JohnI get a call around 9:00 PM on March 11th from a buddy asking if I want to tag along the following morning to 6th Street Dam. After asking for permission from my lovely wife, I told my buddy that I’ll swing by his house at 5:00 AM so we can get there by 6:00 AM.
I get to his house house, we leave, and half-way into the drive, the winter storm comes. The roads are starting to become icy and there’s about 20 yards of visibility through the falling snow. All of us are already thinking “we should turn around and call it quits”. But then, on the other hand, we’re already halfway, why not just keep going since it’ll take the same amount of time to get home as it will to get to Grand Rapids? We all decide to proceed and hope for the best.
We eventually make it. It’s about 6:30 AM and I see a couple boats already on the river. The wind and snow is blowing at near tornado speeds, the cloudy skies are still making it dark, and I’m trying to slip the end of a 6 pound fluorocarbon leader through the eye of a size 6 Raven Speciality Hook using the dim lit streetlight. At this point, I have no idea why we’re out here, but I proceed to get my Lamiglas Redline pole set up and start fishing.
For about two hours, I’m moving up and down the bank trying all different egg patterns, hook sizes, leaders, colors, variations – you name it; nothing seems to be working. By this time, the river has a considerable amount of boats, but no one seems to have solved what the fish want yet. Even so, I try to enjoy the brisk weather and the beautiful sound of people arguing – my guess is that someone has parked their boat a little too close to someone else’s. In my opinion, the shouting adds that perfect touch, the chef’s kiss, to fishing in a concrete jungle.
Thankfully, within the next hour, I notice the boats are starting to net fish. I’m thinking maybe the fish gods have granted us a window of opportunity. I clear some line off my reel and reset everything. I pull out my go to setup, drift fishing an 8mm Bloop Master Roeshi bead on a size 6 Raven Speciality Hook. A few casts later, I’ve got my first steelie on.
It peels 30 yards off my reel and we end up at a standstill for a minute or so. I’m trying to pull this buck in, but he won’t budge – he’s also leveraging the river current to his advantage. I notice boats starting to move around and I didn’t want my line to get caught by them, so I do a quick little prayer in hopes my line doesn’t snap and I start forcing this fish in. A few minutes later, I’ve got a fresh steelie on land and I feel like a million bucks.
After resetting my Lamiglas pole with the same setup, I cast a handful of times, and I’m on again! I’m thinking to myself what are the odds of catching TWO steelies this quick? After I set the hook, I see this hen leap out of the water as if it was trying to jump over the dam itself. It makes a quick 15 yard run, but I go back to my previous strategy and force this fish in before my line is caught by any moving boats. After a few minutes, I’ve got a beautiful silver bullet hen in a net. What success.
After that, I felt like my day was complete. I slowly reset my gear and take a five minute breather by conversing with my neighboring fisherman that came all the way from Detroit. I told him that it’s cool with me if he wants to come closer. It seems the fish are on my side of the drift anyway. I also enjoy watching other people catch fish. After some conversation, I cast and as I’m ready to start reeling in – fish on!
I’m laughing at myself for two reasons. First, how ignorant I may look to others for catching fish so quickly. If I saw myself, I’d be thinking there was some illegal snagging going on. And secondly, I’m cracking up because I’ve never been so lucky before; I’m confident this has nothing to do with skill at this point. Anyway, like the first hen, this second hen does a ton of splashing and spinning, but I eventually get it in the net. I had my three for the day and told my neighbor to come fish my spot and wished him luck. I think he might’ve actually had a couple on, but couldn’t bring them in.
My buddies fish for a couple of hours and decide to call it. Before I left, I had to take a quick picture of this ridiculous trip:
Thanks for reading! Tight lines, everyone!
