New-to-me Water

DATE: September 15, 2012

LOCATION:    Grand River, Riverside Park

With:  Alone, Arracuda        

TIME:             9:30 AM – 1 PM

HOURS:          3.5

WEATHER/CONDITIONS: Clear and pretty calm; following the chilliest night of the season; a little post cold-fronty and very clear water (>6 feet)

At the odd time of 9:30 AM I launched the Arracuda on new-to-me water; the Grand River at Riverside Park.  I couldn’t use the southernmost ramp because bikers and such (non-trailers) had taken all the parking; and was surprised to see that there was no trailer parking planned or available at the middle ramp.  I was also excited to be sharing the park with 10,000 dogs and owners, as it is “Dog in the Park Day”: I hadn’t attended this event since Katie was in a stroller.  But pretty uneventfully, I launched her, separated the trailer from the truck, parked, and set out.  I was please to see that the Lowrance Finder from the front of Numenon works fine with the Arracuda set-up; her actual finder is in Benzie County on another boat at the moment.

Today’s published flow for the Grand is 1150 cfs; this is only about 2/3 median flow for the date.

Grand River?  Connecticut River?

I was surprised at the clarity of the water (easily over 5 feet, even with the low sun angle; and definitely over 6 feet later in the day with a higher sun), and with low flow conditions, a lot of the woody cover I expected to fish was actually high and dry; I continued upriver until the deeper channel intersected the eastern shore, which was shadier in the morning.  My first cast with the senko got hit; and the tone for the day was kind of set, because it was a smallish fish that I didn’t land.  (I had lots of short strikes and missed fish today.)  But shortly thereafter a sub-legal pike came aboard, and so the skunk was out of the boat; and I went searching for some different fish.

And I saw a bunch of different fish!  Folks on shore were catching gills and crappies, I sight-fished for both kinds of bass and pike, the Grand is apparently a Quillback Carpsucker Mecca, and I even watched one lost steelhead roaming about; not to mention all the suckers and baitfish I saw. 

Across the river from where I started was a gravelly flat with sporadic weeds; and while I didn’t have any strikes here, I did see a number of legal bass (LMB and SMB), and I think this area will pay off with sluggos, rapalas or topwaters during low light periods in the future.  Moving upriver (near the bridges), I concentrated on rock piles, wood and shade; and things started to come together.  Most of the rest of the strikes came on senkos, although cranks, jerkbaits, swimbaits and worms were given a chance.  I ended up with several SMB to 16 inches (most were sublegal), one LMB of about 15”, a Newman, and a cut-off.  I also jumped and lost a few fish, including one gorgeously silhouetted SMB of probably 3 pounds; a very nice fish to lose.

Best fish of the day!

The fishing was good enough to keep me interested, and I’ll probably return.  I’d like to think I haven’t been overlooking this SMB water for the last 20 years; but I guess I have.  I’ve caught a bunch of smallies in the Grand, but they’ve tended towards the small size; and today’s 16-incher and the lost lunker were both much better than average.  So rethinking it,  I know I’ll be back.