Big Lake Reconnaissance

After a nice breakfast out with my dad, we took a little tour of some access sites on Lake St. Clair. Mission objective: find out where we could access some liquid water.

I am assuming there are some people that come across this blog that have never been to the Great Lakes. Biggest understatement of the day: They are big. While not a "Great Lake", Lake St. Clair is very large, and has gained notoriety for its small mouth bass and musky fisheries.

First stop shown by red mark:

Our first stop was the DNR ramp by Selfridge Air National Guard Base. This is on Anchor Bay, which itself is larger than Houghton Lake (Michigan's largest inland lake). Here is what we saw:

Call me a sissie, but I am not walking out there. 

Meanwhile in the canal by the boat launch:

One could paddle around a little bit in the canal, but you would not get very far. Back to the car to thaw out ears and onward to next stop: Lake St. Clair Metro Park (but it'll always be Metro Beach to me).

Here is what we saw at the day sail access point:

Looking straight out, East

Looking south and east. The little tied structure on the horizon just to the left of the pile of ice is the Renaissance Center (General Motor's global headquarters) in Downtown Detroit.

The view south, along the shoreline.

This is all open water... if you can make it out to it. Good luck crossing the 50 feet of ice slabs and rough, unstable "terrain".

We also stopped by the boat launch at the metro park. It is open. There is still ice in parts of the marina and canals, but there is enough open water to get a kayak or canoe... or SUP (I'm inclusive!).

Final stop today was the mouth of the Clinton River DNR access site. Here is where I am talking. Look at the little bar scale at the bottom right hand of the Google Maps screen capture.

And this is just the central part of the lake.

Because it was so darn cold and windy, we quickly looped around the parking lot and headed back in. The lake is completely open here.

It is amazing how quickly the wind, sun, and current broke up and flushed out the ice. Don't get me wrong, there is still ice out there, as I showed in some of the pictures. I would not walk on it, though. People have been rescued by the coast guard over the last couple days on the lake.

When I purchased my first kayak three years ago, this week is the anniversary of its first outing. However, three years ago, there was no ice to be found. Just goes to show how each year the weather varies.

I'll be headed out in the very near future. Basically as soon as I get the anchor trolley installed on my SOT kayak.

Go get out there...

Benchmarking Your Local Stream and Spring Thoughts

Benchmarking. Not sure if that's a real word. I know many people use the United States Geologic Survey's (USGS) website to monitor stream flow of rivers they fish. Here is a link to a gauge on the Clinton River, near the Oakland County, Macomb County border: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mi/nwis/uv?site_no=04161540

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I have never fished the Clinton River, but I have lived in its watershed my whole life. After attending a "river rally" thrown by the Clinton River Watershed Council (http://www.crwc.org/) earlier this month, I am interested in actually fishing this local stream.

Side note, Clinton Valley Trout Unlimited's banquet is tomorrow night at River Crest Banquet Center. It will be my first TU banquet. I sure hope to win something. God knows I've bought plenty of raffle tickets through the years. I would think the odds are getting in my favor by now.

Two days ago (March 19th, 2014) I drove to a couple access points along on the Clinton River and took some pictures. It was also raining on and off all day. Hey, it beats snow at this point.

 This was taken at Yates Park, looking upstream. Notice the large log

Here is a panoramic shot of the same area. Neat iPhone feature

This is a view a couple miles downstream, near Coyote Joe's bar

Here's the bar. Have a brew, do a little line dancing, and then maybe another type of line dance... with a steelhead (oh sorry, lake run rainbow trout)

Looking upstream, at Ryan Road

When I got home, I brought up the hydrograph from the USGS website. I captured a screenshot of the graph.

Notice that the river is on its way up

I doubt I am sharing anything new or revolutionary with you. However, I thought that I would snap a few photos and look at the river data to really understand what the river looks like at certain discharge levels. The river didn't appear to be moving super fast, and I cannot tell if ran high, but it did look discolored. Now when I revisit the stream, I'll be able to see how the banks and logs compare to this last visit.

I thought it might also be of a little interest to see how your local rivers compare in size and discharge to what we have here in Southeast Michigan.

In other news, I help a friend out from time to time and cover for him at his gym. Since nothing is going on there (frequently), I decided to bring a little travel assortment of fly tying materials, hook, and a vise. When I wasn't cleaning and getting huge myself (sarcastic) at the gym, here is what I produced. They are a couple varieties of streamers from Kelly Galloup and Bob Linsenman's "Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout"

My crude version of a Zoo Cougar. Yes, I need to practice my deer stacking techniques. And yes, this is after I trimmed the heads. Yikes!

 And on the home front, the toys are screaming for me to take them out. Probably two or three more weeks until Stoney Creek Lake thaws. Your guess is as good as mine.

And it looks like we have some new neighbors. These are in the driveway, which I think is weird because we are not on a lake, pond, or stream... or golf course.

Happy Spring everybody. Hope your weather is a little more seasonal than ours!

Outing from a Past Season

The reality of the current weather prompted me to look at old photos on my hard drive. Just to let you know, this was the view from the front window last week after we received eight plus inches of snow.

Although I know we are all ready for a change, I won't deny it's beauty.

