ypsi~dixit

I was fishing on the Huron yesterday. The fish were biting surprisingly well for the middle of the day. I was feeling quite proud of myself since I had spotted two different blue herons that were standing stock-still in the underbrush, completely hidden.
Then I cast my line, and during the retrieve, it seemed to be tangled in some abandoned fishing line. Then the line began to move. I had snagged someone's line who was fishing from shore. I felt like a complete jackass. In my defense, she was expertly camoflaged in the trees. Perhaps she be descended from the Potameides.

From what I hear it is the lady who felt like a dope for not retrieving her line when she saw the white-crafter coming, casting as he came.

It was a perfect day to be out on the water and it looked so fun to be floating.

The carp were livelier than usual, perhaps freshened up by the rainfall.

The rain was a big help, as it raised the level of the river. There are sections that get very shallow this time of the year, but they were no problem yesterday.
Some people theorize that a big rain helps the fishing. They feel that the water washes all kinds of food into the river, sparking a piscine free for all.
I did hook the biggest, fattest smallmouth i've ever seen, but it broke my line at the boat. At one point in the fight, it jumped out of the water and bounced off the top of my kayak. It was not much smaller than the carp in your photo.

A smallmouth about the size of a carp? Wow. I can just picture it leaping up and bouncing off the kayak. Amazing.

May I ask, LF, where are the trouble spots tending to shallowness? Just out of curiosity.

The stretch from Peninsular Paper to Frog Island is very shallow in July and August. I was scraping rocks through there a couple of weeks back, but yesterday was smooth sailing.
There is also a section by the A2 water treatment plant, just east of Dixboro road, that can get bad. The area by Island park and the Arb in Ann Arbor gets shallow, and there are some bad spots between Dexter and Ann Arbor.
Canoes tend to have more trouble than kayaks. Don't know about inflatables, though.

Thank you LF. That is very helpful.

Incidentally I forgot to say (because I was so surprised) that I was amazed that Mr. White Craft was you. Had no idea. That is a very nice boat you have.

It looked like you gentlemen were using special short poles. Is there a special name for such a pole? Just wondering.

I'm not sure what those guys were using, but I was using a five foot ultralight pole (an Ugly Stick I might add), 4 lb test line, 1/16 weight jig heads and white grub bodies. That set up is great for rock bass, panfish and smallmouth bass on the Huron. Unless, of course, you hook into a two pound smallmouth. And there's no way gear like that can handle a carp.
A six and a half foot rod and six pound line would be better all around gear for fishing the Huron.
Just upstream from where you were, there was a 30" Pike hung up in some branches. I couldn't tell what killed it. It seemed completely intact. Maybe the Dixboro bridge construction did it in. Anyway, it was an impressive fish.

Wow, I missed the Pike, even though I hiked about a mile north of Moss Island just out of curiosity. Was it hung up in the big island in the center of the river, about half a mile north of Moss Island? I would have loved to see that fish.

I'm kind of surprised; for some reason I thought Pike preferred deeper pits than are in the river.

The info about the ultralight rig is very informative. Thanks for telling me what you use. I have a 6 foot pole with 6 lb line at present. I imagine that with an ultralight , you would really feel the fish.

No better way to spend the afternoon, that's for sure.

LF;

Where we fishing today?

Househusband

You can hide. But you can't run

Ypsidixit's spot on her beloved Moss Island offers concealment from every boater coming downstream. Except for one lynx-eyed gentleman, who spots her every time, camo clothing or no. From now on Y. will be fishing from a special spot so secluded and obscure that no one without heat-detecting radar will be able to see her. From that comfy spot Y. will scrutinize river-goers at her leisure, right at the shore yet invisible, beating even the wily Blue Heron in her concealment strategies.

Shiny glasses are like glowing animal eyes in a headlight. Everytime.

Hah. I just bought a special translucent anti-shine coating gel with which to foil glasses-spotters. I'm so damn myopic glasses don't make much difference anyways. But from now on, the specs will be obscured in matte obscurity.

(organizes her tackle box in anticipation, whistling nonchalantly).

Pike like to sit still in vegetation and wait for prey to swim by. I recently saw a juvenile pike sitting in 18" of water in Williams lake. It was eyeballing a bluegill that was hung up in some chicken wire someone had thrown in the lake. The little pike couldn't figure out how to eat it.

I saw a guy catch a 24" pike just upstream from Moss Island one day, right by the bird viewing blind across the river (you get to it from parker mill). The river is about four feet deep there.

I've seen the bird viewing blind, and assume he was fishing in waders in the river. Pike are amazing fish. Did the one you saw ever figure out how to eat the bluegill? Are pike edible? I read somewhere, if I remember right, that they are fine eating fish. Fierce fighters too, with a mouthful of wicked teeth to saw through any wire leader. "Sharks of the Huron."

apparently they're good to eat.

Forget wire leaders; pike can chomp rods into flinders.

A couple of summers back, I was kayak fishing one of the inland lakes at the south end of Beaver Island and I hooked a pike. I was completely unprepared for it - I was using six pound line and no leader, just catching bass on a spoon. I got a big fish on, fought it to the boat thinking it was a walleye (it didn't fight as wildly as a bass would) and when it's head broke the surface, it flashed me a big toothy grin. As I tried to find my pliers, I had visions of the fish biting me and my blood flowing like a faucet as I paddled back to shore. It wriggled and bit through the line, solving the dilemma.

LF: That is amazing. Yes, how would you have taken the hook out without risking a good chomp? If it can pulverize a fishing rod, a human hand is nothing.

LF: I see that pike can indeed inflict a nasty wound. Newcomers beware!