Need some help on Duck Lake in Interlochen

[spinninbug]

Our Teardrop club has our last tournament this sunday on duck lake.  My husband and I went up there this last weekend and fished.  Low and behold we didn't have very good luck.  Now my husband has fished this lake alot before.  We tried all his old spots.  Nothing.  This is supposed to be a smallie lake guess what we only caught large mouth.  All very nice large mouth but not enough.  Anyone have any input on this lake it would be greatly apprieciated.  We need to make up some points to qualify for our classic,  which my husband has his heart set on,  which I told him not to do but you all know how men are they just don't listen .  So now we are trying to make up some points and on a lake I'm not familar with.  So if anyone can help I know I might be able to survive the day in the boat with him if we can at least catch fish!!!  Not that anyone would belive that he would get a little testy on the water when we aren't catching fish.  Imagine that!

Well thanks in advance if anyone can help me.

[cwinsiii]

I've fished in front of the music camp, the big point across from the launch, I caught a lot of fish just not very big.

Most of my fishing is with pop-r's and 4" slider worms.

I think Duck has a lot of small fish.

[TheFishinPollock]

Good luck at your T.  ! problem with that lake. A pro BASS guy lives there . Friend of mine. And he practices and holds buddie T's out there all summer long when hes not at a pro T.   Get a good map and fish every inch .

[spinninbug]

Thanks for the info you guys,  we have a map and will take your advice.  Maybe we will just target the large mouth,  they at least had some size to them.  Better than any of the smallies that I have seen caught there. 

Thanks for the well wishes also.  I'm just hoping I survive the day and we catch fish.  I love my husband and don't want to have to feel like I need to throw him in the water if we aren't catching fish!!!

[Duke]

Its very reasonable to think you can get 12-13# of largemouth on this lake. I've seen tournaments where largemouth dominated the weigh-in. So if you're onto them, I'd stick it to them.

[djkimmel]

I heard a few years back about a 29 pound sack of largemouths coming out of Duck or Green in a Tristate tournament. I mention it because I've only fished 2 tournaments on Intermediate Chain and the first one way back, we also struggled to get on big smallies (which is all we heard about "big smallie this" and "big smallie that").

Since my partner had caught a couple nice largemouths in practice, we decided to concentrate on them - take the best of what we had going for us - sometimes that's all you can do.

We went completely after largemouths using 'bubba baits' and creamed the smallmouth guys by over 9 pounds!!!! Apparently, those Northern 'boys' (actually, seems the same all over the place) are so smallmouth crazy (or prejudiced) that the largemouths were practically left alone.

I know they bit like they hadn't seen a jig-and-pig or weedless spoon before. We took big bass and first place, and had a whole bunch of new instant best friends

What do you know... the next year a whole bunch more guys were seen slogging the weeds and slop!?! Imagine that?

I always ask, "what weighs more? A four pound smallmouth or a four pound largemouth..." Some of the guys actually start to answer "smallmouth!"

If I can find enough good ones to be competitive, I have no problem 'slumming' (or is it scumming?) some...

[spinninbug]

Don't get me wrong I love fishing smallies just as much as the next guy.  However,  I also love to catch fish.  Seems as though this year I can't catch smallies to save my soul.  So I have no problem catch large mouth they are just as much fun to catch and if they are biting even better.  So I'm thinking we will probably be targeting the largemouth.  I just want to catch fish,  I really don't care how we do as far as the classic goes but I know my husband want to make it and so for him I would like to make it,  but to me it's fishing and I just like hanging around with all the guys,  you know friends first then fishing.  So thanks for all the help.  I will pass all this info on to him and we will see how it works out.  I will let you all know how we do.  Thanks again. 

[Dan]

Hey Wendy,
Just spent all day Tuesday and most of Wednesday on Duck. I did catch one nice smallmouth both days, but I caught more largemouth. Tuesday was a very tough day. Once the morning bite was over forget about it. Plus the wind blew hard. I'm hoping for 5 fish green or brown. I'll settle down when we get one in the boat. I think we can make the classic as long as we don't blank. Terry knows the drill on that lake. It's just that we usually fish it in late September and the early fall fishing is not comparable to the dog days of August. We may have to take off from the south ramp Sunday because the TC boys pulled a permit for the north ramp and if we want to take off before them we have to use the south ramp. No parking there so we will have to dump boats and pick partners up at the north ramp. Oh well.

[spinninbug]

Hey Dan,

Terry so has his heart set on making the classic and I really am unsure about it happening on this lake.  We even got let down on Hamlin and so my confidence for us to make it on Duck isn't so good.  We didn't do all that great up there last weekend.  He does know the lake pretty well but like you said different time of year.

