Tippy last week/ Lake Michigan yesterday

Tippy was my destination last week. The wind blew all day however I managed 30 plus largemouth and white bass. Not really a whole lot to say, I just got into em last week. After fishing at Tippy for most of the day I started home and stopped at Robinson for some scum frog action, I landed 3.
I took a picture of the spider culvert that I have to go through to get to the lake.
Well that was last week.
I've been waiting for a couple days were it was cool enough at night and not windy, to be able to get up to the big lake and fish for a couple days. Well I finally got my wish this week. I started up to The Dunes Wed. to set up camp and cook some supper, get a good nights sleep and get to fishin bright and early. Catch my limit by noon head back to camp, put some fresh salmon on the fire, have an adult beverage, go to bed and do it again the next day.
Well that was how I envisioned it, this is how it went down.......
I got to the Dunes around 8pm to a sign that said,"campground full" oh crap. I head on up to the gate and ask if there are any more sites left open. The guard calls in to the office an tells me there is one site left.
Man do I have good luck.
Well I pay the 5 bucks to enter.
I go to the camp office only to find out I can only have the site for 1 night. It seems it is reserved for the next night. I had the option to be at the campground before 2 pm to see if anything else is available. Now remember the whole reason for the camping is to stay close to the lake and have more time to fish and not drive home beat axx tired.
So I paid the 18 bucks for a site that I won't even be able to put a tent up at or leave anything behind when I leave to go fishin at 4:30 in the am.
I called Sarah to tell her what's going on. She gave me her condolences and urges me to make the best of it, since this is the only camping trip I will go on this year.
Ok, time to make supper so I put the duck that I bought on the fire to cook. By the time it's done I came to the conclusion that the campers to the right and in back of me have approx. 6 (loud) kids between them.
I finish supper while watching the comings and goings of people going to and coming from the camp facilities. The crapper was close enough for me to hit it with a rock.
After the rousing game of cross campground Marco Polo, played by my neighbors and 3 other random kids (which stopped being cute after the 4th round) it finally turned 10pm.
This is the best part- I got to unload all my camping gear from my truck and sleep in the bed under my tonneau cover.
Even though they call it a "bed" trust me when I say it is not comfortable.
Time to crawl under the cover and get some sleep....... oh good the dad's of the two sites decided to see who could drink more beer...... I really don't know who won but they finally gave up or passed out at 3 am. I tossed and turned until 4 am. With no sleep in sight, and a mosquito buzzing in my ear. I got up, took a shower, packed up my "campsite" and headed out to do some fishing.
I got to the landing with plenty of time to get my boat ready.







This was Chicago in the morning.




















This was the afternoon










So as you can see the Lake really wasn't cooperating with my plan either.
Well I trolled for 13 hours, then I pulled in my lines and slow rolled into the marina.
I managed to land 2 fish, one king and a coho. I went 2 for 10 (that means 10 got away) I had 3 come unbuttoned within 10 feet of the boat.
For my next trip up I think I'm going to try this new thing called "hooks", and see if that up's my hooking to landing ratio.

Fishing is done for the day. Now I had the option to try and find a campground and sleep in the bed of my truck again, or drive home 3 hours dead axx tired........ It was a long drive.
I would've been better off just biting the bullet and making the drive like I always do.

4 hours sleep
$110.00 for gas,lodging,entry fees,ext.....
2 fish
and still driving home dead axx tired....priceless

13 1/2 hours washin lures

Yep sometimes you gotta pay your dues, and for me that day was yesterday.
I went up to the big lake and spent 13 1/2 hours washing lures.
The day was a new experience for me, I have often read the fishing reports of members before I hit the lake, and wondered how can anyone miss a fish let alone 5 or 6? I was even listening to Brothernature tell 5 Orrs how they were 0 for 6 with the two guys he took out. I couldn't help but think how can you loose that many fish?
Usually the luck I have is really good or I don't get bit at all. Yesterday I went 0 for 4 of which 2 were my fault. They just wouldn't stay buttoned up, lost one tryin to get my dipsy pole out of the holder (first time out with this new pole, I will get a new holder), and the other I couldn't reel my rigger rod fast enough or smooth enough to catch up to the fish.
It was like take an amateur fishing day on the big lake and I was the amateur.
Anyway the weather was pretty good and the wind died down as the day progressed although it didn't play a big factor at any point in the day.
This is what I watched most of the day

These are all the lures I washed yesterday- I missed fish on the bumblebee,2 on mag blu dolphin, bomber. I forgot to put my flies in the pic they were a green tinsel and glo white with green.
Next time I go up I'm camping out at the dunes and fishing the next day to double my chances of bringin home either 1 fish or 2 day limit to make up for yesterday.