July 2012

Up North for the weekend with my dad and brother Alex. I took my kayak, Native Watercraft Ultimate 14.5. My brother and dad paddled the 15 foot Old Town canoe. We have a small cottage in the Higgins Lake area. Since we do not keep a boat on the lake anymore, we car top the canoe and kayak for day trips on smaller waters. On this Thursday we decided to stay close to home and launched at Marl Lake, at the state park boat ramp. This is a really nice, shallow, quiet lake. It is undeveloped along the shoreline. They say there is good fishing on the lake, but I honestly do not think any of us have ever caught a fish on this body of water. I don't know who "they" are, but they must be compulsive liars. The whole lake is maybe two feet deep, with a very mucky bottom. Don't fall in. There may be only 18 inches of water, but you will sink up to your shoulders. 

We paddle towards the Cut River. Although we have done this dozens of times, we never fail to have a difficult time locating the river's entry point to the lake. It is a little inland river delta, a tiny mess of small islands.

It is a typical hot, muggy summer day, with a chance of showers and/or thunderstorms. Early on in our paddle, a shower manages to find us.

Dad covering up in rain gear, and me following their lead.

Once we reach the river, we decide to paddle upstream. After much uneventful time fishing, we stop to have sandwiches for lunch. I decide to continue paddling upstream. I reach the the road crossing. I've been here before, but have never been brave enough to attempt the upstream paddle under this road crossing. And it's not claustrophobia. It is arachnophobia.

Seriously, would you go in there?

I stay put in the area for a while making casts on my old, short Shakespeare fiberglass WonderRod. I thought I saw a bass, but even if I did, I spooked it with a overzealous, sloppy cast. What did happen next surprised me. 

I was using a pretty small Mepps Spinner, almost out of commission. I clipped two of the hooks off it, as I hate treble hooks; they are nothing but trouble. Appropriate name, right? As I am slowly retrieving this tiny spinner back to the kayak, a dark shadow rises up towards me and gently grabs the lure. It could not have been more than six feet from me. This very nice sized pike takes the spinner like a labrador gently stealing a cookie from his toddler companion. It seemed like I was giving it a treat. 

It didn't seem angry until it realized it was hooked. That was things got interesting. Keep in mind, I am in a river not more than thirty feet wide, and I am naturally a clumsy person. I don't recall absolutely, but I had to have been anchored. If I was not, there is no way this was going to end well.

After a relatively short battle, with plenty of water getting splashed on me... 

It's not easy snapping pictures while battling a "good-sized" pike on 6lb test line.

This happened a few times...

This guy (or gal) finally relaxed for a minute for this pic

This was the only memorable fish to "hand" this day. With larger fish (large to me, anyway), I do not bring them in the boat. It's easier on them and it is easier on me. I'm less likely to hook myself and make a mess, and less likely to hurt the fish. I am almost an exclusively catch and release fisherman. There were likely some rock bass in this story, but I don't have pictures of them. And in the fishing world, if you don't have a picture, ______. You fill in the blank. 

Right Alex? What 8 and a half foot tarpon? Really???!!!

I was alone while all this was occurring. Dad and Al didn't paddle upstream as far as I did. I head back downstream after this fish. I didn't know where they were. Back in the lake? Did they go downstream after the river meets the lake?

As I paddle downstream, I thought I heard thunder. A minute of two later, I know I hear thunder. At this time I didn't know where the storm was located and what direction it was heading. I paddled hard to get back to the delta area in the lake. 

At this point the sky is getting dark to the west and I realize I am going to get wet, again. This time the situation is a little different, being it's accompanied by lightning and possibly strong winds.

I realize I am not going to be able to get back to the boat launch before this thunderstorm arrives. I am nervous. I calm myself and try to think logically. If I am going to be stuck out here in a storm, where should I hunker down? I do not want to be paddling across the lake, even though it is a small lake. I know I should not be in the open, especially with fishing rods in the boat. I didn't think taking shelter on the shoreline was a smart move either, as it is full of tall, mature trees.

This does not look encouraging...

Pop quiz: stay in boat or leave boat? 

I'll get back in and lay low.

I decided to ride it out here.

This doesn't look too bad. It didn't until I saw cloud to ground lightning. I didn't manage to catch that with the point and shoot camera, though.

Here comes the wind with a little rain...

And more wind...

I got cold. I was absolutely drenched and the wind on wet skin didn't feel great. I was shivering, too, probably a little bit beyond the temperature comfort factor, if you catch me.

I don't think it lasted more than ten or fifteen minutes.

Once it pasted, I decided to paddle back to our vehicles. I still didn't know where my dad and brother were located. As I made my way back to launch spot, they spotted me. Turns out, they made it back to the car before it hit. I think my dad was more scared for me than I was. He was actually panicking. He was convinced I was hit by lightning. In his defense, I sometimes expect the worse in situations and there were three lightning strikes very close to us.

I love the calm of the lake after this storm.

Here we are heading in for the day...

This is perhaps my favorite picture that I have taken. I love that steam rising from the lake.

Another shot showing the beauty of the lake. I don't like the metering of this image though (I think that's the correct term). It looks too gray. I don't think it was that gray in person. 

This was a great day on the water, as far as I am concerned. I caught a fish, simple victory in my book, got to paddle the kayak, spent time with dad and brother. I experienced some excitement. All good stuff. 

The following day we paddled around Higgins Lake. No fish to hand. We had the same kind of weather, though. We managed to avoid the rain and lightning, though. It was sunnier than the pictures convey. 

Notice the short spinning rod up front, but I still always take the long rod along for a ride. I've caught a total of 2 fish on Higgins Lake with a fly rod. Both rock bass.

If any of you readers have any advice for fishing Higgins Lake, PLEASE SHARE! We've been going up here since 1984. Fishing used to be predictably GOOD. Now, we can predict a few rock bass. That's about it.

And now, back to the reality of March 2014...

Two more days until spring.