Fish stocking After-action-Report

The trip to Grant, Michigan was uneventful.

The store is east of Grant, Michigan and is in the middle of a large expanse of muck fields. Growing and packing vegetables like celery and carrots is big business in Grant. 

I took Shotgun, my fishing buddy along.

We stayed off of the freeway except for a short stretch on US-131. I traveled through Charlotte, Woodbury, Ionia, Fenwick, Greenville, Ensley Center, Howard City, Amble, Lakeview, Six Lakes, Stanton and Sheridan, Michigan.

Shotgun rambled a great deal as a young man and gave me a running commentary on the fishing in the various lakes, streams and rivers as I drove past them.

He told a story from the dim, misty past of a troubled youth from Ensley Center who wanted to commit suicide (or so it is believed) but didn't have the courage to pull the trigger himself. So he prancing across a clearing in the woods on opening day of deer season wearing a tan coat and holding deer antlers above his head. And if his goal that day was to die, he was successful.

Large spoons were once the go-to for pike fishing. They trail a single, very large treble-hook.

I told a story of a coworker who lived near Edmore) who claimed that his brother fought in Vietnam and in one of the letters home he asked "Buckey" to buy up all of the large treble-hooks from the bait shops in Six Lakes, Edmore and Stanton and mail them to him. Buckey's brother supposedly claimed that "the gooks" shinnied up into trees near the base at night and sniped soldiers by day. The only effective way to combat them was to embed several very large treble-hooks into the trees' bark about 20' above the ground, (one hook buried in the bark the other two exposed and pointing downward)...which was about as high up as the "grunts" could reach with the pole they had jury-rigged for the task. Is the story true? Who knows, who cares. It was a story and telling stories passed the time.

The wild plums are still blooming in Montcalm County, Michigan. 

Anderson and Girls on M-66 has outstanding fruit-filled sugar cookies. They are basically sugar/butter cookies shaped like dumplings and filled with fruit preserves. Shotgun chose the black-raspberry filled ones and he gave me one to sample.

Farmers were irrigating around Howard City. I think they are still planting potatoes. It has been a dry May so far this year. 

Once we were at the target location, I changed into shorts. I waded out knee-deep into the water and released the fish. Upon being released, the fish vectored down to the bottom of the water column and then fanned out toward deeper, darker water. I think they were hungry. None of the fish went belly-up during our drive home. 

We released the fish from two different, shore-line locations.

It looks as if the bluegills are just starting to fan the beds they will use for spawning. 

I spent too many hours sitting on my butt and I ate WAY too much sugar yesterday.