Burt/Mullett & Elk/Torch

[Eric]

The boss wants to go camping and we haven't yet this year, so we are planning to take a couple of trips up north.  She likes to fish, too, so we are looking to go to Burt/Mullett one weekend and Elk/Torch another.  I've never been to Elk/Torch, and only been to Mullett during the spawn.  I'm hoping to get some general ideas of where & what for catching a few fish.  (if she catches fish, she's happier and I get to fish more).  After hearing some of the stories and seeing some of the pictures about these places, we want to give them a try.

Campground (tent) suggestions would be welcome along with the fishing suggestions if anyone is willing to share.  Thanks.

[rufus]

Don't know a lot about the campgrounds, but I have fished them both several times. In the Torch chain your best bet is Skegmog. The area where the river comes in from Torch is usually a sure thing. There is a large wood covered flat that always has smallies on it. The weedbeds in the middle of the lake will also produce a lot of fish if you find the right one. On Elk there are may fish habitat structures scattered around the lake in 15-30 fow. You can see them as dark spots on a clam sunny day or you can find them with your graph. Some of them will be loaded with smallies and some will not have a fish on them. Find the right one and you will load the boat. My favorite one is at the south end of the lake. There are also a few weedbeds on the lake. If you catch it right you will have the day of your life in the weeds.
Burt/Mullett is about the timing the more towards October the better. Spiinerbaits and tubes around the rockpiles in Mullett will put a lot of fish in the boat. Burt has some true MONSTERS in it, but not the numbers. The east side of the lake is the best, but you will also find a lot of fish in the northwest corner. Throw a jerkbait or spinnerbait around the scattered rock and weed and you may catch the fish of a lifetime. If the shallow bite is not on check the deep rock humps on the north end of Mullett. There will be fish their. Drop shots and tubes should work.
God Bless and Good Fishin'!

[rustydog]

Whitewater Township Park on the east shore of Elk Lake is a very nice campground with excellent ramp. Stay there whenever we get up in the area. Aloha Campground on Mullet Lake is where we stay every fall in Oct. Its a state park and will close around the 15 of Oct. We were ther last fall when the snow hit. Pretty but hard to fish in a foot of snow. We will be getting there on Oct. 1. If you see a black and gold Nitro stop in for a cool one.

[Duke]

be ready to set the hook and loosen your drag. 

[TheFishinPollock]

Eric-- Whitewater township park is prolly your best bet for camping on elk lake.  As for fishing. Elk has good bass fishing if ya know how to read a graph and  a map. They do wander aroudn alot so ya might have to target suspended schools of fish. The narrows between Elk and Skeg are good, in front of the Elk Rapids golf course, and kewwadin harbor are all good areas to start at on Elk. I live on Birch lake across th street from elk and fish that chain often. Skeg is a good lake also , but gets a lota pressure during tournys and by other bas fishermen because of structur, weedbeds and the stump fields int he south end.  To me , being a guide int he area, Lake Bellaire has been teh best producer for big bass( 2 master anglers this year for clients)  and usually a good amount of fish int he day's trip. Clam lake is also good but dosen't harbor as big of fish for some reason, but has lots of pike.   You can get to both of those lakes by boat in jsut a few minutes.  The longest part of the trip is the torch river and grass river leading to bellaire due to no wake zones. But to me  . It's worth the trip.  You can always trailer aroudn to those lakes , but its a really pretty ride by water. Torch has some great fishing for bass, but again like Elk, You have to find isolated structur or suspend fish on points.    I know of a few old fasion cabin rental places in the elk rapids area if you choose not to camp also.

Matt

[TritonTR20]

Skegmog is a great lake but my favorite is torch. Very clear water, nice areas of bolders and rocks, some flats with wood. It is a big lake and finding those areas takes time. We had a club tournement earlier this year and every boat that went to torch beat the ones that stayed on skegmog. Haven't fished burt/mullet yet but our club classic is on mullet in October 5th & 6th. Looking forward to it.

[Eric]

Fished Elk & Skegemog yesterday.  Never made it to Torch.  I fished all over Elk.  It seems there are 3 patterns in Elk to fish.  Shallow sand, deep sand, and sloping sand.  I did find some areas of wood on the sloping sand that seemed to hold a few fish.  If I had the time to search the breaks, I think I could catch a bunch of good ones.  Since all there are to fish is breaks, it would probably have helped to have some sunshine to help see the breaks.  I spent the day staring at my graph trying to stay on the break and find something on the break to fish.  Caught some out of the weeds in Skeg, too.  I could not believe how many little, and I mean little, fish I caught.  I could not believe how deep some of them were, and believe it or not, most of them were fatter than me.  I handled some of them very gently, because I was afraid they were going to explode if I was too rough.  I caught most of them on tubes about 25 feet deep, some drop shotting a goby and some drop shotting a senko.  Thanks to everyone who shared a little info.  It made for a much better day than it could have been. 

