Good half day of fishing. 10-15 mph winds made the fishing a little slow. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Fished cranks, spinnerbaits, and c rig craws, but the drop shot dream shot was the ticket.
5.5 lb smallmouth. Northern michigan's finest.
At Mullett Lake
Forgot to take the classic arms out photo! Would have stayed out till dark, but someone keeps reminding me that this is not a fishing vacation so off the water at 2 for some golf. :-* :-* :-*
I'll take slow fishing if the reward is a 5.5 pound smallie! Great fish!
Got this hog today on a strike king square bill. Picked up a half dozen today in the bays not the points.
Beautiful day today. But the water around needle point and the humps between needle and dodge was very cloudy. Maybe 3-4 ft of visibility. Didn't get a bite until we moved to weed lines in the bays.
Nice fish !!! Where did you golf?? I hit the links right there in Indian River a couple falls ago.
Here goes my disappointing report on Mullett Lk. I first want to Thank Dan Kimmel, Ralph Blasey and Kim Stricker for their help on areas to try and baits to use. Dan wrote me a novel on his favorite lake. Ralph spent time with me and my brand new map highlighting areas with a marker. Kim his wife Sara along with my wife Deb had dinner just before I left. While the girls rolled their eyes and chatted Kim showed me areas he would target. I felt prepared to do battle hoping I could have a similar trip like the Epic trip shared by other GLB members last Oct.
What happened was Mother nature took control. My buddies and I left Tues afternoon on Oct 7th. Our plan was to fish Wed thru Sat returning home Sun. The weather forecast for Wed was partly cloudy with winds WNW at 20-25 mph. We decided to fish Pickerel Lk. My boat partner and I managed 4 fish in 4hrs. My buddies in the other boat got zip. We got off the lake by 1:00 PM as the partly cloudy forecast turned into several downpours along with sleet that covered my boat. I have a Ranger 521 just like Ralph Blasey. The pictures of his boat from the Madwags event looked like mine. Prior to going to dinner we took a tour around Mullett Lk. The east side of Mullett has 3 ft rollers while the west side was fairly calm close to shore. Our plan for Thurs was to hit Mullett as the forecast was partly cloudy with lower winds at 10 to 15 mph.
So Thurs morning we launch out of the NW public launch. We run into several other boats who had been fishing Mullett and other nearby lakes for several days. They were very disappointed as fishing had not been very good. We fished the two humps out in the middle then tried the east side but the wind and waves forced us back to the west side. My partner got a very nice 24" rainbow trout and I got a nice 3.5 lb smallie. The other boat got zip, again. We got off the lake early afternoon after getting rained on again.
On Fri we went to Mullet again as winds were forecasted to be a bit lighter. Forecast was also suppose to be clear. We were again greeted with rain and higher winds so we loaded up after 4 hrs and went to Pickerel Lk. Getting to the Pickerel launch requires driving on some gravel roads which had turned to mud which in turn got on my boat. We caught several pike and dink smallies. The other boat caught zero again. We got off the lake by 3:00 PM whick allowed me to clean up the boat.
On Sat we woke up to 28 degrees and no wind. Not trusting the weather report we decided to bypass Mullett and hit Pickerel again as we felt the smaller lk would be easier to break down. The weather was beautiful and with no wind was warmer than the previous days. The largemouth bite was on and we all caught a few pike and LM. No real size just enough to take the edge off. We decided to get off the lake at 1:30 and decided to go home. I was home by 7:30 PM.
The weather should have been perfect for a smallie smackdown. The air temp was 40 to 45 degrees day and night for each day we were there until Sat. The water temps were 52 in the morning getting to 56 by the time we got off the lks. Both boats have great electronics and we have a large selection of different baits to try. We had great help to get us started and all of us are decent fisherman. My take is the fish were deep as we saw several boats out in deep water on Mullett fri.
The bright side of this trip was my buddies and I spent time together which is always a good thing. Vivio's and River Rock are great places to eat and the cocktails were plenty. We stayed at the Hometown Inn right at exit 310. They have a suite available with 4 beds that worked perfect. The fall rate set us back $195 each for 5 nights lodging. We did not stay for sat as that was our choice to go home early. It is a very nice place to stay that we all recommend. Our dinner tabs averaged $150 a night as we did drink our sorrows away.
I will someday get back to try it again as I'm sure it can't get any worse or can it?
Mark
Why did you launch at Pickerel instead of the much nicer ramp on paved roads on Crooked? I never launch at Pickerel. And Crooked it pretty good in the fall too.
Dan,
Not knowing the area real well we decided to launch at Pickerel. It's a nice ramp. Quiet and not busy. We did go over to Crooked several times via the water. It was very windy there as well and never caught a fish. If fact everyone had trouble finding and catching fish. It was a bad weather trip plain and simple.
