Grand Lake

[McCarter]

Our annual smallmouth hunt lead us to Grand Lake in scenic Presque Isle this year.  Chris (bender) and I got a later start than we were hoping for.  We actually didnt leave until 9 pm on wednesday night.  But it wasnt our fault.  At the last minute, I had to loan my truck to a buddy so he could tow his boat up.  The original plan was that i would tow Chris' boat up but we ended up having to use his truck.  And we ended up having to wait hours for the other 2 to get ready. 

So anyway, 9 pm and we are on our way.  The ride seemed short, tho it ended up taking us 4 hours to get there.  Once there, we spent the rest of the night spooling up rods and talking strategy for the following morning.  i was pushing jerkbaits pretty hard.  Everything i know about northern waters in the early spring revolves around jerkbaits.  Every trip we have been on this time of year, the only consistant action we have ever found has been on jerkbaits.  SO of course, everyone tied on a jerkbait.

The next morning, we awoke at the crack of 10am and all piled into our boats.  I should mention that we had 16 people total in one cabin.  And 7 boats total tied to one dock.  It looked like a mini jobbie nooner with the boats all tied to each other on a dock big enough for 2.  Chris and I started right out in front of our cabin working a breakline around a cluster of small rocky islands.  Everything looked perfect and our anticipation was high.  But after 45 minutes we had nothing.  We decided to move to another area further north and give it a shot.  We ended up at the north end fishing a large point that leads back into a huge bay.  For the first 20 minutes, we had nothing.  I was working the jerkbait hard and Chris was dragging bottom with a 5" Nemesis stick bait in a color of his own design.  After rounding the corning of the large point we started drifting into the bay.  About 10 yards in, Chris hooked up with the first fish of the trip, a chunky 3 lb smallie.  After a few more casts, he was bring in his second of the day and it was another chunk smallies.  Determined to grab a jerkbaits fish, i kept at it but it was chris, again, setting the hook on another fat smallmouth. 

I noticed a large shallow flat behind us on the other side of the bay.  I told chris we had to hit it and he was cool with it.  I felt kinda bad cuz he was lacing into them good where we were but i had a good feeling about this flat.  So i switched the trolling motor to high and headed that way.  Once we got good position on this spot, i fired out the Lucky Craft 100 and started workin it.  Halfway back to the boat my jerkbait stops mid-swing.  After a short battle, i bring my first fish of the trip into the boat.  Another stout 3 lb fish.  On the very next cast, with my jerkbait in plain sight, i watch a monster come out of nowhere and inhale it.  I sweep my rod back and the tail hook catches her in the corner of the mouth.  She wasnt hooked that good and she was going nuts.  I played her as carefully and slowly as possible and when i pulled on her a little bit she swung her head back and forth, forcing the front hook deep into her cheek.  No more mr nice guy.  I horsed her right to me and chris scooped her up with the net. 

Lets stop right there for a second.  I would like to explain the situation we are dealing with here.  When we planned the trip, we decided to just charge everyone $100 for the cabin.  This way, if people backed out last minute, like they always do, we would be covered on the cabin.  Whatever money was left over was going to be refunded.  But my buddy had this idea, instead of refunding the money, why dont we just have a tournament while we are up there.  So what we figured out was, we would pay $50 each day for big bass and the balance would go to the guy with the biggest fish of the trip.  Now because it is still CIR season, we had to work out a system that everyone agreed on to measure the fish.  SO i suggested we just use fishing line to measure the length, and another piece to measure the girth and then add them up and go on total inches.  Everyone agreed and thats how we did it.  Now with 16 people total at $100 each, we had $1600.  The cottage was $900 for 4 nights, so we were left with $700 to pay out in fishing awards. 

I am looking down at what appears to be a smallmouth bass.  My pointer 100 looks more like a 78 in this things mouth.  The fish is wider than any smallmouth i have ever seen.  But its not that long.  The mouth looks as big as most of the largemouth i catch.  This fish was wierd looking.  It wasnt proportioned right.  It was a brick wall.  I mean  the fish looked square.  I am trembling with excitement and anxiety from the fight.  I knew this fish was one of the biggest smallmouth i have ever caught, but again i knew it couldnt be more than 20 inches.  I reach down and grab her by the lip and hoist her up.  Chris says a couple holy bleeps and we both marvel at the sight of this monster.  She is definatly pushing 6, probably more.  Next things is to quickly get an accurate measurement of the fish and get some pics and let her go.  So i lay her down and grab some loose line.  Starting at her bottom lip ( mouth pinched shut of course ) i strip line back to her tail (also pinched) and chris clips the line.  I stick the first piece in my pocket and grab the rest of the loose line to get a girth measurement.  Same process as before only this time pushing the dorsal fin down lightly, and again chris clips the line.  I stick the other piece in my pocket and hold the fish up for a couple pictures and let her go.

So far, so good.  But we have no idea yet what is waiting of us in this bay..................to be continued

Here is a pic of the day one monster.  You be the judge.

