August 23rd, 2007
By Arthur

A few of you asked for it so here it goes.  I wrote a post about my adventure fishing the other night and didn’t go into detail about it.  A couple of you asked for more details, and at risk of complete embarassment, I will share, because some parts are quite comical.

There were 5 of us in this group, and as things go, 3 of preceded to head off in a slightly different direction then the other two who were with us.  All of us hoping, of course, that in that maneuver we would find “the spot”.  The three man group (that is what we’ll call it, with me included) head off around the other side of this island that we had fished before, but never this far down.  Darkness starts to fall so we start to head back to the truck while still fishing as we go.  Then it starts to get real deep.  I’m talking I was holding my chest waders up so the water doesn’t go over deep.  We all come to a consensus that our best bet would be to cross the island and head back to where we initially crossed to get back.  Good plan.  Yeah right!!!

We get up on the island and cross over and all is well except for one minor detail…….the water is just as deep on the other side.  One of us goes alone and ends up taking on water over his waders but still makes it to shore.  The other two (me included) jump back up on the island and head down to find a spot to cross.  I am in the lead at this point and start to walk out to take a look at the river, to get an idea of what the water looks like, when tragedy almost strikes.  The grass is very high, and it appears there is earth underneath it, trouble is there is not.  I disappear to the ground like something you see in a cartoon, but still manage to somehow hold myself up.  Man did that hurt.  My left leg is still feeling some remnants from that.  Our other fisherman, on the other side of the river, can hear the commotion it is so loud!!!!

I pick myself up and move back down the river and do find the spot we originally crossed so we know we’re safe.  We are almost to the bank and safety and my cousin states “well, we finally made it” just as I step up on the muddy bank that is only about 6 inches high and slip and face plant right onto the ground.  This is the moment where the swearing began. 

Man, what a night, and what a great time fishing.  Definitely one I will remember for years to come.  As Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the story”.  Please be gentle on me. 

Popularity: 46% [?]

August 22nd, 2007
By Arthur

In case everyone missed it in my earlier post this week,  I have some family visiting from South Carolina.   They are originally from Michigan and don’t get up here all the time and tend to miss our vast outdoors opportunities we have in this state.  So tonight we ventured out to Grand River in our area to try and catch a few smallmouth bass.  Mission accomplished!!

The night started out a little slow, but we did end up finding a couple holes that were holding a good number of fish.  I’m not used to saying something like when it deals with smallmouth fishing, but tonight it was true.  We had a couple of these deep holes that consistently held fish.  They were nothing to brag about, but they were fiesty and a whole lot of fun.  Matthew(in the picture) landed this decent smallie.  The biggest fish of the night.  The picture on the right is my cousin and his gf and this was her first time fishing and we even managed to get her a fish!  Hopefully that will get her hooked.

Now to my “sort of “ portion of the trip.  Before I start, let me say that I know I probably should of had a flashlight on me, but I didn’t.  So no giving me grief about that.  Seems we got a little caught up in our fishing and didn’t quite realize how it was getting dark so quickly.  We hadn’t fished this portion of the river ”in years” and got in a little over our heads.  I’ll keep the story short, but it involved deep water, crossing an island in the middle of the river, almost face planting into the river, and racing darkness.   Made for quite an adventure and I am much more wise for it.  A night I will never forget.  Trust me.  Oh, by the way, between all of us we landed 17 fish!   

Popularity: 46% [?]

June 29th, 2007
By Arthur

Alright, so I was a litte frustrated with the fishing tonight. None of us anymore own a boat so the wife and I went out to a local lake and tried some bobber fishing from shore! Not even one bite. Oh well! Was a gorgeous night though and got to take the pup out for his first fishing trip. We had a good time with or without catching fish and was much better than sitting inside the house the entire night!

The wife got a little bored so she went off and starting taking some pictures. She took the pic you see at the start of the post of me fishing and also took this one. A nice little gem of the fishing reel I was using tonight. I think I’ll call Shakespeare and see if they want to use it for an ad!

.

Popularity: 29% [?]