A Day on the Water

I heard they were in but practically no cars in the lot.  Couple of guys in the downstream corner on our side of the river.  A couple of guys in a boat anchored across from me casting plugs.  After not getting anything for hours I knew plugs would be more likely to break through than the relatively subtle jigs I was drifting. A big fast fish took a plug, leaping and racing around the pool before breaking off.  A couple more hours laterI tied on a big Size #1 Opal Minnow Jig I had tied for Salmon this past fall. ...

Went to a great bass spot to try for bowfin.  Got Bass and at half dark got a slow follow from a good fish just below the surface.  His fins were slowly stirring the surface.  I paused the steady popping retrieve waiting for the hit.  It didn't come, a couple of strip taps made the diver head nod subtly, he ate it.  He fought hard, I saw him, long, smooth black head and back with Red? sides.  The most common Bowfin color pattern is black with steely grey sides which were reflecting the sunset here. He got off as fly...

The 3rd day I launched at the Pigeon River Mouth and paddled up to a backwater Channel were Smallmouth and Largemouth have taken small poppers and subtle floater divers for the previous 2 years.  The second fish was a big smallmouth that took a 1/0 White Dive banger hard.  I just about had her beat and was pulling straight up while she was boring straight down in the weeds right under the kayak.  The rod was a hybrid cobbled together from the butt of a nice 8 Weight St. Croix with a random tip half that came from a shorter...

Water levels in Lake Huron and connected waterways is over a foot lower that last year.  My best shallow Quanicassee River spots, had less weed growth than previous springs and I caught few bass. Down the "South Branch Canal", casting a 2/0 White Dive Banger very close to shore provoked 12 to 18 inch bass to either violently rush or stealthily stalk the popper.  Converting stealthy follows to hits frequently required a cat and mouse game of pauses, light twitches or pulling it under the water was sometimes effective. I got bass near the bend and some times a 2nd...