Walking on the ice has always felt unnatural to me; it always feels like something I shouldn’t be doing.  And as we rolled onto the ice on Saturday, it still felt odd….but I sucked it up, and pressed on.

My inaugural ice fishing trip took us to Duck Lake, near Springport, Michigan.  Duck is probably one of the best fishing lakes in southern Michigan, and since my sister and her boyfriend live on the lake, we headed there to see what we could pull through the ice.

Riding on the back of Jeff’s quad, with a sled full of gear in-tow, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t puckering just a little bit.  I’m not sure why it feels so strange to me, but it does.  Since there were trucks on the ice, though, I relaxed a little; and once I noticed the 9 inches of ice Jeff had to drill through to get to water, I relaxed even more.

Using Jeff’s hunting blind as a “shanty”, we started to setup.  Of course, the 20mph winds blowing across the ice didn’t help to make setup any easier, but it was nothing that anchoring the blind to a couple quads couldn’t fix.  And with that, it was time to fish.

This trip was actually quite the family affair.  There were 8 of us total – Jeff, Matt, Ron and his wife, my sister, Melissa and her boyfriend, Justin – all within hearing range of each other…… in three different shanties….. it was fun.

And now here comes the point that everyone has been waiting for:  What did Arthur think of his first ice fishing trip?  Honestly, I loved it!  We all had a blast hanging out, I managed to pull my first fish through the ice (there really is a fish in that first picture, even though it’s hard to see because of the lighting), and even though the fishing had slowed somewhat, I still had a good time.  Plus, ordering, and then eating a pizza in the shanty was just icing on the cake (they have a party store at the launch that sells pizza, and we had quads to make pick-up much easier, so we figured why not).

I could have stayed on the water all day and thought nothing of it.  It felt great to be outside, being able to see the fish in the “lighted” hole was definitely a one-of-a-kind experience, and I can’t wait until we get to go again.

And for anyone who truly knows me, they know what an incredible thing that is for me to say.

It was a great time, and I’m honestly sorry I haven’t been doing it until now.

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After being sick the last couple of days, there was plenty to do around the house – mow the lawn, pick up after the dog, laundry, etc.  But after feeling like crap for a couple of days, the last thing I wanted to do was work.  What to do?  What to do?  I think I’ll go fishing.

We headed back to the Grand River, and all the while I had visions of smallmouth bass dancing in my head, especially after Matt’s experience there last week.

I love fishing for smallies on the river, but for some reason the anticipation was killing me last night – I was like a kid waiting on Christmas.  At work I could literally feel myself stepping into the water, and caught myself daydreaming about the way the fish would look as they hit my topwater lure…….and it turned out to be just like I imagined it.

We didn’t catch as many fish as the last time everyone headed out – 3 fish for me, 3 for my Uncle, and none for Matt – but the experience, and the “the time well wasted” as they say, was more than worth it.  The sunset on the river was awesome, hanging out with family was great, and getting to watch a few decent smallies pounch on my topwater offering was just icing on the cake (man I love topwater fishing; so much fun!).

And there is just something about being outside that gets to me.  When everything is weighing on your mind, or after a hectic day at work, there is just something to be said for sliding on a pair of waders, strapping on the backpack full of extra clothes, a pop, and a snack, and heading out into the river ; hearing the sound of the water passing by; the sound of a torpedo sliding across the top of the water; and the anticipation of that next strike.

If any of you anti’s are reading this:  it isn’t about the catch, or about inflicting pain, or outwitting a wary adversary on his own turf (although that is quite fulfilling too)…….it’s about the experience – the experience with nature, and being one with our natural surroundings.

And it was definitely time well wasted.

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Well, since fishing seems to be the theme of late here on Simply Outdoors, I figured I would continue the trend.

On Wednesday evening my dad, Jim, his friend, Tim, and I all headed to a classic smallmouth spot on the Grand River. The area we frequent is usually a fun spot to go because the wading is not known to be difficult.

