Bulls on Parade

This past Monday I had one of those days that becomes a highlight of your season. This day would have never happened if it wasn’t for a phone call I received the evening before from a good friend. He said he was on some nice gills and seeds and he was going with or without me. I had a meeting later that evening in the same area so it was perfect timing to spend a day fishing the big pond: Lake St. Clair.

My day started with me getting up early, 5 am. After getting myself woke up and layered up for the low 40 degree morning, it was time to load up the truck since I didn’t have anytime the night before to do it. Thanks to having multiple tackle bags setup it didn’t take me much time to get loaded up. Staying super organized helps a ton with last min trips. You just grab and go.

I had an hour drive in rush-hour morning traffic through Detroit and to my buddy’s house. After a quick transfer of gear into his truck, we hit the road. We made a pit-stop on the way to gas up the boat and ourselves: Jerky and donuts, “that’s a mans breakfast” my buddy teased.

We hit the launch at about 7:20 and after a short boat ride we were fishing by 8:15. I started the day out fishing a clear tube with silver glitter on a safety pin spinner, I caught five thick 7 inch gills that went into the live well on our first pass. On the second pass I went with live bait under a float. The fish were small on live bait so I quickly changed back to the plastics and caught a few more that made it into the live well. My friend reached for his fly rod. He is a big fly fisherman. He quickly caught the largest gill of the day on a Bett’s popper from some very thick cover. From that point on everything he hooked into was big!

After getting my butt handed to me by a fly dunker, I had to break down and become one. Luckily he had an extra fly setup. After a few ugly minutes of knocking the rust off my fly fishing skills I started to catch some nicer fish and started to help fill the live well again.

The fish seemed to only be holding up in three key areas and all three had nothing in common that we could tell other than a good mixture of weeds. The bite started to slow and my hand was getting tired from working the fly rod. So I turned my attention back to fishing plastics. I rigged up a rod that I’m product testing from K & E called the Whip’r. I have a 6 foot 6 inch model. This rod has an extra fast tip and lots of backbone to it. I rigged it up with a rig I call a slinking rig. I have played with this rigging on and off for a few years. It is deadly for working the deep side of weed beds. It’s heavy enough to get great casting distance but then falls slowly down the face of the weeds. I will write more on this rigging and technique down the road.

I ended the day catching the one and only Pumpkinseed of the day a nice 8 3/4 inch pig. This is huge for seeds it is rare to find them at 9 inches and even rarer above that. They are one of my favorite sunfish to catch. They are very common here in Michigan and can be a real challenge to catch at times due to the food they prefer(snails) compared to it’s cousin, the Bluegill.

At the end of the day we ended with 35 fish or so with many of the fish being a half pound or more in weight. A big thanks goes to my buddy for thinking of me and giving me the invite to come fish. I hope to get up there a few more times before the lake ices up. But I have plans to spend a few more days fishing the big pond this winter also.