Last week Steve and Kevin went on a scouting mission to the third biggest island in the Beaver Island archipelago, High Island. The fish had been off after days of lousy weather, but the sun was shining on this day and the shallows were warming up. The boys pulled up to a favorite point, threw down the anchor and waded across to the rough side where the warm surface waters were being collected in a small catch bay.
They immediately spotted fifty or so carp bobbing in the waves. Kevin wanted to explore farther down the shore, so Steve started his stalk. Steve was into his first fish almost immediately, his second soon after and then had to work for the third…classic “laid-up” carp fishing. The more the carp realize that everything is not right in their world, it gets a lot harder to catch them.
Kevin walked for over an hour down the coast and spotted a few here and there but nothing worth putting a line in the air for. Later, after looking at the chart, the hour of walking amounted to nothing. There’s a lot of shoreline up there.
On the way back they decided to recheck a spot where they had seen a few fish on their way over: a few carp had turned into hundreds. The water temp had come up 8-10 degrees and the game was on. Kevin and Steve both got into fish as the shadows grew. Kevin landed another hog (we’ll have another post soon on the monsters they’ve been into this year) that was guessed in the just sub-forty range.
The day ended with another perfect sunset.
Tough life up there. Real tough.
You’re sick of the humidity. Surely you’d prefer the cool aquamarine waters of northern Lake Michigan. And you’ve been wanting a shot at a 40 pound fish in freshwater for years now. The 6lb smallmouth wouldn’t be bad either. Maybe you should book a last minute trip with Kevin or Steve?
