09-21-08
It's been a couple weeks since I was last on the water, and I couldn't think of a better place to go to get some quality fishing in. Lake Erie was muddy the majority of the Western Basin. The satellite picture showed the Detroit River having decent water clarity. Winds were expected to come out of the north to northeast. This made it a extremely easy decision on where to go this morning.
Jim and I arrived at the ramp around 5:30 am. It was damp and chilly, and we were glad we wore the extra clothing. We didn't have our act together early on. We forgot a couple items that would have made our day a little easier. The first was a GPS point that we had marked last time out while fishing in Jim's boat. Considering it was going to be our first spot of the morning, we decided to wing it and try to find it without the coordinates. Big mistake in the dark. We didn't find this particular hump until 6::35 am. After countless circles and cris-crosses we finally located it. The current was pretty strong, and the wind was blowing us out quickly. We no sooner casted out and we had two other bass boats join us on this spot. Jim and I only managed 1 rock bass after 20 minutes. We didn't see the other boats pulling anything in either. So we got back on the motor to try another spot of ours. This ended up being the wise choice of the morning. With a tournament going out of Elizabeth Park, we ended up having this spot all to ourselves which was quite astonishing.
Within the first few casts Jim lands a nice 3 ½ pound smallmouth. Then things just turned on fire! We started to catch double after double on the fish. Rarely do I get pictures holding a couple bass together. I'm usually a quick CPR (catch photo release) angler. This rare opportunity to get photos of two fish at a time was a real bonus. The funny thing is while we were catching them in pairs, we would catch 2 smallmouths, then 2 largemouths. These were real healthy fish. Below are few photos. We were sticking them on several different baits. Big Nasty (lure) even got to take part in one of these double catches.
Couple smallmouth
Jim holding a couple lagemouth that we hooked at the same time.
Jim with a pair of smallmouth. The larger one he caught, and we just added the mine to the photo.
Reverse this time. I had the larger of the two, and added Jim's fish to the photo.
Our thumbs started to get a little roughed up, and the fish bites started to die down after a while. So we figured we would give it a break and go try another few other spots up river. This was our 2nd good decision of the morning. We slowly worked a break, when all the sudden my jerkbait stopped on a dime! I had something big hooked up, and it was peeling my 8 lb. test off my reel. After about 3 minutes of fighting this fish, we are just hoping to get a glimpse of it before it gets off. Next thing you know it's rocketing toward the surface, and just like a tarpon it launches itself into the air. It's a real nice Muskie! I tell Jim it will be a miracle if I get this fish in. I could see my bait hanging out of it's mouth, so I know my line was safe for the mean time. After a lengthy battle we finally got her aboard for a quick photo session and release. I compared the muskie to my leg, and I estimate it's length between 38 and 39 inches long. Not too shabby for 8 lb. test line and light spinning tackle.
8 lb. test Muskie
Jim and I slowly worked over some new water and found a couple more spots that we GPS pointed. We caught another 20 or so smallmouth off these areas. They were fantastic, and out of the wind for the most part. Plus this spot didn't have any anglers in sight either! The fish weren't quite as big, but there were a some decent ones mixed in. I guess you can't complain about 2 and 2 1/2 pounders. Below is a photo of one of the nice ones from that area.
One of these smallmouth I caught spit up a 3 inch largemouth in the boat. So they are eating anything that swims too close by. Several smallmouth had others trying to take the baits out of their mouth. Jim hooked a nice walleye, and as he was getting it close to the boat you could see a smallmouth trying to get the tube out of it's mouth. Jim capped off this spot with a nice 13 inch yellow perch. In the well it went with the walleye. They will make for a tasty dinner later. Below is a photo of that fish. They sure do have beautiful coloration.
We decided to finish our day off on our 1st good spot of the morning. We managed another dozen smallmouth. Nothing more photo worthy than what we already had for the day.
I would venture to say we caught 60 to 70 bass. Probably 50 smallmouth and 15 or so largemouth. 1 nice walleye, 1 good perch, and one good fighting muskie. Depths ranged from 25 feet to 3 feet of water. Biggest 5 were in the 20 lb. range. We ended up going 50 plus miles on the River today.
