U.P. Fishing and September Success

Just before school started, our family decided to head up north.  We had a fun time seeing the sights, and we spent time fishing across the Upper Peninsula.  Dad took me fishing at Kingtston Lake along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  I caught a lot of perch there.  When we were leaving, I happened to notice a boat come into the dock.  I looked inside the boat, and it reminded me of pictures I have seen of muskie fishing boats.  Then, I asked the fisherman if he had caught any muskie.  He said not today, but the day before he caught a 42-incher and he gave me a muskie spinner!

A couple of weeks later in DeWitt, I was back on the sacred waters of the Looking Glass, fishing for pike.  Right under the Bridge Street bridge, I caught a 32-incher.  He did not take the bait at first, but I stuck with him.  He spat out the minnow a few times.  Then he stopped messing around and took my minnow  for good.  A nice mom and her little kid came along and asked if I caught anything, and I showed them a picture of the big scary fish I just caught.  I look forward to more pike fishing in the fall!

The Night of the Bass

It has been an interesting week fishing on the Looking Glass River.  One night, I went fishing, and some girls told me that there were not any fish in the Looking Glass and that I would not catch anything.  Those girls were wrong about there not being any fish in the river, but right that I would not catch anything.  Spoon fed pike again!

Two days later, I went fishing with my Grandma.  I think that Grandma must be a good luck charm, because I caught four good-size small mouth bass.  Two were sixteen inches long!

Then, on July 22, I was back at the Looking Glass.  While I was fishing, I caught a small bluegill and it put it on my hook and threw it back out.  Almost immediately, a huge 17-inch bass took the bait!  That's the fish you see above.  He was a little bloody, and I wondered if he might have been attacked by a pike.

Also, I caught a fish I did not know existed in the Looking Glass.  It was quite a cool find for me. I caught a largemouth bass!  And Dad says Lansing is the home of the large mouth!

Return to DeWitt!

Meanwhile, back in DeWitt, the big pike are around!

During my July 9 visit to the Looking Glass, I caught two pike, a 33-inch and a 24-inch.

For bait, I used bass/walleye minnows  We saw another big pike today, but I don't think it was The General.  This fish had the girth, but The General has a few more inches on him.  A lot of the pike I saw Monday were spoon-fed.  I have noticed that some of the bigger pike are smart and they will not go after any lure.  I am trying to figure out ways to catch these two huge pike.

Fishing Up North

During the week of the Fourth of July, my dad and I went Up North.  We stayed at Jack's Landing on Fletcher's Pond, which is near Alpena.  The reason we went there is because last year, a huge pike broke my pole.  Dad and I got a boat, and we went out to find that pike!

But we did not find that pike.  We spent 70 bucks on a boat, and all we caught were a bunch of panfish!

To see big pike, we needed to go back to DeWitt to go to the Looking Glass River.  Along the way, we stopped at the state fish hatchery in Oden, not too far from Petoskey.  They have a viewing chamber where you can look under the water and see fish in their natural habitat in a stream.  They also have a big pond with retired breeding trout who are fed by school kids and anyone else who might come along.  I encourage everyone visiting northern Michigan this summer to visit the fish hatchery in Oden.

The Longest Day of Fishing and Spoon-Fed Pike!

 The last few days have been great for fishing! Saturday was what I call the Longest Day of Fishing.  It is the Saturday closest to the longest day of the year.  Dad and I were at Sleepy Hollow State Park around 7:00 Saturday morning to fish.  Almost  as soon as we got there, I caught a 14-inch bass!  A nice lady who was there asked me if I had ever caught a fish that big before.  Very politely, I said yes, but in my mind, I was thinking  "Lady, I use fish bigger than this for bait!" 

Saturday night, we went fishing in the Looking Glass and I caught a 33-inch pike!  That's the pike above.  It was a pike convention Saturday.  I think I saw five big pike in one spot.  During our adventure on Saturday, we noticed that most of the pike needed to be spoon-fed like babies.  I would put the bait right on front of their noses, and they'd swim away.  My books say that pike are some of the most aggressive fish out there, but not that night!

On Monday, Dad took me back to the Looking Glass for more pike fishing.  The last three times I have been to the Looking Glass, I have seen a pike about 40 inches long that I call "The General."  Unfortunately, "The General" is one of those spoon-fed pike that won't move an inch to get to your bait.  However, I was able to catch these two pike here.  I caught the top one, which was 33 inches, on a minnow.  Believe it or not, I caught the bottom, which was 32 inches, one on a worm that I was using to fish for a carp I was seeing.!  After Dad took these pictures, I put these pike back in the Looking Glass!

Two for the Price of One!

Usually, I do not do product endorsements, but my Husky Rapala caught two pike for me this weekend on the Looking Glass River in Clinton County, Michigan.

I was impressed with this product and how it was getting reaction from the fish.  When I was casting to the middle of the river, the pike would come out of hiding to chase it!  Both pike I caught were 22 inches, so they were a little on the small side, but still fun.

The Looking Glass is full of life.  Today I saw two river red horse, a smallmouth bass, a bowfin and green frogs and bull frogs!

Pike- The Long and Short of It

During our adventures in the Looking Glass River over the last two weeks, we have landed two beautiful specimens of pike.  On Memorial Day, I caught a baby 12-inch pike after throwing a Husky Rapala that was over four inches long.  That pike had eyes bigger than his stomach, because he took a lure that was about one-third his length! 

A week later, we were back in the area, with some of Grand River Bait and Tackle's biggest minnows.  To our surprise, when we got to the Looking Glass, there were two big pike waiting for us.  Within a few minutes, I had one of them on my line, but, to my disappointment, it managed to get off.  After fishing for another hour or so, I finally had a little luck.  A giant, 31-inch pike was waiting on the bottom of a pool to ambush anything that came near.  I quickly threw in a minnow and the fight was on!  Landing this monster was a big battle, which involved a lot of mud and getting bit a couple of times.  We finally managed to get this beast up on the bank and took some pictures.  Then we put this beautiful fish back in his home in the Looking Glass.

The end.