Fishing Report (July 2009)

7/2/2009:  There was a big bass bananza at Paw Paw Lake tonight during a Division 8 NBAA tournament!  Kelly and I thought we had a good bag of fish and a chance to win but we were dead wrong.  Although we had a decent bag that weighed just under 14 pounds it wasn't nearly enough.  We ended up coming in third place.  Mike Rappette and Steve Ficke came in second place with 15.50 pounds.  They also won big bass with a 5 and a half pound pigoid.  The champions tonight were John Gipson Jr. and Jim Weaver (Gramps).  They had a huge limit weighing 18.90 pounds.  Nice job guys!

Fishing Report (May/June 2009)

6/30/2009:  Historically Pipestone Lake is a big bass factory where everyone can catch a quality limit.  I was excited to tango with a couple of those big bass tonight in a Liars tournament.  I fished with John Gipson Jr. and we targeted the weed edge with cranks, jigs, and wacky worms.  We didn't catch much all night but we caught enough.  We only got seven keeper bites all night so it was slow going.  We ended up weighing 11.44 pounds and surprisingly it ended up being good enough for first place.  Mike Imler and his partner came in second place with 4 bass that weighed 8 pounds.  Hopefully Pipestone turns around for the rest of the summer.

6/28/2009:  Mike Rappette and I teamed up to fish a Master Casters Tournament on Paw Paw Lake this morning.  It was windy today so we decided to throw crankbaits around the weed edge.  We had great success in a couple of spots.  We had a small problem keeping our fish alive though.  At 10:00 am we had five bass that weighed 20 pounds in our livewell.  At 11:00 am we had a 4 pound smallie die:(...  We decided to replace it with a 3.5 pound largie to save us a dead fish penalty at the weigh-in.  That put us down to 19.50 pounds.  Well I looked in the livewell at 11:30 am and our biggest fish was dead.  I couldn't believe it!!!!  Luckily we still ended up winning and getting big bass with 19.5 (16.5 after deductions) pounds with a 4.8 pound largemouth. 

6/24/2009:  John Gipson Jr. and I fished a SMAC tournament tonight on Lake of the Woods in Decator.  It was hot again but the fish were eating.  At least for me.  For some reason I was having great luck.  I put 4 good 2 pounders in the box right away.  I caught them using a Cross Tail Shad on a split shot rig.  John and I ended up culling 3 times before we ended up with 10.02 pounds.  It was only good for second place though.  Someone beat us with 10.30 but I'm not sure what their names were. 

6/22/2009:  The Monday Night Liars hosted a tournament on Paw Paw Lake this evening.  It was seriously hot and humid on the water.  The fishing wasn't bad either.  Most of the teams weighed in solid limits of bass.  Reporst at the dock were that anglers caught them shallow and deep.  John Gipson Jr. and I ended up winning with 14.16 pounds.  Herman Berry and his partner won big bass with a fit 4 pounder.  The most exciting part of tonights tournament was watching Scott Daivs and his son work a school of smallies feeding on top.  They ended up weighing 12 pounds with two beautiful Paw Paw Lake smallies.  Scott's son is quite the angler!!!

 

6/21/2009:  My Grandfather, Dad, wife, and I fished for perch in Lake Michigan this afternoon out of Bridgman.  We fished in 26 ft of water a little north of the old church camp.  The water warmed up to 64 degrees in the last couple days and it brought in pods of bait fish.  The perch seemed to be following them and munching on them when they had the chance.  We ended having a great day on the water and we boated 42 chunky 10-13 inch perch.  I was catching them on a full size bladebait.  Everyone else caught them using fatheads.  

 

6/18/2009:  My wife Kelly and I fished Paw Paw Lake tonight in an NBAA Division 8 tournament.  Kelly had the best tournament of her career.  She was slinging in big bass left and right.  We started the evening fishing deep but we couldn't get any bites.  I decided to start skipping docks right away.  I caught 3 nice bass under the docks but they weren't giants.  Kelly added a top water fish while I was fishing docks.  With an hour to go in the tournament Kelly asked if we could check one of the super deep spots in 34 ft of water.  I drove the boat over it and noticed some bait fish on it.  We started fishing and graph began to light up with big fish arcs.  Kelly caught the first big bass that jumped twice but Kelly skillfully landed her.  While I was putting her in the livewell Kelly had another big one hooked.  It ran and dug under the boat until I finally had her in the net.  Well, I put her in the livewell and was culling one out when Kelly's pole bowed up again.  She landed another 3.5 pounder!!  It was a treat to watch her in the zone.  I finally chimed in with a couple hogs and culled the rest of our babies out of the livewell.  All of this happened in about 20 minutes.  We ended up winning first place with 15.55 pounds and Kelly claimed the big bass prize with a 4 pound largie.  Make Rappette and Steve Ficke took second place with 11 pounds. 

