Bass attack!

Lately, I have been doing extremely well fishing for bass, and I believe the secret to all my success is the wacky worm.  During the past month or so, I have been hammering bass using this technique wherever I go.  It has even produced five 18-inchers and many more bass over 15 and 16 inches.  

Now, for those of you who do not know what a wacky rig is, I take a senko worm and hook it through the middle.  This is a little more technical than using just any hook.  You have to use a special wacky hook for increased hook-ups and you can use rubber bands so you don't lose as many worms.   Here is a photo with some examples:

The method is to cast out as far as you can, usually along a weed edge, and let it fall to the bottom. Then you give the rig two to three pops every ten seconds or so and then let it fall back to the bottom. Many of the strikes will occur on the fall;  when you go to do the popping motion, you will hook your fish.  I have also enjoyed success with quick, two-second pauses, and then reeling the rig back. When you use this technique, you want a long, sensitive rod, so you can feel the light bites and keep in touch with the light lure.  

Several times in May, I have caught more than 12 bass in just a couple of hours! I can tell you from experience, the wacky worm works!

The Maple River State Game Area

For several years, people have suggested that I visit the floodings in the Maple River State Game Area to fish for pike, crappie, and maybe even a bowfin.  I finally went there this past Saturday, in an area just to the west of U.S. 127 in southern Gratiot County.  I did catch some small pike, and I suspect there was a bigger pike right nearby, as something was striking at my bait.  I think this fish might have been about 28 inches long.  I was using gold shiners as bait.  

There were mosquitoes everywhere because this is kind of a swampy place.  I scouted this area back in the winter with a friend and we saw a couple of guys spearing bowfin.  A huge pile of decaying bowfin is still there, and was causing the place to smell pretty bad.  The fresh scent of springtime was not in the air!

The water where I fished seemed pretty stagnant and I didn't see any pan fish, which is a little unusual.  I wonder about the extent of the food sources in the floodings as compared to the Maple itself.  If you're a bird watcher, I think this would be a good place to visit, but if you're an angler, there might be better choices along the Maple close by, like the dam in Elsie, where I caught a huge number of rock bass during Memorial Day Weekend in 2014.

The Pike of Spring

The pike in the Looking Glass river in DeWitt are hungry as we head into May.  On May 3, I was surprised to see two pike in the Glass that I was unable to catch the weekend before.  These pike were spoon-fed, and were notorious for nosing up to my bait, but not taking it.  But this weekend, down at the east end of the riverfront park, they hit my bait again and again.  When the action at the east end of the park died down, I went down by the Bridge Street bridge and tossed out an eight-inch sucker, not expecting to catch anything with a bait that size.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the line shooting off the bail of my spinning reel.  I saw the line stop, so I closed the bail and snapped the hook into the pike's snout.  At first, it felt like I was snagged on a log, by then I felt the tell-tale pull of a nice pike.  It was actually a quick fight, as I was trying to make sure the fish did not get tangled up in all the debris around the bridge.  The pike I scooped up was 28 1/2 inches.

Recently, I noticed an increase in the number of pike in the Looking Glass.  It seems like the pike population has recovered from what I think was a die-off in 2012.

Another good spot early this pike season is the Meridian Township park, behind the mall in Okemos.  Just recently, I was able to pull in a 30-incher there as well.

Meanwhile, I did some bass fishing at a friend's pond in DeWitt this weekend, and the bite was on there, too.  May is a good time to catch up with those hungry fish!

Trout 4 -Joseph 0

This winter, I have been visiting my Grandma in Novi every weekend, and, along the way, I have been stopping at the Island Lake State Recreation Area near Brighton for some ice fishing.  A fun thing about the Spring Mill Pond at Island Lake is that it's stocked with brown and rainbow trout, including some of the brood stock from the state hatcheries.  I have seen several trout at Island Lake this winter.  I wish I could say I caught one!

On my first visit to Spring Mill Pond, I had a huge brown on my line that must have been more than 25 inches long and weighed six to eight pounds.  I think this fish might have been from one of the hatcheries.   It was a great fight that lasted for about four minutes, with lots of heart-pounding, drag-peeling runs.  After fighting the fish for a few minutes, I finally had the fish up to the hole, but then he swam back down and coughed out the hook, taking off under the ice.  I was sad this great fish got away, but I enjoyed the fight!

On my most-recent trip, I had large fish on my tip ups three times, but they managed to get loose every time.  After being discouraged three times, I focused on the area where I had been getting action, but I was only catching small bluegill.  Still, bluegill are fun to catch.

