Open Day Michigan Bass Catch and Release 2008 - Here's My Story

[djkimmel]

Opening Day Michigan Catch and Release Bass Season 2008

I was trying to think of a good title for this fishing report and just couldn't make up my mind.

Should it be: "Bass Fishing is Finally Here!!!" or "The Wind Blows, but the Fishing Didn't" or "KaRu VibraSpins Are Hot!!" or possibly "Muskies Keep Following Me... Everywhere (and their teeth are Really Sharp!)"

Maybe even "A Supervolcano Underneath Barry County?" Possibly "Is That A Turkey On Your Windshield Or Are You Just Happy To See Me!?!" (Small parts of the day, but just more of the adventure.)

Instead, how about I just tell the story and put up a few pictures. I went over to Barry County to fish one of the many fun spring largemouth lakes I don't get to fish enough. Wow! Was it cold in the morning... I thought this was spring?!? Guess I missed the forecast part about the 20 to 30 mph plus winds. Burrrr. It was blowing right down my favorite starting bay. Found I have a few things to fix before I really get going this summer too. Nothing new there. (Cameraguy, why did't you remind me about the trolling motor rope?)

The pads were just starting to come up in small, thin patches and general underwater 'fields' and the roots had moved around since last spring. More of what little brush is left had fallen prey, probably to the ice. Not a lot left now and most pretty shallow with the low water.

I fished my way into the favorite cove thinking the sudden drop in temp and cold front either slowed bass down or caused some to fall out of the back bay. No bites on the way in. Only a few carp to look at. At the first pad root clump, just outside the mouth of the back bay, I caught my first largemouth bass of the Michigan 2008!!!


Ok - not a whopper, no, but it was nice enough to hit my lure and that's what counts!!


And look what I caught my first bass of 2008 on - a KaRu VibraSpin!! Didn't hit it hard, but I was more than a little worried I'd have to fish really slow due to the temp drop and overcast chilly morning post cold front.

I decided to stick with the VibraSpin for a while. I like to start out fishing something active and easy to limber up, start enthused and stay warm on a morning like this in particular.

Nothing caught in what's left of the 'channel' going into the bay through the bogs and pad root systems, but off to the side in scattered red pads underwater and coontail clumps just forming, I hook another fish that fools me into thinking it has real shoulders. The crafty bass uses available cover to wrap me in everything. Decent small keeper with a belly like mine!

Another on the KaRu. I'm liking this lure. You can fish it slow still with good action thanks to the extra blade. It comes through the cover really good too, bouncing and deflecting to end up more erratic

I don't spend any time real shallow looking for beds. I don't think there are many yet and I prefer to fish prespawn when it is good. I can learn more about seasonal movements that way. I keep moving along casting around pad roots - the best cover today, into the edges of the emerging pad - bigger green pads in small thin clumps and fields of red pads still coming up - the next best cover, and then out over the small 4 to 6 foot hole through scattered weeds of various types with algae mixed in - still working, but only about a 1/3 as much as the other too.

Usually, I get the bigger prespawn bass out of the edge of the hole, but today, the average size is smaller than along the pads. The biggest bass are mostly around the pad roots. Sometimes it takes multiple casts and angles, but almost half the pad root clumps produce a bass including my biggest of the day:


Almost 3 pounds. Not as big as I usually get here, but these are way less than ideal circumstances and even though I try wide shallow crankbaits and pitching creatures, I catch 14 largemouths on the KaRu VibraSpin and only 1 subkeeper pitching a Super Hog to the best piece of wood in the pocket. Most of the strikes are timid to just stopping the lure's vibration, but one 2-pounder about rips the rod out of my hand - he was my favorite!

I did have one very suspicious strange hard bite along the front edge of the bay on the KaRu, but every spring there always seems to be at least one musky hiding in that area. I fish it because some of the biggest bass hide there too!! I'm thinking musky this time though. I've had some spectacular musky strikes and bass strikes in that area. Thinking musky though and not ready for them yet, I stay away from that stretch for a while.

But... the muskies had other plans for me... oh yes... they surely did.

