Jmurphy87

3 packs of flukes in various white colors 1 pack 3.5 dolive beaver 1 pack 1/16 brass bullet weight 1 pack 1/32 bullet weight 1 pack 1/64 bullet weight seems like finesse and power fishing all in one package, lately I have been a sucker for white baits. Although I did resist buying a couple different vision 110 in a color that I don’t have including a matte white stain reaction, gill colors. It was very hard but I have way too many jerkbaits as it is.

Well I went to Austin lake in portage again today, I stopped at the local tackle store before I went and decided what to throw. My choices were good apparently, I caught 4 fish in 30 minutes. This park gets pounded a lot so catching anything is a win, no big fish for sure. But catching fish were people usually don’t is a win in my book. Baits of the day a super fluke and dolive beaver. I just enjoy fishing and have fun trying out new rods. My phenix m1 vortex ml casting rod got broken in and blown over by the wind at least five times, oh well it’s gear and I can’t control the wind.

Yeah I threw my gobious the other day it seemed to do good on snags, hook is a thinner wire than the dark sleeper. It helps to get it back when hung, a pike stole my 3/8 one though. Oh well that’s fishing, if you are afraid to loose lures or terminal you are leaving fish behind.

Yeah I caught a couple more that I didn’t photograph, but there are healthy and swimming lol. Mostly a tube in yellow mustard and a 4” senko wacky rig. I threw a line through swim bait head before the pike stole it, I watched him run down current and knew that it would no end well and twang went the limp line. I did break in my 893c jwr NRX+ today and it felt superb and responsive. My fluorocarbon was from last year and a little bit unruly on my slx mgl but I made it work, heck I even hooked a piece of old rope in the river rofl. I just enjoy being out there and talking with fellow anglers that show up at the same spot that I am at, I also get intel on new spots so that’s good also.

They all have their time and place, use what you want really. I like fluorocarbon in the river on casting setups, I also use braid in the river. I like 8lb braid on my spinning reels, the casting distance is amazing and breaking off is fairly easy. I have used mono in the past for jigs and it works for them also. I like braid for heavy cover but you can use heavier fluorocarbon depending on cover. I guess to sum it up use your favorite and have fun, if it works who can say that you are wrong.

I caught a few today on a variety of different plastics and got to fight a 26” or bigger pike for a little while before it bit through my fluorocarbon. I still have a blast even if the size is lacking, I am still catching fish on this gorgeous day.

A couple more things, I like the line through heads. Although they are hard to find locally, 1/8-3/8. The 4” senkos buy one get 50% off just like the crush city. I didn’t really need them but I wanted them for sure.

No he didn’t file a complaint lol. I was starting to get tired of it and saw my electric trimmers setting around while moving some stuff around and thought that I should use them again. Oh well I can grow one again if I get the urge to not shave for a while.

Great Lakes finesse juvy craw I think.

Yeah the beard finally went after 4 months or so lol. My pants got wet do to the water level being higher do to the recent rain today, along with climbing on the hill like a spider monkey with my two rods in my hand and tackle bag on my back to reach my wall.

Caught one today on a tube. On my 7 foot wall lol.

Yes I catch a lot of smallies out of the Kalamazoo river for sure. Not huge but they make up for it with there fiesty behavior lol. And I get to fish some of the craziest spots for them. Like today I was standing on a concrete wall on the edge of the spillway that was seven plus feet tall and I had to pull myself up to climb it. Along with traversing a wet moss covered rock with a rod in one hand and a backpack on my back. It’s always a fun adventure and that’s why I love it.

I caught a couple more today, one on a wacky rig and one on a swing head jig.

Yeah she definitely pulled good and hard in the current, but she was no match for my megabass tequila baccarat rod. The underspin is a mustad tactical bass infiltrator blade weighted swim bait hook. Local shops don’t have much in the way of owner flashy swimmer only 6/0 with a 3/8 weight. I thought that these ones had more throat to them to clear the hunk of plastic better.

A couple from a 30 minute trip to the river.

That’s the reason why I love fishing in the river, they might be small but they fight like crazy. My 745c Kaden is a heavy rod and they put a nice bend in it.

They sure are pure muscle, no doubt about it.

Well I caught 4 in a hour on 4 different plastics lol.

Well I had an interesting 2.5 hours of fishing after work today. I caught 5 in the time that I fished and I had a big pike more than likely, I doubt that it was a musky give me one heck of a fight. I got it within 5 feet of the bank and saw its size. Probably 35 inches plus and thrashing away in the shallows, the biggest one that I have ever stuck. My poor little dobyns 745c was no match for the fish, I felt like I was not in control of the battle. Tried my best to get the thing in through the narrow gaps along the bank, but the fish was not having any of that. Ended up snapping a point of the #3 treble hook and just swam off. The hook broke near the shank. I was honored to hook a fish like that but I really would have liked to have landed it but oh well. Looks like my tequila baccara might just have a new target species to break it in on. All in all it was a good day.

Yeah it’s definitely different from fishing a lake or pond. I had to rescue the larger fish on I got him to the bank. He unhooked himself and decided to try to burrow back to the water. I had to lift a couple rocks to get him out. I am very happy that I did though. I would try to grab him and he just kept going deeper into the rocks persistent little fellow lol.

I caught two small ones today, came right along the rip rap on a line through swim bait head. The small one came on a 4’ easy shiner and the slightly bigger one came on a 2.8 keitech. They both liked the crawl it and chop retrieve and would hit it close to the bank. Was a struggle to catch anything but I didn’t give up on catching something. Just have got to be creative and think outside the box sometimes. the rod was a dobyns kaden 745c and a slx xt xg was the reel with 30lb braid. The treble hook that I used was an extra megabass outbarb hook that I had lying around. I fish the river a lot and I don’t like leaving things behind. These hooks allow you to get your rig back easily if snagged and they definitely stick the fish.

I use a variety of different retrieves, work it like a walking bait with pauses. I pop it 3 times and let it sit. Pop walk pause. I use everything that I can think of and let them tell me how they want it.

Went fishing after work today, I have only been up 23 hours so far. Caught this one on a sungill fluke jr weightless on my bfs setup. They were shallow at Austin lake today and very skittish, but I put a pattern together to catch this tiny one. This park is very pressured so catching anything is a win. I hooked two smaller ones that got off before I could touch them.

Here’s what I caught yesterday after work and today after work. Yesterday fish all came on a shad fry z and a micro finesse shad jig head. Today was a 4” double ringer in black with red flake on a 3/32 all terrain Hail Mary football ned head. Black and red flake is going to be my new color of the year and I also got 2 largemouth and my bigger smallmouth today on that color combo. They were feeding very shallow around 9:15 am today. The fish are small but there still a fish and that’s good enough in my book lol, definitely beats a skunk 🦨

A few today, decided to fish instead of sleeping for work. I lost one equally big as the one trying to lift it up to me on the boardwalk. Was my fault I saw that the line was frayed and didn’t retie and the line snapped on the lift. 12lb braid that’s thinner than 6lb doesn’t like being frayed and strained. But I broke in one bfs setup, lure was a 3” hazedong shad on a 1/16 finesse shad head. All the fish came on it today, moral of the story retie when frayed lol, live and learn and don’t keep making rookie mistakes.