Went Fishing with Savage and He called me Nancy!

[djkimmel]

Savage was nice enough to offer me a fishing trip on a 'secret*' lake up north that he said had a bunch of smallies and some big largemouth bass. So, since I happened to be up north already studying the sport of bass fishing, I said, "sure, why not!"

Launched my trusty 1993 Ranger Boats 492VS Sunday morning of Memorial weekend, May 30, 2010 and began fishing within about a minute. Immediately found smallies on beds around rocks and other stuff. Savage was keeping it simple and popped the first one right away!


Beautiful idyllic day on a great looking northern Michigan lake produces a smallmouth bass for GLBass.com member Savage

We were sort of taking turns but in the first spot there were enough smallies on beds that we could sometimes fish two or more at the same time. I drop my new technique I'm playing with, that just slayed the bass yesterday on Mullett, on to a bed of a bass maybe 3 pounds and he eats it fast. I set the hook! Up he comes! Jumps! He's gone!!!

That's when it happened. Savage, who doesn't really know me that well... says, "set the hook next time Nancy!" I say, "hey I don't think you know me well enough to call me Nancy." His response? "So..."

Now, I'm using a new technique and still figuring it out. I tied on the first small hook I got my hands on... plus... Savage is 6' 6" !!! So, instead on taking things any further in a boat that was looking smaller by the moment, I said valiantly said, "maybe my hook is too not right for this technique?" Savage takes one look at it and says... "yea."

"Why don't you use a smaller hook. Finer wire. Like a regular drop shot hook." I could almost hear the 'duh' but he was just nice enough to leave me a little dignity. Pretty generous when you're 6' 6" and could kill me where I stand (just heard that 10 times in a dumb, but funny movie - Sorry).

So while I'm digging through my 50 hook packs looking for a better hook, Savage just keeps on putting them in the boat. And they get a little better as the morning progresses (rather quickly).


Another solid Northern Michigan smallmouth bass falls to Savage and his killer Case Plastics drop shot

I finally get done tying on a new hook several bass later and after showing Savage my name isn't Nancy anymore, he says, lets go to the big fish spot... Shoot, why didn't you say so earlier? I actually think he wanted to make sure I had my act together before we went after the big boys (or girls). So, he's actually a big softie with a heart of gold.

Sure enough, some much nicer bass on beds in the big fish spot. But they were really playing hard to get. A boat had been working them over pretty good earlier. Maybe two boats. I wasn't watching real close.


But, eventually, we figured out how to trick even these guys and he let me even catch one of the really nice ones.

[djkimmel]

We just kept moving along finding beds here and there though Savage said things weren't quite as hot as they have been in the past. I was impressed that we started seeing a bunch of walleye just off the break. Started seeing a few bigger smallies just kind of lazily swimming near them in small groups or singles. And a few deep beds.

Though he was surprised we weren't finding the big largemouth bass. We did eventually have a really nice one swim past us but it didn't seem real interested yet.

By then I had found out though, very troubling, Savage had withheld a critical piece of information from me. Apparently innocently not know about one of my predispositions. We were going along and I see this big fish slowly moving along the bottom.

"Is that a dogfish? You didn't tell me there's dogfish in this lake!?!" I shout out!! He says, "well I never actually try to catch them..." Huh!?! "You've got to be kidding me!! They're easy to catch. And they fight good and they're big. That one is REALLY big!"

So I say, stand back and watch... I grab up my trusty Xtreme Bass Tackle X-worm (Formula G3) and flip it past the old doggies head. WHAM!!! Nails it!! Hee hee. Shoot! Why not?!? They're big and they fight hard. They aren't real particular neither if you get a tasty looking bait by their mouth.

We've got an audience and everything up on shore. Just like being on TV. 'Man... he's got a big one on.' 'Lookit that thing.' 'Whew!'


We're talking master angler here!! After we fart around trying to get the slippery fish in to show all the spectators, a guy up on shore says, "excuse me, but what was that?!?"

A dogfish I say. Nice guy who lives on the lake, but still looks puzzled. Regardless, now I have a new goal because Savage says there's a ton of them like that in this lake. This...  changes...  everything!!!

So now, we're looking for beds AND cruising dogfish. And I've figured out how to get revenge for the Nancy thing!!!

