• Dippin', skippin' and flippin' for Grand River smallies and crappie

    Jeff(vbottom) and I took the SS Greybeard out for the first of hopefully many fishing trips. We hit the backwaters of Weber dam on the Grand River near Portland. Our goal was to find downed trees and logs in water deep enough to hold fish and dip my hand tied jigs. The ultimate goal was to find crappie, but we're always happy with whatever bites.

    We started on a stretch of shore with a steep drop and 13' of water close to the bank. It was loaded with downed timber and tops and within minutes I hooked a smallie that spit the jig before I could land it. Jeff was next, landing a nice largemouth, the first fish for the new boat. My first fish landed was a pretty bronze colored smallmouth that took a white/orange hand tied.

    After working the shore until we ran out of deep water, we moved upstream, under the David Hwy bridge. I figured that if Richard Gene can catch fish on bridge pilings, we could, too. We were skipping out jigs under the bridge supports, catching a few rock bass and smallmouth. On the last piling I finally connected on a nice black crappie. It hit my jig on the fall and the line jump when it hit was classic crappie.

    That covers the dippin' and skippin'. The flippin' came near the end of our trip when Jeff leaned back in his seat on the rear deck of the boat and the access door the seat base is mounted to came open, fipping him over backwards. Luckily he didn't end up in the drink, didn't break any rods and wasn't hurt. It must have been a fun ride because a few minutes later he did it again, this time doing a barrel roll onto the lower floor. After I saw he wasn't hurt I got a good laugh from it. Well, maybe I laughed a little before I knew he was alright. He got an 8.5 on the first attempt but a perfect 10 for the second, seeing how he stuck the landing.

    All in all it was a great afternoon on the water. We had a few laughs, caught a few fish and Jeff found a few bugs in the new boat that need to be fixed. Here's a few pictures from our adventure. Enjoy.

    This article was originally published in forum thread: Dippin', skippin' and flippin' for Grand River smallies and crappie started by spartannation View original post
    Comments 6 Comments
    1. "G"'s Avatar
      "G" -
      Good report
    1. DockShootinJack's Avatar
      DockShootinJack -
      Looks like y'all had a great time
    1. Crestliner08's Avatar
      Crestliner08 -
      Very nice report & fun read! Thanks!
    1. Ketchn's Avatar
      Ketchn -
      that blackie was a tank ….very nice , bet it pulled some
    1. skeetbum's Avatar
      skeetbum -
      I could stand some of that, good job.
    1. Barnacle Bill's Avatar
      Barnacle Bill -
      Great report.
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