Cadillac/Mitchell

[slowmo]

My family is going to Cadillac/Mitchell next week for the first time.  Heard it was pretty good for bass fishing.  Can someone give me some tips as to what lures/techniques to use up there and any particulars as far as what depth or cover the bass may be in currently?  Also: what info can you offer about each lake as far as bass fishing is concerned?  What size on average are the bass on these lakes and is the fishing easy or hard at this time of year?  If there are any underwater hazards (sandbars/rocks/stumps, etc.) on these lakes please clue me in about their locations.  Again, any information would be greatly appreciated... thankyou.

[Ranger5Smallie]

Stop at Pilgrims Village, they will have the most up to date info.  Its just east of the channel on Lake Mitchell.  Right next door to the state park.

Both lakes are good but Mitchell for largies imo better.  Look for the weed edges and fish plastics.

Regarding running the lake...its wide open nothing to scary.  Fun lake enjoy!!!

[Dan]

I would not agree to the running anywhere. You have to make sure you swing south, left when entering Mitchell from the Clam Canal. There are some big rocks straight out of the channel. The lakes get pounded but do produce fish all summer despite weekend and weekday tournament pressure. Fish pig and jigs in the weed openings for largies. I have found soft plastic jerk baits to be very effective because of all the weeds. Topwater there is always good early and late. Make sure you see Steve at Pilgrim's Village. Best bait shop in northwest MI hands down. Steve knows the lakes well. I like Mitchell best, but have been beat on Cadillac. Cadillac also has some of my favorite eating places. The Chinese food restaurant going north out of town (next to the adult book store) has a great lunch, General Tso Chicken is my favorite. The Dawg House has great food and outstanding baked goods. Got to have pie there. The Eldorado Golf Course has great food and a great relaxing view. Chico's near the state park has super Mexican food. Also next to the Clark gas station near the park is a place that makes pasties. They are a must stop for me every time I'm through Cadillac.
If you are trailering a boat and want to get away Lake Missaukee is not far away and is a good underfished lake.
I have a number of articles on Cadillac and Mitchell on my teardropbass.com website.

[Dougdad]

There are alot of good small water lakes around Cadillac as well, as well  as some nice quiet primitive campgrounds.  Try Diamond, Sunrise, and Center by Tustin. Or go farther south for Hicks, or Rose.  We been doing OK on Berry and Saffire also.

[slowmo]

Our gang just arrived home after a week up at Cadillac/Mitchell lakes camping trip.  The advice and info given by "Dan" was great.  We never made it to the eateries (Dawg House was closing when we went there) but did enjoy our time nonetheless.  As far as the fishing went... well first off it was very windy most days and cooler temps prevailed all week!  Yet we did manage a few hours of fishing most days.  Having three teens along made being into the fishing kind of secondary as rule one was showing them the ropes of fishing (they are beginners) with lure tying, weed removal and the constant crossing/tangling of lines!  We caught some bass, many pike and a few panfish too.  Our best day fishing saw us (actually my girlfriend and I) land six bass (best a 3.2) and over half a dozen pike.  The lures used: a wacky rigged worm, texas rigged tube and a few spinnerbaits (pike loved 'em!) to catch the bass on.  Having never been on either lake... it was kind of a learning week of fishing for us.  We noticed right off the dark brown water color and with the winds it (the water) became cloudier each day.  Another thing we noticed was the very high/ thick weeds even over ten foot depths.  This alone made working lures thru the weeds a real test...with only single hooked lures being used.   I'd love to fish these lakes earlier in the summer when the weeds are much thinner and less tall... as it would show me the path to better bass catchin!  Again I'd like to thank Dan and others for their info on these lakes... and what kind of fishing our family could expect.  We'll be back, thanks, "Slowmo".

[fasttrack]

Where did you stay, and what kind of boat do you have? I took my son up there this weekend but the totally crappy weather limited our fishing. We stayedat Mitchell State park, just off the canal, and I have a 19' Ranger. I noticed a few (but only a few) other bass boats in the park. Never saw more than a couple boats on the water at anytime. The few hours we were on the water (my son pointed out how we could see our breath - how many times that happen in July?!?!) we caught next to nothing (a couple dinks). Wish I could have got him into some better fishing, but he was just happy to be away from his younger brothers for a couple days and hang out with dad. Nothing wrong with that! Glad to hear you caught a few

[slowmo]

Fastrac...yes we stayed at the same campground and left saturday around 11am.  We don't have a bass boat, just an all around tin rig!  I spoke with many fisherman during the week (bass boat guys too) and no one was catching many bass... so I feel we did alright by landing 2 to 4 bass a day.   Most of the bass we caught were keepers (chunky bass) and our biggest bass (est. 4 plus) threw my spinnerbait... and a bit later we landed a 3.2 our biggest bass landed.   I noticed a slight difference in the depthes we caught bass at in the two lakes.  In Cadillac most bass we hooked up with were in 2 to 5 feet and in Mitchell the bass were in 4 to 8 feet.  I also had better success in the sparser weeds we tried to fish.  Windward weed edges and casting "upwind" seemed to be the ticket.   Too bad you were not at the camp earlier in the week as I'm sure we could've shared info and even fished some together.  I also have a son and his friend was also along... although they are both kind of beginners to fishing.  We had a good time even though it was downright miserable at times.  Hope you enjoy the rest of the fishing season... good day, Slowmo.

[Dougdad]

Slow seems to be normal thing this year in the whole wexford, osceola, missauke area.  This year has been the worst fishing year I have had. The unstable weather seems to have everything messed up.  

[fasttrack]

Thanks for the reply Slomo - yeah too bad we didn't meet up there. We just came up Fri afternoon and left about the same time as you on Sun. Had a family camping trip a week earlier and another one coming up later this week - taking way too many days off this summer but having fun! This was just a bonding time with my oldest - he's growing up so fast and as busy as life is it seems like we were drifting. Enough being sappy - maybe we'll connect another time....

I did talk to an old guy at the gas station next door on the way out of the park. He was just getting up there and going to stay a couple days. Been doing so for a number of years. He CLAIMS that last year the two of them caught over 900 crappie in two days (throwing back all but a few to eat). Said that Mitchell is the lake to fish for them and use 1/32 oz jigs (plain, no live bait). It's always "should of been here last year/week". True with the numbers or not, he sounded pretty knowlegable and was very friendly.

Marc