[joshimoto son]

Nice fish Bri.
I've never been known for my ability to judge the weight of a fish, but if I had to guess. I would say it's over 5.
Looking forward to the rest.

joshimoto son

[Bender]

I will let Brian continue the story, but I have a couple corrections. HE slept in until 10, I did not go to sleep.  One of the guys lost a tote with his gear in it on the way up so I drive backward an hour with him looking for it and by the time we got back it was around 4 and with first light coming soon three other guys and I decided to just stay up. I launched by myself and on my first cast on a 12' break with a brand new, perfect color, River2Sea deep jerkbait I had a bite! I laid into the fish with all of my anticipation having built up for just this moment and having never fished "up north" before. Nothing, the $#%#$% pike bit me off. I worked the rest of the break with an X-Rap deep with no results and headed in to the dock to get Brian.
Here is another photo of his fish in the net:


More pics to come as his story continues but here are some of those 3 pounders he was talking about:

[Cheetam]

Wow...that fish is built like a girl I once dated...   Definitely over five...

[blakstr1]

Wow...that fish is built like a girl I once dated...   Definitely over five...

hmmm...short, think in the middle, pretty big tail, and no teeth......Be-ee-e-eautiful! 

[McCarter]

(thank you for clearing that up, Chris )

With the buzz of the trophy fish still in the air, we continued into Black Bass Bay.  Looking into the bay from the outside, it looked like it was going to be a phenomenal area, but the farther back we went, the less we saw.  It got shallow quick, 2-3 ft max, and it was nothing but sand with a few scattered dark spots.  There were, however, several gravel points and some reeds that kept our attention.  We focused on these areas and worked them hard but found no fish.  Continuing farther back, Chris gets a phone call, work related, and takes it.  I am to the point now that I am ready to leave this bay altogether and head back out to the main lake.  We had drifted back quite a ways and hadnt seen any fish.  Just as I am saying to Chris that we need to get out of here and go find some fish, I look down in front of the boat and see a 4lb smallmouth cruising 10 feet in front of us.  A little further out, I see several small dark spots and notice they are all moving.  Chris is just getting off the phone and I quickly update him on the situation. 

We seemed to have stumbled onto a whole mess of staging fishing.  They were locked tight to a shallow sand flat that extended 30 yards or so off shore.  Even as we drifted through them, they didn't head out for deeper water.  They just cruised far enough away from the boat and then circled back to a random spot on the flat.  Once we were far enough away from the bulk of the fish, I used the trolling motor to spin the boat and we went to work.  I quickly traded my Lucky Craft Pointer for a Zoom Fluke as it was a bit shallow for the hard jerkbait.  Chris stuck to his guns and continued throwing our 5" stick bait.  It paid off for him, and he went on to catch 4 or 5 nice smallies before I had even had a bite.  I finally caught the attention of a smallmouth and he cranked the fluke hard.  Chris continued to put smallmouth after smallmouth in the boat.  I have not taken a beating like this since I got caught stealing apples from Old Man McGuilicutty's orchard when I was 7.  I stuck with the fluke and had a giant turn and inhale it, but like a true amateur, I swung way too early and pull it away from her.  A couple casts later and she came back for more, but once again, a swing and a miss.  Chris is continuing to put 3 and 4 lb fish in the boat while I am up front practicing hook setting.  After a long dry spell for yours truly, I finally catch the eye of another fish and watched as she came up and grabbed it with force.  And in true McCarter fashion, I attempt to break her head off with the hookset and instead break my line. 

At this point Chris is 15 or better fish ahead of me.  I have yet to throw any of our hand poured baits and its starting to show.  We decide to give this spot a breather for a bit and head out to the edge of this massive flat to see what's doing.  We find more fish cruising the break and of course, Chris gets right to work on them.  He is now drop shotting a 3" goby and is literally hooking up on every cast.  I should mention that these fish are 3 lbs or bigger, every single one of them.  At this point we are not even getting excited about 3-4 lb fish.  We are after more giants like the ones we are seeing nip our baits once we clear a path of smaller fish out of there way.  My jealousy is at its peak now and I grab for the drop shot rod and rig up a 3" Nemesis goby.  And wouldn't you know it; first cast and I hook up.  We literally destroyed this area until almost all fish had holes in their lips. 

Both of us are primed up and ready for more, but the only area we have found that held fish just got abused in a bad way.  We started eyeballing for another flat in the vicinity but the closest one was clear across the bay.  We decide to drift for a moment to see what happens.  I see a dark spot out in front of the boat and fire my rig just behind it.  Once it settles, I hop it into the center and feel a slight tap.  A quick sweep of the rod and the fish is hooked.  After a quick release, I see another dark spot and again place my rig just behind it.  In the same fashion as the last fish, this one is quickly hooked, landed, and released.  I have a major advantage here.  I am in the front of the boat picking fish off of dark spots, and there is literally at least one fish on every dark spot.  So I went to work trying to catch up to Chris.  It was pretty crazy for about 30 minutes, with fish being hooked on almost every cast.  The dark spots weren't beds.  Well, the fish may very well have been bedding there, but they were actually little clusters of weeds.  I don't know what they call this stuff up there, but it's almost like a little bush in the water.  The stems are pretty stiff and tree like.  And they didn't seem to have any kind of leaf on them.  Bulrush???  At any rate, they were holding fish and it got to the point where I would literally cast to a dark spot, count to 3 in my head, and just set the hook.  I didn't wait to feel a bite, or watch for my line to move...the action was so consistent that casting, waiting 3 seconds, and just setting was the pattern.  I have never seen anything like this before, but I wasn't complaining.

