Slow day but a biggun at the Monroe Hot Pond 11-27-2016

[djkimmel]

We made plans on here and Facebook for a Thanksgiving weekend Sunday (11/27/2016) trip back to the Monroe Hot Pond. VinceR had never been there before and Jay-MadWags talked him into going so I rode down from Lansing with him making it a much easier trip for me.

There were 4 total boats in our group for this trip out into Lake Erie and around to the Hot Pond. VinceR with Jay-MadWags on the back deck; bigjc with Manxfishing in the back, 21XDC holding his own with Mojo; and I jumped in the boat with Frank and his daughter Mackenzie.

It was more than a little bumpy on the way out but not too bad as we took it slow and easy. Of course, it was fine once we got into the Hot Pond finding it still muddier than normal and the current just rolling out from the power plant!

Everyone spread out and did their thing. We moved along the shore in various stretches. The bass bite was not hot and heavy but we would pick one up here and one there.


I was tossing a Strike King Sexy Shad 6XD crankbait most of the day tight to the shoreline and bringing it out. Cast to a rocky stretch way back in the hot pond and got my line stretched big time by this big ole Lake Erie largemouth bass that engulfed the crank! Put up a good cold water largemouth bass fight before Frank netted it for me. We let it go after taking this picture.

Unfortunately, unlike previous trips there did not appear to be a school of bass in the are as far as we could tell, and others fished through that stretch too without getting hit.

We mostly kept moving along, and of course we also tried the same area that dartag and I caught all our bass from recently. We got a small handful there but the trick seemed to be to keep moving and just pick one up here and one up there.

Almost all of my maybe 14-15 bass (some dinks) came on the 6XD. They were coming from a couple feet deep all the way out to 8-10 feet deep just scattered around from what we could tell. I did a lot of pitching an Angling AI Stinger too but only got a couple on that.

Frank and Mackenzie picked up a mix of bass too on various lures just moving along. We (Mackenzie) also snagged a big carp, and caught a few other fish - gizzard shad and white bass mostly - not the full range of species you normally catch from the Hot Pond.

But we watched VinceR land a huge smallmouth buffalo fish and Manxfishing got a big sheepshead we were told. We saw him fighting something big but didn't see him land it. Everyone caught a few 'other' fish, and caught from a handful of bass to 20 or so.

The bite actually did start to pick up suddenly early in the afternoon - we never found a hot spot but started picking up more scattered bass as we moved along. We talked to another bass boat that said they landed something like 45 bass with lots of dinks.

As usual, there was lots of wildlife too. Mackenzie spotted a white-tailed deer that was eating on shore quietly less than 20 feet from us. And the eagles were there (along with a zillion gulls and cormorants, and a few Great Blue Herons) too with us seeing up to 5 eagles in one tree. They rarely let us get real close but they were perched in trees along the shoreline of the Hot Pond fairly common. Lot of young eagles with a few adults.


It's only a cell phone picture but I did manage to take a picture of this odd large bird of prey - real black unlike most eagles but without the white head and tail of an adult Bald Eagle. It let us get under the tree it was in before it flew away into the woods. It was probably too big to be a dark phase Red-tailed Hawk and it definitely appeared to have an eagle's beak but it was dark almost all over more like a crow so I'm not sure what it was. Maybe just a young bald eagle dark in color.

Just adds to the fun atmosphere of fishing the Monroe Hot Pond. I sure am glad VinceR drove so I could sit back and relax much of the way! Thanks Vince!

Seems like the Hot Pond is a little off this year but it was fun as always and the one big bass sure was nice! bigjc got a couple big ones too! We all had a nice dinner nearby swapping tall tales after the fishing - that was also fun!

[21XDC]

Great report as always.

[djkimmel]

Thank you. Waited a little while this time. Makes the memories harder to pull up!