Michigan Crappie Camp with Yankee Doodler and Company

I went to the Michigan Crappie Camp on Gun Lake at the Yankee Springs State Recreational Area (just south of Grand Rapids) this last weekend, and had some good fun with some Michiganders and this one guy from Indiana. Billbob (the guy from Indiana) was already there when I pulled in, and he had two visitors at his campsite. Crappie.com members Crappie 1 and Crappie 2, aka Larry and Sandy. My wife came with this time, but only stayed briefly, as she planned to continue on to Lansing Michigan to participate in a 5k run with her sister and niece.


This is the obligatory billbob picture with my wife. She finally got to meet billbob, and after that, now I'm no longer allowed to go to Crappie Camps! Just kidding. I told her billbob was paper trained and had all his shots so she's OK with it now. The five of us chatted a while, and then my wife left for her next stop. Billbob, you know I'm just kidding, it's an honor to go fishing with you.


The date is off on Yankee Doodlers camera, btw. Anyway, Larry is so lucky to have Sandy to fish and camp with. Here's a picture of them both on the water during the tournament. My wife used to fish and camp, but now will no longer tent camp, and if she goes fishing with me, it has to be on a nice warm day while she sits in the boat reading her e-book. But that's OK, I love her dearly and she has no problem when I take off on my fishing trips with my buddies.


Gun Lake is a natural lake, in roughly the shape of a butterfly and gets to maximum depth of about 65 feet deep. It is a clear water lake which has numerous islands and some nice weed bed flats to fish the edge of. It is known for it's walleye population, but does have a lot of nice Crappie. We did not catch that many, but Yankee Doodler assured me the days fishing was not representative of the norm. The winds were from the East which did not seem to help. The lake's outlet is into the Gun River, which connects to the Kalamazoo River and then to Lake Michigan. They have real nice facilities with many camping spots right on the water. They provide posts to tie your boat off right next to your campsite, kinda cool.

This picture is of the small channel where you can park your boat, right next to the campsites.


Steelguy


Ready2fish and Hermin


Here's the ussual look of the women that take pictures with Billbob. That's Carol on the right, Yankee Doodlers lovely wife.


The tournament ended with a tie between Billbob and the Ready2fish/Hermin team, with both entries weighing the exact same amount. We won't talk about how many fish were in each entry, the fishing was not great that day. But it certainly was a lot of fun and the weather cooperated quite nicely. For having some real cold couple of nights lately, it warmed up nicely that day. Could not have ordered better weather.

This is Yankee Doodler on the left (a rare photo as he's always the one taking the pictures), and Billbob on the right. That Crappie is just shy of 11 inches, even though it may look smaller. A nice crappie on a poor fishing day like this. Good job Billbob.

And then we had the games. Yankee Doodler and his wife Carol put on a heck of a show. They had some really cool games for us to play. I have to give them credit, how'd they think of the dock shooting game, or the pin the hook on the crappie game. Everyone got involved and it was a lot of fun.


Here's a picture of Hermin at the "Shooting the Dock" game.


This looks like Sandy at the pin the hook on the Crappie game.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the food. Doodler and his wife Carol put out a wonderful spread. The ribs fell off the bone, the black bean salad had big chuncks of avacodo in it, and I just love avocado. The food was awsome, and then there was the desert. It was all so good, Don, Carol, I thank you very much. You two are also lucky, you both enjoy fishing together, and also putting up with all us grizzled fishermen. Not to mention running one class act of a show at the Michigan Crappie Camp. You all have to come up this way for the next one. You will not regret the trip and the hospitality.


It really was a pleasure meeting and spending time with everyone. Like I mentioned, Don and Carol put on a wonderful event. It was fun chatting about dog breeds with Hermin and Skillett007. Can't forget Dar, my Boston Terrier just loved him. It was a pleasure chatting with Dar's son, can't forget Steelguy, Ready2fish and Billbob too. Oh and of course the lovely fishing couple of Crappie I and Crappie 2 (Larry and Sandy). Together they are one heck of a fishing machine. Fun was had by all that attended.


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