Stomach Bug

So a whole lot has happened since the last major blog. Unfortunately that hasn’t involved any important tournaments. I actually haven’t fished an 8 hour event since Lake Leelanau which was well over a month ago! While that is disappointing, I can’t blame it all on myself. But it really is driving me nuts! I have been fishing some weeknighters which overall aren’t really going that great. Lot’s of fish catching but I’ve been unable to generate the better bites. Who knows what’s up with that but I will definitely need some time on the water to straighten things out before the next event.

On to the stomach bug thing…I had every intention to fish the Muskegon HOTD despite a mediocre practice. Those events with not so great of practices are often the ones you learn the most in. Plus I was feeling really confident we would figure something out. However towards the end of practice I started not feeling so hot. I just assumed I must be dehydrated or something. Then that night everything changed, keep in mind this is on a Wednesday. Thursday and Friday weren’t great but I assumed I’d be on the mend. At this point both Amanda and I had it for days. While June and Mabel only had it for hours and thankfully Millie never got it.

I knew things weren’t good Saturday morning when I had to take a rest in between unplugging the charger and going to the front of the boat to hook it up. I thought I could power through it but while hooking up the boat things took a turn for the worse and it became apparent I wasn’t fishing today. I unfortunately had to let Andy know I wasn’t going to make it and experienced my worst day yet. The next 6 hours I was either on the couch or in the bathroom, just trying to survive the day. Who knows how the day I was going to go but I’d have at least liked to give it a shot. It was also going to be fun to fish with Andy who I usually just multi-species fish or duck hunt with. Trevor was having his high school graduation party that day so I had to find a new partner! It took until Sunday night to finally start feeling human again.

After that passed we were off on an up north trip with the family. It was definitely a challenge with a 2.5 month old and how their schedule changes things around for everyone. It really is a struggle for me to be up there with perfect weather and spending most of the time on dry land. There are so many new things to try and places to explore. Plus there are other options like lake trout which can be caught on bass tackle all year long. The good news is that the older ones were all in to going fishing. The prime weather and little bit earlier trip than normal meant there were some smallies that were easy pickings. It was time for Mabel (5) and Ethan (6) to get their first taste of Great Lakes Smallmouth fishing. Normally we do some panfish fishing on Lake Leelanau but this was going to be a much more exciting adventure for all of us.

Of course we were greeted with choppier conditions than the forecast called for as is the norm for Great Lakes fishing. The kids handled it like champs and thought the bumps were fun. The wind did calm down quite a bit and we traversed to some a little calmer waters. I had a bunch of fresh fish picked out for them. One was the “catcher” and one was the “netter” on each fish. They didn’t catch any monsters but did both join the 4 pound club. They had no problems holding the smaller ones but the 4 pounders were a little intimidating for them. They both did a good job actually fighting the fish and seemed to have it figured out more than some adults I’ve seen. No one burned my drags up by constantly reeling while the fish was going on a run! Although I’m not sure either one was was strong enough to. They got to experience jumps, runs, and digging under the boat. It was a lot of fun for all of us and the snacks and boat driving were a big hit too. It was the highlight of my trip for sure. They even let me do some prespawn fishing for about 5 minutes that was action packed with the biggest and the smallest fish of the trip (they loved that). There was a really awesome prespawn bite going on with a good mix of spawners thrown in. I can only hope as they get older they will want to go more and more. Although I don’t know if we will get lucky enough to have the perfect storm of conditions again.

After vacation it was back to work after 12 weeks off except for field work. It was awesome to get so much time to adjust to a new little one and spend time with the girls and Amanda. We even got a little panfish fishing in around home. I’m looking forward to when they are just a little older to make it just a little bit easier. It engages them even more in the trip if they get to keep some. So perch, rock bass, pumpkinseeds, and bluegills all went in the livewell. Eating summertime fish isn’t really my thing but we thawed out some ice fishing fish to go with them. You can definitely tell the difference between cold water panfish and summertime ones. Either way it was fun and it’s cool that June is old enough to get into it. She has been more timid of holding fish than Mabel but she is getting there.

Finally back on the tournament trail this weekend with the D&R on Muskegon. It’s really not setting up great for me but hopefully Trevor and I can figure out something this week. I skipped the first one while up north for Big stack and Trevor and Noah fished White Lake. They had one of those days with tons of fish but few of the right ones and whenever those days occur the right ones always come off. We aren’t feeling any pressure for team of the year but are certainly feeling it to have a good tournament. He’s been catching them everywhere since that event so I’m going to count on him for 5 big ones this weekend!