Although I haven't landed that big trout, I know I will be back and I'll hopefully get my ice fishing trout of 2015!

The Icefish Cometh

I was finally able to get out on some of our local, mid-Michigan lakes this past weekend.  On Saturday, I went to Lake Lansing and Park Lake with no results.  Undeterred, on Monday, I returned to Park Lake and found myself site fishing for some nice pan fish.  Monday had a tough start on the ice, without bites in my first hour of fishing.  When I moved to shallower water, however, I quickly found myself over fish.

I'd estimate we were fishing in about five feet of water, with green weeds covering the bottom.  I noticed that every few minutes, a different school of blue gill would come in, and every school would have two or three good blue gill or crappie.  For bait, I was using gold and silver tungsten jigs, tipped with one or two lively red maggots.  These fish were very finicky, even the little ones.  The fish were only responding to dead-sticking and very subtle quivers.  Even though most of the fish I saw today were small, I was still able to catch some nice blue gill, crappie and perch.

Small baits were key today, and I wonder if the red maggots might have been working better than the wax worms I used on Saturday.  Out of all the people out on the ice, I was having more success than anyone else today, and I have to say I was the only person using quality bait supplied by my friends at Grand River Bait and Tackle!

A perch for perch

Around DeWitt, there's no safe ice in the first days of 2015, so I headed north in early January to Cadillac, Michigan for an afternoon of ice fishing.  When we arrived in Cadillac, we saw a number of ice shanties out on Lake Cadillac and Lake Mitchell.   Stopping at the Carl T. Johnson Hunt and Fish Center at Mitchell State Park, I heard that there's great fishing on both lakes.  I didn't bring my ice shanty along, but decided to do some pan fishing.  On Lake Cadillac, the ice was about four or five inches thick, but it was very clear and I could actually see my jig through it.  I was using a custom Custom Jigs and Spins Chekai jig with a fire tiger design, which I tipped with a wax worm.  In short order, I was catching perch.  They were mostly pretty small, but, once I started, I was catching perch every few minutes.

The perch might not have been giants, but they put up great fights on my ultra-light gear.  I was disappointed that I did not have any pike ice fishing gear with me, because a DNR employee I talked to said the action for my favorite fish on Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell has been great.

If you are up in Cadillac, I recommend you stop at the Johnson Hunt and Fish Center.  The people there were very helpful and have good local knowledge.  They also had some great information and displays about pike!

October Bass



For the last few weeks, I have been looking for my favorite fish in the Looking Glass, and unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful.  The fishing has been quite discouraging, but what has kept me going is the thought of catching a three-foot pike that I have spotted several times recently.  But this weekend, I went to a place where I knew I could catch some fish- the pond at Central Park in Meridian Township.

Before heading out, I stopped at Grand River Bait and Tackle and bought some suckers in hopes of landing a big pike.  The big pike was at the pond, all right.  I gave him five of my minnows!  After dropping down right next to the dock with my sucker, it was immediately hit, but, when I set the hook, my bait would be gone.  I did this four times before I finally waited about 30 seconds after the initial hit to set the hook.  After that, I hooked the pike, but he came off just as I was dragging him to the shore to land.

I didn't see any more pike that day, but it was open season on bass!

Because I did not get any more bites on my normal pike rig, I switched my rig to a lipped-hooked sinker on a fluorocarbon leader.  And then, I got results.

 



I was letting the sucker swim along the top of the weeds, when I hooked and landed the first fish of the day, a chunky fall 17-inch largemouth bass.

But then there was more!

I cast out the same bait with the same tactic when I was met with a heavy tug on my line.  When I first set the hook, I was sure I had finally hooked into a pike for the day.  But, I was both disappointed and superhappy when I realized it was a monster bass.  I was ecstatic.  The fish was 20 inches and turned out to be my largest largemouth bass ever. 

After that big fish, the action died down for about 30 minutes and I decided to move to an area where I saw a fish feeding on minnows.  I cast into the shallow weeds and was immediately met by a strong pull on my line.  Then, the fight began!  The fish jumped three times during the fight, and I was almost positive that I was going to lose this big bass.  But I finally dragged him up on shore, and it was a beautiful smallmouth bass.  Again, I felt the rush of catching another trophy fish- two in the same day!

I was in awe when I saw the fish's tail on the tape measure at 21 inches.  It was a Master Angler-worthy smallmouth bass.

I finished the day with another nice 17 incher!

Fall is a great season for all kinds of fish, and this weekend made a very special impression on me!