Alpena - Thunder Bay - Long Lake

[Cy]

Has anyone ever fished up here?  I'm heading up that next week on vacation and wondered if there was any good fishing?

Thanks,

Cy

[Genie]

No fish there at all.

[Cy]

No fish there at all.

Thanks Doug!

Does anyone else have any input, that doesn't suck!?

[Frank-o]

i have never fished Thunder Bay, but on the north side of Alpena is an inland lake called Long Lake...just a few miles north of the City on Rt 23. The ramp is on Long Lake Rd on the west side of the lake. This is a smallmouth lake, and there are plenty of 3-4 lb'ers with an occasional 5 in there.
Watch out for shallow rock piles, tho, near inlets and cove entrances.

Good luck

[Cy]

Thanks Frank.  I'll be staying on Long Lake next week, so I will definitely be fishing it.  Any in particular that works on Long or places I should pay extra attention to?

Cy

[Quack]

Hubbard Lake is about 20 minutes south of Alpena and also has some decent smallmouth.  I don't usually get great numbers but the quality is good.

[Firefighter Jeff]

Hmmmm sounds like you will be fishing Long more than Thunder Bay.  If you still want some info on the bay, let me know and I'll send ya my brother's phone number.  He has fished it a few times but not for some time.  He used to fish some classics up there.

[djkimmel]

I did pretty good at Hubbard last time I was there. It was early-mid June so many bass were on beds. They were pretty numerous though - more ~2 to almost 3 pounders than bigger bass despite many still being on beds.

A lot more numerous than the old club tournament we had there many years ago. We caught very few bass then but they were almost all 4 pounders. I only caught 3 or 4 over 4 pounds my most recent trip but lots of those very decent keepers.

I would think you can get into them pretty good at Hubbard. Let me know if you think you might go that far and I can point you to 3 or 4 spots that might produce summer bass.

[red68prostreet]

Dan,
       How about some more details on Hubbard Lake. My buddies and I have decided to forgo our fall trip to Kentucky Lake and stay in Mich. I have booked the Bay View Resort for Sept 26th thru the 30th. We are hoping to get into some smallies putting the feed bag on before winter.
        You helped me out at Lake Ovid so i'm guessing you have hot spots for Hubbard as well.
         Thanks,
                  Mark

[djkimmel]

Dan,
       How about some more details on Hubbard Lake. My buddies and I have decided to forgo our fall trip to Kentucky Lake and stay in Mich. I have booked the Bay View Resort for Sept 26th thru the 30th. We are hoping to get into some smallies putting the feed bag on before winter.
        You helped me out at Lake Ovid so i'm guessing you have hot spots for Hubbard as well.
         Thanks,
                  Mark

Send me a PM so I will remember tomorrow night after the BIG bob o frogs only open national championship. I will like to hear how the resort turns out. The place I stayed at last time was decent but had NO PHONES and no cell phone reception. I had to borrow some nice complete stranger lady's cell phone at the little restaurant just to call my wife from the top of the hill in one little spot that worked.

I'm sure I can get you headed in the right direction even though my last trip was in early-mid-June. Before that, I fished it in mid-summer. I was impressed the last time - bass where much more numerous and solid - and would go back again if that corner of the state wasn't less convenient to get to and the fishing wasn't so good North and West.

Whatever you do, don't go to Beaver Lake. I still can't figure out what those guys who told me to go there were talking about. Weird lake.

[red68prostreet]

Ok here is the bass fishing report for Hubbard lake last week. 1st of all we stayed at the Bay View Resort located on the west side of the lake about the midway area. Very nice place. Cabins are clean but the showers are small. Worked for me but a couple of my buddies had a tight fit. They do not supply towels or linen for the beds but the owner was kind enough to supply towels. We went up on wed Sept 26th and left sun Sept 30. 4 nights stay cost us $87.50 each. We brought meals for lunch but went out every night to the Cedar Lounge for dinner where we spent alot of money.

We were on the water by noon on wed and fished until 5:00 PM. 4 of us fishing out of two boats caught zero fish. The weather was beautiful as is hubbard lake with it's crystal clear water. Water temp for the 4 days was 58 climbing to 62 near the end of the day. We had a lot of sun and not much wind.

Thurs we fished all day and never caught a fish. No one even marked a fish. We were all over the lake in shallow and deep water. We ran into some guys prefishing for an upcoming event and the only thing they caught were two walleye.

