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Date: August 4, 2018 Body of Water: Lake St. Clair Boat: Numenon With: Alone Target: Smallmouth Bass Time: 6:45 AM -1:45 PM (Fishing time; plenty of other travel time!) Conditions: Hot (90+), clear and calm. Water was 76 degrees F, green but very clear; more than 15 feet of visibility I returned to the Canadian side of Lake St. Clair, but this time for bass. Observations during previous trips, available intel and the results of recent tournaments all indicated that there are plenty of bass to be caught over there! I focused first on the Belle River Hump. I figured this structure could concentrate the bass, and it's a bit weedier than the surroundings. I almost immediately caught a rock bass on a Ned Rig in about 16 feet of water, but over the next several hours of scouring the Hump with jerks, cranks, Ned and a drop-shot, I only caught a small perch. Nobody within my visibility seemed to be doing much, either. By 10 AM or so, I was selecting features off my electronic mapping. Whether the water was just a little deeper, an inside turn more prominent, whatever; I figured this could lead me to something a little different that might concentrate, and therefore hold, some fish. Working a "hole" that was just a foot or so deeper than the surroundings with a DT16 crank, I finally saw a fish following my crank. A couple of casts later with Ned, I swung and hooked up! It was just a drum, but a fine one; and now, at least, I'd had a bit of fishing fun for the day! I selected my next spot off the map; a slightly deeper, irregular hole immediately off a "point" in the 15-foot contour. This spot pretty much looked and felt like most of the other areas I'd fished (the holes were slightly less weedy, though), and after a few preliminary casts with a jerk and a crank, I tossed Ned into about 18 feet of water. I got bit at the end of this long cast and set the hook. The bass was soon visible, and seemed to be pretty small. But I was fooled by the distance and the startling clarity; as I worked the fish closer, I knew it was better. By the time she was close, she was pulling hard! I was ultimately very pleased to slip the net under this feisty 18-incher! In the next half hour, a nearby boat caught a bass; and I caught another, smaller (14-inch) bass. This spot had something a little better to offer the bass; but I still don't know exactly what it was. With an hour or so left, I returned to the Dumping Grounds in Michigan; I'd caught a fine bass there during my last trip. I hoped to fire up an aggressive school of bass in this area with a jerk-bait; unfortunately, that just did not happen! What do I have to say about this? I found a couple of bass in new-to-me spots; and one of these bass was fine! I just never found the right concentration of fish this day. I'm not really sure how to either, other than to spend the time searching. Of course, the conditions were tough; flat and smooth, with bright skies and very clear water. I didn't see much else going on with other boats; so maybe it was just a slow bass day. So much to figure out! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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Date: August 3, 2018 Body of Water: Reeds Lake Boat: Numenon With: Alone Target: Largemouth Bass Time: 7:45 AM - 1:45 PM Conditions: Foggy and calm, but clearing; up to 85 degrees or so. Water was soupy green with <3 feet of visability and 78 degrees F. Quiet until Noon or so. With an open weekday, but kind of worn out from work and travels, I returned to East Grand Rapids' Reeds Lake. I expected bass to be susceptible to deep cranks. I was (a little bit) correct! It took me a couple of casts to get properly oriented to the western point of the main submerged hump, but my third cast of the day with a purple/yellow DT10 crank was eaten by a nice fishing about 16 feet of water! It wasn't the bass I was targeting, but rather a nice, 30-inch pike. This was an auspicious start to the day! I continued cranking various weed edges (mostly offshore) for the next 90 minutes without success. I'd mixed in a few casts with a Whopper Plopper top-water (this had produced a small bass) and a Texas-rigged Senko (I really missed the rod I'd broken in Traverse City), but I was really committed to cranking. This was the secret to any success I might have this day; it was also, most likely, my Achilles heel for the session. When I switched to a bluegill-colored DT10 and tweaked my location to the end of a shore-connected point, I quickly scored a couple of nice bass (16.5 and 15 inches, respectively.) Both came from the deep weed edge in 12 or 13 feet of water. When this bite petered out, I edged just a bit deeper and switched to a DT16 crank. Despite all the marks on my graph, this produced nothing but an ambitious crappie. By this time, the fog had given way and the lake was awakening. In the heat, I decided to try my favorite stretch of docks. My first cast with the Senko yielded a 14-incher, but that was it for this stretch. I liked the quality of the crank-bait fish better, and I suspected I could grind out my limit. I did get another 16.5-incher with the same DT10 along the same weed-line; and I swung and missed once, too. The pace of bites was too slow, and I know I should have picked up a swim-jig or plastic worm; I simply chose not to. This was for fun, and the fun I was looking for was swinging on the slightest hesitation in the crank's cadence. What do I have to say about this? Four legal bass for less than 9 pounds does not make for much of a story; but simply fishing and enjoying oneself* is a legitimate way to spend the day. Plus, I was saving some energy for the next day; conditions looked good for another trip to the Canadian side of Lake St. Clair! *I cannot express how much I enjoy crank-bait fishing with my newish Shimano Curado/Lew's White Ghost combo! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways |
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