I'm throwing the KaRu VibraSpin into a patch of red pads forming a point over an undercut bog edge - one of the key spots in the pocket - when I see a BIG fish stalking and then attacking!!! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! Only my 20 plus inch 'bass' stretch out on the strike and turns into a MUSKY!! Oh no!! New VibraSpin in jeopardy!!!!!

Luckily, the musky was not in full fighting mode and doesn't go for the trolling motor or under the boat. It does drive the VibraSpin hard once into the side of my Ranger - I guess because nothing else has worked!?! Only puts a slight bend in the wire despite being one hard slam!

I get my first musky of the season in - not huge - mabye 38 to 40 inches - thick, but not real fat - here's a couple pics - a head shot of the maw full of sharp teeth and another shot where you can get an idea about how tough spring is on the nice-looking critters:

It's common to see cuts, wounds and bleeding on muskies shortly after the spawn in early spring. 

**WARNING GRAPHIC PICTURE COMING UP - NOT FOR THE YOUNG OR WEAK OF HEART**

[djkimmel]

Part 2 - Let it Bleed

I show the maw because I want to warn the clumsy like me not to try too hard to get pictures or do other fancy stuff when alone and dealing with a sharp toothy critter. Especially the first trip of the season when I'm out of practice. I guess it's only fair - it got a little payback on me:

It could have been a lot worse of course. I guess an easy reminder about care is the nicest reminder. Randy Ramsey did a seminar earlier this year where he did a segment called 'Let it Bleed' - about wounds while fishing and the possibility of infection messing up your fishing for a while. He suggested you let them bleed out the dirt and critters a little.

I believe I did my own real life test of his theory inadvertantly since I thought the blood was all from the musky at first - its fins were bleeding still, maybe from being aggressive up in the shallow cover? About 5 minutes later, I realized I was seeing fresh blood on spots I didn't see after I let the musky go. Never even felt anything, but my knuckle was punctured and sliced in several places. Whoops! There are all kinds of sharp things around a musky's mouth and gills .

The sun had come out and that helped me feel a little warmer. That first musky was only a harbinger of things to come as the sun seemed to get them worked up a little. Shortly after I caught my biggest bass of the day, I had a bigger musky follow my Karu all the way to the boat way in the back of the cove. It was picking up speed as the lure got to the boat. Close call!!

Within the next 20 minutes of fishing the middle of bay looking for lethargic big 'uns, I had another musky like the one I caught bust the water trying to grab my VibraSpin as I lifted it away (I just didn't want to twist a new lure up yet) and another 3-footer I saw coming in fast and just got away from - Whew!!! Fun to see, but those close to the boat deals make me jumpy. The first one hid under the boat for a few minutes. That always makes me nervous... knowing that mouth full of needles could pounce at any moment. Then I had ANOTHER one further down bump the lure twice before turning way.

On the way out of the bay, I found a small patch of bass that, despite less than ideal conditions, had used the sun to move real shallow in the bog. Caught 3 and missed one in 4 casts into the skinny water pads, brush and weeds. 2 were solid keepers including another one that hit hard and used EVERY piece of cover on the way in to trick me again into thinking I might finally have that 4-pounder I was looking for. But no, juat a little over 2 pounds in weight and 2 'pounds' of attitude!! What the heck, I always appreciate any bass that hits my lure.

On the way out into the main lake, I saw 2 more mukies!!! What the...!?! Most muskies I've ever seen in one day on this lake!?! One was just sitting up real shallow and waited until I got close to swim away looking over its 'shoulder.' The other followed my top secret spring spinnerbait to the boat as I scatter-cast it around quickly.

I get to the ramp and see something strange?!? Not something you see every day...? Well actually, I don't recall ever seeing anything like this:

Weird, huh!?! It looked like the lake was boiling??!? White bubbles that boiled up fast and let off white 'steam' - there were 3 big spots and a little spot when I first pulled up to the dock. And no, I did not go over and put my hand down to see if it was hot or slimy or whatever. Who knows what it might be, and I learned that lesson long ago about not testing hot looking things to see if yes (ouch) they are hot!