By now, we are both feeling a little guilty about hogging all the fish.  So I try to call the others to let them know we found a big concentration of willing smallmouth.  Initial attempts were unsuccessful but then I finally got a hold of one guy.  He and his brother had already docked the boat and headed into town after a couple hours with no luck.  Luckily for them, they were on their way back and the fishing was just starting to heat up.  About 40 minutes later they were pulling into the bay.   They met us about half way back and we explained the deal and hooked them up with some gobys, hooks, and drop shot weights and told them to cast to any dark spot they see.  Chris and I continued to fish and ended up with well over 50 fish each for the day.  The other 2 guys stayed out a little longer and both caught over 30 each. 

Back at the cabin, it was time for "measure in".   So far the big fish to beat was 34 1/2".  That is length plus girth.  I pull my 2 pieces of fishing line from my pocket and place them on the table for my buddy to measure.  First the length, just a smidgen over 19.5".  Now its girth time...just under 19.25"?  Immediately, the guy who was leading calls shenanigans.  Now, all I have to offer is the pictures, my word, and the word of my only witness, Chris whom none of these guys have ever met before.  After some choice words were exchanged, and I am basically called a liar and a cheat by this guy, whom is one of my very close friends since 9th grade, it is determined that I am the day one leader and winner of $50 dollars and 'the hat'.

The hat was the real prize of the trip.  My buddy who organized this trip had it made in secret and would not reveal it until the day one leader was determined.  Since that was me, I got to open the heavily duct taped gift bag to reveal the spectacle that was 'the hat'.  It was a basic baseball style cap in a grayish blue color, with a largemouth embroidered on the side in a slightly darker blue, and blue and black hot n tot embroidered on the back side, and the words "Grand Basster 2008" embroidered on the front side.  We knew there was money to be one, but there wasn't one person there who wanted the money more than the hat.  The hat basically made you king for the day.  You were the guy to beat and displayed that honor on top of your head for the rest to see.  Not five minutes after putting the hat on for the first time the claims of vengeance started.  'That hats mine tomorrow' and 'dot get too comfortable with that, its mine after today'.  I let them know that I really liked the hat and they would have their work cut out for them if they wanted to take it from me.

So after all of the excitement of the first day, we talked game plan for day 2.  Chris and I held nothing back from day 1.  We let everyone know exactly what we were doing, what we were using, how we were using it, and where we were using it.  And the promptly sold out of every bag of gobys we had.  Good thing Chris had a secret stash of loose ones tucked into a rod locker.  The next hour was spent showing some of the guys how to rig a drop shot.  And then it was beer time.  Since Chris and I both knew the bay would be packed tomorrow, we decided beforehand to commit day 2 to finding new fish.

to be continued..........again!

[McCarter]

part 3 of this epic tale was aweswome. I spent most of the night writing it, and then in an instant and with a mis-click of the mouse i erased the whole thing.  so here is the short version.

We went to a new spot, a large point on the outside of the bay in hopes of finding some big staging pre spawners.  we found them hanging in 6 to 8 feet of water.  We caught several 3-4 lb fish drop shotting the 3" goby in Great Lakes Candy.  The we had a good double header.  Chris got his in first and mine came in shortly after.  My fish was big enough for big bass for day 2 and another $50.  As it turns out, i didnt win big fish for day 3 but no one could beat my day 1 or 2 fish for the trip so i walked away with $650 for the weekend.  I tried hard to make it $700 but i was beat out by a nice 5 lber on the last day of 'competition' and had to give up the hat for the day.

Here is the pic that of the fish that won me the day 2 prize of hat and money.



Since we had a 3rd man on the boat, there were no arguments or false accusations about the size of my fish that day.  Thus proving, once again, that I am the man.  At least in my own eyes.

Wish i could have got into the story a little more but i dont have the time nor the horse sense to re-write it again.  Im tired and still buzzing from the lingering cloud of plastisol fumes that are hovering above my head.  I am also low on blood due to the mosquito jihad that is raging in Chris' garage right now.

Bottom line is, go to Grand Lake.  It is by far the best spring time smallie action i have ever seen.

McCarter himself

[Bender]

Fixed that picture for you and your sheephead:

I just would like to say in my defense that on the third day I had a bigger fish than McCarter, but I was just shy of winning the hat for the day.
The fishing was so good there and it was my first time fishing up north I wonder if it is like that on the lakes up there now in the summer. Maybe I will have to make a trip up there and find out. 

[Team houston]

That is hilarious!!!

[motocross269]

I just spent 5 days up on Grand and Long..My inlaws live on Long.
That picture of the sheepshead scared me to death..I was just surfing through the article and had to backtrack to make sure I wasnt loosing my mind...
Had a pretty good week up there, but had to work for them...