NumenOn the Water
Date: 6-17 and 18- 2016
Date: 6-17 and 18- 2016
Body of Water: Traverse Bay, East Arm and North Lake Leelanau
Boat: Numenon
With: BL
Target: Smallmouth Bass
Time: Morning and night!
Conditions: High, clear blue skies and hot; very little wind, and very clear water. Water conditions ranged from about 63 degrees F to about 69 F.
New fishing friend BL and I had been antsing to get back up North, and we were able to clear our mutual schedules. He'd supply the cottage and food; I'd supply the boat and wheels. Together we'd tackle the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay, with North Lake Leelanau as a backup.
We hit the road at about 4:30 PM on Thursday. Potential options included hitting a new lake on the way up; going all the way to his cottage in Leland, straight; or hitting the Bay on our way up to Leland. Between a bit of traffic and collecting dinner, it became apparent that we'd not have much fishing time that night. With an early start to the next morning planned, we discussed and decided to go straight to the Bay, but instead of fishing a little bit of water, to scout a lot of water. Then we'd have a good starting point for our actual fishing on Friday morning.
We had about an hour and a half of scouting time, but at 3 or 4 mph cruising speed, we were able to assess a whole lot of bottom. Our intel indicated that the bass should still be on beds in the southern part of the bay. The flats here are enormous, and while we saw a few empty beds and many incipient beds, we didn't see many bass; in fact, we saw more cruising the breaks than we saw up on the flats.
Having not seen what I expected, we scouted the areas that I had fished 52 weeks previous; the cut into the marina to the north and east, and then the rocky point further to the north. Unlike last year, we saw nothing near the marina; and this had been my first productive spot on the Bay. Moving to the north and rocks, we saw a few fish and possibly a few beds; but again, nothing like what I'd expected to see. Nonetheless, I dropped some GPS waypoints and we decided to start our fishing the next day in this area.
Day 1 of fishing dawned calm and clear and with the promise of being a scorcher; the access lot was already 60% full (with bass boaters, including Northern Michigan Adventures'' sweet and conspicuous rig) upon our arrival at 7:15 AM. Within 20 minutes or so we were set up across the Bay on our spot of choice. Water temps were about 64 degrees F; prime spawning conditions. Any bass present would be visible in such clear water. I started searching in about 11 feet of water with a Rapala Shadow Rap deep jerk bait, while BL scratched bottom with a twin-tail hula grub or a Ned Rig.
We settled pretty quickly into sight fishing for bedding bass; some weren't quite bedding yet, but they sure were territorial. They still weren't abundant, but they were more-so than the previous evening; it looked like conditions were heating up. Most bass were evident in 8 or 9 feet of water. The first bass fell to my PB&J Ned Rig, but after a couple of rejections, I switched to a drop shot rig with an Uncle Josh Pork Worm. For the rest of the day, these produced about equally, with individual fish showing their individual preferences.
For a short period, it looked like we were the hot boat; although we were accompanied by a handful of bass boats, we seemed to be the only boat catching. Bouncing around between several spots from here to a few miles north, we had 9 or so to about 3 pounds landed by 11 AM. Not bad; but not World Class like we were hoping for.
We then ran south to a breakline where we'd seen the most fish activity the previous evening. Here the sand flat broke dramatically into 16 or more feet of water, with the break and basin often adorned with some scruffy weeds. BL continued scraping bottom, but I went Big with the jerk bait; and I pulled the nicest bass (a 4-pounder, maybe) of the trip off of a dark-bottomed patch in about 18 feet of water.
We ended our day at 3:45 PM, having caught another jerk bait fish from the edge and a couple of small males from beds; but then went back to the cabin with plans on sampling North Lake Leelanau that evening.
While it was a rushed event (balanced with grilling some burgers, welcoming BL's son W aboard, etc.), it was very pleasant. Water conditions were clear (but nowhere near as clear as on the Bay!) and about 69 degrees F. There was a bit of boat traffic, but hardly anybody fishing; we'd have any available fish to ourselves. We fished for perhaps 90 minutes, and keyed on certain spots. I chose to throw a topwater bait, walking the dog, almost exclusively; I wanted a big fish!
BL and W continued to scratch bottom, and they caught fish (a nice rockie and a couple of decent bass), but I enjoyed seeing a couple of fish attack my lure. One was smallish and simply missed my bait; I think BL might have caught it when he pitched his Ned Rig right to the spot of the attack. The other fish looked very sizable in the failing light, but stopped short of actually hitting the bait. It pushed a wake right up to the lure, but just when I expected the explosion to take place... it didn't. Darn it!
During the evening I got some information from a reliable source that the spawn was "full fledged at the bottom of East Bay." We'd not seen or experienced this, but we'd been more along the southwest corner and east side of the Bay. With a tip like this we committed to returning to East Bay, and this time exploring new water, more at the base of the Bay. We knew we'd need to get there early (given limited parking, bass tournament and a beautiful forecast for the weekend), so alarms were set and we did our best to sleep fast!
New fishing friend BL and I had been antsing to get back up North, and we were able to clear our mutual schedules. He'd supply the cottage and food; I'd supply the boat and wheels. Together we'd tackle the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay, with North Lake Leelanau as a backup.
We hit the road at about 4:30 PM on Thursday. Potential options included hitting a new lake on the way up; going all the way to his cottage in Leland, straight; or hitting the Bay on our way up to Leland. Between a bit of traffic and collecting dinner, it became apparent that we'd not have much fishing time that night. With an early start to the next morning planned, we discussed and decided to go straight to the Bay, but instead of fishing a little bit of water, to scout a lot of water. Then we'd have a good starting point for our actual fishing on Friday morning.
