Beyond the Bridge

It's been a few years since my days (nights) of sticking around the launch and hoping to run into a couple of roaming cats.  I started to get a lot more comfortable with the night time river and I knew that there were some snags and deep holes out there that had to hold some hungry flatties.

About 2 miles up river, there's a big turn called Devil's Elbow.  Just up from this turn is a long stretch of deep water along a cut bank.  Although things get changed and pushed around from year to year, this portion of the Grand consistently holds several nice snags.  There also seems to be a ton of wood scattered along the bottom.  I've found that you don't necessarily have to drop your bait right on a snag for a flattie to find it.  You can be somewhere around one or maybe in between a couple of them and shortly after dark you have a pretty good chance of crossing paths with this river's biggest predator.  I've also had good luck dropping a bait right at the base of the bank.  Picture it like a wall meeting the floor.  That groove seems to become a natural runway for them.  I do realize that fishing this section makes it much more likely that I will snag up.  I just come prepared with leaders already tied to hooks and swivels.  That lets me get back to fishing with one quick Palomar knot.  By mid summer, I have a pretty good idea where to throw my baits to stay snag free.

Just below the elbow is a long stretch of water that runs about 12 feet deep.  It doesn't have as much wood, but when most of the river in this 2 mile stretch doesn't get more than 5 feet deep, the catfish find this area pretty inviting.  I had my best hour of fishing ever on this stretch this past fall.  The other river predators like this section too.  One bank is rocky and it drops straight off.  You can drift along this bank and pick a ton of fish off with crankbaits or jigs.

Down river about a half mile from the elbow is a somewhat unlikely cat honey hole.  It's unlikely because it isn't a hole at all.  There is a pretty good snag that sits in water that generally doesn't get deeper than 5 feet.  As a matter of fact, one summer the river was particularly low and clear.  I was sitting just up from this snag in water that couldn't have been more than 3 feet deep.  I actually peeked over the side of my boat just as a 10 pound flattie swam by.  I could just see him in the glow of my stern light.  I had a quick thought that I'd probably catch him when, sure enough, he picked up my cut sucker and back to the boat I hauled him.  What's better, this snag actually produced my biggest flattie to date.  It was a 25 pounder that I caught in the early morning hours of a summer night.  My uncle Tim was out on the river in his boat that night.  I remember calling him up and telling him that I had to head in because that was all the excitement that I could handle for one night.  I should mention that I have no witness and no picture to verify this catch.  My camera was with me, but it just had enough juice to flash and not record a picture.  I tried 2 or 3 times before giving up on it.  Those are the breaks.  I'll have my camera ready to go when I get my 30 pounder.

One more place to note is a creek mouth that comes in just under some power lines.  I have heard that creek mouths are good for flatheads.  I don't fish this mouth very often, but I tried it one night when the water was running high and fast.  Most of my other spots were unfishable.  I dropped in two lines with creek chubs on both.  I made the fortunate decision to move one of my baits and this second cast must have dropped that chub right in front of a flattie's maw.  I barely put the rod down when it got that beautiful bend in it.  I stared at the rod dumb for a few seconds not believing that I already had a fish on.   I regained my compusure and pulled in a 17-pounder.  The extra current made me wonder if he was going to be a new personal best.  I finally got him surfaced and saw that the thing had its mouth wide open.  He was putting on the brakes.  I was pretty pumped because good high water spots are hard to find and I had a new one.

Michigan recently allowed anglers to fish with 3 lines.  I have put this to good use.  I have what I think is a pretty good set up.  I can use some form of this set up in just about every situation.  We have two rod holders on the back of the boat.  Picture the boat being anchored by the bow so that when I turn around in the driver seat, I am looking straight down river.  The rod on the left is right in front of me and I have to reach a little to get to the rod on the right.  I typically drop the bait on the left straight down just behind the boat.  The bait on the right gets thrown further behind the boat.  Then, depending on where I am in the river, I put a 3rd rod behind me on one side of the boat or the other.  The bait is thrown out at an angle away from the boat.  This usually puts it out in a flat that borders a deep hole or is outside of a snag.  I set the clicker on this reel since this rod is out of my site line.  I cover a lot of water with this set up and it has produced really well for me.

This small stretch of river will always be my favorite.  All stress falls away when I get in our boat and pull away from that launch.  The Grand empties into Lake Michigan and there is a large dam between our stretch and the mouth.  The fish that have access to the lake and to the bait from the lake are obviously going to have the potential to get bigger than the fish in our section.  I'm missing out on those fish because of the dam.  I'll spend plenty of time on my home stretch, but this year I'm going to explore this down river section and see if I can find the monsters.