Today I had the opportunity to fish with part of a great family from the Orion area of lower Michigan. Only three of the five family members went fishing. Bridgette, Kathleen and their dad Mike came aboard for a five hour trip on the bay. We left the resort shortly after 6 a.m., and when we got to the Gladstone Yacht Harbor and I saw the flags already blowing...I knew it was going to get windy! As most of you know, I am not fond of a west wind, mostly because it makes boat control very difficult when all of the structure in the bay goes north and south. We put out two small drift socks to stabilize the boat and slow us down some, and by using the auto pilot we were able to keep a pretty steady speed of .9 to 1.0 mph. I was quite surprised at how many boats were out there this morning, especially for how windy it was. As for the fishing...it was actually pretty good, especially the average size of the fish. We didn't catch nearly as many small fish as we've been getting lately, and we had several nice fish over 20 inches today. Most were 16 to 19 inchers though. Walleyes Choice (http://www.walleyeschoice.com) harnesses and bottom bouncers caught all the fish, with I-76, I-62, and I-51 accounting for the majority of them. We quit shortly after 11 a.m. when the wind really started cranking, but we ended up with 11 really nice walleyes for them to take home and enjoy. I really enjoyed today, it's always nice to get families that enjoy spending time together in the outdoors. Here's a couple pictures of today's trip, good luck from all of us in the Bays de Noc area.