I spent all day Sunday on a Salmon fishing trip, on Lake Michigan with my Aunts and cousins and thought you might enjoy seeing some Michigan sights. We left the house at 3 am and boarded the fishing boat at 6 am.
It was very heavy fog, and sorda felt like a scene out of some horror movie. I was waiting for a sea creature to leap out of the water and attack at any moment. As we traveled out of the canal our boat captain gave us a quick how to with the fishing poles.
We caught sight of the lighthouse as we passed the pier, waiting to get far enough out to drop our lines in the water. I do believe we had 14 lines in the water for 5 people. It was a girls day out and we were ready to bring in the big one.
Finally the fog started to burn off and the sun started to rise, so I took the opportunity to snap a few photos. It’s amazing how daylight changes the appearance of everything and what looked scary in the fog was quite harmless at sunrise.
By now we had our lines in the water, the waves were lapping against the boat, and the water was really churning. At some point my cousin’s daughter started feeling sea sick. She was wearing the wristbands that are supposed stop nausea but they didn’t seem to work for her.
After she couldn’t take it anymore she decided she needed to go back to shore and get her feet on solid ground. The captain turned the boat around and headed back to shore. Luckily his wife met us at the pier and picked up my cousin and her daughter and me and my two aunts headed back out to fish.
It’s quite a production to real in all those poles, store them, and get set to head to shore again. The lines are out so far that it takes forever to bring them in and one person, the captain’s son, is doing all the work.
By now it’s 10 am and the sun is further up in the sky, the lake is beautiful, and we start to see other boats drifting about. Right about then my fishing pole makes a bend and I snag the big one. I start reeling with all my might, and as it finally gets closer the boat hand says……Ah I hate to tell you this but it’s not a fish. He offered to finish bringing it in but I said NO…..I wanted to land whatever was on the end of my lure.
Well this is what I caught, a hunk of grass (insert sad face here). It sure gave me a good fight for only being grass. I grabbed my camera and said someone take a pic of me and my catch of the day (for some reason I look quite proud of that weed). My Aunt’s were calling it a Grass Bass.
Back out my line went and we drifted all around Lake Michigan in search of King Salmon. I spotted a beautiful sailboat, and I’m quite surprised how close it got to our fishing lines. They either don’t realize they’re out there or they don’t care. We fished for 9 hours and I was the only one that caught anything, and it wasn’t even edible 🙁
So finally after a long day with little excitement we headed back into shore. The pretty red building is at the end of the South Pier, where people gather to fish and walk. It was a beautiful day, mostly cloudy so it wasn’t hot and no one was getting sunburned.
The lighthouse sure looks different when it’s not surrounded by fog. I was able to capture lots of photos as we trolled back into the no wake zone. It was 3 pm and everyone was trying to dock and the canal was quite congested.
Our Captain was patient and waited his turn but by now I was ready to get off, use the bathroom, and get something to eat. I had plenty of time to think about lunch since we weren’t occupying ourselves with catching fish. I even noticed my Aunts dozing off from time to time.
We had had a storm on Saturday and apparently Salmon feed before a big storm and aren’t’ hungry the next day, so that’s the reason we didn’t bag the big one. Hopefully we’ll have better luck next year. So what do you think of my catch?
You did not bag the big one, but it looks like you had a great time!…..Gorgeous photos Dawn!
No Shirley I did not 🙁 but it was a great day spent with family.
Glad you pulled your grass bass in! Great shots and looks like a fun day.
Kim, I told the drive if I kept catching that type of fish I would need to become a vegetarian.
Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing your “adventure”!
Shelly, lol it was quite the day!
I didn’t realize you lived near Grand Haven!!!! I had my first teaching job at a Lutheran School in Conklin! I loved it there!!!
Debbie, I’m about 2 hours from Grand Haven but it’s worth the drive. Beautiful area 🙂
We just had the Salmon Run here in Idaho the last few weeks! You need to come here to experience the run and watch as they lay their new eggs!
Debbie that would be wonderful I’ve never been to Idaho 🙂
Dawn, what beautiful pictures. Even though you didn’t catch that big fish you were hoping for, you had a great day with family and that’s what you’ll remember. My sister and I grew up fishing with my dad. Many times we spent the whole day on the lake and wouldn’t catch anything, but looking back those were the best days ever.
Becky I agree it was a great day spent with family. I love to fish and would like to learn to fly fish. Me and my brother spent every summer fishing all day long when it was summer break we had some great memories to look back on 🙂
OMG Dawn, I never would have thought you would catch grass so far out in the lake.
It’s a good photo of you with your Grass Bass. I would’ve looked rotten if I’d been up since 3AM.
Love the photos of the lighthouse too!
Kim, oh my I certainly had my fishing hair doo going on and was dressed like a boy but it was fun.
You may only have bagged a Grass Bass, but your photos were worth the fishing trip! beautiful pics.!
Thank you Angie, it was a beautiful experience 🙂
Dawn,
Just gorgeous pictures. Ohhhhhh so beautiful. You capture the beauty of the day so well.
Kris
Thank you Kris I was so thankful it didn’t storm like the day before.
I love this post Dawn! And I’d love to fish for salmon. Too bad you didn’t get any to take home and cook up… but you certainly caught some fabulous pictures!
Yvonne I didn’t know you were a fisherwoman 🙂 My favorite way of fishing is with a cane pole off a pontoon boat but this was fun too.
Oh my!!! did you ever bring back a flash of wonderful memories….my first time out in a boat more like a cabin cruiser was on Lake Michigan!!! Summer of ’69. I didn’t even catch some grass but my dad caught a few and they tied it to the back of the boat. By the time we reached shore we had no fish – we forgot to bring them in!!! We got caught in a storm making the waves frothy and quite high and scary!! Throughout many many many years those fish got bigger and bigger and bigger with every passing story!!! LOL!!! Sadly it was my one and only trip to Michigan but it was very memorable…thanks for bringing that memory back!!!
Aww, how fun to recapture the memory. The boat captain said no matter what size salmon is caught you may as well bring it aboard, if you turn it loose it will die anyway. I guess they will fight till the death when trying to be reeled in so if you turn them loose they are too tired to survive. Interesting I thought.
Just beautiful Dawn…this is what I love about reading blogs…I get to see so much of this country that I would never get to see otherwise…Thanks for sharing..I love seeing lighthouses…
Nancy I love lighthouses too, I need to do a Michigan tour of them.
I think you had a great time. Catching something would have been great, but just being out on the water looks like fun enough. Beautiful pictures too. Thanks for sharing.
Becky I love to fish and would love to learn to fly fish but it looks difficult to do.