Grand Rapids Panfish and Bass 5-24,25

We decided to head down to grand rapids for some panfish action, with warm sunny calm weather, it looked good for a good bite. We tried a few different spots that jack had got em in the fall with not a bite. Finally we tried some reeds on top of a rock reef in a narrows area and found some presawn crappies getting ready for their big event. we got em in two to four ft down on small leadheads with a JRs stubgrub being the best bait. They were nice sized 10 to 11 inchers good keepers, no really huge slabs though.
Then I hooked into something bigger just outside the reeds that really made my drag sing. thought I hooked a bass at first, when I got it up it was a jumbo bluegill! Now thats what i am looking for! we got a few more of those,the biggest at 10.5 inches! Monday the weather was much different with strong winds and overcast skies.
The water temps went down from 62 to 57 degrees, and the crappies were tight lipped, but the bluegills were still pretty active. I downsized to a ratso finesse plastic tipped with a chunk of gulp leech that seemed to do a number on those big gills, Jack still did well with the stubgrub though.
After we worked that spot enough we decided to check out the other side for a while. We stopped at an area where there was a shallow flat with some rocks and reeds out of the wind, and Jack gets a nice smallmouth bass on the first cast on his panfish rod. i decide to target bass with a 3 inch gulp minnow. I nail 3 rockbass and a couple of hammerhandles. then i hook into something big, this aint no rockbass! She stretched out my 4 # line to its limits and through the reeds, but I get her in, a nearly 4 pound lunker bass! Pretty soon the wind got to us and we headed in, but what a great weekend of fishing action it was!

some jumbo cow and bull gills!











jack boats a gnarley looking rockie














Big ol bucketmouth



red eye


Darth crappie from the "dark" side








release those big bluegills !!!