Started at Austin with Bill Feenstra. Bill has been on the the lake a lot this season and with his help we tag teamed a 38 for Michelle. Water was so cold half of the lake was froze over. I had to turn the Starcraft into an ice breaker again and we put her on plane and shattered the entire lake . By 11 am most of the ice was dissolved. At 1:30 we put a nice fat 38 in the net on a Little Claw. We owe special Thanks to Bill for his help in locating this fish.
Murray 29th, Nice day to be on the water and several others were there as well. Talked with Adam at the launch and saw several others and am now certain were Larry and Charlie. The hot lures turned out to be one ounce spinner baits in various colors and blade types. Lots of Flash and vibration but very slow speeds. Michelle was fishing small and pulled the fist fish a nice 40 in and it ate a sucker at boatside. One down. Tried trolling most of mid day with nada. Went back to casting and meat right after talking with Adam. Shelly got one to go on a small yellow and orange spinner bait 35 inches. two down. Right at dark Im now throwing spinner baits hoping for one for me. But it comes in on her spinnerbait and eats her sucker again. nice fat 42 incher. No picture as it was dark and we were both exhausted.
Murray 30th, started later after the rain let up. Windy as all get out. Fished the quiet sides all morning and got a 41 to go on a sucker in the west bay right on the point. Trolled with downriggers trying to get those deep fish across from the west boat launch to go. No dice. Went back to casting on the east side. 39 inch sucker fish in cat tail bay on the south end. Then Shelly missed the fish that would have finished her year. It was a huge shovel head upper 49 inch class fish that went 8 times around in the figure eight. and bit her lure 3 times. It only got hair and tinsel all three times. I was standing there trying to keep the damned boat on the fish but wind pulled us out to 50 feet of water. That one was close to 40 pounds. Im still shakin. Went back to the west bay and we got another one to go on those little spinner baits 36 inches and called it a week. Michelle still needs a couple more fish to regain 1st place. Murray will be our last stand as the others will be freezing up soon. Water temps on Murray are still 43/44. Mike and Michelle
If Shelly would have put that one in the net I could have put the boats away . It was the biggest fish we have seen in there this year. It just didnt inhale the lure but nipped at it just getting the tinsel tail on that little spinner bait. The friggin wind was just whipping and I needed about 10 more pounds of thrust to hold her on that fish but as it was that big girl followed us out like 45 feet before she faded. I tried going back but could not hold us there. Suckers have been the big difference for us. We bought like 24 of them in Webster and have been keeping them in our tank here at home.
Steve the gal in first has 75 fish but a lower average size. Michelle is 3 points out of the lead right now but we are not posting her numbers until Lake St. St. Clair closes on the 15th just in case one of them decides to go there next week. But its still a toss up as one of the girls lives in Illinois and can fish down there with great odds of putting another 10 fish on the board. The other girl is in PA. also has local waters. I guess its how bad they want the title. Michelle is freezing her butt off for it so I guess she wants it pretty bad ha ha ha .
So we are still fishing. Friday and Sunday for a start and we still have our Indiana licenses so we can go south if we have to. Mike
Mike,
Great detailed reports. I wish I would have known that the "Dynamic Duo" were on the water. I did see you. I expect we'll cross paths in the next two weeks, as the fishing pressure will dwindle. Congrats on the fish caught, and the near miss. With as many big fish as you two have caught this year, the big one on Murray had to be HUGE to get your RPM's up that high!
Charlie
Hi Charlie I am assuming that was you in the red Lund? I saw you working some deep fish and Tuesday I worked that same area hard with downriggers. I pulled some big bucktails down 18 feet right over those big suspended hooks. No takes. I even went with some big flutter spoons and different cranks. Those deep fish just dont seem to want to eat but you know I had to try ha ha ha . We have not been hooking any real big ones mostly shallow fish under 42 inches but those fish count for mofc points so we are still in the game. That big one yesterday hurt as it was the wind that kept her from hooking it. I did everything I could but could not hold the boat steady for her and even then she got it to go three times out of 8 figure 8's. It wanted to eat. maybe a stinger hook on that lure would have got it done. Its always hind sight isnt it? Mike
"spnplugger" said:
Mike,There's a lot of what I think were ciscoes staging in that area in relation to deep inside turns. Charlie
Yes, Matt and I were finding BIG schools of what seemed like ciscoes staging to spawn. They were right where they were supposed to be for the water temps. There were clouds big enough to fill my whole screen and tell me I was in 16 FOW instead of 40!
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