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Message Subject: St.Claire Friday night. Pere Marquette this morning.

walleye express

Posted 8/29/2010 4:44 PM (#93699)
Subject: St.Claire Friday night. Pere Marquette this morning.

Member

Posts: 2680

Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay.

Don't mean to interupt the "Once was Hidden debate"

We jig fished hard last night (10-27-10) for about 4 hours in some rough conditions on the St.Claire. The light SSW winds predicted turned into 12 to 15 SE sustained (straight up-river) and made boat control (especially in 30 to 50 FOW) and in fast current a nightmare. Staying vertical was almost impossible for much of the drift cycles and there seemed to be an over abundance of moss-like weeds on the bottom the jigs would collect. Many (if not all) the other boats around us were having the same problems and bad luck it seemed, as all we saw landed last night was one other fish. And for as close as everybody fishes to each other on this river, it's fairly easy to tell and see when somebody lands one. We also heard that the hand liners were having much better luck further down river, making one wonder if the main school of fish had moved down there because of recent cooler nights.

I was both lucky and un-lucky last night and had the hot hand. I landed 2 and missed 5 or 6 others, loosing 2 half way up. My son Brian (very new to jig fishing) let alone doing it in this deep of water, lost one himself. All in all it was a good time with my son Brian, who I seldom get a chance to see, let alone fish with. And adding another trip to mine and Nicks resume wasn't a bad thing either. Not sure when and if I'll get back there again this summer. Things are bound to break loose here on the Bay soon. (I HOPE)

Then after yesterdays call (8-28-10) from a friend telling me the Pere Marquette River was loaded with King Salmon, I and Reel Fishin made plans and headed to the River this morning 10-29-10. We arrived at 6:40am and what we found was a very far cry from a river loaded with Kings. After 24 years of fishing this river I sensed as much right away, when we were met with only 2 cars (and no trailers) in the riverside launch and parking lot. And add to that is was a weekend day with this little traffic, I knew something was fishy and it probably wasn't the river. But hey we were here on a river I love and know well, and like seeing and old girlfriend, I couldn't help but feel that old spark seeing her again.

Even though the water temp was 64 degrees, and as it turned out we only seen 2 fish all day make a splash, this finalized my assesment that the river is not full of fish like I was told. But of course the one thing we did have going for us is my 24 years of knowledge guiding and fishing on this river and no other boats to disturb the holes where the few fish in the river might be. So Mark and I started to dissect each hole mostly un-disturbed by boat traffic. I told Mark to keep his casts very close to the banks and in the shade if possible. I started out with about a 23 inch Pike, fallowed closely by his twin brother. Both bad signs, as the pike in the river (no matter how big) seem to go into hiding when the Kings get thick.

It was about 8:45am, two hours fishing time with 2 pike to show for our efforts when we finally arrived in one of my better spots and anchored out of the sun, which was coming on strong. Mark changed over to a firetiger T-stick jr. and on his second cast hooked into about a 15 pounder. The battle was strong but short lived and the fish simply came off the hook. 30 minutes later I switched over to a firetiger and on the 5 or 6th cast Bang. A very nice 20+ pound female crushed the T-stick, 2 turns on the reel away from the far bank. Made two nice jumps and peeled 100 feet of very stiff drag up-river. I finally got her stopped and turned back downstream and we landed her. Long story short, I went 4 for 5. I landed another male, jack king of about 6 pounds that short jammed me next to the boat, with about 2 feet of line out and lost another King that hit mere inches from the bank and under a tree limb. Mark lost the one king he had on and caught a very nice pike (about +30) that we kept. Few things better then Trout fed Pike. I'll be going back in the middle of next week again. I want about 3 nice kings for canning.

Edited by walleye express 8/29/2010 4:52 PM

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