Detroit River: 2,500 Boats and a 10-Fish Grind

I really like the Detroit River drift for walleye. There’s just something about actually holding a rod when a fish hits instead of staring at boards all day. You get the full experience. You feel the bite, you set the hook, you act like you knew it was coming the whole time.

Plus the scenery is…something. Bridges, tall buildings, steel mills, a little urban flavor, a little questionable smell variety. Time flies because everyone is busy jigging. No breaks in this boat, man.

Now…let’s talk about the other side of the Detroit River experience.

Boat ramps? Could be a 5 minute launch, could be a 2 hour life reflection. Half the time you don’t even know if the ramp is open. The people? About 50 percent awesome. The other 50 percent…hard pass. And the smells…not sure what wins. Steel mill smoke, the weed cloud floating across the river, or those flowers blooming in Ontario…it’s not the flowers.

Today’s crew was solid. Rob, old school walleye vet bringing Alaska vibes. Christian and his dad Mark, coming off a skunk and looking for revenge. That’s a motivated group.

The plan was flawless on paper. Leave the barn at 5:45am. Hit Delray at 6:40am. Launch. Slide right into the Gordie Howe drift. Put 24 hogs in the livewell. Fish a little for fun. Back at the barn by noon…Easy, right? Of course, reality had other ideas.

I woke up at 3:05am already stressing about whether Delray would even be open. Ended up at the gym because apparently anxiety now equals cardio. Crew shows up early, I pretend I’m calm and in control.

We roll into Delray at 6:25am and…oh it’s open alright. Boats backed up all the way to Jefferson. I’m thinking here we go, this is going to be a long one. Then we hear yelling. Two guys going at it with full road rage energy over who gets to turn into Delray first. Windows down on truck and another dude out of his truck yelling into the window, words flying, classic morning warm-up.

Don’t worry though. Within a few minutes they hugged it out like true sportsmen. Probably realized there’s like 10 million walleye in the system now. Everyone will be fine.

We were only in line about 5 minutes and got in to the park. Took about 30 minutes to launch which honestly felt like a win.

We set up under the Gordie Howe Bridge. Light enough to see, not light enough to read water color. Then the sun comes up just enough to reveal the truth. Mud. Just straight mud. And about 250 boats around us all doing the same thing…Catching nothing…Time to move.

We run north and see a line of boats tight to the Ontario shore just below the Ambassador Bridge. A few nets hitting the water. That’s all we needed to see. Water was mud in the middle, grey green along the Ontario side. That’s the money.

We start jigging and see maybe a dozen fish hit nets around us. Then Christian sticks one on the pimp daddy. I follow up with a hammer on the yellow jig from last weekend. Christian hits another. Now we’re talking. Three in the boat, others catching too. We make another pass and grab one more. Four fish total and feeling like we cracked something.

We push north a bit more, somewhere near what I think was a whiskey plant, staying just outside the main pack. Pick off a few more, nothing crazy..

Then we start working our way back downriver. Absolute zoo at the Ambassador Bridge drift. Had to try it again. Nothing.

Slide over to the Michigan side where the water actually looked blue near shore. One fish. Saw another get netted. Not great. Run back to the Gordie Howe Ontario side. Nothing. Finish the day down near the Ontario docks.

Final tally. 10 walleye. Christian had 5. I had 4. Rob finally got his 1.

Mark? He went full rogue and started white bass fishing. Didn’t get one until the very end. Mission accomplished.

Still no working Minn Kota autopilot which made boat control a full-time job with light and variable winds somehow still producing 2 to 3 foot waves. There were more boats on the river than I’ve ever seen. And here’s the thing. Not a ton of fish being caught. Which meant every $100k boat out there was running up and down the river trying to find the magical honey hole that didn’t exist.

Back at Delray, things were mostly smooth. Everyone in line, doing their thing…except for one Tracker guy who acted like he owned the place. All good man. We’ve got 10 hogs.

Cleaned fish. Rob and Mark helped me fix the walkthrough windshield that got rattled loose by the waves. Team effort.

Now for tomorrow. Logan, Charlie Daniels, and Kaedin are leaving Ludington at 2:30am after closing down the Tiki Bar and driving to my house to fish. This should go well.

Questions for tomorrow: Will Delray be open? Will these new jiggers find the bottom? Will they even know what a light jig bite feels like?

And most importantly…what actually happens when you drop Logan into a system with 10 million walleye? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, it was nice catching up with Rob today - scored a sweet Tom Petty hoodie! Thanks man!

400 W. Filer St., C1, Ludington, MI 49431 | Phone: 248-534-9202 | PullHardFishing@outlook.com