antrim county 8/20 thru 8/25

[thedude]

Just got back from a week up on GTB. didn't make it to the bay, but i did hit intermediate, bellaire and elk for a few hours when mama was shopping.

Intermediate was decent, not great for numbers but i did catch several fish in the 3.5-4.5lb range both trips as well as lost a couple. The first day was sunny, warm and a good breeze. Got a few on tubes and switched to a balsa crank (10' diver). Found the steepest sand bluffs/points i could and started catching some good fish.... most had company with them.  The 2nd trip there proved slower, still managed 2 nice 4lbers(ish) on the crank and another had to be coaxed in with a sissy stick.  This day was similar temp/sun wise but no wind and that hurt.  I made it to bellaire that day as well and ran the same pattern for about an hour with another 3.5lber to show.

Friday was hot, but we had some clouds roll in with a few sprinkles. i figured with the cloud cover - elk might be worth a shot so i set out with the same crankbait to a couples spots i saw last fall. 3rd cast on my first point i lost a good fish on the first jump who had 2 more with him. i worked the area pretty hard and finally managed 2 respectable smallies and a dink. Ran looking for another spot i fished with Genie and found a new one - i marked so many fish i was actually just dragging a tube behind the boat with the drag set really loose while i was casting the crank. i had a few misses/short strikes and 2 small ones dumbstick strapped into the passenger rod holder (dragging a xtreme great lakes perch  on a kustom kicker goby profile jig ). Genie came through with some waypoints for the spot i was actually looking for - a decent break with weeds and some wood going from 4' to 15'. I rolled up and lost a toad on the 3rd cast - had my drag set really loose from a fish i caught before (10lb test). From that point on i fished about 100yds back and forth must have had at least 20-30 fish on. I had a lot of fish pull off but boated a handful of nice ones and fought twice as many. It was a riot. I only had 2hrs total to fish, so i didn't want to dig out new hooks for the crank, which probably would have helped immensely.

I made a quick stop at my first spot to get that 1 last fish of the trip - had one hit at the boat and not hook up. 30yds down the break i hooked a good 3lber and called it a trip.

So up until this point, i've just been bragging about a fun trip - now i'll try and share what i think i actually learned this week. I don't get to fish "up north" more than 2-3 times a year and mostly in the fall - so when I went into the week I was expecting to fish deep, small and slow or maybe just get up early and rely on the top water bites... i started with intermediate knowing it was a smaller lake and i had some info from a friend on where to start. That info got me into a couple bites and some confidence the fish weren't that deep (10-15'). When that bite died off i just couldn't pass up trying to run a crank down some of the windy sand bluffs - i hadn't cast 10 times before i hooked up with my first of many crankbait fish. 30 more casts and i had 2 more.... i ran the same pattern and same bait on different kinds of water and was amazed at how consistent it was. You didn't have to bang it off weeds or rocks or drag it down the break (it worked at times). I tried a lot of different things but from what i could tell was that fish were suspending off the break or out over flats and typically deeper than 12' down ( i could see them on the graph). Running that crank over their heads they would swim up and try and kill it and then come back and eat it. I had countless fish bang the bait and then come back for it. i also lost a ton of fish - i think for the same reason - they went in to stun the bait and just caught a bit of a treble in the process and then pulled free.  in hindsight, i should've have put on a bigger rear hook and i probably would have had better initial hookups.

fwiw - Most of my fish were on a crank running 10' in 16-25' fow near a break line. 10+mph wind definitely helped.

[Mike S.]

Nice report. Hope we can all get into them like that in another month.

[Genie]

GenieLogs rocks!

[Firefighter Jeff]

  Great report Justin  !!  Thanks for posting  !!! 

[TheFishinPollock]

Was that you in Clam Wednesday night by chance in a ranger FS??

[thedude]

nope i was on intermediate tues/thurs and friday evening on elk. spent about an hour tues on bellair right after lunch