Of Justin, Bait and Men

Welcome to visitors of this blog looking for info on the star of the Award winning and Funniest Show on TV, Arrested Development. As of this writing, Arrested Development is still Cancelled.

There is an old quote that goes:

"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

Well, Justin must really be concentrating, because he's short one rod and reel.
Here is a Picture of Justin expertly handling a nice Bass he caught up at Lake Lancer.

Unfortunately, as Lord Grey said, "It is our lost fish that I believe stay longest in memory, and seize upon our thoughts whenever we look back on fishing."

Later that morning, as we were preparing to move to another location, a fish took Justin's pole and yanked it over the side of the boat in about 12 feet of water. Not to worry. Joe threw a powder sugar donut hole on the water to mark the spot where the rod and reel is.

Dave hopes to put his deep sea diving skills to the test this summer and look for the rod and reel.

Good news though. Justin got his bait back Here is a sample of what the Killer Lure looked like...except that it was green.

He had earlier caught a fish (or was that later?) on the tried and true for Lake Lancer: the Red Worm (Zoom or Berkely Brand) with a gold bullet head sinker.

Joe takes credit for discovering this one some years ago. It still works well today. Joe caught his monster 20 inch bass on the worm. Here's a picture of it:

Justin caught his Bass on the red worm also. It's a must-have for our tackle boxes now. It even works on Clear Lake. My young nephew Mitch caught the largest fish of his life on a red worm last year. I have pretty good luck with it myself, except when I change things up a bit. More on that tomorrow.

Finally today, I leave you with a group shot from the trip. The very hairy one there is Justin.

NEXT TIME: See the Little Man catch a fish (no...I'm not talking about me)

The Other Cheek

LOST wrapped up its second season last week. I finally saw the first 20 minutes I missed because I was in Iowa. No..I don't think the bird said Hurley's name, unless his name is "Hurrrraaareee!"

Speaking of LOST, I guess the ending to last week's show proves that they are not in Purgatory. Sorry Justin, you lost the "Lost: Guys...Where ARE We" contest. Now, we never mention Purgatory ever again, because you know what happens...

Delphi Strike-Force Leads Weekend

Welcome to all the Auto Supply Workers that are worried about the future of their company. This is from today's Free Press:

Delphi asked federal bankruptcy court to void the Union contracts, allowing the company to cut wages unilaterally. The UAW has threatened to strike if that happens.

There is one good thing. Whoever came up with the marketing idea to put your logo on the Rapala Rattling Lure is a genius. Hopefully his or her job doesn't belong to a resident of India right now.

Joe finished first on the Spring Mens' Fishing Trip by landing 7 fish over the 1 and a half days. Joe took an early morning lead of three fish, two of which were using the Delphi Strike-Force Lure. Here is photo pf Joe with one of his smaller Bass:

Speaking of Bass, we planned on clearing Lake Lancer of its over over-abundant Pike. The Michigan DNR opened Pike Fishing on the lake this year to a No-Size Limit / 5 limit haul.

We scauffed at Justin who wanted to bring up Lasagne. Who wants to eat Lasagne when there will be a large fish fry?!?!?

Try as we might, we didn't land one pike. Joe almost had a Pike (not nearly McCall Rules, but close) but it got away. By the end of Saturday, the left behind lasagne was starting to sound pretty good.

Joe, after a quick leap into first place, then headed toward the largest fish. We didn't put any money on Largest Fish this year, just the most fish.

That's when Joe landed, with the help of the Delphi Strike-Force, a 20 inch, 3.5 lb Bass; beating the old record by about an inch. Joe and Scott had dueling Bass two summers ago: Joe landed a 19 inch Bass on Lake Lancer and Scott landed a 19 inch Bass on Clear Lake. SAME WEEK.

Now Joe was all alone in the Monster Bass category.

"Maybe we should change the betting pool to largest fish," commented Joe, "it give everyone a chance at the money."

Yeah Right. Nice Try. No...we were sticking with most fish.

Here is another vicim of the Strike-Force Lure. I don't think it's Joe's 20-incher though. This one looks a bit smaller. Justin, looking on, is probably wondering why Dow Paint doesn't design a killer lure. Ah well, at least he has a nice new reel for his rod.

