out with the Lake Huron images, I will do a separate page.
I've fished all the Lk. Huron ports from Harrisville to Lexington in the
70's, 80's and early 90's, I just don't have the pictures. I know
the site seems weighted towards Lk. Michigan, cuz I'm not fishing Lake
Huron now. I have a sneaky suspicion Lk. Huron might have a more
stable and better balanced overall fishery. Written prior to
the Lk. Huron Salmon Crash.
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