A Day on the Water

I was hoping to see a musky,  Instead wound up mainly fishing for bass.  I got 14 that were at least 11 or 12 inches long on three colors of Banger Poppers.  This Heron had a good spot, a few minnows as well as Gar Pike and Bass hanging out here. Fishermen using the shore access I put in at said "Channel Cats been biting all morning, and they got a big one as I paddled by.  I got some bass tight to the first rip rap sea wall.  Out around the point where the heron was fishing, the muddy...

I was center pin fishing the Huron below Flatrock with a #6 Opal Minnow Jig.  The bobber went down and I got this nice average sized, fresh looking hen.  The next day I fished the same jig up close to the dam and got a white bass a smallmouth.

The Michigan Fly Fishing Club's Smallmouth Outing is held in late May before the season opens to keep bass.  Lots of chances to talk flies and fishing. Many places to target Small Mouth: rocky spawning flats, dredged harbors and lower small stream channels.  I caught 7 species, tried for but caught no Salmonids, had one good numbers day, other people reported 100 fish days in a tributary I had fished years past. I had never fished the Pigeon River and had heard the bass would  hit  small surface flies.  I started fishing the deep channel by the pier with a big #2 Tungsten Bucktail...

The day was kind of a blur, I hooked a lot of fish on beads, landed 5 of those, landed one hooked on a jig.  The hot bead color seemed frequently to be the next bead I changed to.   All shades of dull or UV pale yellow up to very bright saturated UV yellow had some hot streak as well as an intense UV clear orange.  When you change beads it requires resting the water for a couple of minutes.  That can add to the effectiveness of showing the fish something new.   I was using a simple one bead rig...

 I was 2 for "4" with an asterisk on that 4 because the first steelhead I landed I had actually hooked twice.  It had the bead hooked to its mouth of the fish I had recently broke off thinking that it was foul hooked. Skilled bottom bouncers were racking up 10+ fish days.  The spot I was standing in was obviously good for landing 10+ fish to any capable bottom bouncer using beads.  I haven't bottom bounced since just before Fluorocarbon came on the seen and have not missed snagging up on the bottom. Some less capable fishermen were taking the...