A Day on the Water — Popping Wedge

From mid May to some time mid summer, good sized Largemouth Bass run up a short distance into Saginaw Bay tributaries.  Even the smallest, marginal streams can get good numbers of fish.  There are usually some pike with them that are mostly small to medium sized.  Only occasionally do you find what you would call a big pike.  There are also a few Walleye, Bowfin, Channel Cats, Carp, Sheephead or Gar that show up, sometime in big numbers.  They hit flies like Rabbit Strip Leaches, Poppers or Floating Divers depending on species.  Carp hit oversized Hex Nymphs, and the Gar can...

I fished a shallow difficult to access Impoundment on the Huron River.  I put my kayak in at a shore fishing spot on a shallow oxbow that connects to the river. There were bass right there in the very shallow weedy water. Down toward the river, there were homes on the firm bank and an expanse of weed choked water back toward the inside of the oxbow bend.  The river fractures into a fan of channels at the upper end of this expansive but shallow impoundment.  Upstream into the first small serpentine channel, the water was deep and colder, and appeared sterile...

I portaged to a back pond and began prospecting for bass.  This is a shallow pond with lots of wood cover and many kinds of weed cover.  Two years ago I fished here at this time during a much warmer spring.  Then, the weed growth was more advanced and the water level not so crazy high.  I caught lots of bass on a 2/0 White Popping Wedge, some up to 19 inches.    As I worked around the pond, I found 13 inch bass widely scattered in dead cattail stalks or relating to shoreline wood cover.  After the 2nd bass was...

I fished the weedy extreme shallows of a mid-sized, serpentine, Huron River Impoundment.  I threw 1/0 short Marabou Popping Wedges either Purple or Black.  I got about 2 dozen Largemouth Bass 12 to 18 inches, 4 smallish medium Pike and a Rock Bass. The current through the center channel was a little muddy from recent rain.  Back behind the shallow weedy flats, mostly near the shore, the water was clear and about 12 inches deep.  Sitting low in the kayak I couldn't see the bass until they made a wake moving toward the popper.  I would pause the retrieve to...