I've never seen this kind of activity before and never on this lake next to the ramp?? I wonder if there is a SUPER VOLCANO  under Barry County or something...?? Yeah, I watch and read too much science fiction, but you have to admit, for never seeing it there before and no underwater pipe signs, it's pretty strange. (I just watched some show the other day too about 10 ways humans might become extinct... I'm leaning towards the super computer version myself - too much Dune, Terminator and Wargames, maybe?)

[djkimmel]

Part 3 - The Road Home... and The Fun Isn't Over Yet

Anyway, one of the big spots disappeared after a couple minutes. Then, the others weakened as I got the camera out. The small one faded away followed a few minutes later by the two big ones. It lasted at least 10 minutes while I was there. I can't think of anything that would do that, anyone have any ideas?

I'm still pondering that on the way home, thinking about the Osprey who fished with me part of the day (I caught way more ) and all the other game, including lots of vultures... when I see a 'vulture' standing along the side of M-66 - the 2nd one I've seen (I think) eating road kill. Only this time, the vulture turns into a huge turkey. HUGE I say because the #@#$%#$#@ bird explodes into the sky and 'fires' one across my windshield. PLUS, I have an intelligent guy in a pickup truck who is tailgating my boat on an otherwise empty highway.

I slam on the brakes!! Swerve to the right!! And then power the truck again!! I mean, I LIKE my windshield. Have you ever had a bird hit your windshield at 50+?? I have and it was nothing like a 20 pound turkey and still went BOOM!!!!!! So I end getting only tail feathers and no outboard rear-ending from Mr. Type A behind me, but talk about CLOSE...!!! About 1.5 seconds of pure adrenaline...!!!!! And then I started thinking about what to have for dinner. And that's the end of my first day of bass fishing in Michigan for 2008. Thanks for reading.

[thedude]

if it was a boggy area like you had mentioned dan - it was probably methane or some other by-product of decaying plant matter below the surface... the process of decay generates both heat and gas (bubbles). I'm guessing the steam was just from the water being warmer than the air after that 30 degree temperature drop and being further warmed by the gas.... just a guess though, i've never seen it like that! Looks like someone tossed some dry ice into the lake.

[djkimmel]

That was sort of my only guess, but by the ramp, there is as much sand, gravel and even rock so I don't think there is enough decaying matter to do something like that. The steam/smoke/whatever it was was real thick and white. Very strange... Dry ice was another guess... but how often do people drive down to a boat ramp and toss chunks of dry ice into the lake...

Wait a minute... this is me I'm talking about. It could have been Venutian Turkey People with sharp teeth and a penchant for dumping dry ice into the lakes, the news people wouldn't even come down if I called...

Maybe I've stumbled onto some kind of corporate plot?!?

Forgot to mention - the 4 original bubble spots were not in a straight row like a pipe.

[Cy]

I want to know what lake you were on in Barry County catching nice bass and that is loaded with Muskies?  First I was thinking maybe Thornapple Lake, but after further review I am going to say Crooked Lake!? 

[Cheetam]

Nice mooskie Dan.  I always enjoy catching those on 3 inch tubes on the big water (except during tournies...darn things always get my heart pumping thinking I have a pig smallie on)...

[djkimmel]

Yeah, this one totally fooled me for a few seconds being up in less than 2 feet of water in the red pads. Thought it was a toad.

As far as which lake, pretty good guess... except... would you guess Upper...? Or Lower?

[Cy]

I'm going with Lower!

[djkimmel]

Bzzzzzttt!! That would be incorrect! I wish

I would need 4 wheel drive and/or a 2 foot smaller boat to get in there.

[Stinkpickel]

Great story, got my blood pumpin, and made me want to get out on the boat.

Good fishing and try not to feed the Muski anymore.

[djkimmel]

I lika da muskie... (apparently... or they like me )

[bassmandan]

you are da muskies and i am da pikes
ive caught to many pike this year already

[djkimmel]

Yeah... off to a toothy start already... and I haven't even hit Lake Ovid yet!!!

[bassmandan]

stoney creek ftw with pike right now im gonna be pulling some out this year