Mixed Bag Fun

NumenOn the Water

Date:  June 5, 2017

Body of Water:  Kent Lake, Kensington Metropark

Boat:  Numenon

With: A and K

Target: Bites!

Time: 9 AM - 1 PM

Conditions: Overcast, about 60, NE winds about 10 mph, water temperatures about 70 -71 degrees F

We launched on perhaps Michigan's busiest lake, but a gloomy weekday kept the traffic down, and a 10 mph speed limit and a good ramp made conditions very fishable.  This was my first time on this water body, so we drove the entire lake.  Where the Huron River enters, I encountered lots of matted weed and a little current, so I tried throwing some Frogs.  Nothing happened in the first half hour, or so. When I pulled into the bank and saw some panfish beds, I quickly rigged a small jig under a float.  I missed a bunch of bites before I hooked up, and I was a bit chagrined to land the first fish, a tiny bluegill.

First fish of the day was not exactly big...

The next colony yielded some of better quality.

But bluegills mean action, so we continued down the shore and found plenty of other spawning colonies.  The bluegills and pumpkinseeds reached decent size and provided for some simple Fun Fishing.  We collectively landed at least a dozen decent "keeper" panfish while sorting through lots of smaller ones.  We even got a couple of bonus perch, remarkable for their lack of size; they were both smaller than my pinky.

They are beautiful.

K was quite sure that this would qualify as a Master Angler entry.

After a couple of hours of this we switched gears and casted channel edges and weed beds for predators.  Either bass or pike would have been acceptable.  Both A and I got bit pretty quickly (Fat Rap crank for her, a large spinnerbait for me).  A got most of the bites on the crank bait, and in a hour we landed 5 small-to-about-legal-sized pike.

My first Kent Lake pike

My lake map revealed another shoreline of interest.  Here I found some bigger and deeper nests (bass?), but I only caught a couple of rock bass and a few more gills.

This attractive, undeveloped shoreline hosted several nice beds and plunges off into some of the lake's deepest water.

It was still pretty gloomy and the girls had had enough; it was time to go!

What do I have to say about this?

All in all, the lake was interesting enough to make my return probable.  It's probably a nightmare during a nice summer weekend, but I bet she fishes well during the Fall and
Spring.

If the cottonwood seeds are flying, the bluegills really are spawning!  My new home accumulated wind drifts of the stuff while K simply enjoyed catching a few fish.  A really likes her new, left-handed casting outfit (Shimano Curado 70 reel on an Abu Garcia Volatile rod), and I really enjoyed having them both back in the boat!

More Family Fishing Fun!

Presidents' Day 2016

NumenOn the Water

Date:  2-15-16

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, Ice fishing

With:  Alone

Target:  Crappies

Time:  1 PM - 5 PM

Conditions:  Overcast with snow flurries, about 25 F with southerly winds; about 6 inches of solid ice with an inch of snow cover.  Several other groups on the ice targeting both shallow pike and basin panfish.

This year's version of the Polar Vortex just skirted Michigan on its way to the East Coast.  It brought cold, but not super-cold conditions to West Michigan for this past weekend.  This glancing blow made it easy to stay inside, tie more hair jigs, and wait for more amenable conditions on President's Day.

Conditions on Monday were more amenable, just less so than predicted.  It was still quite fishable, local ice conditions had finally firmed up, and light snow cover made moving on the ice easy.  But it was cold enough to make the pursuit of comfort a task, and not a given.

Once again I targeted suspended crappies, and I encountered similar, although diminished, conditions.  The fish were there*, but in lesser numbers.  They were feeding less and refusing more.  The ones I did catch** were generally smaller (two crappies in the double digits among the eight assorted crappies and bluegills I landed.)  It was usually just one from each hole, and each fish took some effort to coax into biting.  All in all, it felt like mid- to late-winter; as I guess it actually is.

What do I have to say about this?

