Kent Lake (MI) 06-28-09
Jim and I arrived right when the park opened. We were one of the first ones on the lake. Didn't really have too much of a clue where to start. Especially since I've only been on the lake twice, and Jim had never fished it. It was my first summer trip to the lake, and I tried to relate some things to this lake from similar lakes I've fished. It certainly worked out today.
The water temperatures were a little cooler on Kent Lake. With the water flowing in from the Huron River, it quickly cooled it down to a comfortable 77 degrees. Our first spot produced a nice chunky largemouth that was within the first 10 minutes of our fishing.
We had a couple more good bites on this area, but either had them come off, or not hook up. We decided to head down river to the other side of the 96 Interstate. Bluegill schools of fish were everywhere! Although, there didn't seem to be anything chasing them. We saw a couple small crusing bass, but couldn't convince them to bite. We scraped the down river plan near the dam, and decided to go back up river. Everything seemed right for a good spinnerbait bite in the morning. We had overcast skies with some slight sprinkles of rain mixed in. Plus the water had a decent chop on it. Just as were were heading back up river, we hit some bridge pilings that every one hits along the way. Jim was lucky enough to catch our first smallmouth of the day.
We decided to hit our first spot and a couple others along the way. This time we slowed down even more, and finessed the heck out of them with small flukes and worms. It was the ticket. We pounded some more nice 3 lb. largemouth! They were a blast, and provided a good tug on the line. While we changed up our finesse tactics, Jim landed this nice smallmouth on a small grub. After several acrobatic jumps, she came aboard for a quick photo session.
We continued to work our way up river, and fished the massive flats. We concentrated mostly in the 8 to 12 foot range. We were able to catch some fish on a swimbait and spinnerbait doing this. Below is a photo of a walleye Jim caught, and a crappie I pulled in.
Shortly after that, we boated a northern pike. Further up river seem to be a lot less active. We worked some topwater over of the mats of weeds, and worked some of the slop. Jim stuck a good one that buried itself in the weeds and pulled off. Other than that, we didn't catch too much up there. I imagine if we slowed down and pitched all the holes in the weeds, we could have gotten that pattern to work too.
Finished our day off back down river in the deeper water. We worked our finesse baits nice and slow, which produced at least 8 more good largemouth in the 2 1/2 to 4 lb. range. We soon had boats move right up on us. Probably within 15 feet of us. They were so close, I could cast over one boat and hit the other. It didn't matter, because they weren't hooking up like us. While they climbed over us, I hooked into our biggest largemouth of the day. I fought it for a while on light finesse line, and they watched intently to see what it was. I told Jim "Watch this". I fought the fish to the opposite side of the boat that the other anglers were on. Reached down and lipped our biggest largmouth of the day. Rather than get a photo, I held it just high enough out of the water for Jim to see it. Then I let it go, without those guys even getting a glimpse of what I had caught. I figured it was rude of them to fish right on top of us like that, so I certainly wasn't going to show them what we were catching. Sorry for not getting a photo of that fish, but it was worth it in this case. Figure the other pictures should be plenty for the report. Our best 5 fish for the day went around 16 pounds. We probably caught 20 bass today, and only one was a short fish. Which came in the last 10 minutes on a jerkbait. Pretty good ratio of keeper fish!
Once be got back to the ramp, Jim ran into a couple other bass anglers that were just pulling out. They mentioned they killed them on Michigan Center lake on Saturday. Good enough to place 2nd in their tournament. Within the same sentence, they mentioned it was tough as nails on Kent Lake today. They never even got a bite! We certainly weren't better anglers, but we were lucky to get on the right fish and pattern for the day.
Just a side note. Not sure if this guy was a Pro or not, but there was a guy out there with one of those fancy bass shirts with sponsors on it. His name was Shively. Anyone ever heard of him?
Jim and I arrived right when the park opened. We were one of the first ones on the lake. Didn't really have too much of a clue where to start. Especially since I've only been on the lake twice, and Jim had never fished it. It was my first summer trip to the lake, and I tried to relate some things to this lake from similar lakes I've fished. It certainly worked out today.
The water temperatures were a little cooler on Kent Lake. With the water flowing in from the Huron River, it quickly cooled it down to a comfortable 77 degrees. Our first spot produced a nice chunky largemouth that was within the first 10 minutes of our fishing.
We had a couple more good bites on this area, but either had them come off, or not hook up. We decided to head down river to the other side of the 96 Interstate. Bluegill schools of fish were everywhere! Although, there didn't seem to be anything chasing them. We saw a couple small crusing bass, but couldn't convince them to bite. We scraped the down river plan near the dam, and decided to go back up river. Everything seemed right for a good spinnerbait bite in the morning. We had overcast skies with some slight sprinkles of rain mixed in. Plus the water had a decent chop on it. Just as were were heading back up river, we hit some bridge pilings that every one hits along the way. Jim was lucky enough to catch our first smallmouth of the day.
We decided to hit our first spot and a couple others along the way. This time we slowed down even more, and finessed the heck out of them with small flukes and worms. It was the ticket. We pounded some more nice 3 lb. largemouth! They were a blast, and provided a good tug on the line. While we changed up our finesse tactics, Jim landed this nice smallmouth on a small grub. After several acrobatic jumps, she came aboard for a quick photo session.
We continued to work our way up river, and fished the massive flats. We concentrated mostly in the 8 to 12 foot range. We were able to catch some fish on a swimbait and spinnerbait doing this. Below is a photo of a walleye Jim caught, and a crappie I pulled in.
Shortly after that, we boated a northern pike. Further up river seem to be a lot less active. We worked some topwater over of the mats of weeds, and worked some of the slop. Jim stuck a good one that buried itself in the weeds and pulled off. Other than that, we didn't catch too much up there. I imagine if we slowed down and pitched all the holes in the weeds, we could have gotten that pattern to work too.
Finished our day off back down river in the deeper water. We worked our finesse baits nice and slow, which produced at least 8 more good largemouth in the 2 1/2 to 4 lb. range. We soon had boats move right up on us. Probably within 15 feet of us. They were so close, I could cast over one boat and hit the other. It didn't matter, because they weren't hooking up like us. While they climbed over us, I hooked into our biggest largemouth of the day. I fought it for a while on light finesse line, and they watched intently to see what it was. I told Jim "Watch this". I fought the fish to the opposite side of the boat that the other anglers were on. Reached down and lipped our biggest largmouth of the day. Rather than get a photo, I held it just high enough out of the water for Jim to see it. Then I let it go, without those guys even getting a glimpse of what I had caught. I figured it was rude of them to fish right on top of us like that, so I certainly wasn't going to show them what we were catching. Sorry for not getting a photo of that fish, but it was worth it in this case. Figure the other pictures should be plenty for the report. Our best 5 fish for the day went around 16 pounds. We probably caught 20 bass today, and only one was a short fish. Which came in the last 10 minutes on a jerkbait. Pretty good ratio of keeper fish!
Once be got back to the ramp, Jim ran into a couple other bass anglers that were just pulling out. They mentioned they killed them on Michigan Center lake on Saturday. Good enough to place 2nd in their tournament. Within the same sentence, they mentioned it was tough as nails on Kent Lake today. They never even got a bite! We certainly weren't better anglers, but we were lucky to get on the right fish and pattern for the day.
Just a side note. Not sure if this guy was a Pro or not, but there was a guy out there with one of those fancy bass shirts with sponsors on it. His name was Shively. Anyone ever heard of him?
