Lake St. Clair and Detroit

[Rob VanGorder]

Unfortunately my son Luke and I will miss the Can-Am this year, but we decided to take a few days and do our 2nd annual father/son muskie hunt. We stayed up at Rochester for three nights and managed to not fall in the Ruscom River or lose any phones in the same. Last year's mishaps were replaced by tent camping three nights in the wind and thunderstorms.

The weather did not cooperate, but the fish did. We got blown off the lake or ran from incoming lightning several times, but we did manage about 18 hours of trolling on the lake over 3 days. We took the calmest morning (Monday) and made the run to the Detroit River to do some casting.

The clarity on the river was so-so but the weeds look green and thick. We did not raise or boat any fish on the river. The lake was a different story. Over the three days we went 15 for 27 with four other good rips. Not bad for 18 hours work and a lot of running upwind to troll downwind. We ran boards a little on the first night, but mostly ran four boat rods. I'd post a hot bait or depth, but it didn't seem to matter to the fish. Whatever I put out, they smacked, from a trolling spoon up high (thanks Dennis) to a tuff shad deep. Wileys and Tuffs, bright and dark, high or low, didn't matter. They all got hit. If I have anything to offer for those going up this weekend for the Can-Am, we caught bigger fish high and subs down deep.

Luke scored the big fish on Father's Day at 46.5" and lost another that was in that class or better on Monday. He also lost one on a full aerial boatside jump that was probably low 40's. The remainder of our fish ranged from chunky subs to a 37". The subs loved me as he got 7 legals to my 4, and he's not letting me forget it!

I saw Mark's post and I'll share we had a little trouble chasing down my Ontario license because I assumed I would just get it at Deerbrook. I wanted an annual, but ended up with an eight day at the gas station in Belle River because that was all they had. Another comment that might help avoid problems for some, is that Deerbrook Marina does not have a permit to sell gas at this time. They think they will have it in another month or so. I motored in there and found this out and had to cross my fingers I had enough to run to Belle River Marina.

Good luck to everyone heading up to the Ray Demers Memorial Can-Am this coming weekend. Great event and good people, and Luke and I will be back up there next year for it on our 3rd annual muskie hunt.

[alleycatlures]

Way to go Luke! Good luck at Eagle Rob.
Cliff

[Mark Steinert]

Good job guys and nice pics.