Some Time Off
Fortunately that doesn't mean any time off of fishing. But we did get to go on a nice vacation up north for a week. We got the weirdest weather up there. Calm, mild, and only one day with a few sprinkles. It was dream weather and the forecast was never limiting. That's never the case when it comes to trying to fish big water. Not that I had the time to but I could have gone anywhere I wanted the entire trip. We did a lot of fun stuff up there. Beaching, putt putt, bike rides, and the girls spent a ton of time in the water. It is great to see them so confident in the water and having so much fun. We also did quite a bit of fishing this year.
We headed up early with the plan to do some fishing even before we checked in. It's not just our family on the trip so this would be our best chance to go as a family. I also had big plans to spend some time using MEGA Live on this trip. Not just for throwing at cover like I do all the time but for true “scoping” which I haven't done much of. Some of these fisheries would make that a lot easier since they lack all the “rough” fish. I'd also added a lithium to power my MEGA Live and I really feel like that helped clear things up. Anyway it was an interesting way for me to fish and I spent that trip plus the next morning just moving around on the trolling motor throwing at things I could see on my MEGA Live. Very different than how I typically fish and just strange to just be totally ignoring everything else. First time I’ve ever been floating around in the middle of the lake catching them suspended for sure!
It did work wonders while finding some magnum rock bass for my younger nephews though. They loaded the livewells up with rockies and some smallmouth for a little fish fry one day. I know rock bass don’t get a lot of love but these things were peeling drag on my dropshot rod and inhaling flatworms. Normally summertime rock bass eating is something I am going to stay away from but both those and the 14-15 inch smallmouth were excellent from that lake. We ate some lake trout that Mabel and my nephew Ethan caught too. Plus 2 different mini crawfish boils. That might have to be a larger operation next year and I’d also like to find a way to avoid getting a nasty case of swimmers itch while catching them. Mabel blocked out the fear of getting pinched this year and started grabbing some on her own (proud dad moment). June and the nephews got really good at grabbing them while they are on land so maybe next year they’ll get one in the lake!
I made sure to get some bay time while I was up there. One trip with the kids and another solo mission. We did decent on the smallies but never really got dialed in. I did most of my damage on them shallow on this trip. The highlight for me was the lake trout bite I experienced. I’ve always done good on trout there but never really found a concentration of nice ones after the spring. Well I found an area in west bay that they were all nice ones and willing to bite. It is so much fun to jig those things up in 100 feet. One thing I found interesting is that I could only get bit on a 2 ounce P-Line laser minnow (even from the schools of small trout). I would have thought I could finesse them with smaller spoons but I never even got a bite.
I really enjoyed the trip and love all the kids enthusiasm to go fishing. It makes things a lot of fun for me and the adventures get bigger every year. One of the biggest adventures this year was the stomach bug that Millie got hit with. 4 days of no fun for her but she handled it like a trooper and the bug waited until we all got home to get the rest of us except Amanda somehow avoided it.
I’ve been really lucky that the trip hasn’t collided with any D&R tournaments the last few years. I did miss the HOTD Muskegon tournament while we were up there. I’ll be honest that at some point in my life that would have really bothered me. But I’m glad that it doesn’t anymore. I’ve got a little time off in between events as I never got around to signing up for the State Championship. There’s just something about paying 350 bucks for a tournament with 0 payout that I just couldn’t make myself do this year. However that means that I got roped into fishing the Muskegon Salmon tournament this weekend. It also means that I am feeling extra motivated for the last HOTD and D&R on White Lake on back to back weekends. I’m going to put in some work for those 2 and hopefully it will pay off.