Black/White or Yes/No are too simplistic notions for fishing, and so I tend to think at least in trinary terms.  Here I think the individual legs for my functional 3-legged stool are Comfort, Ease and Efficiency.  I tend to seek easy and efficient ice fishing opportunities (at least for panfish; I can work or suffer for trout and pike), but let's face it, these factors are enabled or limited by comfort.  In this case, I chose to maximize ease and efficiency by traveling light, that is without the portable shanty.  It just turned out to be too darned cold for this strategy to work out.  The cold diminished my enjoyment out there and sapped my sonar's battery such that I was getting off the ice just as Prime Time was settling in.  This was probably no big loss (the bite was hardly ramping up when the sonar finally quit), it just left the trip something short of perfection.  This is what I'll remember the trip for; leaving early had a bigger impact on me than hunting the fish successfully.

Of course, lugging the shelter up from the basement, fitting it into the truck and dragging it across the ice and from hole to hole would have diminished my ease and efficiency; it's all work and it all takes time.

I'll just have to continue to seek my Personal Balance with every trip.

Meanwhile, Facebook reminds me that two years ago I had AmyBaby22 parked in our temporary back yard, I was making bait with ease and my biggest problem was hooking up with toothy predators.  (Of course, anchor and wind issues had not yet arisen as part of that trip.)

*  I fished in the deepest part of the main lake basin, and generally from 35 to 40 feet of water.

**  All my fish succumbed to a small, plain gold Swedish Pimple tipped with maggots.  More aggressive and less aggressive baits were consistently ignored.  The bait was usually just hanging there after a small lift.  Generally the highest fish in the column would be the biter.

...And Again

NumenOn the Water

Date:  1-31-16

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, Ice Fishing

With:  KS

Target: Panfish and Pike

Time:  8 AM - Noon

Conditions:  Overcast, calm and above freezing; rising to near 50 degrees F before raining

Today's experience was very similar to yesterday's, except it was less crowded and so there was more room to roam, I had a friend along, and we added some tip-up action to the mix.  And while the panfishing was tough once again, another meal or two was provided to my friend's family, and all in all, it was a more pleasant experience. 

We arrived to a lake apparently without suspended panfish.  We scouted a few holes in the basin and generally came up empty.  We therefore took our time setting four tip-ups targeting pike in 7 to 25 feet or so of water (half suckers, half shiners), and when we returned to base camp, some fish were now beneath our feet!  I immediately enticed the highest fish to eat a small gold Pimple with maggots, and once again, it looked like it might be easy.  Of course it wasn't; while I fished over fish for most of the day, they were generally difficult to fool.

By running and gunning over a milk run of a dozen holes or so from 30 to 39 feet of water, and by concentrating my efforts on the highest visible fish (and not wasting too much time on visible fish lower in the water column), I pieced together a decent catch of a dozen panfish.  All but one were crappies to over 11 inches, the other was a nice suspended bluegill.  The gold Pimple was by far the best producer, although a teardrop with maggots produced two bonus fish in quick succession.  The Jigging Rap was an obvious turnoff today; it resulted in firm rejections.  KS was unable to land any fish on the slab spoon.

While all this was going on, we entertained six flags.  Four were "empty" and probably caused by small fish harassing the baits; the others produced a 14-inch bass and a 20-inch pike.  Both of these ate shiners suspended about half-way down over 11 feet of water, right on the edge of some nice green cabbage.

At this moment, the possibilities are unlimited; this could be a 45-incher!

OK, it wasn't 45 inches; it wasn't even 24; but it did provide that initial excitement!  Note too, no gloves!  Baseball cap instead of a knit cap, and no coat!

I'll remember this trip for the fish I didn't land.  I lost a very nice (14-inch class) crappie at the hole.  It became entangled in my transducer; I should be more careful, and I know it!  The fish totally obscured the hole; it's nice to know that there are some even larger crappies out there.

What do I have to say about this?

This is one of KS' childhood lakes, and so he always enjoys his time out there.  I enjoyed his company, but I also appreciated songbirds and a bit more solitude than the previous day.  Plus, I was able to cover more water today, and if there was a secret for today's "success" it was to find as many fish high in the water column as possible, and to focus on those with a bait they would eat.

