Livin the dream

As I dragged my crawler tipped gumball jig along the sandy bottom, the last thing I expected to feel was a monster smallmouth on the end of my line, but boy was I surprised when I pulled that slab to the boat. My walleye and perch trip to Drummond Island quickly turned in to a smallmouth bass adventure this Memorial day weekend. Our first evening there I immediately set into a hard fighting fish and to much to my surprise it was a giant smallmouth bass. This bass actually is the largest smallmouth I have ever caught and it sure was fun to pull in, as my drag squealed and my uncle screamed for me to wait for him to grab the net. I ended up catching about a 8 more smallmouth on that jig and a shallow running crank bait. In addition we caught a number of walleye. My weekend was filled with smallies, walleyes,  sunshine, food and fun. Here’s a pic of my smallie…and more details on the succesful are strategies are to come…

18 inch, 3.5 lb Smallmouth Bass

And this memorial day weekend lets all remember to honor all those who have given their lives so that we can live free here in America, enjoying the great past time of fishing.

A beautiful day fishing

Another great day on the water, but it sure wasn’t easy. My friend Matt V and I hit the water a little after noon and we went back to my little cove where bass has previously been spawning. Well with the night before’s storm having churned up the water and strong winds blowing, we could not get the fish to bite a thing. We spent about two hours working the entire cove, we went slow and we went fast, we tried cranks and worms and everything in between. We finally resigned that we couldn’t find active fish in the area and decided to head to another lake down the road. After struggling mightily here for about an hour, we finally came across a cut off part of the lake which formed it’s own little pond. Here we found bass stacked along the shore getting ready to spawn. We started sight fishing with tubes and man did that work out well. For the next several hours I pounded the shoreline and cover with a watermelon and purple tube and this led to some pretty good success. I was able to pull 12 nice fish on to shore, with the largest coming in at around 18 or 19 inches. I had a whole heck of a lot more fish hooked on, but either broke off or let go on the way in. I definitely need to restring my reel, as I lost a monster right at shore when he snapped my cruddy year old line. Here are a few pics of our long fishin day…

Matt's monster pike

Big bass of the day

Kylie's first bass

This trip out really emphasized to me once again the importance of having high quality polarized sun glasses. It really makes a huge difference when trying to see fish, cover and structure beneath the surface of the water. Right now I use a pair of glasses with grey lenses, but I am considering grabbing another pair that is a little higher quality with a copper or brown lense. According to a recent article I read in Outdoor life, it seems that a copper/brown lense can be your best all around choice. For more info on picking out the right polarized sun glasses check out this nice summary by Dicks Sporting Goods. I hope to get back out on the water tomorow with some more time and really hit the beds hard. So we’ll see. Anyone else seeing the bass move up on their beds?

For more info on sight fishing for bass on their beds check out this free BASS insider video as Byron Velvik goes after spawning bass on Lake Amistad.

First bass of the day

Had my first real good day of fishing this spring. I haven’t been able to get home from school much to go fishing this spring, but when I do I really enjoy it and this weekend was no exception. When I got out to the gravel pits this Friday the water was really high and after trying a few spots I had to head home before catching a single fish. I showed back up saturday afternoon with a renewed spirit but after two hours I still couldn’t crack the bass. In a last ditch effort I headed over to a new area and found a bubbler in a shallow cove. The wind was blowing into my shoreline and I really liked the looks of things. I tied on a baby one minus and started chuckin and crankin. Not two casts later I pulled in my first bass of the day. That was shortly followed by 14 more nice bass caught along a 70 yard stretch of shoreline. All the bass were caught on my baby 1 except for the last one, which I pulled in on a watermelon tube. My biggest bass of the day came in at about 18 inches and it was really rippin my drag as I pulled it in. Needless to say it was a really fun day and once again it taught me the value of perseverance.

Big bass of the day

A great day on the water

The next best thing to my girlfriend

A Canadian Northern Pike

This pike is my largest pike yet, it measured at 36 inches and I believe 12 pounds. I got him trolling real fast through a channel, while burning a 8 inch red and white daredevl spoon behind us. This pike came at the end of a great afternoon of pike fishing, where me and my buddy caught more pike than we could count and we ended up bringing home two great stringers of these feisty fish. Later on this evening a black bear surprised me and my buddy while we were filleting fish in a little screened in fish cleaning station. I may have wet my pants and lost my pride, but we managed to save our fillets, which is all that matters.

Big Manistique Lake

These walleye came at the end of a real slow trip up to Michigan’s Upper Pennisula. We fished three hard days and never caught a walleye. But on our last evening we came on to a 6 foot deep flat and when the “walleye chop” started come across the water things started to heat up. My dad and I nailed about 14 nice walleyes as we dragged 1/8th oz jigs tipped with plastic grubs and crawlers across the sand. It made for a great evening of fishing and an even better fish fry when we made it back to camp. Unfortunately for my uncle, who was along for the trip, he left that evening just before we went out fishing!

Bass fishing ain't too bad from the shore

This bass is one of many that I have caught while shore fishing in a collection of gravel pits across from my home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I fine tuned and really got my bass fishin chops on these gravel pits and I have caught countless hogs out of these waters. I have been able to practice almost every bass fishing technique out on these waters, everything from jerking stick baits, poppin topwaters and finessing dropshot rigs. My all time favorites for shore fishing have been suspending jerkbaits in the early spring, shallow running crankbaits as the water really starts warming up and then sight fishing the shallow coves during the spawn. I snagged this bruiser while pitching a texas rigged spider grub made by Gary Yamamoto.

Here are a few more of my favorite fishing pics…

Millenium Park Hawg

Why have I started this blog? It’s simple, I love to fish. I really really love to fish. I fish in the spring, the summer, the fall and the winter. I fish for pike and perch and everything in between. I’ve fished BASS tournaments and I’ve fished off the dock with my cousins. It doesn’t matter where, how or what…I can’t get enough fishing. So I thought why not share my passion, knowledge and experiences with others out there who like the same stuff! So on this blog I hope to share some of my ideas, while also getting to hear some of yours.

In addition to my general passion for the sport, I have also worked at a national outdoor sporting good store as a Fishing Associate for 2 years back before college and I will be working there again this coming summer. So I hope to be able to bring a lot of my experiences from there back to you all on the net as well.

So here’s to fishin. Because as they say,  a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work.