For years, I have called the Saturday closest to the longest day of the year the "Longest Day of Fishing." This is a tradition, now, and I try to fish for most of the day. For the 2015 Longest Day of Fishing, I visited four fishing hot spots in mid Michigan: Island Park in Grand Ledge; Central Park in Okemos; the Grand River at Old Town in Lansing and Sleepy Hollow State Park near Ovid.
Island Park, Grand Ledge MI, on the Grand River
We arrived at Island Park before 7:00 a.m., and within two minutes, on just my second cast, I had my first fish of the day, a nice 14-inch bass. Bass #1 was caught on a brown 4-inch tube on a 1/4 inch jig head.
Now, unfortunately, the bass fishing did not hold up to a bass every two minutes, and it actually slowed down a little bit. To at least catch a few fish at Island Park, I decided to tie on a smaller pink tube and fish for rock bass around the rip rap. I was pleasantly surprised by about 12 nice-sized rock bass, and a few bluegills mixed in, too.
After catching the rock bass, I went after bass again. The fish I caught were all about the same size. Although I caught some nice smallmouth, I was disappointed with my catch rate, but high water and an incoming cold front caused some of the fish to stop feeding.
The next stop on my Longest Day of Fishing journey was the pond at Central Park in Okemos, behind the Meridian Township Hall and the Meridian Historic Village. This is an area that has served me well for both bass and pike. The same conditions that were affecting the Grand Ledge fishery were also present at the pond, and while I caught some nice fish, I did not catch the beasts that I usually catch in Okemos.
I managed to catch a few bass on wacky worms, and there were some bass chasing bluegills on their beds. The bluegill beds were very interesting, so I decided to try and catch a few of the big fish that were swimming around. I caught a few jumbo bluegill, but they were more finicky than you might think. I had to have my bait in front of them for a long time before they would commit to eating anything.
I was also able to use some bluegill as bait, including one that summoned a nice bass to my hook!
Old Town, Lansing, MI, on the Grand River
That afternoon, I went to the Grand River in the Old Town part of Lansing near the fish ladder. I caught a number of rock bass, as well as a 14-inch bass there. The water was very high and was pushing up onto the rocks so the fish were shallow. The high water flooded the rip rap, which caused the fish to hide in the crevices.
Sleepy Hollow State Park, Ovid, MI
I finished the day at Sleepy Hollow State Park, with the hopes of catching some catfish as the day was drawing to a close. I have caught catfish there before in the evening. Unfortunately, all I caught were some small bluegill.
Although the Longest Day of Fishing wasn't my best fishing day of the year, it's a great tradition, and I enjoyed being out on the water in our great state of Michigan
