Wednesday. It took me a while to get up and moving but Kathy convinced me to set up the dinghy and try a little fishing.
So out the harbor channel I went to a calm Grand Traverse Bay.
I had caught a few smallmouth bass off this channel in years past so I set up to troll a crawler harness over the rocky shoreline.
It wasn't 5 minutes and I had my first fish.
Not real big, but a little fighter. I went through several crawlers and caught a few more until I tagged into a real nice fish.
I think I boated a half dozen before I was out of bait.
Time to go back in. I met several boats leaving the marina. It was a good moving day.
We spent the day with our friends and had dinner at the Dockside Inn on Torch Lake, We ate on their patio overlooking the clam river. It was a good time.
We had planned to leave on Thursday, but once again, wind forecast and rain south of us prevented a move. It was calm in the bay so I took advantage of another opportunity to catch some more of those Traverse Bay smallmouth.
I started small.
Then a little bigger.
And bigger!
That fish probably went a good 4 pounds. I caught maybe close to a dozen smallmouth before I gave up.
After kicking around all day, we enjoyed a rather spectacular sunset.
Friday morning and it looks like I have an opportunity to complete the southern migration. Up early and off at 7:00 am...destination Manistee.
The route on the GPS indicates a run of 107 miles. Being in Traverse Bay, the first 30 miles will be north to get out of the bay. The exact opposite direction I really want to go, but that's the way the road has to go.
Out the Elk Rapids channel into the bay.
Out past Mission Peninsula.
I'm only a mile off the shore and it's DEEP here.
Yes...over 600 feet in East Bay.
I rounded Grand Traverse Point and finally was heading south past Leland and the Manitou Islands.
I had a following sea and it was only about a one foot chop much of the trip.
Through the Manitou Passage I'm just over halfway.
Passing the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.
And Point Betsie just north of Frankfort.
I passed dozens of sailboats on the way south. Last weekend was the Chicago to Mackinac race and all those boats are headed back to the south end of the lake now.
Four hours after setting out this morning, I'm approaching Manistee harbor. A little over 100 miles in four hours is a pretty good run.
Safely inside the harbor entrance on my way to Manistee Municipal Marina about a mile up stream.
The marina is a modern facility that's only a few years old.
After gassing up, I was assigned to slip #26 which will be our boating home for the rest of the season.
We have plenty of room for the boat and the inflatable on our dock.
There is one little issue. Because of the extreme high water (at least compared to a few years ago) the docks are VERY low to the water. The step over the side of the boat is all of three feet high if not more.
We can get on via the swim platform until I put the fishing equipment on the boat. I'll need to make a step to get us a bit higher on the dock.
We have enjoyed watching a multitude of boats passing by. It's been entertainment which is one of the things we thought we'd like by being slipped here. So far, no disappointment on that feature. There's always a boat going by, although this is a Friday and lots of weekenders are arriving.
We even got a bridge opening to let the sailboat Brassy pass.
That boat was at Harborview in Ludington for a few years while we were there. It's the former "Sassy" that was a major Mackinac racer back in the 1970's.
Looking toward the west is the gas dock and more of the river channel leading to Lake Michigan.
So here we are at Manistee. Tomorrow we'll transform the boat into a fishing machine and maybe even get out of the lake for a try at locating a salmon in a day or two.
It's been a bit of a struggle all year coping with the weather in our travels. It feels good to finally be situated in a home port where it doesn't matter if we leave the dock or not.
Time for a LONG nap.
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