By the end of the Morning run on the lake, it was Joe 3 Bass, Scott 2 Bass, Dave 1 Bass, Alex 1 Bluegill and Justin coming up with a surprising 2 Bass. Yes...Justin had two. All by himself. By Breakfast he was in the running.

NEXT: The Ones That Got Away

Also...Please send me your pictures. And help me out with the ten-year timeline. I'm also working on a surprise for the Fall Trip. If it works out, it will be awesome. If not, forget I wrote this.

Your Comments are welcome...

Lost Eyes and Lost Poles

Welcome to our visitors looking for one eyed missing people from Poland.

The Spring Men's Fishing Trip is History. I hope everyone had a good time and we missed those of you who were unable to attend. I think it is a testament to our friendship that these trips have been going on for as long as they have.

I will be working on updating the blog this week with anecdotes and photos from the trip. If you have pictures, please email them to me and I will do my best to put them on the site...along with pictures of the Killer Lures and a Dear Abby letter that I know you will enjoy.

Chris, Mark, Joe M, Colin, Brian, Mike, Ben and Gary (and those of you who made it this Spring)...I hope you will be able to make the Fall Trip this year because...Its the 10th Anniversary of our Mens Fishing Trip.

As of right now, I am looking at Houghton Lake probably the first or second weekend of October. The first weekend of Duck Season opens around that time, so there may be some competition on the water...we'll see. Mark your calendars NOW. It WILL be one of those two weekends. Talk to the Wife. Take the Boss out to Lunch. Ditch the mistress.

I am attempting to do a large recap of all ten years of trips, but I am having a hard time remembering where we went and when. Since we did a few side excursions to fish for Walleye in Lake Erie, Salmon in Lake Michigan or summer trips to Sugar Springs, some of the trips are starting to run together. Before it completely gets lost to memory, I’d like to get them written down for posterity. Any photos you have from those trips, if you can email them, send them to me.

I only started keeping a personal journal of my fishing and hunting trips in the spring of 2002. When we first started our annual get-togethers, we only went fishing in the fall. It was on the second trip to the Pere Marquette that we started going twice a year. If I recall correctly, we went to the PM in the fall, caught nothing (this part I recall vividly), then decided that the Spring Run is much better, only to go there the next year and still not catch anything. The trouble I’m having is, I don’t remember when that was.

Not included on this list is the trip some of us made for Salmon in Lake Michigan, the Walleye trip to Lake Erie or any of the summer Sugar Springs weekends.

Working backwards, these I know for certain because they are written in my journal. So far I have:

2006 Spring Lake Lancer
2005 Fall No Trip (Roberts Bachelor Party)
2005 Spring Houghton Lake
2004 Fall Pere Marquette (4th trip)
2004 Spring Clear Lake
2003 Fall Lake Lancer
2003 Spring Clear Lake
2002 Fall Pere Marquette (3rd Trip)
2002 Spring Au Sable

Here is where it becomes sketchy…

2001 Fall No Trip this Year (I’m fairly certain of this one)
2001 Spring Pere Marquette (2nd Trip?)
2000 Fall Pere Marquette? (1st trip?)
1999 Fall ??????
1998 Fall Clear Lake
1997 Fall Sage Lake? (Or was this in 1998?)
1996 Fall Clear Lake (This I know for certain)

Help me fill in the blanks (along with who went that year).

GONE FISHING

God's Doppler

Silly Me.

I’ve been checking the WeatherChannel.com and our local forecasts all week to see what kind of weather we are going to have for our Spring Fishing Trip.

Seems like I’ve been looking in the wrong places. I guess I should have been talking to the Rev. Pat “Doppler2000”Robertson. The Reverend and part-time meteorologist says God has told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year.

The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network has told viewers of "The 700 Club" that the revelations came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January.

"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms," Robertson said May 8.

Robertson also said to expect Snow this winter and there will a chance of rain today for the Tigers game, so don’t forget your raincoats.

Now, my final predictions for this weekend’s fishing trip. God didn’t tell me these. He’s got more important things to worry about right now, so I didn’t bother Him.

#3 With the Live-well now working on the pontoon boat, it can’t be used because Joe catches a large Walleye that proceeds to eat any fish dropped in the well.

#2 Hal claims to have a large albino Pike on his line, only to discover it's actually a pair of Roberts' underwear.

….And the #1 reason why you should not miss this weekend’s fishing trip: Alex will learn to LOVE Kesslers by the end of the trip.