Lake Michigan salmon and trout

The river smells of fish and sometimes the small silvery alewives will jump out of the water when they are being pursued by Chinook salmon, coho salmon, brown trout or steelhead. It’s that time.

People have been catching salmon over twenty pounds this year and good size trout. They are being caught in the estuaries and tributaries to Lake Michigan.

Read more about fishing in the Great Lakes in The Dynamic Great Lakes available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

The Singing Sands

The sand on Lake Michigan has a high content of quartz that causes a high pitched sound when a toe is dragged across the wet sand. The little sprite pictured above is enjoying the beach immensely. Keep an eye on little ones at the beach. Keep a watch for rip current warnings. If a red flag is flying, no one should go in the water.

I Will Be at Barnes & Noble

I will be at Barnes & Noble in Norton Shores, MI Saturday, July 23 at 11 a.m. to sign books and to chat about the Great Lakes.
In addition to my non-fiction book, The Dynamic Great Lakes I will have two more books on hand: The Wilderness Within and Sophia’s Lost and Found. I hope you will stop by.

Great Lakes Influences

I live on Lake Michigan and I have lived on Lake Huron. I have traveled to Lake Superior, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario where I watched a meteor shower while camping. All this freshwater has led me to write. I wrote a non fiction book, The Dynamic Great Lakes that is critically acclaimed. It shows how each lake has changed and changes. It is especially about what lies under water. These lakes are magnificent.

I have included many Great Lakes inspired poems in my books, The Wilderness Within and Sophia’s Lost and Found: Poems of Above and Below

The Dynamic Great Lakes

The Dynamic Great Lakes is a book about our five freshwater seas.

Pictured is the North Shore of Lake Superior, some of the oldest rocks in the world. Also picured is the critically acclaimed book, The Dynamic Great Lakes.. For those who like to travel and fish, this is a handy book to throw in your duffel bag.

Playing Around the Great Lakes

I’m told that children learn through play. From what I have experienced, I believe that adults learn through play also. Our family has been playing in, on and around the Great Lakes most of our lives. We have learned a lot while we swam, boated, fished and beach combed. The lakes engaged all our senses: the splash of cold water, the sound of the waves, the silence of fog, hot sand underfoot and the way it sings when you drag your toes across it, the ever changing colors and rhythms of waves, the times fish bite the best. The Great Lakes have many lessons to teach if we pay attention.

Family vacations took us to all of the Great Lakes; the majesty of Niagara Falls; to the rocky shores of Lake Superior where we hunted for agates; to many embayments and open waters of the lakes to fish. My husband Norm, a gung ho fisherman, has caught nearly every kind of fish in the lakes: walleye from Lake Erie and the embayments of the upper Great Lakes, deep water fish such as lake trout and burbot, and the annual runs of white fish and perch from the pier at Grand Haven. When Pacific salmon were planted he found a bonanza of fish. Sometimes the rest of the family fishes with him: myself, our daughters and our grand children. When he took our first grand daughter, age three, fishing for salmon, he let her pull in a big coho…almost as big as she was. Then he asked her later if she had told the kids in the neighborhood about it. She said, ”No. They would never believe it.”

We have all learned so much from the Great Lakes; their ever changing colors, their beaches of stone or sand, waterfalls, fishes and birds, wetlands , and dunes with their succession of plants. In our play around the Great Lakes, we are always learning something new.

Review of The Dynamic Great Lakes

One of the first reviewers of my book, The Dynamic Great Lakes was Norman Goldman. Here is his review:

The Dynamic Great Lakes

Many of us know very little about the five Great Lakes other than perhaps being able to name them. As Barbara Spring states in her introduction to her outstanding primer The Dynamic Great Lakes they are “a flowing river of seas left behind by Ice Age glaciers and are nearly twenty percent of the world’s supply of fresh surface water; the world’s greatest freshwater system.”

The ecosystem of this great body of water is very complex and unfortunately due to pollution and the fallout of modern industry and agriculture they have gone through a gradual transformation.

One of the unique characteristics of this compact book is that it is written in a language devoid of esoteric explanations. The eight chapters of the book reflect the author’s teaching and journalistic aptitudes in knowing how to unravel the mystery of the Great Lakes and the many painful dangers it has faced and continues to face.

Each of the five Lakes is introduced with a brief synopsis of important elements distinguishing one from the other such as: elevation, length, breadth, average depth, maximum depth, volume, water area, retention time, population and outlet. From this point of departure the author deals with the various changes that have taken place as well as the various major issues affecting the Lakes.

There are also brief descriptions of the various animal life found in each of the Lakes and how they have been affected by pollution and the appearance of harmful species, such as the Lamprey Eel.

However, we are also reminded throughout the reading of the book that “people power” can have an effect and if we band together and make our voices heard we could exert influence in reversing some of the harmful trends that have caused ecological disaster.

For example we are apprised of the situation that occurred in relation to Lake Erie. In 1969 a tributary river of Lake Erie, the Cayahoga, caught on fire due to being heavily coated with oil and debris. As a result, the Federal Water Quality Administration launched a one and half billion dollar municipal sewage treatment program for the Erie Basin which included the five surrounding states: Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.

The conclusion of the book most appropriately reminds us that: “we are all challenged to use our knowledge, creativity and common sense to keep the Great Lakes great. Can you think of ways to think globally and act locally?” We are also warned “life on earth is only possible as long as our limited life support system works.”

Copyright 2002, Bookideas.com. Originally published at Bookideas.com.

A Kite Boarder on Lake Michigan

Some of the best conditions for Kite Boarding may be found in West Michigan. Lots of wind and surf. Kite boarders fly over the water as they flip and careen over the waves.

Sail Boarding Lake Michigan

Sailboards on Lake Michigan

With a breeze blowing, these sailboarders find perfect conditions offshore on Lake Michigan.

Updated: The Dynamic Great Lakes

The Dynamic Great Lakes, a non-fiction book about changes in the Great Lakes ecosystems, has just been updated and released in a fourth edition. 

 And there is more good news: the price is now $12.95 plus shipping and handling when ordered from the publisher. The book has been critically acclaimed and is under the Independence imprint. It may be ordered from the Publish America bookstore.