We had about an hour and a half of scouting time, but at 3 or 4 mph cruising speed, we were able to assess a whole lot of bottom. Our intel indicated that the bass should still be on beds in the southern part of the bay. The flats here are enormous, and while we saw a few empty beds and many incipient beds, we didn't see many bass; in fact, we saw more cruising the breaks than we saw up on the flats.
Having not seen what I expected, we scouted the areas that I had fished 52 weeks previous; the cut into the marina to the north and east, and then the rocky point further to the north. Unlike last year, we saw nothing near the marina; and this had been my first productive spot on the Bay. Moving to the north and rocks, we saw a few fish and possibly a few beds; but again, nothing like what I'd expected to see. Nonetheless, I dropped some GPS waypoints and we decided to start our fishing the next day in this area.
Day 1 of fishing dawned calm and clear and with the promise of being a scorcher; the access lot was already 60% full (with bass boaters, including Northern Michigan Adventures'' sweet and conspicuous rig) upon our arrival at 7:15 AM. Within 20 minutes or so we were set up across the Bay on our spot of choice. Water temps were about 64 degrees F; prime spawning conditions. Any bass present would be visible in such clear water. I started searching in about 11 feet of water with a Rapala Shadow Rap deep jerk bait, while BL scratched bottom with a twin-tail hula grub or a Ned Rig.
We settled pretty quickly into sight fishing for bedding bass; some weren't quite bedding yet, but they sure were territorial. They still weren't abundant, but they were more-so than the previous evening; it looked like conditions were heating up. Most bass were evident in 8 or 9 feet of water. The first bass fell to my PB&J Ned Rig, but after a couple of rejections, I switched to a drop shot rig with an Uncle Josh Pork Worm. For the rest of the day, these produced about equally, with individual fish showing their individual preferences.
 |
| First photo opportunity of the trip; this nice bass fell to a drop-shot rig. |
For a short period, it looked like we were the hot boat; although we were accompanied by a handful of bass boats, we seemed to be the only boat catching. Bouncing around between several spots from here to a few miles north, we had 9 or so to about 3 pounds landed by 11 AM. Not bad; but not World Class like we were hoping for.
We then ran south to a breakline where we'd seen the most fish activity the previous evening. Here the sand flat broke dramatically into 16 or more feet of water, with the break and basin often adorned with some scruffy weeds. BL continued scraping bottom, but I went Big with the jerk bait; and I pulled the nicest bass (a 4-pounder, maybe) of the trip off of a dark-bottomed patch in about 18 feet of water.
 |
| This chunker ate a deep-diving Rapala Shadow Rap. |
We ended our day at 3:45 PM, having caught another jerk bait fish from the edge and a couple of small males from beds; but then went back to the cabin with plans on sampling North Lake Leelanau that evening.
While it was a rushed event (balanced with grilling some burgers, welcoming BL's son W aboard, etc.), it was very pleasant. Water conditions were clear (but nowhere near as clear as on the Bay!) and about 69 degrees F. There was a bit of boat traffic, but hardly anybody fishing; we'd have any available fish to ourselves. We fished for perhaps 90 minutes, and keyed on certain spots. I chose to throw a topwater bait, walking the dog, almost exclusively; I wanted a big fish!
BL and W continued to scratch bottom, and they caught fish (a nice rockie and a couple of decent bass), but I enjoyed seeing a couple of fish attack my lure. One was smallish and simply missed my bait; I think BL might have caught it when he pitched his Ned Rig right to the spot of the attack. The other fish looked very sizable in the failing light, but stopped short of actually hitting the bait. It pushed a wake right up to the lure, but just when I expected the explosion to take place... it didn't. Darn it!
During the evening I got some information from a reliable source that the spawn was "full fledged at the bottom of East Bay." We'd not seen or experienced this, but we'd been more along the southwest corner and east side of the Bay. With a tip like this we committed to returning to East Bay, and this time exploring new water, more at the base of the Bay. We knew we'd need to get there early (given limited parking, bass tournament and a beautiful forecast for the weekend), so alarms were set and we did our best to sleep fast!
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| A nearly full moon over a quiet North Lake Leelanau. A large bass had just pulled short of my topwater bait. Near perfection! |
Day 2 broke similarly, but we were on the water about an hour earlier, full of hope. In short, "full fledged" spawning activity was never encountered. BL caught a single fish blind casting in about 8 feet of water, and occasionally we'd see a bass boat stalk a nest and pull a bass off it; but generally we were encountering only empty nests, and not too many of those. With our allotted time about half spent, we returned to our favorite rocky areas, but encountered similar conditions. In fact, there were many more bass boats here and fewer visible fish than the day before. With about an hour of fishing left, we returned to the breakline where I'd caught Day 1's biggest fish. I threw my topwater and the Rapala Shadow Rap while BL scratched bottom per usual. I got the last hit of the trip on the Rap, but somehow managed to lose it; the only other fishing action of note was witnessing a very large bass stalking my jerk bait for quite a distance; but I also saw that it was somehow unable to commit to eating the lure. That fish would have sealed the trip; now I just have to think about her.
We returned to the ramp area, hot and tired, only to encounter too many boats and not enough ramp! To add to the pontoons and sails being launched, there were multiple vessels with dead batteries and a smattering of frustrated folks with poor attitudes. We simply waited it out and landed as efficiently as possible. I was disappointed in the day's catch, but we agreed, it really had been a fine weekend; even if the Bay showed only a fraction of what it had to offer.
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| It was my pleasure to release this (and all) bass. What a beautiful place! |
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| Beautiful bass; beautiful spot; beautiful conditions; nice trip! |
