Normally this time of year I have completely switched to hunting mode, but since Jeff decided to acquire a new bass boat this late in the season, who was I not to turn down his invitation to do some fishing Tuesday night.

We headed out to our favorite fishing lake in the area – and the same one where he caught this bass earlier in the day without me – and tried our luck going after some more bass.  We also knew, though, that this lake holds some pretty good pike, and that it’s the perfect time of year to catch some big ones.

The fishing didn’t go quite as well as we had planned, but Jeff and I both managed to land a pike and a bass a piece.  My pike was pretty close to keeper, but not wanting to clean any fish that night, we put him back for someone else to catch.

It was different fishing this late in the year; it’s just not something I’m used to.  But we had a great time, and despite the cooler than normal temps, managed to put a few fish in the boat.

Jeff’s new boat is SWEET, and it’s too bad he got it so late in the year.  With bow season just around the corner, I’m afraid the boat will not get used much this year.  It will still be sitting there next year, though, and I’m sure we’ll have no problem taking it out and going after some big ole bass.

Maybe now we can convince Jeff to write up a post about his new boat.  I would, but considering I don’t know any particulars of the boat, hopefully he posts something himself.

Stay tuned for that!

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It started Friday night with a trip to Gander Mountain.  The two team members in my boat – my cousin and I – needed to gear up for the next day’s tournament; with a ton of rain in the forecast we both needed some rain pants as well as a couple lures we were short on.

The alarm went off at 5am on Saturday morning, and the weather at that time didn’t look too bad:  it was spitting rain a little, but overall I was pretty comfortable with the drizzle that was happening.  And since it wasn’t raining that bad we all decided that the fishing tournament was still on and headed to the lake…..and waited…..and waited some more.  We were all trying to assess the weather situation, because the farther south we drove the more lightning we saw – and lightning and fishing do not mix well together.

We waited at the boat launch for a half hour or so, and then decided to launch.  After fishing for about 20 minutes, and having one fish in the boat it started to downpour.  I buttoned down the rain jacket and kept on fishing……………and then it started to lightning again – and I’m talking cloud to ground nasty lightning.  The fishing tournament – at least the morning leg of it – was over.

My cousin and I headed back to the dock feeling pretty confident about the morning’s catch.  We figured having one in the boat after 20 minutes of fishing would put us in pretty good shape.  After getting back to the dock, however, we found we were two fish down already………to my brother of course.

It rained…….and rained some more….and rained some more.  Finally, about 4:30pm it started to let up, and the prospects of us getting back out for the afternoon leg of the tournament looked good.  Everyone was in the water by 5:45, and it was on for the next 4 hours or so.  Unfortunately for my fishing partner and me it was slow going at the start and we found ourselves in a huge hole – down 11 fish to 3.  We weren’t in last place, but we were still 8 fish down to the leaders with only a few hours left to make up for it…..but it just wasn’t meant to be.

The last two hours were the best fishing hours we had all day:  I landed a legal pike, plus a few bass, and my fishing partner added another pike, and one keeper bass to the total as well; in fact that keeper bass would be the winner of the biggest caught bass of the day, and make him a little richer.  Ever after all of our efforts, though, we still only managed to have 8 fish in the boat, five short of the 13 that would be the number to beat.

Of course my brother Jeff, and his fishing partner, Matt, left the winners of the first annual SimplyOutdoors fishing tournament.  It was close, with my sister and her boyfriend giving them a run for their money right up until the end, but ultimately Matt’s floating Rapala came through and caught the thirteenth fish.  Dirt Bags!

It made for an awesome day on the water, and despite losing the tournament I still had an awesome time.  I caught the biggest pike I’ve caught in years, we broke in my cousin’s new Nitro fishing boat, and he managed to catch his first top water fish ever!  Plus we made some other memories that will last a lifetime – one having to do with leaving the trolling motor down when we were trying to head to another spot.  That is a story for a whole other post, though.  Man did we laugh our butts off.

I guess I have to give props to Jeff and Matt for winning the tournament.  And if you ever wonder what you go through in order to win tournaments such as these just take a look at Matt’s face in that picture.  It can be stressful trying to win these tournaments, and you can see it written right across his weird looking face.  Of course I’m sure his face doesn’t look like that now, since his wallet is a little fatter then it was before.

I hate losing!

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Yesterday, after reading my post, Jeff called and alerted me to something that I had forgotten about. The DNR made a change to bass regulations that allow for a Catch and Release season before the actual bass season starts. I think this law was in effect last year as well, but I cannot remember for sure. I know that I was pretty pleased when he told me, even if it did exist last year!

It used to be that we had to be very careful when we were out fishing in spring for pike, because you always ran the risk of catching a bass. Now, while I don’t think the DNR would have given us any trouble, it was something that you always had to be conscious of. Now that problem is fixed.

Now in Michigan, on all the Lower Peninsula waters including the Great Lakes, there is a Catch and Immediate Release season for bass that runs from the last Saturday in April through the Friday before Memorial Day. Perfect. Now we can actually target bass and not have to worry about it while stumbling across a few pike at the same time.

This whole post may seem silly to a few of you reading it, but to me I think it is a great move by the DNR. It helps all of us Michigan anglers who are having some serious fishing withdrawals catch a few Largemouth without having to worry about any repercussions. It also helps us find some good fishing spots before the season actually opens the Saturday before Memorial Day.

What a great move by the DNR, and I can’t wait for this weekend and my shot at catching the first one of the season—-and then releasing it of course! (In case I had any doubters).

If any of you would like to see the regulation concerning this particular season you can find it here.

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Dana, over at The Wild WoodsWoman blog, posted a story that her mom had told and it got me to thinking about a story that happened to me that I couldn’t have wrote any better if I’d imagined it. 

 An old buddy and I were out fishing at a local lake one night.  At that time on this particular lake we were just tearing up the fish on good ole Rat-L-Traps.  It was nothing for all three of us in the boat to have a fish on at the same time.  Anyway, I am in the process of fighting this fish and finally get it to the surface where we can tell it’s a decent sized Pike.  Of course once it gets to where we can see him he spooks and shakes the lure right out of his mouth.  My buddy then, obviously just kidding around, drops his Rat-L-Trap in the water and tells me “Don’t worry, I’ll get him”.  That trap no sooner hit the water and this pike came back out of the shadows and drilled it.  The craziest thing I’ve ever saw.  We ended up landing that fish and setting him free for someone to catch another day.  So that is my crazy fish story.  I swear it’s the truth.  I couldn’t have even made up a story that good.

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