Hardy Pond & the Perfect Storm 4/26

[thedude]

As tradition dictates, i usually spend opening day on Muskegon lake... after looking at the weather forecast for Saturday, I made a last minute change of plans and we were on our way to Hardy Pond at 8am - figuring we could at least fish in the river if the wind got to be too bad.  Now - I always launch in the river because that is usually where i fish... and of course, being the walleye opener, there are trailers parked about 1/2 mile up the road when we get there - ended up parking all the way up by the Ferris traingin grounds

So after idling for about mile downstream, weaving between walleye boats and getting a cool picture of the river bottom from my new SI unit, i finally got to open her up and we were soon on the break of a nice sand flat in 65* water.... 30 minutes and zero bites we headed further down into the pond and worked some of the old weedflats looking for the darker bottom and warm water... found the weeds and dark bottom but only 2 pike to show for it. By this point, we had 2' waves out on most of the main lake and down by the dam, 3-4's with the wind just RIPPING!

I really wanted to hit the creek arms however, so after a brief pummeling in the raging surf, we cruised into some protected waters... after that it was on... put together a little pattern on jerkbaits and got about 6 nice fish in our first arm, 2 super-fat LMs and several smallies, biggest about 3lbs. We moved then to the next creek arm and were able to repeat the pattern.. finding the smallies on the main and secondary points and the largemouth in the backs of the various coves... suspending off the breaks. The 2nd spot had a sweet little sand bar that cut into the middle of the creek mouth and the wind was whipping hard across it... we put 4 nice smallies in the boat in probably 6 casts. 2 biggest were in the 4lb class. Worked that arm and picked up a few shorts and another 5 or 6 keeper smallies and lost another nice one on the same sandbar on the way out.

In that time, i think the waves actually got bigger! we had 2 more arms to hit and after taking 2 waves over the bow idling out of the arm we were in - we decided we'd had a pretty good day, and it was probably time to head back! Fortunately, we had the wind mostly to our backs and i was able to quarter the waves most of the way back...still got a little wet though!


All in all, a slow start to a great day, and to top it off - every fish caught between me and my partner - were brought to hand on rods i made myself. On the ride home i said to my buddy "If you were to tell me when we left this morning that TODAY would've been my best day on hardy... i probably would've punched you in the face"

[djkimmel]

It almost sounds perfect... (not the storm part). Hardy can be pretty challenging so you ripped 'em good! I didn't make it there last year and not sure about this year at the moment. So many lakes... so little time.

[Cy]

I love the Hardy in the spring. 

Dude, you are tougher then I am.  I thought about heading up that way but with the wind I know how nasty it can be out there in the main lake.  I didn't even get my boat on Saturday I was too much of a wimp.

[thedude]

thats kinda why i picked hardy... i figured it was my best bet to find a place to fish out of the wind... it figures the big smallies were on main lake wind-blown points. my 101lb minn kota wouldn't even hold out there if i tried

might have to sneak up there one more time this week

[billy_bass]

Dude- I hear ya about the traffic on hardy this weekend. I started out idleing right up the dam on the slower current shoot. I did get alot of funny looks from people watching me throw a spinnerbait. A few people even made sure to tell me that the walleyes weren't going to bite those.LOL. I did give the trolling motor and batteries a good work out though. I'll be out there this week too in a green stratos.

[thedude]

yep. i even bumped into a few self-respecting bass anglers i know trying to catch one of those silly walleye! I guess the nice thing about 40mph winds was we had the whole south end of the lake to our selves

here's the only 2 pics i got (from my buddies cell phone)

me w/ a 19"er (never mind the "root beer" bottle on the bow)


this one was 21-22" easy... picture is a bad perspective, but it was a hoss! buddy  caught this girl and her twin 2 casts later:

[djkimmel]

Two years ago, cameraguy and I were guided to a 15 walleye limit in 59 minutes by a bass angler who knows some great spots on Hardy in the spring in front of a bunch of walleye anglers using 'bass' lures!!! Man did I enjoy the looks as those walleye guys went round and round us not catching anything!!! Sorry to say, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!!!

Of course the lure we used is not really a bass lure only, but you know how some anglers just get in a rut that you can only fish one way for that fish. Heck, I do it too sometimes much to my chagrin.

Glad to see you added some pictures. Thanks for not showing pictures of the waves. I'm sure many of use will get close and personal with them plenty later

[billy_bass]

I was up there for bass. We caught quite a few in the current and did end up catching two walleyes on a jerkbait. Just pitched them over the side of the boat. They were pretty small.

[thedude]

i met BigJC up there a while back on my way to put the boat away in the fall... we hit the river and i think we both caught a keeper walleye.... pitching sweetbeavers into wood in the river.... it was kinda weird 

dan - if that were a better camera, you could probably see the waves in the 2nd pic - but either way, you're welcome

[bassdisaster]

I'll have to upgrade to an UGLYier boat befor i can make a trip like that!