Thursday, May 26, 2011

Unfamiliar Water



It continues to be a strange spring.  Lots of rain has kept the river in flood stage.  I don't catch much in my section of the river when it is high like this.  I've been on the catfish forum a lot and have heard stories of big catches in the lower Grand.  I've decided to put some effort into learning that part of the river.  I've fished out of two different launches in the past couple of weeks.  From troubles launching the boat to unfamiliar fish, it has been interesting so far.

Last week I decided to take the boys with me out to Deer Creek Park.  We got the girls off to school and pointed the boat and trailer towards Coopersville.  All of us were looking forward to the adventure and the Jeep was full of loud country music and silly banter on the ride out there.  We found a partially flooded park at the end of our 40 minute jaunt.  We couldn't even see the launch.  The water was a foot deep or more several yards into the driveway.  I let the boys out on dry land, and went to work getting the boat floating.  I got lined up with where I thought the launch was and eased back.  The muffler started blowing bubbles before the boat was even close to raising up off of the trailer.  I pulled out, yelled at the boys to keep themselves dry, and went at it one more time.  My second attempt got the back of the boat under water, but most of it was still sitting on the runners.  I climbed onto the trailer and started pushing.  It wasn't budging.  I risked backing up a few more feet and started letting the water out of the livewell to make the boat lighter.  The boat still didn't want to budge, but I was determined.  When I finally felt it inch back the slightest bit, I knew that I had it.  After a lot of wrestling, I finally shoved the old girl off the back of the trailer and got her floating.

In the mean time, Lincoln had jumped in the water and got the bottom of his pants wet.  Luckily he had rubber rain boots on, so his feet stayed dry.  I gave it to him a little bit before dropping it and loading the boys and the gear into the boat.  We found a huge snag stacked against an island just out from the launch.  I cut a chub in half and casted to a couple of spots on the snag.  It didn't take long before the rod on the right slammed towards the water violently.  The fish was hooked before I even got my hands on the rod.  It was only a 7-pounder, but with the fast current, it was plenty of work to get it to the boat.  I had another big hit on the other rod while I was fighting the first fish, but it didn't hook up and it didn't come back. 

The boys kept chanting, "Full speed ahead!" so I decided that we'd better head up river.  Letting them take turns sitting with me and "driving the boat," we set out to see what snags we could find.  There weren't many to see, but I think that it's because most of them are covered by the flooded water.  We found a few and fished them.  We got hit on just about every spot we tried.  Our biggest fish of the day was a 10-pounder.  The boys got to take turns helping me fight the fish.  Our total for the morning was 6 fish, including a small flattie.  We only fished for maybe 3 hours, so I was pleased with the outing.

On the ride home, there wasn't any loud music or silly banter . . . at least from me.  That boat sure gets small with two little tornadoes in it.  They stayed pretty busy scooping the chubs out of the livewell with the net.  Lincoln kept saying, "Look, Dad.  I caught a big one."  There was a lot of loud banging of the livewell lid, which made me cringe everytime.  When they weren't doing that they were both trying to sit on my lap, or squeeze under my legs, or get between me and the rods, or grab the rods.  They love tools, so all of my fishing gadgets were scattered all over the boat.  Lincoln kept hanging over the side of the boat within one little slip of tumbling into the cold, fast water.  He also had the habit of laying on top of the anchor pulley just as I had us positioned above a snag and needed to drop anchor quick.  Holy smokes!  When I sat back in the Jeep and headed towards home, I found myself to be exhausted.  I had visions of this being a weekly trip before I go into work on Wednesday afternoons.  Not a chance.  I'd fall asleep at my desk.

That really was a good trip and I think that it will go down as a great memory for all of us.  We got a few pictures and even a little video footage.  I think that both of the boys will be fishermen.  Neither of them wanted to go in when it was time.  I could tell that they were just eating up this new experience.  They loved the adventure of it.  They're getting such an early start, they'll probably be able to outfish me someday.  One side note to that trip-I went by myself in my stretch of the river that same night.  I caught one dink channel in something like 7 hours.  Ridiculous.  The lower Grand may just become my new home water.