6/15/2009:  John Gipson Jr. and I teamed up for another Monday Night Liars tournament on Van Auken Lake in Hartford.  We started the evening fishing boat docks but we only managed one keeper.  We decided to fish the windy side of the lake for the rest of the tournament.  We targeted large weed mats and fished around them with jigs. We quickly put 3 more nice keepers in the boat.  Jr. caught our big bass while fishing the weed clump.  The last 30 minutes of the tournament I rounded out our limit with a top water plug fishing in about a foot of water.  We ended up getting second place with 5 bass that weighed just under 12 pounds.  Make Delerosa and his son won first place with over 14 pounds.

6/11/2009:  John Gipson Jr. and I teamed up again to fish a SMAC tournament on the Benton Harbor stretch of the Joe tonight.  It was sunny, cold, and windy.  The fishing was tough for the most part until the last 30 minutes of the tournament.  We started by fishing for spawners but we only managed to catch a couple small keepers.  After a while we decided to fish the strongest current we could find.  It worked out pretty good because I boated 5 keepers pretty fast.  I caught the rest of our keepers using Poor Boys craws on a 1/16 oz weight.  We ended up weighing in just under 15 pounds with 5 smallies and we won 1st place.

6/4/2009:  Kelly and I fished an NBAA tournament on the Benton Harbor stretch of the Joe tonight.  We caught a bunch of small keepers fishing crayfish baits.  We culled our way up to around 14 pounds.  THe bass we were catching were fired up too.  They were jumping like crazy, and fighting with all their might.  Even the small ones were hard to land.   We ended up winning first place.

5/27/2009:  John Gipson Jr. and I teamed up again to fish a S.M.A.C tournament on Magician Lake this evening.  We targeted post spawn largies that were feeding next to weed beds.  The bass were very cooperative for the most part.  We caught 14 keepers and were able to cull up to 11.11 pounds.  Our weight ended up being good enough for second place.  Jim Horn and Chad Worvey took first place with 11.80 pounds.  They also caught the biggest bass of the tournament and it weighed 4.57 pounds. 

5/25/2009:  John Gipson Jr. and I fished the Cass Bass Masters Memorial Day tournament on Diamond Lake this morning.  We did not have much success catching big keepers.  We were able to catch a bunch of 13 to 14 inch fish but nothing muck bigger.  We saw a couple good limits come to the scale so we didn't even weigh in our 5 small bass.  It was fun catching smallies off the bed today but it was too bad they were all skinny males.

5/23/2009:  The tournament season officially started in Michigan today and I fished a Four Flags tournament on Eagle/Juno Lake with Mike Rappette.  It was a calm but chilly morning so instead of running we fished right by the ramp.  We caught a couple short fish but not any keepers.  After about 15 minutes we started targeting shallow rock beds.  Mike caught our first keeper of the tournament season next to a dock and it weighed around 2 pounds.  I started the season by missing a couple nice fish that I saw eat my bait in the shallows.  One was about a 3 pounder. 

An hour later the sky darkened and it started raining.  I decided to take us on the flat and fish cranks and jerkbaits during the storm.  It turned out being a good move because I quickly put a couple more keepers in the boat. 

Once the rain stopped the fish stopped biting so we moved in shallow and looked for spawners.  We weren't seeing much until I spotted a 3.5 on a bed.  Mike made a perfect cast towards it and the fish bit.  I was a nice kicker to have in the boat.  We rounded out our limit and headed in to the weigh in.  We weighed in about 10.50 pounds but it fell a little short.  13 pounds won but I'm not sure who the team was that had it.  Overall it was a good start to the season.  I think we finished first place out of the money.   