2016 Off to a Crappie Start

NumenOn the Water

Date:  1-30-16

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, Ice

With:  Alone

Target: Panfish and Pike

Time:  8 AM - 1 PM

Conditions: Mild and mostly sunny; light southerly winds and about 33-38 degrees F; 5+ inches of solid ice

This was my first excursion on the ice for the season; I'd chosen to tie hair jigs last weekend rather than test our first available ice.  This week things firmed up nicely, and the crowds were on Reeds Lake; so I knew that conditions on this lake would be safe.

I arrived to a crowd, and while I was able to set up for suspended panfish in my location of choice (the deepest water I'm aware of in this lake), various groups had flooded my primary areas for pike fishing with tip-ups.  I was able to watch these groups chase flags all morning, but it didn't appear that anything of any size was caught; meanwhile, I scouted different areas with my tip-ups while I roamed the basin with my sonar hunting panfish.

My tip-ups (which spent most of their time in 12 and 25 feet of water, with live baitfish suspended 4-5 feet off bottom) were silent.  The panfishing was pretty tough!

It took me a few holes to find any suspended fish, and this hole (38 feet of water) produced most of the day's fish.  I fished other holes in 17 to 39 feet of water, but these produced no more than a fish each, with many zeroes, too.

Once I found the productive hole, it looked like it might be  productive morning.  While the first few fish did not respond to my array of baits (Jigging Rap, Pimple and Slab Spoon), an early drop was intercepted by a fish up high as the Rap descended.  This crappie inhaled the bait and was about as aggressive as I could ever want; it appeared to be Game On!

While the Jigging Rap obviously moved fish (I could see them on the sonar's screen), I was getting lots of rejections; and I was soon including a bare tear-drop (with spike maggots) in my presentation array.

Deep fish, for the most part, would not bite.  Shallower fish in the same hole were less abundant, but more likely to bite.  When these fish started rejecting the Jigging Rap I switched to Size 4 Rattling Rap, and this too was initially effective.  Occasionally I could get a few fish fired up and catch two or three in succession, but usually I was picking off individual fish, which for whatever reason, ate.  Surprisingly, most of these bites were confidently aggressive, too; when they went, they went.

I hope I never have to ice fish without a sonar again; and GPS on the ice (with waypoints from my boat) is awfully nice to have!

Not exactly The Most Dangerous Game, but ...

I finished with 10 or so panfish; mostly crappies with a couple of bluegills.  Average crappie size was decent, better than could be expected on most local lakes, and the biggest was about a foot long.  A select five were harvested for a meal upon request of a good friend.  This harvest gave some tangible value to these panfishing efforts.

What do I have to say about this?

These were nice, comfortable conditions to start my ice fishing season.  Even if a bit crowded, I enjoy this lake for the natural, generally undeveloped setting, and the crappies are worthwhile.  It was good to finally get a 2016 Fish, and I'm going back tomorrow, so I guess it was worth it!

McTough

NumenOn the Water

Date:  2-7-15

Body of Water: McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, ice fishing

With:  Alone, but friend KS happened to be out there, too

Target:  Crappies and pike

Time:  11:15 AM to 4:15 PM

Conditions:  Generally pleasant; 35 - 39 degrees F and pretty calm with only mild, easterly wind; high clouds, but thin enough and bright/glarey enough that I actually choose to switch to sunglasses for most of the trip; about six inches of slushy snow on top of 9 inches of ice.

I had enough assorted bait left over from my previous trip(s) that I was able to take advantage of a brief weather/schedule window for a somewhat impromptu mid-day trip.  With something of a storm predicted for the evening and next day, I hoped there would a positive barometric influence on the fish.  And, with a Kite Festival on Reeds Lake, it was easy to return to McEwen.  As I trudged across the lake, I could tell that there were many folks in the vicinity of where I planned to fish, so I veered a bit to the south and east.  As I drilled my first exploratory hole, I was greeted by KS, who was there fishing with extended family.  He was marking a few fish and had missed a flag, but otherwise, things were reportedly slow.

It appeared that there were plenty of suspended crappies in 39 feet of water; but I went through all four of my basic presentations (rap, pimple, slab and drop) without a strike. I figured they had mid-day doldrums, and would simply turn on later.  I punched a few more holes, working towards shore, scanning and fishing each one; with pretty much the same result.  The most important revelation being that a little, innocuous do-nothing point near the SW corner of the lake actually fell off very quickly into 35 feet.  This was probably the steepest break in the lake, and I was marking suspended fish just off it.  This looked like a new place to concentrate my efforts.

