Fireworks, Cold Beer and Hammer-Handles

Every great fishing trip has three things: 1. Good Fishing 2. A go-to- lure 3. And a memorable theme song. Armed with some spinner baits and braving ridiculously hi temps, me and the boys laid the hammer-down on some bass, walleye and pike. We landed approx 30 fish in 4 days of fishing at Lost Lake Woods Club.

Spinner baits were the go-to lure. Willow-leaf spinners with Chartreuse skirts accented with orange or white triggered strikes from a bunch of hammer-handle pike, one perch and even a couple walleye. Rubber frogs and soft plastics brought a few fish to the boat. The walleye (above) was caught on a wacky rigged Bass Pro Shops Stick-O in a baby bass color pattern. My brother landed his largest bass ever, a solid 5 lb largemouth (below) on a Watermelon Candy BrushHog.

The majority of the fish were holed up in 20 fow with access to deep lillypads. Around 4 pm the pike and bass would cruise into the pads. They absolutely smashed rubber frogs providing some great strikes but not a lot of hook-sets.

Fishing the correct type of vegetation made a huge difference. The fish were hiding in Grassbeds which is probably why spinnerbaits worked so well. With a slim profile, single hook and blade to cut through the grass these lures got down to where the fish where hiding with a natural presentation. The slower we rolled those spinners the more strikes we got.

When you’re fishing for Northern Pike never give up on a cast. Work that bait all the way back to the boat and scour the water for a sign of a trailing fish. A nice pike (probably 30+ inches) followed a BrushHog as I retrieved it out of the lillypads and down the steep dropoff. I saw him lurking right next to the boat as I brought the bait up. I opened the bail and wiggled the bait and he came out of the water at the lure. He trashed that bait, slashed it in half with his brillo pad of teeth, missed the hook by about half-an-inch leaving me with a nub of a BrushHog and that sick “what if” feeling in my gut.

This pike was one of the few fish we caught while trolling a stickbait. Again, he was hanging out in a grassbed in about 18 fow adjacent to shallow flats. My brother hooked into this one at about 7 am.

The most successful angler of the weekend was my brother-in-law who traveled up from Georgia to fish over the long holiday weekend. He knows his way around a lake filled with big largemouths but quickly became the “King of Pike” as the hammer-handles couldn’t resist his spinnerbaits. Bro Bri has a couple of great pointers on fishing a spinnerbait. 1. Never, ever, ever give up on a spinnerbait. 2. Fish any color spinnerbait you want…as long as it’s Chartreuse.

He caught his first walleye and first pike on this trip. Growing up fishing in Northern Michigan I couldn’t tell you how many hammer-handles I’ve caught. But watching Bro Bri boat pike after pike with a cold beer in my hand was a great way to spend a weekend.

We had great fishing and a go-to- lure. To round out the trifecta we called in the services of Colt Ford. The first “Country Rapper” I’ve ever heard of would have been proud as we belted out his song each time we released a fish. Hey Bro Bri you may have caught more fish than me this weekend….but at least “there ain’t no trash, in my trailer”. Click the link to watch the video for this classic country-rap tune. http://bit.ly/b1Tmhf

Good luck fishing this week.