I headed towards Deer Creek Park again yesterday.  I knew the river was up another foot since my last trip, so I wondered if I'd be able to get the boat in.  I'll never know because the park was completely closed.  The entrance was blocked.  Remembering a trip last year to a launch near Nunica, I jumped back on Leonard and headed further west.  After another 20 minutes, I came to the launch at Indian Channel.  The river was pushing under the dock at a scary pace, but I got the boat in and went to fishing.  My chubs had all died in the bucket the day before, so I needed bait.  I was hoping for some suckers or maybe a carp. 

I fished the top of a big island where the current broke and the water was pretty shallow.  After a few little bites, a huge fish grabbed my worm and headed down river with repeated powerful strokes from its huge tail.  Its back broke water as it charged away, but I couldn't see what it was.  I figured that it was probably a big carp.  Thinking that I was going to be catching suckers, I was using a medium power rod with 8-pound test.  I was in over my head.  My drag was screaming for what must have been the first full minute after I set the hook.  If it got into wood, I was dead.  Fortunately, I was in the clear and after multiple runs, I got the fish close enough to see it.  Sure enough, a carp.  All the bait that I would need for the night.  I had it boat side for what seemed like forever.  The current was strong and it just had to turn a little sideways and I'd lose ground on it.  I struggled to get the net out of the holder and then brought the fish as close to me as I could get it.  I took a couple of swipes, but the current was too much.  The big fish finally made a head jerk and slid away, free of the hook that it had just straightened.  I had a brief tantrum.

I caught a million tiny channels on the crawlers and a few that were a little bigger.  Nothing else for quite awhile.  I finally moved shallow and started catching sheephead.  I got 3 of them.  Never used them for cats, but worth a try.  I caught a couple of white bass, too.  Also worth a try.  At about 8:00, I traded my spinning rods for my big white casting rods.  I had one chub that had been sitting in a zip lock bag at the bottom of the boat all day.  It was looking pretty nasty and the flesh was very soft.  I almost passed on using it, but I thought I might as well give it a try.  I cut it in half and fished it on two rods.  Both of those rods got absolutely crushed while I was getting the third rod set up.  I didn't get either fish.  Because that was the only chub that I had brought, I switched to the cut sheephead.  The channels didn't like that very much.  It got hit here and there, and I did catch one in the 5-pound range, but my night catfishing was an overall bust.  I won't go again unless I have a good supply of chubs. 

I was ready to go by 11:00, but a few guys pulled up to the launch to drop their boat at just the wrong time.  I don't know what the deal was, but it took them a full 30 minutes to do it.  They had all kinds of trouble.  They couldn't get lined up.  Then they couldn't believe how strong the current was, so they decided to pull out and drop the boat on the up river side of the dock.  They fumbled around forever, but finally got out of my way.  Even with the current, I got the boat loaded up without a hitch.  There were a lot of deer on the side of the road on my way home.  I can't afford to hit a deer.  It makes me wonder about going all the way out there.  That hour drive back felt long and I felt a little sick as I watched the gas gauge go down.  These high gas prices have put my fishing trips under increased scrutiny.  If the river ever comes back down, I think that I can justify Deer Creek Park.  It's not much further than my usual spot.

It doesn't look like it's going to be coming down any time soon.  We're getting rain just about every day.  I keep checking new 8 day forecasts, hoping for several sunny days in a row.  All I see is rain.  It will even out eventually.  Hopefully in time for the flatties to getting going.  If so, I think I have a good chance of raising my personal best in this new stretch of river.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

April Showers Bring May Floods


My Spring fishing season is looking a lot like my blog.  All but dead.  It has been cold, windy, and wet.  I was able to get out a couple of times, but during each trip the water was either high, seriously cold, or both.  I haven't fished a stable river yet.  Now the Grand is flooded well past its banks.  I doubt that I can even think about fishing it for the next couple of weeks.  I have caught a few cats so far this year, but I usually spend a lot of hours on the river with only a few bites and fewer cats in the boat.  On top of it all, my back went out again and I'm in the middle of a multiple week recovery process.  I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a more severe problem like when it ended my season early last year.  For now I'm staying home most of the time to nurse the back and keep an eye on the rising gas prices.  My next trip will likely be down to Thornapple Lake to see if I can find some muskies, bass, and walleyes.  Booo Spring 2011!