I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to fish today. My back has been out for the past week, and driving me nuts. I was popping muscle relaxers
around the clock. The biggest pain is sitting in front of the computer, or riding in a car somewhere. Standing seems to loosen it some. With that logic in
hand, Tim picked me up early in the morning. I had hopes of loosing the back up for the day by standing and fishing.
We headed for Sterling State Park along the Michigan shoreline. It was time to give the inland lakes a break this week, and shoot for the better odds of catching fish on Erie. It was simple as eliminating the part of the equation for the day. We wouldn't have to find the fish, just catch them. Once we launched the boat, I told Tim that if we headed north I had some secret rock piles I would show him. He just had to promise to keep the spot a secret for now. Or else!
I was pretty confident the fish would be there, it was just a matter of whether we could get
them to bite.
The water surface temperature on the big lake was running 47 to 48 degrees. The visibility in the water was really good at 5 to 7 feet depending on where we were.
We arrived on the spot, and Tim immediately hooked up on the first smallmouth of the day. (
He got first fish this week). It was about 2 1/2 pounds, and we decided not to
photograph it. We both figured there would be lot bigger ones to be had today. I think I hooked up on the next one, and it was a healthy 4 lber.
From that point on, it was a giant schools of fish moving in and out. At one point, I think we had like 8 fish in 10 casts. It was pretty funny, because Tim was holding this fish below and trying to one hand net the one I had on at the boat. It would have made a great two fish photo, but the smallmouth went nuts and jumped and threw the bait at the boat. Tim's fish still was a bigger one. It went a nice 4 lbs. 5 ounces.
Tim had big bass until this one below topped it at 4 lbs. 14 ounces. These fish were absolute footballs!
We had so many 3 to 3 1/2 pound fish, we just started swinging them in the boat rather than wasting the other guys time to net the fish. We only stopped long enough to take photos of fish that were in the 4 to 5 lb. range. Below are a couple more of Tim's beautiful fish he caught.
The colors on the smallmouth varied, and were quite beautiful! Despite the beautiful fish we caught, it paled in comparison to what we both witnessed on the lake. It was something that neither of us had seen before. There was a massive group of Seagulls feeding on the shad on the surface of the lake. They were making all kinds of commotion, and squawking like crazy as they dove in after the shad. Then out of the corner of my eye I see a huge figure fly over our heads. I looked up and say to Tim, "man that looked like a big Eagle headed toward those seagulls". I no sooner said that, and all of the sudden the seagulls got quiet and quickly started flying in the air in a erratic pattern. They were zig zagging every which way. Then all of the sudden, the Eagle swooped down toward the flock of seagulls and had one singled out. The bird was flying for it's life going every which way to avoid the Eagle. It managed to elude the big bird, but it left a lasting impression on both our minds. I actually got the video camera out and was going to video tape it, but the overcast skies were making it difficult to zoom in on the birds.
We went back to fishing, and picked up right where we left off. This fish below was the odd ball of the day. Not sure why it was hanging on the rock pile, but it sucked in the bait. Nothing big, but picture worthy since it didn't fit the norm of the day.
Below another picture of Tim with a good smallmouth.
Another dark one that I caught below.
Check out this smallmouth below. It was one of the sickest looking Lake Erie smallmouth's I've seen. It had the fat body, but some kind of disease was taking hold of it. Sick fish! Just glad Tim had the pleasure of dealing with that one.
Back to the normal looking bass.
Tim already had first fish of the day, and he ended up with big bass of the day. He took that honors by beating out 3 other fish we caught by 3 ounces. This one was over 5 lbs.!
We ended our day with the ride back toward the ramp. I took this photo, just because I knew Lon would get a kick out of it. This one is for you Lon.
We had our best success with tubes and blades. Caught the bass on 4 different colored tubes. Even Rufus poop. Our best 5 smallmouth went between 22 and 23 lbs. It was a good day to be on the lake.
We headed for Sterling State Park along the Michigan shoreline. It was time to give the inland lakes a break this week, and shoot for the better odds of catching fish on Erie. It was simple as eliminating the part of the equation for the day. We wouldn't have to find the fish, just catch them. Once we launched the boat, I told Tim that if we headed north I had some secret rock piles I would show him. He just had to promise to keep the spot a secret for now. Or else!
I was pretty confident the fish would be there, it was just a matter of whether we could get
them to bite.
The water surface temperature on the big lake was running 47 to 48 degrees. The visibility in the water was really good at 5 to 7 feet depending on where we were.
We arrived on the spot, and Tim immediately hooked up on the first smallmouth of the day. (
He got first fish this week). It was about 2 1/2 pounds, and we decided not to
photograph it. We both figured there would be lot bigger ones to be had today. I think I hooked up on the next one, and it was a healthy 4 lber.
From that point on, it was a giant schools of fish moving in and out. At one point, I think we had like 8 fish in 10 casts. It was pretty funny, because Tim was holding this fish below and trying to one hand net the one I had on at the boat. It would have made a great two fish photo, but the smallmouth went nuts and jumped and threw the bait at the boat. Tim's fish still was a bigger one. It went a nice 4 lbs. 5 ounces.
Tim had big bass until this one below topped it at 4 lbs. 14 ounces. These fish were absolute footballs!
We had so many 3 to 3 1/2 pound fish, we just started swinging them in the boat rather than wasting the other guys time to net the fish. We only stopped long enough to take photos of fish that were in the 4 to 5 lb. range. Below are a couple more of Tim's beautiful fish he caught.
The colors on the smallmouth varied, and were quite beautiful! Despite the beautiful fish we caught, it paled in comparison to what we both witnessed on the lake. It was something that neither of us had seen before. There was a massive group of Seagulls feeding on the shad on the surface of the lake. They were making all kinds of commotion, and squawking like crazy as they dove in after the shad. Then out of the corner of my eye I see a huge figure fly over our heads. I looked up and say to Tim, "man that looked like a big Eagle headed toward those seagulls". I no sooner said that, and all of the sudden the seagulls got quiet and quickly started flying in the air in a erratic pattern. They were zig zagging every which way. Then all of the sudden, the Eagle swooped down toward the flock of seagulls and had one singled out. The bird was flying for it's life going every which way to avoid the Eagle. It managed to elude the big bird, but it left a lasting impression on both our minds. I actually got the video camera out and was going to video tape it, but the overcast skies were making it difficult to zoom in on the birds.
We went back to fishing, and picked up right where we left off. This fish below was the odd ball of the day. Not sure why it was hanging on the rock pile, but it sucked in the bait. Nothing big, but picture worthy since it didn't fit the norm of the day.
Below another picture of Tim with a good smallmouth.
Another dark one that I caught below.
Check out this smallmouth below. It was one of the sickest looking Lake Erie smallmouth's I've seen. It had the fat body, but some kind of disease was taking hold of it. Sick fish! Just glad Tim had the pleasure of dealing with that one.
Back to the normal looking bass.
Tim already had first fish of the day, and he ended up with big bass of the day. He took that honors by beating out 3 other fish we caught by 3 ounces. This one was over 5 lbs.!
We ended our day with the ride back toward the ramp. I took this photo, just because I knew Lon would get a kick out of it. This one is for you Lon.
We had our best success with tubes and blades. Caught the bass on 4 different colored tubes. Even Rufus poop. Our best 5 smallmouth went between 22 and 23 lbs. It was a good day to be on the lake.
GOOD JOB GUYS
