A Day on the Water

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...

I started out early covering a lot of water, finding no fish, seeing no beds.  I caught a fish while casting during a random down wind drift. After anchoring to fight it and making a cast from there I got  a better fish. Nothing for the next 2 hours as I explored far and wide.  I saw that the three amigos, Todd, Ken and Scott were getting fish closer to shore.  I anchored on the left flank of the conga line and I also started hooking fish on a couple of brown Clousers.  They were using pink flies including the...