Two guys, a boat and a bucket of worms

Attachment 234024Attachment 234025Got a chance to hit the water with my buddy, Jeff. Rather than hit the crappie spot again we hooked up the boat and hit the Grand River. We have several shallow, muddy spots that load up with carp early in the year and they are a blast to catch. Only took Jeff about 5 minutes to land the first one and followed that with 3 more in short order. After a couple of moves I finally landed my first. Jeff followed with a 12 1/2 inch perch. I switched to a 1/16th oz crappie jig and found another perch pushing 13". We had to move around a bit but when we found fish they were willing to bite. We took 13 off one tree top and ended the day with 27 carp, two jumbo perch and the biggest goldfish I've ever seen. Everything was caught on crawlers 18" under a bobber mostly around brush. All in all a great day on the Mighty Grand!

the grand sure can be fun!
good job on the fish!

Nice Perch..

Hey, you found that goldfish I flushed down the toilet a few years back! Don't show my daughter, she thinks it died

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Originally Posted by wicklundrh

Hey, you found that goldfish I flushed down the toilet a few years back! Don't show my daughter, she thinks it died

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I've seen plenty of the small ones but never one this size. Wonder if there is a master angler for something this ugly. Maybe you should tell your daughter it didn't die, it immigrated to a better place.

If I remember correctly, it used to be illegal to use a gold fish as bait. For the exact reason why you see the photo above. I also knew an old guy that would go to the store and buy a 1/2 dozen of them and use them on Tip ups. He always killed the pike in the wintertime with them. When I lived in Okinawa they were everywhere. Coy ponds galore over there.

Definitely odd to see something of that color come out of the water here in Michigan. That is a really cool catch. I have caught one and seen others in a lake that looks very similar to the background of your photo. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact you said you were on the grand river, I would have thought you were on that particular lake. It also has some nice perch and big crappie in it.

FYI: the lake I am referring to is called "Mudd Lake". Actually a water shed and is behind the 50 yard line of the Haslet high school football field! Have to walk a narrow path through the sticks to get to it. Most don't even know it is there. One of the many little hot spots I used to find and fish when I lived in town

Those are some dandy perch and brilliant coloration. The goldfish is huge. My best minnow pond (at church) went south when someone let some goldfish go in it. You could walk around it and see big clouds of orange.

I hope that you killed it

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Originally Posted by fiveeyes

I hope that you killed it

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The only fish that met their maker were the two perch. All 27 carp and the the goldfish that used to belong to wicklundrh went back in. I'm no tree hugger but I figure if I don't have a use for it why kill it. Plus, we target carp throughout the summer and don't mind having lots of fish around. The stretch of river we fish is in Ionia County and people would be amazed if they knew the variety of fish present. We've had days where we caught 8 or 9 different species in one trip. We catch plenty of fish to eat throughout the year on the local lakes but when we have an afternoon to fish and want to catch lots of fish and have some that fight we head to the river.

This video reminded me of this post. Check out the goldfish they shot over by Saginaw Bay!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiEZXeGU-M4