Last weekend we competed in the Carp Anglers Group Midwest Regional event on the Saginaw River. Michigan can not seem to jump into spring, so conditions at the event were tough to say the least. With wind gusts nearing 40 mph in the afternoons, sporadic rain and rough water, it was a challenging event. The fishing zone assignments were given at 6 a.m. daily and first cast at 7 a.m. so there was plenty of fishing.
We arrived in Bay City on Friday evening and stayed at the Doubletree Hotel. The route to the morning meeting was a short 6 or 7 miles from the hotel max.
On the first day, the Michigan Team drew Bigelow Park. The park is an island in the Saginaw River with plenty of bank space. We had part of the team near the rowing club and distributed at various locations nearer the "point".
My bank mate for the day, landed a fish nearby and I was helping him with the landing net. As we moved from water's edge to the upper bank and headed toward the weighing station, I got a run on my left rod. Depositing his net and fish in the grass I almost decapitated myself with his rod as I sprinted to my rod pod. Luckily I made it to the rod in one piece and had an early success. Here's a picture taken after the catch at 7:45 a.m.
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| Saginaw River, Bigelow Park |
This event was a "Biggest 10 Fish" format, so my fish was caught early enough in the day to actually make it on the leaderboard for a few hours. At 13 1/2 pounds, it was a fat fish that weighed in a little less than I anticipated based on the thickness. I caught him using a World Classic Bait pink pop-up dumbbell. These dumbbells have been my "go to" bait this spring.
It's hard to make out in the background, but Saturday morning arrived with a lot of rain showers that were very heavy at times. Luckily the rowing club had quite a bit of available shelter. The guys were very friendly and didn't mind us using the area to stay dry. They even gave some of the team a quick tour of the facility. I missed the tour unfortunately, but it was full of sculls. One bit of trivia I do recall is the $250 price tag for an oar.
Yikes.
We fished until 6 p.m. and then headed to
Krzysiak's for dinner. The buffet had an extensive variety of choices including about 6 kinds of fish, salad and dessert bar. It was all you-can-eat and I think I ate my entire $19.95 on in my first plate full. The lemon crème pie was a very good choice for dessert.
After dinner we headed back to the Doubletree and I feel asleep in the chair, happy to "chill out" for a while. We were in bed by 10 p.m. and up again at 4:30 a.m. for another day of fishing.
Our zone for day 2 was near the boat docks on M-13 south of the airport.
Here's a wonderful picture of our spot on the bank following an early morning rain.
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| Our view for day 2 of the Saginaw event |
I had my first run at 7:20 a.m. or so, but after a couple of minutes, the fish escaped to parts unknown. By all indications, it was a good sized fish. It was peeling off line to beat the band. It was katy-bar-the-door-type stuff. I have a bad habit of keeping my drag a little on the loose side - ever afraid of pulling hooks. In this case I wish I'd kept the drag a little bit tighter.
The water remained calm early on, but by mid-morning the winds picked up and so did the white caps. Fortunately the sun also made an appearance occasionally and the reeds helped to make a bit of a windbreak.
We fished for 7 more hours without so much as a mini-run.
But as is usually the case persistence paid off and we started getting multiple runs shortly before 3 p.m.
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| Day 2, first fish |
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| Close-up of the first fish |
This fish was caught on World Classic Bait's pineapple flavored maize and a piece of orange "fake" maize.
I didn't get a picture of my second fish on Sunday. It took longer than expected to remove the hook and after getting a weight I returned the fish to the water quickly. It turned out to be my biggest fish I landed that day at 12 pounds.
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| Day 2, third fish |
Within a matter of 3 or 4 minutes, we landed a third fish also on the pineapple flavored maize and "fake" maize.
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| Northern Pike |
Nearing 4 p.m. and the end of the event I hooked my last carp. It managed to snag on a nearby good sized branch in the water I'd been trying to dodge all day, but on the retrieve this Northern Pike attacked my hair rig and hooked itself cleanly through the snout. It was a nice fish and the first pike I've caught. Although it was an accidental catch, I'll count it just the same. For anyone reading this story who attributes it to just another fish tale, I had witnesses who can vouch for it occurring exactly as described.
I can't wait to get back out on the bank.
