I think
I am pretty good at my job. I expect fishing guides to be good at theirs. I
have fished with many fishing guides over the years- on the Au Sable, White
Lake, Minnetonka, Ontario, Erie, Lake George, the St. Lawrence, the Jersey
Shore, South Africa, Lac La Croix, Lake of the Woods, the Ottawa River Chain,
Colorado Springs, Mozambique, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Alaska and countless fresh
and salt water areas in Florida. The guides have generally been pretty good and
put me on fish with respectable gear and decent boat skills. Yesterday,
however, I fished with a Master.
Marcel Veenstra of Marcel's Guide Service is one guide
that takes his profession to a whole new level of excellence.
Marcel, a guide for over 20 years, is a BFL All American qualifier, Bassmaster
Open Championship qualifier, Everstart Championship qualifier, Everstart 2002
Angler of the Year, FLW Tour Championship qualifier and, dare I say, a Fishing
Master. In his 20 years of experience, Marcel has learned that, despite his
passion for fishing, guiding is a tough job. Good weather or terrible, blazing
sun, howling wind, bitter cold, driving rain, lock-jawed fish, snarled reels,
snagged lures and a plethora of other opportunities for failure all present endless challenges to a guide.
Marcel
brings a lot of skill to the job. First, he possesses what may be the most
important characteristic for a successful guide- an infectious confidence that
his clients will catch fish. He all but guarantees it. Second, he shows up extremely
well prepared with a plan for the day. He knows from first hand scouting where
the fish are, what they are doing and why, and most importantly, what they are
and are not eating. He combines this specie
knowledge with his experience of the ambient conditions- weather, water
clarity, water temperature, wind direction and speed. All this plays into his preparation so that
when he arrives at the launch he knows that he will put his clients on the fish
and fish in the boat. Marcel enjoys sharing his experience and knowledge of the various
techniques to catch fish and it clearly shows in his enthusiasm for his work.
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We took off onto Lake St. Clair from the public ramp near the Clinton spillway
around 7:30 AM. It could not have been a more perfect morning with very light
winds out of the west and a warming sunshine.
We soon came to a pre-spawn staging flat six to seven feet in depth.
There were very few boats on the water and none where Marcel had stopped. I had my choice of a lipless crank or a jerk
bait. Given a choice, I will always choose a lipless crank, but after 10
minutes, as Marcel released his third Smallmouth Bass, I decided the jerk bait
may be the better choice. Marcel, was using a Megabass Vision 95 in the pictured colors.Within five minutes we were
doubled up and the fish fest was on.
Over the next few hours, countless boats cruised up to the
flat and worked all around us. Some caught a fish or two. Others left the area
skunked. None were fishing jerkbaits.
This is when I began to realize Marcel’s knowledge was at a totally
different level. Not only did he have the bait, he also had the technique.
Cast, take up the slack, jerk jerk, pause.
Not a short pause either. A longer than you would usually pause pause.
Repeat and, boom there they were. It was a marked difference from the steady
retrieve with shorter pauses I was using with the lipless crank. It was a
technique so unique you could actually feel when you had it right and sense the
fish was there and about to strike. Sometimes a tap others a slam.
Marcel used his trolling motor expertly to keep us in a
fairly small area. Fish were arriving on
this flat staging in smaller groups and dispersing to orient in small groups on
the many rocky shell beds. It was a sort of “rest stop” on the highway to the
spawning beds. By 10:00 we had 30 fish. Many boats left with anglers just
shaking their head in frustration. Our
top five fish weighed over 22 lbs. I was impressed, but actually the best was
yet to come.
As the morning progressed the winds picked up and shifted,
now coming from the north. The pattern was a little more difficult to fish as
the wind made casting more difficult but they were still on the jerk bait. A little more time passed and I started to
feel a chill. The winds shifted again now coming from the northeast- when “fish
bite the least.” The number of boats we could see up and down the area diminished.
It was only the rare boat that stopped to fish around us. By 11:30 the winds were
blowing 18-20 mph and there were significant white caps, making the light
weight jerk pattern impossible to fish. We had well over 35 fish by this
time. Marcel knew the fish were still on
this spot. He asked me if I had ever fished a Silver Buddy. I said no. He
produced a blade bait and tied it on his line. He said if they are here this
will work. He had a fish within the
first three casts and another hit that jumped off on its way to the boat
shortly after the first fish. I tried on a Silver Buddy.
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Every
angler has a "go to" confidence bait. For Marcel, that lure is a
Silver Buddy. As he tied it on he said, “I am going to watch you to make sure you
fish it correctly.” First and foremost
he wanted me to have fun catching fish. The wind meant we needed weight. The
dirtier water meant we would need some flash and vibration. The Buddy would
provide both. You need to feel this lure to know you are fishing it correctly; you
also need to make sure to use the duo-lock snaps provided. This is probably why
my blade baits have been relegated to one of my seldom used tackle boxes. No more. As you throw the lure, let it free
fall to the bottom. Jerk the rod from 9:00 to 11:00- about 12 inches. You need
to feel the vibration or it is probably fouled with a piece of weed or zebra
mussel. As the lure falls again, take up the slack, watching for the second it
hits bottom and pump again. The fish typically will hit on the fall so the
jerking will also set the hook. It may also pull the hook out. It took a few
casts to get the hang of it but soon it was fish on. My first on a blade
bait. I was surprised by the silver
color and told Marcel I believed that gold was for sunny days and silver for
cloudy. He agreed and I was soon fishing gold.
I had 3-4 more on the gold.
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Gold caught more than Silver |
The
conditions continued to deteriorate. We were drifting now as it was too
difficult to keep the boat positioned with the Minn Kota. The drifts passed
quickly with the howling wind. Each reposition we got increasingly wet. The
ride back to the ramp was spine jolting to put it mildly but I did not mine. I
had caught a lot of quality fish- the largest weighing 4 lbs. 6 oz. - probably
my personal best. I had learned a lot and fished some new techniques on a body
of water with which I become more and more impressed. We had caught a lot of fish when very few
others were and we stayed on them long after most others had quit. On the drive
home I recapped the day in my mind. I concluded that what I had experienced was
similar to what Luke must have felt training with Yoda on Dagobah. As the Jedi
Master would have said about Marcel, “Fishing he knows.” I know, I felt the force. Thanks Marcel!