[rufus]

Eric,
Most of the fish structures on Elk are a ways off of the break in 25-30 fow. If it was cloudy you proabably could not see them. Like I said earlier, they showup as dark spots in the deeper water, you cannot actually see the structure. They are easily spotted with electronics though and will come up off the bottom 3-7 feet. One pattern I got on on Elk that cashed me a very nice check in a large classic tourney was watching the cormorants. If you found one diving in a a certain area there were always smallies in that area. Everywhere they dive there was perch grass on the bottom. Most of the areas were 25-27 feet. We caught a lot of our fish on the West shore on the southern end, but the pattern duplicated itself all over the lake. That was a late September tourney and I have been back the last couple years and it still works. Drop shots and watermelon/gold tubes seemed to work best. God Bless and Good Fishin!

[Eric]

Thanks Heath.

I'm heading to Burt/Mullett tomorrow ofter work.  Has anyone on here been up there recently, or have any more tips?

[BigSmallie]

Alpena Bass Club had their club classic last weekend.......I heard it was poor.    Bob Downing did manage to whack a 6 1/2 pounder during the event.

You should be just fine...........they have to eat sometime!

Have fun......I know you will.

BS 

[Eric]

Had a less than stellar time this weekend.  Saturday was going to fish Burt, but the winds were HOWLING right into the boat launch.  So, we went to Mullett instead.  I caught one keeper all day on Mullett.  Caught 1 short, 1 perch, and 1 rock bass.  The wind was blowing show hard there were whitecaps 200 yards from shore on the leeward shore.  So, you can imagine what it was like mid lake, or on the windward shore.  I tried those a couple of times thinking it really couldn't be as bad as it looked, but it was.  Fish with the nose into the wind and every wave came over the bow.  Turn and every wave came over the side, so 90% of the lake was unfishable.  Caught the one on a drop shot on the break just south of Dodge point.  I found a bunch of stuff that I would like to be able to spend some time checking out, but couldn't do it Saturday.  We fished until 4:30, and by the time we left the ramp about 5:30, the lake was flat as can be.  How's that for luck.

Yesterday it was Burt.  Very nice day, just enough wind.  Started at Greenman point and caught 1 short right away on a jerkbait.  Never had another bite in 8 hours.  Fished 2 feet to 25 feet.  Fished rocks, sand, weeds, transitions from sand to rock, sand to weeds, rock to weeds, flats, drops, humps, points, and wood, using jerkbaits, crankbaits, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, senkos, drop shots, and every other bait I could find to throw. 

Both lakes looked like they would be great fishing, but no so much for me this weekend.  But, thanks again to those who offered up some advice and heads up on these lakes.

[rufus]

Those northern Michigan smallie lakes can be unbelievable. Absolutely chuck full of big ole fat smallies and at certain times they just completely disappear. I have experienced this wonderful occurrence a few times up their. Usually the tourneys are won by someone who finds them in over 20 fow in one small area. A friend of mine went up for a tourney last year and some of the "big dogs" showed up for the event. Their were about 30 boats. I told him about a little area in Lake Huron that he could lock out to if the fishing was really bad. He called me on the way home and said the fishing was terrible in prefish so he decided to gamble and try my spot on Huron that he had never seen before. He ended up winning it with TWO fish that went a little over 11 pounds. It is unbelievabel that a fishery such as Burt/Mullett get so tough. A couple of the guys that fished this tourney are FLW Tour guys that fish the lakes regularly in the fall. I am guessing in the next week or so they will turn on big time. DK should know he fishes it every fall. God Bless and Better Fishin'

[Dan]

Fished Duck and Green up at Interlochen this past weekend. Winners had 30 lbs. for the two day event. we had 28-10, and the next 5 or 6 places were stair steps down by about a pound. I had big bass both days, a 5-3 day 1 and a 4-2 day two.

[TheFishinPollock]

Dan-  You should come up for the hawg hunt on duck abnd green the 14th of Oct.   Fish green for a few hours, weigh in the biggest fish, load up , go across the street, and fish duck for a few hours and weigh in the biggest fish. 

Matt

[Dan]

Plan to be there to defend our last year's win.

[TritonTR20]

Was on Mullett for the first time Friday and Saturday. I struggled Friday with only a few small fish. Jerry won the club tournement with 5 smallmouth weighing 19lbs 11oz. Wind was nonexistant water was 62deg.  Saturday was a whole lot better for me. I came in with 5 smallmouths weighing 15lb 11oz, taking first place. Second was also out of my boat with 5 fish weighing 13lb 8 oz. We had a great time. Would like to go back there sometime.