My daughter and I went into Grand Traverse Bay (off lake mich) this am - around the harbor. Only maybe 10 meters depth at best. Just big limestone rocks. Visibility was maybe 50 feetish. Lots of little smallmouth, rock bass and suckers as usual. As we got out into the deeper water I saw an odd shape hanging in the open water. BIG smallmouth bass - I'd say around 15-18 inches. Seeing him about 25 feet away I dove directly down to the bottom and turned to face where he'd been. This pretty much allways works and he came over to within half a meter - checking out my mask and the pinky finger I was wiggling. A bit further out along the breakwall we accumilated four of these bad boys. I'd hang on the bottom and one or the other of them would come right in. I settled in at about 15 feet, paralleling one that was watching us from open water. Adjusted my pace and movements to see if he'd swim with me; he formed up on my left about a meter away. Had to give up spearfishing because of stuff like this. Carp are a bit more wary but basically respond to the same behavior - though they are less territorial and hence less apt to hang past their initial curiosity. I think 'blue water' free-dive spearing for fast movers like salmon or lake trout might be interesting(illegal last time I looked). Suckers can be more challenging if it's not mating season. I think they may be too dumb to be curious.
Lovely dive for these non-opulent waters. Wish I had a camera. The colors are nothing to write home about, but the shading and light are cool. And the big bass look very impressive from below in the play of light rays through waves and sediment.
Nothing like a nice morning dive to make you feel
grateful for the little things.
August 15th, 2004
