Grand River in Lansing

[cameraguy]

     Well, Dan has already posted a pretty complete report about this trip but I have a few photos to include. Plus, I have a little different perspective regarding the mouse incident.

     Dan started us fishing near the ramp and I caught an undersize pike on a swim jig pretty quick, so I thought I was going to crush them. Then Dan started whacking largemouth and smallmouth on a firetiger popper which made for some excitement watching his lure cuz mine wasn't working anymore. I did have a pike grab the jig four times without getting hooked.

     I switched to a Dodge Ram Rapala Shad Rap that Ryan Said gave me at the Bassmaster Classic in February. I was trying out a brand new light Grandt Rod and wanted to see if I could cast this lightweight balsa lure on a baitcasting rig. Since I don't throw crankbaits too often (or anything else this year) I was having a ball hooking several decent large and smalllmouth bass. I think one or two might have been keepers but whatever it was just enjoyable to finally get out fishing. Plus, the Grand River in Lansing might not sound like it is wilderness, but it is actually quite beautiful in many areas with lots of trees and wildlife which adds a ton to any of my fishing trips.

     Anyway, the mouse thing...after we took the boat out of the water, I was organizing my gear when all of a sudden I heard the shrill shriek of a 12 year old girl. When I realized it was Dan, I heard him rapidly muttering something about, "...thought it was duct tape and it was a mouse." Then I saw him timidly poking at a groove in his console with a pair of needle nose pliers. When I walked around the boat I saw the itty-bitty mouse cowering in this groove. I grabbed the pliers and boldly grabbed the mini-rat and pulled it out. Mind you, all of this happened in a couple of seconds. As I had a hold of this razor-toothed beast it went berserk. For a split second I thought that it could reach around and chomp a hole from my hand holding the pliers, so I tossed it away from me. Unfortunately, Dan happened to be standing right there. Now I now it must have seemed like I threw the flailing rodent right at Dan, but he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Really.

     We watched the two inch pest scamper under Dan's truck and disappear, without a doubt to find a hiding place in the engine compartment and later make a home in the back seat to get revenge on that redheaded human who evicted him from his boat lodging.

     Okay, here are some pix of the trip.

[blakstr1]

  LOL - awesome

[djkimmel]

Hey, those all look like keepers! Okay... maybe not the smallmouth. I think I forgot to mention how many deer we saw too in peoples' yards and even on the 'new' big house street right off of busy Waverly Road. Whatever was there must have been good to eat but that traffic did keep them nervous.

Here's a link to my original (and true) version of the story: Another Great Lakes Bass fishing adventure

I will admit that cameraguy probably, maybe caught the biggest bass of the day though I whomped him pretty good this time on numbers! Now that I look at the pictures, I think I even caught the biggest bass!



(or his fancy camera lens does a nicer job than my cell phone )

[djkimmel]

I like to think of that mouse as finishing off his day on the inside of one of my truck tires spinning himself silly through Lansing! What stories he'll have to tell!

[cameraguy]

Yeah, yours was bigger. The bass, too. 

[jacksonmj]

Dan where did you launch from and how far did you run? I have fished the river a couple times and would like to get a little better at catching them plus it gives you somewhere else to go that is close to home. Thanks Mike

[djkimmel]

We launched at Grand River Park off of Old Lansing Road. Very nice ramp they rebuilt a few years ago and extended for the river princess boat. Nice bathrooms. Lots of parking. We didn't run. We just started fishing.

[Durand Dan]

That is a nice launch. Used to watch the rowing teams from MSU down there. You can run to Diamondale if your real careful going under the Waverly Rd. bridge. Lots of rocks!

[djkimmel]

You have to know the channel if you want to run past Waverly. If you don't, you better idle only and don't follow anyone who may or may not know the channel. I see people run through trees, stumps, rocks and concrete there all the time. Many of them make it. Some don't. In general, outside bends are the deepest but the place to cut across from one to the other can be very fine.

Just past Waverly, the channel actually takes a 90 degree turn to the left and runs right down the road past the office building and then down the South shoreline. The rest of that wide open area is stumps, trees and other crap scattered over a big varying flat that lots of people run. Not me. New stuff floats in and out of there all the time. Some of it is big. You'll see a few if you go down there but it isn't the ones you see that are the problem

Even the channel down the South shore has gotten shallower and more treacherous. And big trees sometimes get stuck in the deepest part of the channels too. I once hit something in 10 foot along a deeper part of the river that knocked my motor up. Last year, a huge tree floated into once of the real sharp bends. I had a premonition or my Guardian Angler or whatever and came off plane instead of skating through. Thank goodness.