When we arrived to our destination we quickly noticed that the water level was down quite a bit from what it usually is. As mentioned, this makes for easy wading, but as we quickly found out, it also makes fishing a little more difficult – or so we thought! The weeds seemed to get the best of us at first, so we moved farther upstream from where we usually fish. We managed to find some small “holes” that were holding a few smallies. Between the three of us, we managed to land a few fish within the first hour or so.

With about an hour of daylight left, I decided, for whatever reason, to switch from a jig with a spinner on it, to a baby torpedo topwater lure. I am glad I did. The fishing “switch” was officially turned on. Those of you who have experienced something like this know exactly what I am talking about.

My first 7 casts with the lure provided 7 hits and 5 smallmouth landed. Most of the fish caught here are not known to be much over 12-14 inches, but they are amazing fighters and acrobats. It was an absolutely amazing hour of fishing. I went on to catch about a dozen or so smallies, while missing some along the way.

Now the funny part of the evening was that I was the only angler who managed to bring a topwater lure. I gladly would’ve shared my lures with the other two guys, but I only managed to grab one single torpedo. It was a last minute decision as we were getting our gear on to head down river. I just happened to glance in the tackle box and something told me to grab it and throw it in my vest. I’m glad I made that choice!

We learned one thing:  late season fishing for smallmouth (and as I learned on Labor Day, Largemouth too!), can be an absolute blast. Between the three of us we managed to catch about 20-25 smallmouth in less than a couple hours. I’m sure most fisherman wouldn’t turn down those numbers!

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I’ve already said this before, but last weekend was probably the last time I’ll fish this year.  I could eat my words, but I have a feeling that it is true.  And if it was my last fishing trip of the year, I didn’t really end it on a good note.

We fished Higgins Lake; and while the lake is huge it doesn’t have much structure in it.  There are spots on the lake that are 30ft deep and you can still see bottom.  There are also spots as deep as 134ft; not exactly my style of fishing.

Despite all of that, though, we tried our luck in the morning, and never landed a fish.  Jeff managed to land a few rock bass, and my sister’s boyfriend landed a rock bass as well.  But the smallies, lake trout,  pike, and perch all eluded us.  If we had the right gear to be able to reach a certain depth, and do some trolling, the lake can provide some unbelievable fishing opportunities.  But without any of that gear, it made for some tough fishing.

The afternoon found us fishing on Houghton lake, which is south of Higgins Lake.  Houghton is actually much bigger than Higgins, but it actually has weed cover, and is only 22ft at its deepest point.  In fact, you can plot a path across the lake that would allow you to wade the entire thing.

The lake was way more my style of fishing, but despite trying my best to put a fish in the boat, I just couldn’t do it; must be the gypsy curse or something.  I guess it could have had something to do with the fact that I had to wait at the dock for a half hour or so while my cousin learned the hard way that you have to have the tether pushed ALL THE WAY in for the boat to start.  We learned that lesson.

Because of my lack of fish, we ended up losing heavily in the fishing tournament that day.  Jeff, Matt, and my sister and her boyfriend in the other boat, ended up tying; and with darkness falling, it had to stay that way.

I did end up landing a fish over the weekend……it had to be at my Father-in-Law’s pond, though.  I managed to catch a few there, and it helped to boost the ego a little.

On Monday night my ego was back in full force, though.  I’ll explain that in the post tomorrow.

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Well being it sounds like Art is busy I guess I’ll write this post.

After a long weekend on the waters up north(Higgins & Houghton) Matt and his Dad Jim decided to hit a long forgotten lake. This lake is Narrow Lake located in Eaton County Michigan. This is also the lake my family grew up on. I’ll be honest in resent years this lake has really fell off in the fishing department. But with Jim wanting to check out the narrows for ducks they decided to also take there fishing gear along. Good thing they did!

Matt ended up catching this 1st bad boy on a Rattle Trap and then a 2nd bass on the same lure! the first one weighed in at 4 1/2 lbs and 20 1/4 inches long! The 2nd fish was 18 1/2 inches long..Pretty good morning of fishing if you ask me.

looks like I might just have to take my new Bass boat over there and try my luck out on a lake I cut my teeth on fishing!

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