Michian Bass Basics: Deep Clear Lakes of the North

[Savage]

Anyone who's spent more than a few years pursuing bass in Michigan has likely ended up on one of our great big 'ol lakes on the Northwest side: Torch, Elk, Charlevoix, etc.  They can be a real challenge to fish, especially during the summer, since there is a massive lack of visible cover throughout %95 of the lake.

My question for everyone is this:  What is your favorite pattern on these lakes?  What do you like to use, and where?  What colors work well for you?  You don't have to be overly specific, but this is to help us all.

What I have done with limited success:

Low light:  Fish can be found shallow (12 feet or less is shallow on these lakes) early and late.  If there is wood cover on bottom (like on Elk) they are scattered amoung it usually.  A guy in my club cleaned my clock with a jerkbait during this time, but he caught all small ones.  I did better with a 4" Case tube, in the RR45blue color.  If you do use the jerkbait in the low light, go with a pearl color.

Mid-day:  The fish start to pull out on the breaks.  Try hanging in from the drop and casting out into the deep with a tube.  Drag the tube slowly up and over the break.  If you feel some kind of cover, work the area well.  Sometimes the crazy smallies will hit a spook way out over the deep off the break.

Now please help us out!

[djkimmel]

Long casts burning big willowleaf spinnerbaits. Try painted all white, white/chartreuse and all chartreuse looking for a preference. There usually is a strong one.

'Burning' tubes. Cast a tube, weighted heavy enough to work in the present conditions, way out and reel it in fast so it erratically 'swims' along high up in the water column. Try letting it sink to the bottom and use a hard snap-fall retreive to get reaction bites.

On Elk, I've done REAL good in the past on sand colored craws, grubs and tubes. On Torch, a milky, light brown of some kind will match the ghost colored crayfish out there. I haven't noticed a real strong consistent color preference elsewhere up there.

On Charlevoix, I've found bass in schools off the first drop on small flat spots in 22 to 24 feet, and caught them during the day on Carolina-rigged Yamamoto grubs. Nothing fancy.

I sometimes look for off-colored water and any kind of current when I just need some shallow power fish.

[joshimoto son]

My only experience is on Charlevoix, once two years ago at the state fish-off, we found something similar to what DK mentioned. Using a carolina rig with a watermelon w/ silver flake pheonix tube on a Grigsby hook, the yami's were not working for us. We worked the first break in 20-27 FOW and found the fish to be "nipping" at the tails for a while until they decided to take it.

I can't take any credit for the pattern, I was practicing with one of the guys in our club who has forgotten more about fishing than I will ever know and he was the one who started doing it.

But the thing that was "key" to getting bit was the drift. We did not cast and retrieve, it was a matter of moving along the break line with the wind and then finding any piece of isolated structure or cover that would hold them. Then continually drifting over that spot.

I mentioned that the fish were bitting very lightly, for every fish we caught, we had on average five bites that we did not hook up on.

Does anybody think that if we were to run a trailer hook that would fall back into the tail of the tube, that we would have had more hook-ups?

Josh

[djkimmel]

I've played with that, but it hasn't 'rocked my world' yet. Still on the list of experimentin'

[yukonjack2]

I'm thinking of running a snelled gammy trailer  - they work great on spinnerbaits, and was thinking a tube bait would be a great choice - as long as there isn't to much snaggy stuff down there.

[Savage]

Okay, we have a good start here....  anyone ever hear of floating a weightless senko out over the deep water for suspended smallies in these lakes?   I remember some guys doing that at the state tournament last time it was at Charlevoix.  I'd say dropshotting would probably be a good technique there, too.

[djkimmel]

Drop-shotting will be interesting on those northen lakes. As for floating the senko - maybe after I finish watching paint dry...

I have a partner who's job it is to do that boring, snoozy stuff because I rarely can handle it. Maybe twice year. I'll be out there buring a spinnerbait, topwater or crankbait hoping I at least catch one or two so I don't get the "why can't you just throw what is working for me" lecture...

[Dan]

I get a chance to fish some of the lakes south of Traverse and they are clear smallie lakes and deep for me is 5 ft. You would be surprised, well maybe not, at the number of big smallies we get in very shallow water over what looks like bare sand. Any little pebble, footprint filled in with silt a fish will sit over. You'd swear you could see them if they are there but.... Tubes, spinnerbaits - I'm with Lt. Dan - white painted blade double willows. I also like to chuck carolina rigs with zippers, senkos, and tubes. I like to match the three phases of craw colors. Early summer more green, midsummer drab green with black, and late summer the greens with orange. I too fish breaks but only if the real shallow stuff isn't working. Can't hardly not throw a sammy early and sometimes late into the morning and occasionally in the pm we will pick one up. When I throw a chugger, I like a sugoi. They are smaller and have more side to side action. In the fall try a purple trap.

[blakstr1]

Fishing mostly clear waters with ligher color bottoms I prefer either a sand with blue flake or a smoke with silver and gold flake...both have produced well.  generally like to stick with different hues of green pumpkin too..

[rufus]

I have fished Elk many times from late June through early October. It is an awesome smallie lake once you find the key to catching them. In the fall and early summer all you need is shallow dark water and you will load the boat. When the fiahing gets tough I have found them on the deep wood and the scattered small weed patches in 18-27 feet of water. We fished and unusually warm late September fall classic out there a few years back with about 100 boats. My partner and I and about four other boats were the only ones on Elk. Almost the entire field was on Skegmog. We ended up cashing a very nice check and so did the other boat that was fishing within sight of us. We lost several fish the second day that would have put us in the top three, but still managed a decent limit. All those fish came from 22+ FOW on watermelon/gold tubes and off small patches of grass in several areas of the lake. We could not get bit off the deep wood that tourney. The winners came off of Torch and kicked everyones tail. He said they caught theirs in 25 feet off of a boulder he had found. The tournament director told us the other lakes were good, but "Torch will make you famous", he was right . He also had big bass both days.
God Bless and Good Fishin'
rufus

[UPBert]

I haven't fished the lakes mentioned in the NW lower much, but fish several up here (Upper Peninsula) that are gin clear.  Senkos do work fished deep, but as mentioned, it is a "relaxing" style of fishing.  I can stand this pace if I have a good partner in the boat to BS with.  I have thought about trying senkos wacky rigged with a 1/16 or 1/8 oz. jig head - should get it down quicker.  So many ideas, so little time...

I usually start fishing very early, and beat the banks with good success.   Once the sun gets up over the trees, this pattern fizzles out rather quickly.  As mentioned though, it doesn't take much structure or cover to hold fish in clear lakes. 

Come July or so up here, the fish seem to really stack up on the end of points in 25-40' of water.  Drop shotting shines in this situation, and has caught me a crapload of fish.  It is a more active way to fish, have to watch the electronics to stay on the spot/fish, and pretty fast action when you get it right.  I also have caught many other species besides bass doing this - including pike, perch, bluegill, trout, rock bass, crappie, and one bullhead!  I believe fish in deep/clear lakes spend a lot of time deeper than most people would think.

UPBert