Rarely do I get to spend much time with my grandson Lucas who lives in Battle Creek MI, but our visit to Elkhart provided a great opportunity. Lucas is a high school junior preparing for finals week, a talented hockey goalie in between seasons and working a job in the evenings, so he is a very busy guy. He is also an avid fisherman! Luckily we caught him with a free day so we hired a guide and arranged a fishing trip in southern Michigan - reasonable driving distance from here in Elkhart, and also from Battle Creek.
Absolutely gorgeous morning as the sun rises above the lake
We arrived at the prearranged meeting point which is a public boat ramp in Constantine MI. We planned to meet about 0630 hrs at the boat launch so it was a very early morning for all of us! There is a dam on the St Joe River which forms a lake above the dam. The lake/river looked like a piece of glass this morning. The sky was clear and the temperature was warming. Soon thereafter my daughter Jennifer arrived with grandson Lucas and our guide Derek Weurding arrived with his boat,.
Derek is an elementary school teacher that guides fishing trips in his spare time all over southern Michigan. Soon he launched the boat, we loaded up and were headed upriver.
Along the way we saw water foul of all sorts and some beautiful cottages along the shore. There were very few other boats out.
Fishing and boating have evolved with technology like everything else. Derek used his larger outboard motor to get us up the river and once there used his trolling motor to maneuver us. There is nothing magical about that, but what is pretty cool is the trolling motor's wireless remote control he has hanging around his neck on a lanyard and the fact that it is GPS-enabled. Our guide pushed a button on the remote, and the trolling motor will keep us in one spot, based on our GPS coordinates! How awesome!
So we headed up river, stopping at a few spots and tried various lures fishing mostly for small mouth bass. Our guide varied our lures and coached us on some different styles of presentation. It was not long before Lucas hauled in the first catch of the day, a large mouth bass. We released all of the bass that were caught.
We continued to fish and Lucas seemed to have the touch. The guide did not fish but kept Lucas and I well equipped, switching our rods with different lures to try and also operated the trolling motor to put us in good position relative to the lily pads and shore. We switched from fishing for small mouth bass to fishing for blue gills which Lucas wanted to keep. They started to bite and we were hauling them in, and some nice sized ones too!
We alternated between fishing for bass and fishing for blue gills and Lucas caught another bass. But before we knew it the morning had clicked by and it was time to head back to the boat ramp.
Once the boat was back on the trailer our guide set up a portable cleaning station to clean Lucas's blue gills to take home. He carries this in the back of his pickup and it is simple but effective.
We had a great day fishing and some quality time with Lucas. We are so proud of this young man. He recently almost "aced" his ASVAB tests for qualification in the military. His goal is to be a aerial gunner/combat flight engineer in the United States Air Force like his dad was, He also plans to start his electrician apprenticeship this summer as another skill set.
While we were headed back to dock I received a text from Jennifer that she had driven to Elkhart and picked up Doreen at the campground, then headed to Zimmy's Tavern in Union MI for lunch. So Lucas and I headed there to meet up with them. We had a great lunch and then said goodbye to them. We hope to see them Wednesday night for dinner when our son-in-law James and grand daughter Lindsey will be able to join us. Today Lindz had a volleyball tournament in Grand Rapids and James was with her.
Back at the campground we relaxed a bit, took Liberty for a walk and greeted many of the newly arriving Ally's. The "south 40" area of the campground is really filling up! More and more each day. No big plans for tomorrow other than maybe a run to the store.
No comments:
Post a Comment