5/14/2009:  John Gipson Jr. and I fished Pipestone Lake this evening.  The water was high and murky but it was 63 degrees.  I thought the bass would be spawning but that wasn't the case. There were a few beds but I could count them on one hand.  The fish on them were easy to catch with a jig.  The majority of the bass were hanging around the weed edge.  We were able to get 15 or so to bite wacky worms and jigs.  John caught the biggest bass of the evening which weighed about 4 pounds.

5/12/2009:  I was able to get on the water for the first time in quite a while.  I fished with my wife for a couple hours.  The water was 62 degrees which means the bass were spawning in full force.  We used tubes to catch 13 smallies and 1 largie from the back waters.  Our biggest was a 4 pounder and our best 5 weighed around 18 pounds. 

5/4/2009:  Ron Nelson and I went sight fishing on Paw Paw Lake this afternoon for a few hours.  We started in the channels were the water was dirty and 60 degrees.  I managed to catch a couple bass that were 3 to 4 pounds that were swimming next to the seawall.  Next, we motored out to my best smallie area to find that the water was extremely muddy so there were no smallies to be found.  I did luck into a chunky 3.5 pounder.  Since everything was murky in the main lake we went into some backwater where we found spawning bass.  We used jigs and worms to catch a handful of 4 pound females.  While we were bass fishing we were also plucking nice 12 inch crappie off of the pad roots.  There is nothing in the world quite like sight fishing. 

Fishing Report (April 2009)

4-30-2009:  I had a great time on Paw Paw Lake this evening fishing for spawning smallies and largemouth with Randy Nelson.  The fish were absolutely fired up!  Most of the bass were one to two cast fish.  We put together a huge 25-26 pound stringer of bass.  The water temperature was 60 degrees where we were fishing and 53 degrees in the main lake.  We caught most of are fish with jigs and a few with Bucketmouth B-Sticks.

   

4-26-2009:  John Gipson Jr. and I teamed up to fish a bass tournament on Wawasee put on by the LaGrange Bass Masters.  There were 60 boats fishing so the atmosphere at the ramp was awesome before the tournament.  My game plan was to start the morning fishing a main lake spot then look for spawners and cruising fish once the sun came up.  The first part of my plan produced zero fish and zero bites within the first hour of fishing.  We threw everything we had them but nothing was working. 

I decided to check my first spawning area at about 8:30 in the morning.  I was using my trolling motor to navigate in the shallow water when I saw a big fish on a bed.  She took about 20 minutes to get but she finally ate my jig.  She was a nice 4 pounder and a great start.  Jr added another 4.5 pound lady a short while after on a wacky worm.  A couple of casts later I saw another bed so I flipped towards it.  A big fish ate my jig instantly and started running.  She jumped then dove to the bottom getting my jig snagged on a branch and she came off.  I was a little bummed but Jr picked me up by boating another 4.5 pounder.  We finished our limit out with a couple of 15 inch fish that barely weighed 1.5 pounds each.

We ended up weighing 15.44 pounds and that was good enough for second place.  Ron and Randy Nelson won first place with 15.57 pounds of largemouth.  Overall it was a good way to start the season.

4-25-2009:  Michigan's catch and release bass season opened up today.  I fished the St. Joe River in Benton Harbor.  It was suppose to be a warm, sunny day, according to channel 22 and was excited to catch a bunch of smallies.  I launched around 10:00 am form the DNR ramp across the road from Tackle Haven.  I fished my first area and caught 4 in a row.  The biggest was 4.2 pounds and the rest were 3 pounder.  After that the skies turned black and the wind picked up.  Two seconds later I was soaked by a horizontal rain and dodging lightening bolts.  The day was a wash out and I was bummed.  Thanks channel 22!!!! 

Fishing Report (January 2009)

1/20/2009-  I went ice fishing on a local pond in Bridgman looking for a crappie or two right before dark.  I drilled a couple holes and set my fish finder up in 7 ft of water.  I started jigging a fat boy tipped with a waxy when I got my first and only bite.  It took me around 10 minutes to get whatever bit to the hole but it wouldn't come through.  I look down into the hole and the wiskers of a giant cat fish.  I grabbed my scooper and used the hooked end to pull it throught the hole.  I'm not sure what it weighed but it was the biggest fish I ever caught through the ice.

 

 


Southwest Michigan Fishing Report Archive


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