And Savage ain't kidding!! The lake is full of BIG dogfish. I don't think we go 100 feet and I whack another toad bowfin on the same lure. Lose another shortly after and then it happens... Savage is ready to be corrupted... ruined forever 

"Let me try that," he says. So now we're both looking for dogfish!! After he hooks up with his first one, Savage says, "man, this is easy! This is fun!" And I've done. He is now officially a dogfish man!! Whoo whooo who ah... (picture me wringing my hands)

Want to see a dogfish angler being born?? Yeah, me too!

[djkimmel]

Ended up being a great day. Thank you so much Savage for showing me a fun lake to fish. We caught smallies and big dogfish. We fished until about 1:30 PM before Savage had to move on to holiday weekend activities.

We had many people watching us from shore. Some of them were very nice because they liked that we were letting all our bass go. Some even pointed out other bass to try for. Pretty funny that the doggie in the video was caught while a pontoon boat full of people watched on along with shore dwellers. First they said something about lookit that nice walleye he's got on. They were cheering and everything. As Savage was letting it go they even asked us if it was a smallmouth bass... pretty funny!!

Thanks again Savage. Good luck on the water.

* When I'm a guest on someone else's special lake or spot, I always keep the location and name private out of respect for their gift. Hope you all understand and just enjoy the story and media.

[cameraguy]

I'm surprised you didn't rely on one of your old tricks and tell him to "lip" it. 

[Firefighter Jeff]

What did you use to video that Dan 

[djkimmel]

I'm surprised you didn't rely on one of your old tricks and tell him to "lip" it. 

I'd forgotten about the 'Nancy' deal by then (lots of nice bass will do that ). I actually was very nice and warned him not to!!

[djkimmel]

What did you use to video that Dan 

Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder. I had it set on wide screen which is why it has the top and bottom border with my video service, but works better for other uses. Takes really nice video in original format for non-HD.

[tr889]

nice bowfin..always looking for a good non super weedy bowfin lake... what lake is this in northern MI?

[djkimmel]

nice bowfin..always looking for a good non super weedy bowfin lake... what lake is this in northern MI?

Since I was a guest of Savage on a lake I've never been on before I can't identify the lake. It is one of the many small lakes up north.

Have you ever fished Muskegon for bowfin? Giant bowfin in that lake. Also, Kent Lake has some big bowfin in it. This one is from Kent from the shallows in the upper end of the lake:


Now, if you want an almost weed free lake that has big doggies, try Higgins Lake when the water first gets into the mid-50s to low 60s. I don't know where they are other times of the year, but they make a move up to spawn about the same time as the bass and you can see them real good in that crystal clear water!

[MIBassKid]

Look for the brush piles around the dropoffs in the south end of the lake on higgins. you can see the pups down 25 feet.

[djkimmel]

Ahh... I don't really fish Higgins much. Maybe 4 times? I figured they wouldn't drop too deep.

We used to go there opening weekend in the past and we were there one day when they just started coming up in all over the place. Caught a big one and some guy one shore thought it was a salmon or something. Similar to a work friend's Mom years ago who argued with me that Higgins was too clean to have gar. I told her all fish like clean water. I saw the big critter and I know what a gar looks like!!

[MIBassKid]

Haven't seen a gar out there but i do know they have some big smallies! Tough to find though. They probably thought it was a lake trout. you should see all the boats out there early in the mornings at the very north end of the lake, its like the walleye run on the detroit river.

[tr889]

never fished Muskegon lake(wrong side of the state for me) but do well sightfishing in the spring on a few different river backwaters on the northeast side of the state.  i cant seem to find them consistently in the summer. my river backwaters get choked with weeds and it gets hard to catch them. i have tried houghton lake and the marshes but have not tried Higgins for them. Should I stay in the south part of Higgins or in the Marl lake area? (hows the boat traffic on Higgins these days in the summer?...used to be bad)

[MIBassKid]

I would stay in the south part of the lake, not as deep in most places. try around the sunken island, its marked on most maps, the east shore on the southern part of the lake. Haven't fished marl but i don't think you can get to it from higgins, i think is connected by the cut river but i dont think you can get through that in a boat.  Marl is choked by weeds in the summer anyways i believe. These are just starting points, im not a pro out there i just know where i have seen a few in the past while perch fishing.