Whopper in the River

This past Saturday, I went on a fishing trip with pro bass fisherman Chad Pipkens.  I got to go on the trip because my mom had the winning bid in an auction sponsored by the Brain Injury Association of Michigan.

I met Chad Pipkens on Saturday morning at the Lake Erie Metropark, where the Detroit River empties into Lake Erie.  We started off by loading our gear into his boat and then sailed over to a popular small mouth area in the middle of the Detroit River.  Before we could start fishing, Chad tied a drop-shot rig with a Poor Boys four-inch Erie darter.  He told me to cast into a rock pile he had saved on his fish finder.  As I was bouncing the rig along the bottom, I felt a tug on my pole and then set the hook.  My first fish of the day was a nice bass, and was bigger than any bass I had ever caught in the Grand or Looking Glass Rivers.

The next fish I reeled in was a nice, 20-inch walleye.  He was very hard to hold for a photo!

This was the first walleye I have ever reeled in.  Another first for me followed just a few minutes later, after we moved to a new location, when I caught a freshwater drum, or a sheepshead, as some people call it.

During the balance of the morning, I caught several other nice bass, ranging from 16 to 18 inches.

 That's Chad Pipkens with me in the photo on the right.

The sunny weather we had enjoyed for most of the morning was coming to an end and the clouds were moving in when we headed into an area off Grosse Ile with a gravel bottom.  I quickly cast straight into the gravel bottom with a Poor Boys Lake Erie darter.  On my third retrieve, something big hammered my bait.  I set the hook, and the fight was on.  I knew I either had a big small mouth on, or a fair-sized walleye.  After 30 seconds of battling this beast, I got my first glimpse of the fish.  A four-and-a-half pound small mouth was at the end of my line.

My dad quickly netted him, we took the hook out, and then we put the fish in the live well for a photo when we were back at the dock.

After we had some fun fishing for deeper-water small mouth, Chad suggested that we go after some shallow-water small mouth that he said would jump right out of the water.  We strapped our rods to the deck of the bass boat and moved over to a shallow area.  Before I could start fishing, I needed to use a more-weedless lure.  Chad suggested that I use a fluke, while he used a lipless crank bait.  After casting for about 10 minutes, I thought I was caught up in weeds, but, in reality, a foot-long perch had grabbed my fluke, and, within a few seconds, I was reeling him in.  I barely knew he was hooked, and was surprised to see such a nice perch on my line.  I was also pleased to see how many nice fish inhabit the Detroit River, from big small mouth, to walleye, to freshwater drum, and even jumbo perch.

I really enjoyed fishing with Chad Pipkens, and hope I get the chance to fish again with such a great angler!

No fish were harmed in the making of this blog!