Stormy day fishin

I went to Tippy Lake yesterday and weathered the storm to fish the whole day. I got to the Lake with the knowledge a storm, she was a brewin, but thought I had til 2pm before it hit. I was wrong, the blast came at 8 am with plenty of thunder, lightning and of course massive raindrops.
So I did what any fishing idiot would. I hightailed it to the culvert and hide out til the lightning stopped. Yep there I was holding my boat straight in a dark,low, spider infested culvert while I waited out the storm.
I was only a stone's throw away from the landing but,"I came here to fish".
After the storm blew over I was able to try and dry out the boat and all else in it. The day actually turned out to be pretty nice with a couple showers coming and going fairly quickly.
By the way to all those who say," fishing is better in the rain". Have you actually ever fished in the rain??? I was envisioning a dramatic improvement in my cast to harassed bass ratio and it never did materialize. So, just one more fisherman's tail put to rest as far as I'm concerned.
Anywho, I was able to manage some scrappers and a couple decent bass on a scum frog. Which by the way, I had just recently purchased a new scum frog because my old one was on it's last leg. Now I had that one for at least 2 years, this new one lasted ONE outing. I will not purchase another scum frog from here on out. I did get a spro frog, I hope it lasts a while.
If you look close at this picture you can see I brought along my own deck lounge for some lounging. Actually I got to my first spot and saw it floating in the water. I didn't want anyone to hit it, so I fished it out and held onto it all day. Now I'm going to clean it up and sell it, who said fishing isn't profitable?

2 fer

Since I missed last weeks update I shall review last week and this week all in one, yes one entry. So hang on cause here comes the fun.
Last week I went to Big Turkey to try my luck with some walleye and bass. I started out the day with light winds from the SE. As the day went on the wind started to get stronger and stronger so I switched to trolling to try for some walleye. I managed 1 walleye, 1 perch and a bass, after trolling for a couple hours I cut off the trolling motor and started casting again. I went over to a sunken island and casted across it for bass. I had a great time and caught quite a few bass off this island with a spinnerbait. The one walleye I managed came home with me, here's the pic.Tues of this week I went to Nyona Lake to try for some wipers (which we all know is a cross between a white bass and a striper). I got to the lake kinda late cause of the drive and bad map skills, to tell ya the truth I have a problem getting to this lake every time. I managed one bass in open water, there wasn't a whole lot of bass chasing. After a couple of hours on Nyona I went over to S. Mud which is only a couple of minutes away. I caught 1 small largemouth and wasted a couple hours here. I moved back to Nyona and started casting with a scum frog ( I love catching fish this way) the bass started to add up. I stayed on Nyona til a bass tourny started and that was my que to move lakes. Here's the pic of one of the better scum frog bass.
When the tourny showed up I moved to Robinson lake and managed 1 small largemouth in only an hour before dark.

Now those of you who know me know hunting is never far from my mind especially duck hunting. This year I decided to paint my layout blinds instead of mudding them and I think they turned out pretty good. The bad news is I didn't get before pics so you cant really see the difference but the good news is no more mudding the blind every year here's the pic of the finished

3 lake day

Well this was the first day I could get out in the past couple of weeks because of rain. I have also been working alot, and I just got my schedule changed from thirds to weekends. I am really looking forward to doing alot of fishing and hunting this year.
Now back to Mon, I went to Max and hooked up a smallie and a largemouth before the wind kicked in. I then trailered up and moved to Bass lake where I trolled up a nice crappie. After trolling for a couple hours with no other hits I gave away my crappie and started home. I stopped on the way at Pike lake and did some more casting, where I hooked up a small walleye. I threw him back and kept casting the point I caught him on to no avail. So I packed up and went home.
So until next week, tight lines.