madwags fall open stories, weights ... lies

[LAPORTE]

 lets here some stuff...

[Mike S.]

Skeg sucks. It did give up more fish than last year however, but it sucks nonetheless. Our fearless leader, Dan Kimmel, fished solo and brought in two pig smallies for 10.12#!  That was good for 3rd place. If one team could have caught the 5 biggest smallies that came to weigh in, it would have been close to a 24 or 25# bag.

Oh yeah, the pre-fishing Pollock didn't bring a duck in this year, but he did manage a very good finish. Big ugly was actually a perch this time.

[TheFishinPollock]

Nope no duck this year for me.  No 5th fish either!    And I swear on that out-a-stater's boat andddddd truck that I hadn't been out there since the first week of September.

You are just gonna have to come up Mike and I'll put ya in my boat and show ya where they are. They are always in the same spots .

Ohhhhhhhh. and do you guys realize ya'll got beat by 2 women! 

[Mojo]

Ohhhhhhhh. and do you guys realize ya'll got beat by 2 women! 

OH - and smallies were still spawning too...... right Dan ! I have seen it all now .....

What else - Torch has been converted to the world biggest swimming pool. Devoid of an weed (or fish). It is the cleanest dead lake I've ever seen !

If Skeg ever has weed growth it could be phenomenal.

[Mike S.]

Nope no duck this year for me.  No 5th fish either!    And I swear on that out-a-stater's boat andddddd truck that I hadn't been out there since the first week of September.

You are just gonna have to come up Mike and I'll put ya in my boat and show ya where they are. They are always in the same spots .

Ohhhhhhhh. and do you guys realize ya'll got beat by 2 women! 

Now it is getting strange. Yes, you and Ma beat us. Is that the two women you are referring to?  Lol!

[bassfan586]

Moto there were beds on skeg.  No bs. New beds..........

[Dan]

I have also seen first hand fish that were acting as if they were spawning in the Fall up on these northern lakes. That's no BS.

[dartag]

so lets here some stories.  Or are you all to tired from landing fish.   

Details we need Details.

[Waterfoul]

Like MikeS said, we only landed 3 keepers.  2 more than I had last year!  He got 2 and I got one. I did lose a nice fish early in the day.  We had several bites early in the day that we just couldn't hook up with, kind of frustrating.

That's about the only stories I have for our boat.

I want to hear about the lunch stop on the way home.

[thedude]

we were up fri/sat/sun. friday was ok, we caught 6 or 7 decent fish and a couple small ones on skeg/elk. Saturday we tried torch, intermediate and the north part of elk and only 1 small keeper to show for the day. fishing was tough.  On sunday, we boated probably 12-15 fish, just all 13.5 inchers for some reason. 1 3.5lber to show for the day.

lunch was good, found a pot of gold under a rainbow....... also passed zona on his way north, be interested to see where he's filming.

[Genie]

need to get some leprechauns ...

[TheFishinPollock]

There was a leprechanu if I rember right.

Z was out on skeg Dude.   If ya go to his facebbok site there are pictures of him and his contest winner fishing where Don, genie, ma and I started the day in the river mouth.

[Mike S.]

Also needs to get some eye proection from the yogurt bombs!!!!  Lunch was a riot, wasn't it, Special Ed?

[Mike S.]

I didn't see Zona. Where did you guys pass him at?

[thedude]

we were going through the construction zone in newaygo around 7pm on 131

[Waterfoul]

I read on another site that Zona went Skeg and caught a couple decent ones but said it was tougher fishing than normal for him.  But there are some great pictures of nice fish on his facebook page.

[Mike S.]

I missed him by a few minutes then. I got off 131 at Cedar Springs. I was in my house and comfortable by 7:30. Guess I should have driven slower.

[deepdiver]

Where are the results and pics?

[YpsiBass]

If any of you guys get a chance to hang out with Mojo, do it...

It all started Saturday night around 5.  Head over to Mojo's house and we leave for Skeg. Top of the line ride in a Ram 1500.  Pick up Frank's boat and hit the road.  Pretty smooth ride and we're making good time, but we have to detour to make a trip into the middle of nowhere woods near Gladwin to lay some beets.  Mojo stops the truck and hear some voices off the road.  Trip through the woods a little bit and lo and behold, fellow hunter friends of Mojo.  Have a good time talking about his old hunting stories, taking his son out for the hunt, and generally having a good time standing around the fire.  Soon, we're back on the road.

It's dark the rest of the drive and Mojo has all these great stories about how he started hunting and somehow he's always able to see the deer on the side of the road before I do.  We pull off the highway and soon we stop to check out some 8 point deer that just happened to be walking near the road as we pass by.  It stares at us then disappears into the woods.

It's almost 11 by the time until we get to the house of Bob O's dad.  Great little place in Gaylord, about an hour from the lake. Middle of nowhere once again, but quiet and you can see all the stars.  We talk about baits to use on Skeg the next day and lament over the lack of information.  Bob's printed up nice maps he got somewhere online and shop talk begins.  We obviously have some serious problems with buying crankbaits.  I hit the sack, but the other guys stay up talking a bit longer.

Wake up at the crack of dawn around 5.  Bob and his dad have made us breakfast.  How can you not love eggs fried in bacon fat? Bob's dog is happy to eat whatever scraps he can and soon we're off again.  Mojo has been gracious enough to drive so I ended up taking a nap on the way to the lake.  Get to Skeg around 6 and meet everyone.  It's great to see some of the folks from the Madwags open in the spring again, or the swap meet, or the frog event.  People from this site are truly the best group I've had the pleasure of fishing with. 

I meet up my partner for the day, Cy, who offers some advice on the past few days of fishing he'd done at the lake.  I hadn't fished timber before so he schools me on how to fish tubes there.  He ends up pulling a nice 4 pounder out of one hole and we head to another.  Couple more small ones then head over to Elk.  The water is so clear you can see 15 feet down to the bottom.  It's like a giant blue swimming pool.  Crankbaits near the shoreline and he manages another couple small keepers.  Back to Skeg and no more fish to speak of, but it's time to weigh in.  We manage fifth, mostly due to my excellent skills with the net.  Everyone gets a bag of something to take home, then a few of us head out to lunch.

Great little place, but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of it.  About a dozen of us meet up there.  Mojo earns a new nickname, Special Ed, from the waitress that took care of us.  Even the great Dan Kimmel showed up.  It was almost like a family reunion.  Everyone had their stories.  Good times.

Time to hit the road again, we all say our goodbyes.  Pretty quiet, quick ride home.  Sometime after dark, we're on I-75 doing a good 70+ mph and a red truck passes us.  Mojo recognizes the lettering on the side as yet another friend and he rolls down the window then starts honking.  Never have I ever witnessed such an exchange in the middle of the night speeding down the highway, but being friends with Mojo is an experience in and of itself.  They wave at each other and then windows back up and soon we're home again.  Mojo invites me in for coffee, but I need to get back.  It's another hour drive for me until I get home. 

Even though I didn't catch a fish on Skegemog, the weekend's experience was worth more than any fish I could have caught.

[Mike S.]

I don't think Mojo can go anywhere without knowing somebody. He seemed to know every person on every boat last spring on LSC. Quite the entertaining guy.