Summer Vacation

It’s been a whirlwind of a week, from fishing the Grand River event to immediately heading north for vacation. Grand River blogs will be rolling out this week but luckily I was able to get some fishing in on vacation.

Heading north for a week with the in-laws looks like it's becoming a fun tradition. The only problem is getting desirable vacation spot means booking a year in advance. That's playing with fire when it comes to tournament schedules.

I headed up immediately after the river and that made for a fun celebration! I only hit the water 3 times up there and never really got dialed into anything great. I spent time on East and West Bays but never really found what I was looking for. Scattered fish (although very willing to bite) and nothing over 4 pounds. However it was good to do a little smallmouth fishing.

The real highlight is taking my daughter's and nephews out on North Lake Leelanau. I can't say it seems like great fishing but there are endless small perch and they fight a little better when you get 2 on at a time. I did a tiny bit of recon this year and found some big rock bass for them. I think next year if we are in that area again I'll spend more time looking for Rockies. It's way more fun watching them peel drag on the ultralights vs winching small perch in. Although it is entertaining watching June’s enthusiasm to throw them back.

The real highlight was the one 2 pound smallmouth that Ethan got to catch. The kids were all for giving me 5 minutes to try and catch a “big one”. It hasn't taken them long to figure out the bigger the fish the more fun it will be. Anyway I spotted that smallmouth on the humminbird, dropped on it, set the hook and handed the rod to Ethan. He quickly found out what fighting a smallmouth was like. It jumped way out of the water and peeled drag. All he could do was hold on and hopefully not let go of that Favorite Fishing Jackhammer rod! The look on his face the entire time was priceless and hopefully it left a lasting impression on him.