In late June I took a trip with Sarah up to our lake place and spent 3 or 4 days prefishing for two July tournaments in the Alexandria area. We spent a considerable amount of time driving around MIltona and Ida. Both are large lakes and both have a good population of Large mouth and Small mouth. The weather was not great so several times we sat in the truck waiting for storms to pass or slept in to wait a storm out. We still managed a few fish and put together a bit of a game plan.



This 4 pounder took a senko under a dock. Picture taken by Sarah. Pretty good for a three year old.



Sarah posing nice from the front deck with a rainbow in the background.

We left Alexandria and repacked our bags to head over to Michigan for the 4th of July. It was great to spend time on my childhood waters with my boat and just fish for fun. I managed to help my niece catch her first largemouth by throwing senkos around some weed patches. She was excited and we managed a couple pics (grandmas camera though).

One morning I went out and used a nice antique bamboo fly rod and managed a 14" large mouth on a popper. It was everything I could do to land that fish on a buggy whip like that. Awful lot of fun.

I had told my parents I would take them hunting for trophy Small mouths on Lake Michigan while I was home. Mom usually gets stuck at home with Sarah when Dad and I go out to fish so it was her chance to get out with us and maybe catch a nice one. We got up at 4:30 one morning and headed to the Garden Peninsula. The wind was howling at 6:00 in the morning making it a little too rough to venture out on the big water. We worked around the protected bay and did manage a few fish.



This toad crushed a spook walked over a steep break into 20 feet of water first thing in the morning. Unfortunately we couldn't find any more big ones. The wind got even worse so we called it quits by mid morning.

After catching a few more largemouths back at the cabin, passing on a few tips and tricks to the family, getting wet on the jet ski, and spending a few days on Mackinaw island, we headed back to Minnesota to prefish some more for Miltona and Ida.

More to come.
Sport