Still a North wind, bad if your at the tip of the Michigan's Thumb but the wind speed was moderate and launching at the river mouth was easy. I needed a rematch for some of those big ones that got off yesterday but first stopped off at the Carp Channel where I had seen hundreds of them spawning in the past. Spring was late and they were only a few there. I did get the first Smallmouth stripping in a big 1/0 Pike beadhead bucktail steamer.
A dead end channel had produced some of the biggest Smallmouth in years past had only yielded an average smallmouth bass yesterday. Today, nothing went for the big Pike
Streamer, I switch to subtle dark natural colored Foam Diver and first retrieve of short dipping topwater twitches was silently sucked down by a lethargic Largmouth Bass that barely fought. A second Bass hit further up the channel.
In the upstream shallow nook I couldn't get any Smallmoth without spooking them, did get this Largemouth on a #2 tan Creature Popper pattern.
Drifting downstream keeping the kayak 12 feet off the left bank allowed me to to keep my right handed backcasts over the water but the forward cast angled out over the water to where a change of direction could place the cast well out into the river. A retrieve across the current while slowly drifting down stream was the best presentation. I caught some bass but some huge ones hit and mostly got off by fighting really hard and jump high shaking their heads.