Are you talking about the south ramp in the south campground?  And there is another club fishing that day,  we should have fished green lake instead.  Oh well I'm just looking forward to getting away and camping for the weekend and hopefully having a good day on the water on Sunday.  It's all up to the fishin Gods now! 

See you Sunday!!

[Dan]

Yep, talked to Don this morning. He is camping up there for the week. He said we can dump in the south ramp, which is very shallow and then drive the boat to the dock at the regular ramp to pick up partners. Who knows what will actually happen. The TC group called the DNR and said we didn't have a permit even though we published our dates way before theirs and I'm told they knew about our tournament before they set theirs. Oh well. Don said he went out last night and fished till dark and never caught a fish. Very slow so don't get discouraged. Half the battle is focus and mindset. Go up for the weekend and fish Green. Should be similar stuff happening and who knows Dennis may switch to Green Sunday and you'll have a head start. Good luck!! Hey I did catch some fish drop shotting. Been watching that Seth Burrill from axfishing.com and trying some of his techniques. I got a lot to learn though.

[spinninbug]

You know that is one thing we didn't try and Terry usually does alot of drop shotting.  I just started and do like it alot. 

That was our plan to go up sat and probably fish green in the afternoon.  I'm trying to stay positive.

Keep the chin up you know!!

See you this weekend and who knows maybe we will be on green one can hope...

[bshaner]

Not to hijack your thread.... but I need someone to spend an entire day on the water with me working the drop shot.  I just have not caught the hang of it.

Bug, you want to volunteer??

B

[spinninbug]

Sure Brian when you coming up?  Anytime will work now that we didn't do well  on Duck lake and didn't make our classic.  We probably aren't coming to Jackson until November for the banquet and a surprise birthday party 2 weekends in a row whoo hoo.  So I would be glad to go out with you and practice and hamlin is a great lake for it!  You don't even have to bring your boat we can just use ours.  Let me know.

[bshaner]

Sept 9 and 10th are the only days I'm not available.  Fri-Sun's I have off every week   Pick a day!!  I'll make plans!

B

[spinninbug]

How about sept 9th an 10th.  That is our next free weekend.  So if that works for you come on up and we'll go fishin!!!

[bshaner]

haha... um those are the two days I'm not available.

B

[Duke]

How did you end up Spinningbug? I gather you didn't qualify for your classic. What was the winning weight and were you able to launch from Duck w/o any problems?

[Dan]

Well, I don't mean to step on Spinni's thread, but the winning weight was about 13 lbs. big bass was 3-13. Trouble launching? No trouble except there was a Traverse City group there with 9 or 10 boats. Because of their size, they didn't need to pull a ramp permit, however, they did just to make it more difficult for us. Consequently we had to launch out of the south ramp which doesn't have a dock, and is very shallow. We then had to have our partners drive the trailers back to the north ramp parking lot and pick them up at that ramp's dock. While doing so we got a lot of verbal #&*&#% from the Traverse City bunch. At weigh in they wouldn't allow us, because of the permit, to weigh at the north ramp so we had to beach boats at the south ramp and weigh. I couldn't even get my boat beached on shore, it grounded twenty feet short and so we had to wade to shore. A real cluster, but we worked it out. To top it all off even though we went through the permit process and got permission on the permit to pick up our partners at the north ramp dock the Traverse City bunch file a grievance on us!! No fishing brotherhood from the TC bunch. Don't know what their problem was. They knew way ahead of time our schedule because we publish it very early, and we put flyers up in their area. Anybody know if the Cherry Capitol Lake Leelanau tournament is on for this fall? By the way this wasn't the Cherry Capitol club who hassled us this weekend.

[canvsbk]

 There's enough trouble looming out there already, we don't need to bring it on ourselves. Figure it out and leave it there. Surely an hour more or less, here or there and you're out of each others way.

[Dan]

None of our guys mixed it up. We used the grin and bare it approach. We already knew the individuals who were the problem and so we knew what to expect. We don't expect any problem with their greivance. We talked to the DNR in advance and had everything from our end taken care of and followed what they told us to the letter. But, your right in that even though these things are unfortunate you can't let it affect your day on the water. None of us in our group are making money fishing, that is to say, we do this for fun and dispite my lousy day of fishing with only two fish (one was big bass and got us the Big Bass Pot) I mangaged to step on my net which flip two rods into the lake. One of which was a new Loomis with a Curado (first time I used the Loomis in a tournament- just bought it) and a Bass Pro extreme with a spirex on it. Later my net blew off the butt seat while running down the lake, and it hit me in the head. Still sore. However, the worst day of fishing.....