Fish (and Food) from Traverse City, MI

[BigBassin144]

We were up in Northern Michigan during the last week in June. Well, my sister and I were there all week and my parents came up Wednesday night.

Anyways, I got to enjoy two of my favorite things: Fish and Food!

I'll start with the fishing, as this is the braggin' board.

We went out with a guide, Tony from Traverse City Bass, on Friday June 29th for a half day of fishing on Grand Traverse Bay.

We met him at the ramp at 6am and were quickly on our way. He had me tie on a tube as we cruised to our first stop. About my third cast, I hooked up with a keeper smallie. We were fishing in 8-10' of water that we could see pebbled on the bottom. We fished here for about an hour and a half. I landed 7, my dad 2 (after he switched to the same color tube)

We moved to a bit deeper water with real short "sand grass" when the sun came up more. The wind picked up as we were sight fishing the grass beds in 14' of water. My dad landed 5 here before I got one in the boat. I got about 4 more from various grass beds and he picked up about 8. Mostly keepers, all chunky, with the biggest coming in around 3.5lbs.

We moved from this about 5-6 square mile "flat" in the middle of the bay through some 100' water towards a shallow drop-off near the shore in about 12' of water. I picked up a couple more here, although they were undersized.

We headed to an area he said was holding a few big post-spawn females (including a 6.5lb'er that a 9 year old girl caught the previous weekend). We moved though the rocks without a bite to an area he knew of with some deeper bass beds in 14' of water. We basically went along, and when we saw the beds, we casted past them and brought the tube through it. I picked up another one here.

All in all, we landed about 25 fish in 5 hours. Not a bad day, and very relaxing not having to worry about boat position, other boats, or the TM in general. We didn't get too many pictures, but here's a few.





And this is what I get for having someone else take the pic on my cell phone... Can't see it, but I've got my BF.com shirt on!


We also saw Kim Stricker's truck and boat from the Hook'N'Look show.




And now on to the other portion. One of my favorite restaurants of all time is up here and you have to hit it if you're ever in the Traverse City area. Boone's Long Lake Inn. The food is great and the portions are HUGE!

The Seafood platter:


"16oz." Seasoned Ribeye (it's actually a slab of prime rib seasoned and charred on the grill). It was probably closer to 24-26oz.


One of my favorite dishes from a tapas restaurant called Firefly. Tuna Tartare with Wasabi Creme Fraiche. Lots of other good stuff there too.



We also took a kayak trip on the beatiful Boardman River, climbed the dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, and enjoyed our beach on the bay.

BB