It had a big branch in over 11 foot running right under the surface parallel for about 4 feet. I hit that at a fast idle and it jerked my whole boat backward so fast I had some water come of the stern! BIG tree attached down there. I talked to several people who hit that one! Any river is always a higher risk running so now that I'm older, and hopefully wiser, I do a lot more idling and looking than I used too. Much safer that way and you can enjoy more fishing in the long run.

Because the people that know about the 'Waverly channel' are running right down the shoreline at a 90 degree blind angle, a wise boater always no wakes that bridge because you won't see one of the few crazies until they are just there all of a sudden. And sometimes the little tiny walleye boats fish right along those supports and are hard to spot. I think I once found a local ordinance too that makes the bridge no wake - just no one knows about it but when I fished a lot of tournaments down there back in the day, we always made it no wake.

Besides that, bridges are often pretty good places to fish!

wink

wink

[djkimmel]

There's an island or two down there too that have washed out and are just under the surface. I had a guy in a bass boat run at me one day and I kept trying to figure out what the international hand signals for 'STOP YOUR BOAT AND WAIT UNTIL I GET TO YOU FIRST' where but I apparently failed. He hit a big slab of concrete in about 8 inches of water.

Then he stopped and asked me what my hand signals - actually whole arm and body signals - meant. First day on the river ever he told. Maybe his last. I never saw him there again anyway.

I have always enjoyed fishing there. Downtown too, thought that is another story. Lots of little bass but there are some nice fish to be caught sometimes. And no shortage of places to cast pretty much anything you like to cast. Mostly shallow. Probably why I like rivers so much.

[jacksonmj]

Thanks Dan I fished a tournament this year there and people were running up past the bridge on plane right by shore but I wasn't going to follow them that's for sure. I ended up fishing right past the bridge and did ok but all smaller fish. After your report looks like I will have to get out there again and this time just start fishing and not worry about running!

[djkimmel]

One year back in the 'old days' of the Lynn Dennis Memorial bass tournament, Derek and I had motor troubles - turned out to be simple, but when you're blasting off and not able to stay on plane at the start of the 'big' tournament it doesn't seem so simple  - so we decided to fish back to the ramp and stay close.

We ended up winning the tournament after everyone else ran away and beyond. We fished pretty much between the BWL cooling towers and the end of Grand River Park. We maybe burned 75 cents in gas - $2.50 at today's prices.

After the steam cooled off Derek's brain (several hours later - he actually often fished better when he was worked up so I sometimes pulled little things on him - sorry Derek) we figured out the simple thing that was wrong with the motor and fixed it. By then, we had 3 real good Grand River quality bass in the boat - a big catch back then - and decided just to keep fishing.

Of course, the following year, more than half the field of the Lynn Dennis event starting fishing around the ramp. Imagine that?!?

So we ran way, way up the river and won again! That's the thing about rivers - lots of possibilities and all could be good.

The big one I missed the other day with cameraguy was within 100 feet of Waverly bridge. You actually do run right along shore past Waverly bridge but it better be along the South shore or all bets are off!

[djkimmel]

It took me a number of times running the channel past Waverly before I figured it out safely. I remember one day during a high water year I went the wrong way around a sign that used to stick out of the water in the 'middle of the channel.' I came to a quick stop that day but luckily I was only running my old 14 foot boat with a 20HP and mostly stopped in mud...

and one big log. 20HP weed-whacker!

[jacksonmj]

Sounds like you have fished the river a few times! If you ever have an open seat let me know I would like to get know the river a little better and catch some more out of there. Mike

[djkimmel]

It was one of the first places I fished when I moved to Lansing from Owosso back 30-some years ago. I took first place and big bass in the first money tournament I ever fished and it was on that part of the river - little open bass tournament for 20 or so boats - so it will always be a fond part of my fishing memories.

I used to fish it 20-30 times a year way back. Used to even run some open tournaments with a friend every other Tuesday out there in the old river rat days.

Now I only get out there a few times a season. So many places to fish that I still haven't been to. If I get back to fishing more than I do right now, it's mostly just a matter of reminding me with a little persistence to get out. I've made it out with one new person this year. I try to get out with a handful of new people each year. A good way to learn new stuff.

Right now, I owe cameraguy some more fishing trips so he's next on the list.