Splitshot
07-16-2006, 09:05 PM
Since I had to work Saturday and my son had to cancel Sunday I decided to stay in Lansing this weekend and called my buddy Bill to see if he wanted to go fishing. Bill is an excellent bass fisherman who even qualified a few years ago to fish the Bassmaster Classic.
Last year I had floated a section of the Grand River between Grand Ledge and Ionia and remembered a hole we could walk to for some pretty good fishing. We got half way and because of the heat decided to fish where a nice fish had surfaced.
This is where we started. Was even an old fire pit there.
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/539/07-16-16_getting_ready.jpg
Bill caught the largest channel cat but released it before I could take a picture. This was the average size however.
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/532/07-16-16_channel_cat.jpg
We never got any farther than that spot. We caught well over a hundred fish including crappie, bluegills, walleye, catfish, rockfish, suckers and a ton of smallmouth. Many, perhaps most of them were pretty small, but it didn’t matter as we were standing in the river most of the time with a stiff wind blowing and catching fish.
We did move later and caught a ton of smallmouth bass with at least dozen this size and bigger.
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/526/07-16-16_smallmouth.jpg
The Lansing area is not known for its fishing but it just shows that if you get out and look around even without a boat you can have a fun day and catch lots of fish. Of the two walleye we caught, one was a keeper and at least 20 of the gills were over 7 inches. The biggest channel cat was about 3 lbs, although the one in the picture is only about 1 ½ lbs. and most fish were caught on pieces of crawlers and wax worms. We took the time to seine some minnows and we had some raw shrimp which caught a few, but the best bait was still crawlers and wax worms.
It was hot and lazy but the Grand River provided us with an outstanding day fishing. The river is a fish factory and I’m looking forward to the outing at the end of July in Grand Rapids. I envy you guys who live near Lake St. Clair or on the West side or in the Northern part of the state in fact almost everywhere the fishing is better than around Lansing so if your not catching fish I’d be hooking up with the guys that are and figure out what they are doing.
Last year I had floated a section of the Grand River between Grand Ledge and Ionia and remembered a hole we could walk to for some pretty good fishing. We got half way and because of the heat decided to fish where a nice fish had surfaced.
This is where we started. Was even an old fire pit there.
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/539/07-16-16_getting_ready.jpg
Bill caught the largest channel cat but released it before I could take a picture. This was the average size however.
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/532/07-16-16_channel_cat.jpg
We never got any farther than that spot. We caught well over a hundred fish including crappie, bluegills, walleye, catfish, rockfish, suckers and a ton of smallmouth. Many, perhaps most of them were pretty small, but it didn’t matter as we were standing in the river most of the time with a stiff wind blowing and catching fish.
We did move later and caught a ton of smallmouth bass with at least dozen this size and bigger.
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/526/07-16-16_smallmouth.jpg
The Lansing area is not known for its fishing but it just shows that if you get out and look around even without a boat you can have a fun day and catch lots of fish. Of the two walleye we caught, one was a keeper and at least 20 of the gills were over 7 inches. The biggest channel cat was about 3 lbs, although the one in the picture is only about 1 ½ lbs. and most fish were caught on pieces of crawlers and wax worms. We took the time to seine some minnows and we had some raw shrimp which caught a few, but the best bait was still crawlers and wax worms.
It was hot and lazy but the Grand River provided us with an outstanding day fishing. The river is a fish factory and I’m looking forward to the outing at the end of July in Grand Rapids. I envy you guys who live near Lake St. Clair or on the West side or in the Northern part of the state in fact almost everywhere the fishing is better than around Lansing so if your not catching fish I’d be hooking up with the guys that are and figure out what they are doing.