Burt 10/6

[fishindude11]

I was there Sept 19-24. No doubt the fish caught were nice.  We fished 4 days there and 1 morning at Little Traverse Bay.We never went to Mullet.  I don't know if the 31 degree morning temps were the first of the year or not but that may have been part of the reason we were having a slow bite or maybe we just suck:) The lake was just not what I was expecting - very little grass and couldn't find much structure in deeper water. We just had a hard time putting a pattern together, seemed like everything we caught was just different situations. When you see the BFL tourney results every June it sure makes you want to go there in the spring. Jeff

[Musky]

It was hard to keep that smile inside with my first smallie of 6 lbs!!!  I cannot wait to get up there next spring.  I really think that the fishing has been tougher the last couple of springs with the pounding they get from the BFL.  I know that they are not fishing them next spring so I hope that the bite is a little better. 

Musky

[Firefighter Jeff]

Musky congrats on your first 6 pounder.  Welcome to the club.  When do you usually fish up there compared to the BFL  ??  Before or after.  I may try and get up there for a day or so from Ludington if possible.

[djkimmel]

I went up there the weekend before the BFL this year and pounded the big bass with a friend (probably because I didn't have the psychology of tournament pressure to bother with). There are plenty of bass. They are very weather dependent as to easy bite verses tough scattered bite. They ALWAYS have been as long as I've gone up there (since 1994 one to three trips a year spring and fall).

Those lakes can seem very tough in bad conditions and the very next day seem like nirvana! I've watched it happen many, many times on multiple day trips. They roam out in the open water a lot when they aren't crashing the areas most of us fish most often.

The only real change I've seen is the bass fishing keeps getting generally better and the bass, on average, are way bigger than they were in 1994. Way bigger. That is from fishing many of the same exact beds in the spring that I've fished every year since 1994.

I don't fish Burt a lot because Burt, in my opinion, is more squirrelly than Mullett. I've also had the worst luck a few times in Burt and I don't like to remember them

Mullett and me are more alike (that sounds wrong somehow..?). I will admit that the bass seem to get bigger overall in Burt though. There may be more 5-pounders in Mullett, but almost all the real big bass I've seen (7+ up to 8-2) have come from Burt. You can't forget there are two more lakes in the chain that are also pretty darn good fishing. Especially when the wind is howling - a common problem in the fall.

[djkimmel]

I went out the day after the BFL one year - one of my typical events where for whatever reason, I had a hard time hooking bass all day, settling for something much less than spectacular. I went back to the same spot I made the TBF state team from the day after another dismal BFL performance and caught all the bass except 1 that I failed to catch the day before.

I also found small wolf packs of smallies that would slam small topwater baits. I had a blast and eventually forgot (mostly) about my poor performance of the day before.

To think the lake could be hammered that hard one day and fish so good the very next? Why? Well, it probably didn't hurt that it was sunny and almost calm on a spring day. The water temp went up several degrees and the bass were on the feed.

I even went over to a point that gets flat out pounded and pulled one over 5 pounds off a bed that had to have seen 25 or 30 baits the day before. I know for a fact that one of the bigger bass I caught off my favorite spot got pounded most of the day during the BFL. I think 3 people had it on. I couldn't get it to bite during the BFL, probably because of the number of baits it saw and bit on and because of whatever my Northern Michigan BFL jinx was about. But also maybe because of the weather conditions too.

That next day, my first cast and I instantly had the big bass on. And lost it! I was so surprised it bit so easy and fast that I blew it. I thought, well, I did have my shot, but threw back in anyway. And the darn fish bit again! This time I got it. It made me feel a little better knowing how many people tried to catch that bass the day before!

So, I do believe more than just fishing pressure is involved with those bass.

[Musky]

I do agree that the weather and other influences are more of a factor to those fish, however, we have been going up there on the first weekend of June since 2005 and have noticed the past 2 years have been tougher.  We still catch a lot of fish and some good ones, but have noticed that the easier to spot beds in the shallow water have been far less than the years prior.  I am not sure why but we have thought that the BFL may have some sort of influence.  I may be way off here but I am not sure.  The beds that are not visible in deeper water without the aid of SideImaging or a Flogger are still there and normally have huge fish on them when you can find a log with a bed on it.  We normally spend most of our time on Burt, Mullet will get a good workout next spring for a day.

Musky

[djkimmel]

I don't spend a lot of time on shallow beds. Those also seem spottier to me over the years. Remember that studies show maybe 1/3 of the adult bass may spawn per year. I wonder sometimes if the lower numbers of shallow beds is because less bass are trying to spawn that year at that time?

I remember one year on a Southern Michigan lake we had everything hit perfect and more bass were crowded on more beds in the shallows than I've ever seen before or since. I don't think there were necessarily more bass that year, but that more bass spawned.

Another thing that complicates trying to figure out what might be going on is that bass have banner years classes maybe 3 out of every ten. So some years there are more bass in the lake than others.

[Firefighter Jeff]

Very interesting information Dan and Musky,  thanks  !!!  Just might have to make a trip up next spring errrrr early summer.  Will you be on call Dan???  Kimmel hotline.  lololol

[djkimmel]

I hope to be up there too!!!

[Musky]

I am up there the first weekend of June with 7 other guys and we usually fish Friday on Burt; Saturday morning in a little 4 boat team tournament on Burt and usually hit Douglas or Mullet later in the day until dark.  We will fish Burt until about noon on Sunday and head back home.  We may spend more time this spring on Mullet.  I cannot wait to get back up there next year and explore more of White Goose Bay...we had a boat with Side Imaging this fall and marked about 25 very intriguing spots in 15-19 feet of water!!!

Musky