Fri morning we were back out criss crossing the lake at idle speed looking to mark fish. At noon we went in to eat lunch and considered loading the boat to go home. After lunch I decided to go to the north end of the lake near the boat launch. I was crossing over a grass flat in 8-10 fow using the trolling motor and looked down to see I had spooked fish out of the grass onto the sandy bottom. We also saw baitfish. We started throwing everything we could think of to catch them. It was finally narrowed down to a dropshot with a Berkley gulp minnow. That was the only thing they would eat. We called the other boat over and for the next several hours we caught 15 fish and lost another 10. I have to agree with DK that these fish are bigger than average and heavy. Our largest was 5.11 but the average weight was 3 to 4 lbs. Very impressed.

Sat was looking to be a great day until we went out. Don't know what happened but we have very few bites and only boated 6 fish all day between us and I caught nothing. My boat partner did have a beast on that would have been well over 6 lbs but it finally jumped high enough to spit the hook out. Got to the bar early sat night to drown my sorrows.

All in all it was still a great place to visit and someday I would like to go back. The perch bite was going on and walleyes were also being caught. The locals said that the spring spawn for smallies is the ticket so maybe I will try that someday. There is no doubt the lake is beautiful and with the trees starting to change color I bet it would be more beautiful in the coming weeks. Fishing would probably improve as well in the next several weeks. Maybe someday is coming sooner than I think.

Mark

[djkimmel]

Well... I'm glad you had the one hot streak. That is some weird fishing. One reason I don't go back often (besides the main one - that it is out of the way compared to other lakes) is that Hubbard can be a little more weird about every 3rd trip. Fall can be more challenging than spring but I think the occasional rewards make up for that. The quiet and colors are nice too.

Your trip sounds like one I had on another Northern Michigan lake I don't fish often. Bass everywhere one day. Weather change overnight and no bass to be found anywhere the next day! I think someone stole them!!

I think that is fairly normal for fall in Northern Michigan though some lakes are just more mysterious until you figure out the few tricks to adjusting. I guess I like Mullett Lake more partially because I've figured out a few more of the tricks up there than other lakes but it still tricks me pretty good sometimes just like any other lake.

[red68prostreet]

Happy New Year to all. I'm a bit miffed. How many saw the MLF show today that took place on Hubbard Lake last Aug after the Bass Elite event on St. Clair? Makes me realize how much more I have to learn about how to find and catch fish. As you can see from my report from last yr we had a tough time but the fish we did catch were decent size. I hope to go back there and give it a try again this yr.

[motocross269]

My inlaws live on Long Lake....It can fish tough at times and you really have to keep moving....Fish on Long really relate to the weedbeds from post spawn and on....

Grand Lake about 5 miles North east of there is good fishing also and it shows itself a little easier.....Lots of Islands and rocky points to fish around...


The Perch fishing has been off the charts on Grand the last few years..

[t-bone]

I agree - Grand fishes better than Long. Watch Major League Fishing -they are on both lakes and Hubbard, should get some tips from them. Hubbard fished pretty tough.

[djkimmel]

Hubbard has a ton of bass in it but I haven't fished it during the summer in a long, long time. It was real weird then, but it had nowhere near as many bass as it does now.

I think it just takes a different approach than their short time allowed to figure out the later summer bass. They are definitely there. Somewhere. A forage search might be the key to summer fishing there.

One of these days I'll make a fall trip to see how it differs from spring. Sometimes putting those two seasons together helps figure out where they go during the summer.

I started a similar search on Black Lake a few seasons ago. It reminds me a little bit of Hubbard Lake in the way it can seem like feast or famine, sometimes in a very short amount of time. I think figuring out those kinds of lakes can make you a much better angler in the long run (I'd add Elk Lake to the list too).

[djkimmel]

Thunder Bay is a barely tapped bass resource. Also on my todo list to get back there. It was spotty but lots of bass when you found those spots.

Last time I was there I found some of the dumbest smallmouth bass outside of the Charity Islands groups I used to fish. I also found some of the most numerous and frustrating bass piled up in another spot. Part of me was very intrigued, and part of me went a little crazy. Not all bad to put yourself through that once in awhile. Especially knowing that there are much easier, really good lakes you can go to if you need to bump your ego back up a little afterwards