I quickly had tip-ups set nearby in 12 and 25 feet of water.  While the sucker in 12 feet remained untouched, a shiner down 21 feet in 25 got hit five times; and I landed four pike.  One was a solid keeper, two were marginal keepers, the fourth was sub-legal, and the fifth (which felt very small) escaped before I saw it.  These flags kept things interesting while I chased pan-fish; and while the pike here empirically aren't very big, the legals had good body condition (and so maybe there's potential for something bigger).  And, I don't think I've ever had 5 pike flags in one hole in a single trip.  Pleasant conditions with decent activity; what else could one ask for?

McEwen Pike.  Photo courtesy of KS (just so I won't get sued.)

Meanwhile, the pan-fishing was tough!  I literally had multiple fish on my screen for the entire session.  If they dissipated, a quick move to a nearby hole would give me a fresh set of targets.  They were suspended off bottom, would often rise to greet my descending bait, and generally seemed catchable.  I briefly connected with a few light biters, but for the most part these bites were simply pecks.  I did catch one; and it was a nice (8+ inch) bluegill!  He ate a maggot-tipped slab spoon, about 24 feet down over 30.

So maybe those "finicky crappies" are actually just mixed in with gills.  I'm surprised I couldn't get any bites on the teardrop/maggot combo, regardless.  Maybe I'll crack these gills with a little extra 'gilling finesse.

What do I have to say about this?
I was forced by conditions to do some extra work and try mildly new areas and techniques; and I'm still learning after all these years.  After 20 straight crappies and no tear-drop success here, I was very confident that I was fishing over crappies (but recall my reticence prior to landing the first one a few trips ago.)  Now, I don't know.  And, I'm curious about the biology of the lake; what the panfish are foraging on, have they switched diets later in the season, etc.

An eight-inch gill and a few 24-25 inch pike; nothing great.  But this modest success is generally enough.  I'll keep at it.

I also have to blame Sunday's Splitting Headache and Flaming Scalp on the Sunglass Conditions of this session.  I was probably almost stricken down with Snow Blindness.

Crappie Night

NumenOn the Water

Date:  1-24-15

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, ice fishing

With:  Alone

Target:  Crappies and pike

Time:  1:45 PM - 7:45 PM

Conditions:  Mild (37 +/- F) with decreasing S wind; about 7 inches of slush covered ice.  Fished a couple of hours into dark to assess the quality of the crappie bite.

With a work-free weekend for the first time in quite a while, I had some flexibility in my schedule.  While I'm not really a pan-fisher, I was intrigued by the size of a couple of crappies I caught on Thursday night.  I also wondered whether we'd left too early to capitalize on their activity.  So I dug out my portable shelter, rehabilitated a gas lantern, grabbed some J&S bait (suckers, shiners, and spec minnows) and was on the ice by 1:45 PM or so.  The plan: scout for suspended crappies while running a couple of tip-ups in shallower for predators; and be fully set up for the evening crappie bite by dark.

There were quite a few groups on the ice when I got there, but it looked like slow going.  Fortunately my area of choice was open, and I had the first speck on the ice from 36 feet of water in just a couple of minutes.  This hole became my base camp while I set the tip-ups and punched a variety of other holes in the vicinity.

I had two flags in the next 3 hours or so; a drive-by on a shiner suspended 7 down over 11 feet; and a small (sub-legal) pike on a sucker, 15 down over 19 feet of water.  Pretty slow predator fishing; I pulled these tip-ups before full dark.

The first flag of 2015 was an undersized pike.  It ate a sizable sucker suspended over 19 feet of water.

A typical McEwen Lake pike; at least in my experience.