We caught fish today on:
Big Nasty
Tube
drop shot
deep crankbaits
jerkbaits
lipless crankbaits
darter style plastics on jigs
spinnerbaits
small swimbaits
spider jig
Good Day on the Detroit River
It's been a couple weeks since I was last on the water, and I couldn't think of a better place to go to get some quality fishing in. Lake Erie was muddy the majority of the Western Basin. The satellite picture showed the Detroit River having decent water clarity. Winds were expected to come out of the north to northeast. This made it a extremely easy decision on where to go this morning.
Jim and I arrived at the ramp around 5:30 am. It was damp and chilly, and we were glad we wore the extra clothing. We didn't have our act together early on. We forgot a couple items that would have made our day a little easier. The first was a GPS point that we had marked last time out while fishing in Jim's boat. Considering it was going to be our first spot of the morning, we decided to wing it and try to find it without the coordinates. Big mistake in the dark. We didn't find this particular hump until 6::35 am. After countless circles and cris-crosses we finally located it. The current was pretty strong, and the wind was blowing us out quickly. We no sooner casted out and we had two other bass boats join us on this spot. Jim and I only managed 1 rock bass after 20 minutes. We didn't see the other boats pulling anything in either. So we got back on the motor to try another spot of ours. This ended up being the wise choice of the morning. With a tournament going out of Elizabeth Park, we ended up having this spot all to ourselves which was quite astonishing.
Within the first few casts Jim lands a nice 3 ½ pound smallmouth. Then things just turned on fire! We started to catch double after double on the fish. Rarely do I get pictures holding a couple bass together. I'm usually a quick CPR (catch photo release) angler. This rare opportunity to get photos of two fish at a time was a real bonus. The funny thing is while we were catching them in pairs, we would catch 2 smallmouths, then 2 largemouths. These were real healthy fish. Below are few photos. We were sticking them on several different baits. Big Nasty (lure) even got to take part in one of these double catches.
Couple smallmouth
Jim holding a couple lagemouth that we hooked at the same time.
Jim with a pair of smallmouth. The larger one he caught, and we just added the mine to the photo.
Reverse this time. I had the larger of the two, and added Jim's fish to the photo.
Our thumbs started to get a little roughed up, and the fish bites started to die down after a while. So we figured we would give it a break and go try another few other spots up river. This was our 2nd good decision of the morning. We slowly worked a break, when all the sudden my jerkbait stopped on a dime! I had something big hooked up, and it was peeling my 8 lb. test off my reel. After about 3 minutes of fighting this fish, we are just hoping to get a glimpse of it before it gets off. Next thing you know it's rocketing toward the surface, and just like a tarpon it launches itself into the air. It's a real nice Muskie! I tell Jim it will be a miracle if I get this fish in. I could see my bait hanging out of it's mouth, so I know my line was safe for the mean time. After a lengthy battle we finally got her aboard for a quick photo session and release. I compared the muskie to my leg, and I estimate it's length between 38 and 39 inches long. Not too shabby for 8 lb. test line and light spinning tackle.
8 lb. test Muskie
Jim and I slowly worked over some new water and found a couple more spots that we GPS pointed. We caught another 20 or so smallmouth off these areas. They were fantastic, and out of the wind for the most part. Plus this spot didn't have any anglers in sight either! The fish weren't quite as big, but there were a some decent ones mixed in. I guess you can't complain about 2 and 2 1/2 pounders. Below is a photo of one of the nice ones from that area.
One of these smallmouth I caught spit up a 3 inch largemouth in the boat. So they are eating anything that swims too close by. Several smallmouth had others trying to take the baits out of their mouth. Jim hooked a nice walleye, and as he was getting it close to the boat you could see a smallmouth trying to get the tube out of it's mouth. Jim capped off this spot with a nice 13 inch yellow perch. In the well it went with the walleye. They will make for a tasty dinner later. Below is a photo of that fish. They sure do have beautiful coloration.
We decided to finish our day off on our 1st good spot of the morning. We managed another dozen smallmouth. Nothing more photo worthy than what we already had for the day.
I would venture to say we caught 60 to 70 bass. Probably 50 smallmouth and 15 or so largemouth. 1 nice walleye, 1 good perch, and one good fighting muskie. Depths ranged from 25 feet to 3 feet of water. Biggest 5 were in the 20 lb. range. We ended up going 50 plus miles on the River today.
We caught fish today on:
Big Nasty
Tube
drop shot
deep crankbaits
jerkbaits
lipless crankbaits
darter style plastics on jigs
spinnerbaits
small swimbaits
spider jig
. How far up river did you go?
