This was one of my better catches Aug. 10 on the River Raisin in Monroe County, Mich. Artificial worms would carry the day and many bass were landed. I hope to soon duplicate this day again.
ROA picture by Bill Brisebois
By Mac Arnold
ROA Editor
At long last, I believe I may have found the holy bass waters in my home state of Michigan.
It will take a few more outings before I can confirm this but with it being a mere 20 minutes from my home it shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe there were other extenuating circumstances such as the perfect moon phase -- but on further review -- Aug. 10 was five days past the new moon, which some anglers believe has an effect on fish feeding behaviors.
Another one could be that the water level was just low enough in Monroe County's River Raisin to create a perfect holding pool at that bend in the river for that one moment.
Regardless, on this glorious day, from about 6 p.m. to closing time, which was around 9 p.m., I ended up catching more smallies than I could count.
In the past several years I can only remember one other non-charter fishing time when this had happened and that was on the South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. Ever since I've tried to re-create that event -- even back on the South Branch -- but to no avail.
I must admit lately this has really had me down on fishing, especially with me being the Type A personality who always seemed to find ways to build bird's nests in reels or lasso with casts the seemingly unreachable tree branch several feet above the bank of the river.
The previous outing before Aug. 10's bountiful occasion in June I ended up dumping the canoe with Brian my fishing partner that day and play scurry around the 40th Street Pond in Port Huron to salvage what lures I could after the tackle bag spilled out its contents. True, Brian had caught a nice pike and we somehow managed to get it ashore still in tow with the canoe. But yours truly was skunked again without even a single hit at one my offerings prior to going swimming.
And pretty much every other gig in previous years was just as eventful.
So I needed this day.
Even the company couldn't have been better. Bill Brisebois and I have been friends since second grade and now we're both closing in on the midcentury mark. That's a long time. He was in from San Diego and occasionally we have taken the route of the charter fishing experience to kick back and relax to catch up on the old days.
There was the time maybe 10 years ago when everybody bailed out of a planned Lake Michigan salmon gig except us, and we had to alternate, to both having to man the poles on hits. Let me just say there was little down time and plenty of work for our reward of salmon steaks on that day.
But I digress ...
So spontaneity ruled this year's fishing. There was even a "quick" trip to Cabela's before the canoe launch.
Before I landed my latest job at The Blade in Toledo, I had been working part time at The Monroe Evening News and driving over the River Raisin four days week pondering what it may hold in the way of angling thrills. It certainly looked as if it had fast enough water to make for fun smallmouth bassin'.
There would be no more wondering. After Bill finally harangued me enough with his watch tapping and "c'mons" it was time to leave a mecca of hunting shops and get on the river.
At our first stop, which was beginning to look like the usual, Bill lost the hook and artificial worm on his first cast. While he was tying on a new setup, I waded into the river and immediately got a nice hit and eventually landed the first smallie on the day. The action would snowball from there at the next location in the bend once we got headed downriver again.
Bill recalled how we used to fish when we were younger and battle it out for title of top angler of the day. It wasn't long before that was resurrected. After he switched the rod and reel he had started out with at my suggestion, he soon was matching my catches fish for fish. For the first hour he was mostly losing fish. (He still thinks that was a plan I hatched but I swear it wasn't.)
Even the panoramic picture he took of our surroundings looked like postcard shot. I'm trying to get him to send it to me so I can post it on here.
What a day. What a day, indeed.
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