None of my buddies want to go north again. Two bad trips in a row. I'm not ready to give up so I will go it alone or maybe you can enlighten me next fall.
Have a great Holiday.
Mark
Just go in late july/august Much better weather :) - just have to fish a bit deeper.
I'm headed there June 25 -28, 2015. Any suggestions at to which boat launch to use at Mullett. It will be my first time up there - usually fish LSC. I'm just excited to get up north and fish up there. I will be with Captian Chris Noffsinger in early June fish in near Traverse City....
Mark,
Per my schedule for next year, I should have a couple of days in that time period to run up and fish. So lets pencil it in, and anyone else for that matter.
Ufgator - all the launch's are good. I would stick to Mullet as that is the last lake for spawn on the chain depending on the weather. If the wind kicks up, head as Mark did to Pickerel and Crooked.
I just put in for 6/13/15 thru 6/21/15 vacation time. I will be up in Traverse City again. Fishing every day I hope.
Quote from: Ufgator on December 16, 2014, 09:24:20 AM
I'm headed there June 25 -28, 2015. Any suggestions at to which boat launch to use at Mullett. It will be my first time up there - usually fish LSC. I'm just excited to get up north and fish up there. I will be with Captian Chris Noffsinger in early June fish in near Traverse City....
I will be up there for my annual camping/fishing trip from June 24th-28th myself. I launch from Aloha State Park, it has a protected cove that the launch is in to keep out of any wind or waves. As far as the fishing, it has really depended on the weather for me. I fish a lot of jerkbaits and tubes and have also done well drop shotting a case plastics jacks worm. Depending on how long the dang winter is there may or may not be bass on beds still. Last year I found quite a few on beds, year before not so many. If you have any questions let me know. I will be in a Z-8 and have a bright blue F150 for a tow vehicle, if you see me out there stop by and say hi.
Keith
Quote from: red68prostreet on December 15, 2014, 09:16:55 PM
Dan,
Not knowing the area real well we decided to launch at Pickerel. It's a nice ramp. Quiet and not busy. We did go over to Crooked several times via the water. It was very windy there as well and never caught a fish. If fact everyone had trouble finding and catching fish. It was a bad weather trip plain and simple.
None of my buddies want to go north again. Two bad trips in a row. I'm not ready to give up so I will go it alone or maybe you can enlighten me next fall.
Have a great Holiday.
Mark
Did I not provide tips last time? Just send me a note next time and I surely will put on the right spots for Mullett. Burt too if you want to take advice from someone Burt doesn't like... :) If you did as poorly on Crooked and Pickerel then you really hit the worst weather patterns because Pickerel can be slow fairly easy but it takes more to slow down Crooked a lot, at least for mid-sized biting bass, pike and usually a few walleye.
It can be as tough or tougher up there under the worst weather being non-Great Lakes bass - they're not quite as tough. The spots get real small and timing will play a difference then too. I don't have the formula nailed down any better than most people though I can usually scratch out a few if I'm stubborn enough.
Quote from: Ufgator on December 16, 2014, 09:24:20 AM
I'm headed there June 25 -28, 2015. Any suggestions at to which boat launch to use at Mullett. It will be my first time up there - usually fish LSC. I'm just excited to get up north and fish up there. I will be with Captian Chris Noffsinger in early June fish in near Traverse City....
Aloha is my favorite for everything except a really strong W - NW wind. Those winds can be countered by launching at the MDNR ramp in the NW corner of the lake near the marina. You can always launch in the Cheboygan River too. Beautiful new MDNR ramp up a ways. Another big ramp in Cheboygan. Unless the wind is howling though I usually follow FOB's advice and head to Crooked and Pickerel, or a smaller inland lake. Skip Munro - poor fishing but the rest of them has decent fishing overall even the small Black River impoundments.
For a treat try Big Tomahawk Creek flooding. Launch at the West campground and watch out for trees and logs. There's about 100,000 trees and logs in the lake. No smallies but lots of keeper-sized largemouth bass and some big crappies. A few bait stealing pike and some great scenery.
Thanks to Kram1982 and Djkimmel for your thoughts. They are very much appreciated. Like I said -first time fishing up there and I'm excited just to get on the water. Hopefully we can connect Kram while up there. I will be fishing out of a 1650 Crestliner fishhawk and my tow vehicle is a red Chevy Subburban. Keep warm during these winter days. Thanks again guys. Kram1982 let's keep in touch.
Rev. Alan Mackey.
We're trying to keep warm. Balmy 6 degrees today but thanks to the wind we are getting frozen at a colder rate. It will all be over soon and the first big smallie of the season on the end of our line will remind us why we live here!