Rise above spring drudgery with slip float therapy

Even though the winter season brings a unique set of outdoor activities, I am relieved to experience the freshness of the "new weather" that has surrounded us.

In fact, for me, spring has presented itself with roaring aromas, new greenery, buds a-poppin - along with not-so-nice sounds from garages, with men and boys trying their best to get the lawnmower to start. Expletives echo up and down the street while fresh bandages are retrieved from inside their houses to caress wounded knuckles. For some reason there seem to be quite a few with mowers equipped with pull-starters. I'm fortunate that my 10-year old wonder starts with a twist of the key.

I've already had the lawn prepped, scraped, thatch removed and fertilized. I've even watered a specific area of the back yard in hopes of providing a decent staging area for my nightcrawler hunting.

It's early in the season and there are still scads of people sitting home watching fishing shows. Ugh! Gamefish and panfish are scattered on the ponds as well as the Fox Chain, Deep Lake, and Bangs Lake.

My mind has gone into attack mode and has fueled my imagination with the desire to strike hard, with a good hook set.

Two spinning rods should do it.

One is light Grandt model close to 7 feet long, and the second setup is a 5½ foot ultralight Grandt.

The longer rod seems magical, giving me the ability to enjoy a good tussle with a fish yet somehow still allowing me complete control. I rig the shorter rod with a tiny, 1/32-ounce jig tipped with a sliver of chartreuse plastic tail.

The long one gets a slip-float special.

I know, you may have thought I was going to talk about floating in a canoe of raft down some area stream. Maybe next time.

The primary objective when using a slip-float is to target suspended fish. Schools of fish could be inches off the bottom or somewhere suspended higher up the water column looking for forage.

Please keep in mind a slip-float is miles ahead and away, so to speak, from that old, traditional red and white piece of junky plastic. The red and white job is a fixed float and that simply means you cannot get your bait or jig down to the area where the fish hang out.

For example: Maybe you want to make a cast around 50 feet away from the bank or your boat. The old bobber gets reeled up to the very top of your rod tip and that's it. Your bait or lure is probably a foot or two below it. If you had a storm-like wind at your back, you may be able to send your lure about 10 feet away.

The only real advice I am going to give you is this.

Go to your local tackle store and buy a bunch of different sized slip-floats. Read the directions inside each one and then go about the job of locating and catching panfish or something larger.

I can guarantee you will have a float trip.

Fishing report:

Fox Chain: Look for excellent crappie action on Pistakee Lake. Heavy walleyes showing up on Lake Marie and Channel Lake

Deep Lake: Crappie very good.

Bangs Lake: Crappie and largemouth action greatly improved.

Lake Michigan: Coho action is fairly constant from Waukegan all the way into Indiana. Excellent catches of browns mixed in as well.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.