I had last Friday off. The plan, of course, was to spend the day and evening on the river. As I prepared for my day out, I got to thinking that it would be fun to get out a couple of hours before light to see if I could catch some early morning cats. I had never done that before and I've always thought that it would be sweet to do a complete 24 hours on the river. I kicked around a good starting time in my head and it kept getting earlier and earlier. I landed on getting up at 3:00.
Michelle was at school on Thursday night. I put the kids to bed a little before 9:00, finished packing up the Jeep and boat, and got to bed by 9:30. She got home at around midnight and I woke up when she came to bed. The excitement of the long fishing day ahead was too much and there was no going back to sleep for me. I laid there for about 15 minutes before deciding that I might as well head out.
Michelle was at school on Thursday night. I put the kids to bed a little before 9:00, finished packing up the Jeep and boat, and got to bed by 9:30. She got home at around midnight and I woke up when she came to bed. The excitement of the long fishing day ahead was too much and there was no going back to sleep for me. I laid there for about 15 minutes before deciding that I might as well head out.
I was on the river by 1:00. I fished the area around the bridge for about an hour. Nothing going on there, so I headed up to the stretch right below the elbow. I was fishing live creek chubs and one green sunfish that I had picked out of the creek in Dutton. The chubs were getting hit, but the fish were robbing them off of the hook. I'm fed up with this phenomenon and I think that I'm about done fishing with chubs this year. The channel cats are just too good at grabbing them by the head and leaving me with an empty hook. With that said, my first fish of the night was a channel caught on a live chub. It went about 6 pounds.
After I caught my first fish, I drifted to a fresh spot in the same run and dropped my 3 rigs. The sunfish was on the rod behind me, thrown out of the left side of the boat. It was up on a shallower flat. It didn't take too long before that rod was trying its hardest to jump out of the holder. I reached back and grabbed it, felt to make sure that the fish was still there, and set the hook. I wasn't sure how big it was, but I knew that it wasn't a dink. It turned out to be a 12 pounder. I like them over 20, but I'd take it. That was it for the cats.
When morning rolled around, I was already second guessing coming out so early. I had downed a full thermos of coffee, so on top of the normal hangover feeling you get after being up all night, my stomach wasn't feeling so hot. I did my best to shake it off as I tied on a Bomber crankbait and made the transition to smallies. I motored up river from the elbow to a stretch where the bank is dotted with rip rap and rocky spots. Deer were everywhere. I must have seen 20. One was a small buck, but the rest were does with 1 or 2 fawns.
The spot turned out to be a good one. There were fish on every little hump of rip rap. I even had one fish pounce on the lure as I dragged it across the surface after it got hung up on itself. Something was going on with the largemouth. Catching one on the Grand is pretty rare, but 5 of my first 10 bass were bucketmouths. Most of them were little. A couple were keepers with nice girth. One 16-inch walleye made an appearance in this stretch. Another rarity.
The day became extremely hot and muggy. I became nauseous and miserable. By midday, I decided to anchor in the shade and catch a little nap. I set the clickers on my cat rods so that I could keep fishing even if I wasn't conscious. It turned out that this wasn't necessary because as tired as I was, I wasn't able to go to sleep. Something about the river and the wind keeping things in constant motion, knowing that someone could come by in a canoe or kayak at any moment, and the fact that the boat just isn't that comfortable kept my brain from going into slumber mode.
I spent the rest of the day feeling rough and doing my best to keep at it. I caught plenty of smallies. In the early evening, I picked up a couple of suckers for cutbait. Figuring that I wouldn't stay late, I decided to fish around the bridge. I regretted it after several hours without a bite, but instead of heading up river, I went home.
It was a good day in that I caught just about every type of fish that the Grand offers and I got to indulge in one of those "you only live once" experiences. I'll never do it again and I wouldn't recommend it. Things just don't go as well when your head is in a fog and you feel rotten. The worst part is that it took about 4 days to get normal. I was still cross eyed and thick tongued on Monday. I'll have to keep it to 20 hours next time.
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