Meanwhile, I bounced around in 32 to 40 feet of water. I was over marked fish most of the afternoon and evening, but they were generally reluctant biters.  Occasionally one would decide to go, and every so often I could get two or three in sequence.  But for the most part, it was a slow pick; and usually the biters were the highest fish in the column.  A jigging Rap (tipped with minnow), a pimple (tipped with a Gulp! maggot), and the slab spoon (tipped with live maggots) were all about equally effective; a dead-sticked minnow on a tear-drop only took one fish.  So while they were reluctant to bite, the best approach to catching them were more aggressive tactics.

I ended the evening with 16 specks (+/- 1), and these provided a nice set of meals for friends.  These were decent-to-good quality; all were 9 to 12 inches, with the majority "bigger" as opposed to "smaller."

I think I only took a couple after dark; while the sonar screen was lit up with activity, cruising/biting fish were less common.  Most bites probably came from about 18 to 21 feet down, regardless of depth. 

A pile of specks from 9 to 12 inches; not giant, but not bad.

Tools of This Trade; multiple holes, a trusty sonar and a lantern.  But in all honesty, fishing in the dark wasn't so great!

What do I have to say about this?

I am not much of a pan-fisher, but good pan-fishermen have always impressed me.  This was probably my best targeted catch of pan-fish in many years.  With the sonar maintaining my confidence, and comfortable conditions (I never did close up the shelter), it was pretty pleasant, at least by current standards.

McSomething

NumenOn the Water

Date:  1-22-15

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, ice fishing

With: KS

Target: Pan fish

Time: 4:20 PM – 6:20 PM

Conditions:  Quiet, gray, and about 30 F; about 8 inches of snow-covered ice.  Nobody else out there (until the end), but there had obviously been a fair amount of fishing activity in the basin, including some “fresh” holes from earlier in the day.

This was a quick, targeted weekday excursion with newer tactics on a relatively unfamiliar lake.  I’ve never targeted suspended pan fish in the basin of this lake, nor have I ever taken a quality fish from McEwen in 3 previous ice-fishing trips.  But it has something of a local reputation for pan fish, and KS has a long history of fishing there.  Plus, it’s a pretty lake and fairly convenient.  It also offers some Arracuda potential and is a current alternative to (stingy) Reeds Lake.

We went “light” once again and took advantage of our early start to stop at J&S Auto/Bait.  They had a surprisingly good variety of bait available, and we left with a couple of dozen crappie shiners to complement my colored maggots.

KS’s cry of “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!  Dog sh*t!” caught my attention as I unloaded gear from the truck, and I narrowly missed depositing my sled directly on a nice fresh pile.  An (in-)auspicious start to the trip (you can decide); but soon enough we were safely on the ice.

We walked past some open holes from earlier in the day (I should have scoped them with the sonar) as we proceeded to KS’s starting point of confidence.  This turned out to be in 30-35 feet of water and we started marking fish/activity right away.  Per usual, I started with the pimple, but the fish were clearly negative towards it.  I started to wonder if these were crappies or gills. I down-sized through the Northland slab spoon to a tear-drop and maggot, and cycled through a few holes.  The fish were tough!  I reversed gears and dared them to bite a jigging Rapala with pinched minnow head; and soon a fish rushed up off the bottom and struck.  It turned out to be a dink crappie, but at least now I knew that I was fishing over crappies.

OK, I'll stop taking these remote sonar photos; but you can see the power of this ice unit.  Fish on! and others waiting to be caught.

The night's first fish was a small crappie, but at least it told us what to fish for.

The Rapala didn’t turn out to be the answer, but targeting fish well off the bottom seemed to be a good part of it; I got a few more on the sweetened rainbow Northland slab (maggots); the biters were about 20 feet down over 35 feet of water or so.  The last two were nice crappies at 10 and 11 inches or so.  Just as I got into a productive groove, the bite stopped.  “Plankton” activity generally increased as the light dwindled, and I marked more and more fish near bottom; but the bites disappeared for both of us.

A couple of nice, double-digit crappie came through the hole, but it was over just as it got started.

What do I have to say about this?

As we prepared to leave, another fisherman set up with his shanty and lantern; perhaps it’s a night bite.  Maybe we’ll find out some other evening.  Regardless, it was a pleasant outing with a buddy with whom I’ve not fished since last April.  We were both pleased to share it, and he reported that the crappies tasted fine later that evening.