Drumming

It’s been awhile since a random update about everything in between tournaments. I’ve got the Grand River D&R in a week but I probably won’t practice out there until immediately before. We recently got a ton of rain that really changed things and I’m assuming the fishing will be changing by the minute out there. I definitely don’t want to get caught up in trying to catch fish where they were last week on a river. Also if you hit the beaches on the west side for the 4th don’t be surprised to see a lot of duckweed floating around on Lake Michigan. It’s all from rivers and big rain event and nothing to be concerned about.

I’ve still been fishing my weekly WMB Case of the Monday’s West (link to the standings) and having a ton of fun. Trevor and I have been catching a ton of fish in every event except one. However big bites have been really hard to come by. We’ve got some work to do the rest of the season but I’m sure we will have a good event or 2.

Random strange story from an event I hopped in on Lake Macatawa with Dave Hoeker. We had a decent start with 2 nice keepers and Dave hooked our 3rd on a crankbait. You can’t see well into the water there but when I went to net I not only came up with the keeper…but 2 giant gizzard shad. I’m not sure why they were following it in or what they were doing but they definitely wanted to be next to that bass. Maybe some cool hybrid shad/bass was going to come out of the deal? That would be crazy although it isn’t possible. One thing to note that many people don’t know is that adult gizzard shad can get huge! That is a small keeper, I think 14.25 from what I remember but it’s not uncommon to see gizzard shad up to 18 inches on the lakeshore. I know that can really confuse people who aren’t used to seeing. Hopefully that little tidbit can help someone with fish ID in the future.

In addition to the bass fishing I couldn’t pass up a little time on the pier while the big drum were in thick. It is a very brief window in Muskegon that this bite is on fire and it’s something I look forward to every year. I typically use spinning gear and the cheapest spoon I can find. One of the keys to the program is a shiny silver hook. You absolutely will get more bites and hook more of them if you have a shiny hook!