Saugatuck — Excel spreadsheets, meetings, and financial reviews. This is how a typical Monday morning starts for most people. But the best way to start a week is to wake up before the sun and hit the Big Lake for salmon.
Sure, you can’t do this every Monday, but every once in a while you need to remind yourself what the good life feels like.
On these special days, while your coworkers are hitting snooze for the third time, you’re pouring coffee into a travel mug. Quarterly projections couldn’t be farther from your mind.
At the harbor, charter boats are already warming up their engines. Captains and crew are loading ice, rigging poles, and checking gear with the kind of focus that most people don’t bring to their day jobs.
Twenty miles out, the sun paints Lake Michigan in colors that would make your office screensaver look pathetic. Your captain is reading the water, the temperature breaks, and bait schools—the signs that separate good fishing from great fishing. He’s not reading emails about synergy and actionable insights.
You’re after Kings and lakers instead of deadlines. That 20-pound salmon fighting on your line delivers more adrenaline than even a bonus could.
By 11 a.m., you’re back at the dock with fish to clean and stories to tell. Your cooler is full of salmon, while everyone else’s inbox is full of problems that seemed urgent at 9 a.m. but feel silly now.
Michigan’s greatest resource isn’t in some downtown office building. It’s 20 miles offshore, swimming in our big, beautiful lake. Life isn’t always about the hustle and bustle or the daily grind. Sometimes it’s about waking up extra early, sitting in the sun, and slamming King salmon off the Lake Michigan coast.
So set that alarm for 4 a.m. and skip the spreadsheet. The Big Lake is calling, and it’s got your name on it.
Tom Zandstra is a passionate outdoorsman and CEO of The Fair Chase. Follow him on X @TheFairChase1.
