Help with Fall Fishing West Michigan

[JPawloski]

Hi All - would appreciate any tips, pointers, advice, etc...

This is my first year fishing out of my own boat. I've never fished this late in the season and I'm having some trouble getting them in the livewell.

I'll be fishing again this weekend in SW Michigan (Gull Lake) - can anyone share some general advice on where to look for them, presentations that might be effective, etc.?

Last Sunday I went out and tried shallow to mid-depth (4-20ft of water, flats, points, drops) on a variety of presentations (tube, senko, lipless crank, spinnerbait). We only caught dinks, and they were few and far between.

Thanks in advance.

[32eml24]

I have never fished gull but some general advice from me would be to keep covering water, bearing in mind that you should be able to find some that want to eat this time of year. Also as the water cools bait slection becomes more critical. Flat sided or lipless cranks instead of the wide wobbling plugs that worked well this summer. With your spinnerbaits, try to matchvthe hatch as closely as possible and never just cast it out and reel it in. Snap the rod tip, stop and start the bait. With theblipless cranks let them just tick the top of the grass and snap them out. Once youve located a group of feeding fish or even a general areavthats produced a few bites you can go back and dissect it further with a jig drop shot etc. Hope thisbhelps and good luck fishing! Now is the best time!

[Schoolycustom]

JP,

With this very cold snap, fishing will be tough. Gull is a lake that can stand up to it though. Try and find mid-depths 8-15 feet, and keep an eye out for any remaining weeds. Suspending jerkbait, Silver Buddy, Lipless crankbait in that order would be the baits I would throw. Had a day a couple years ago out there when I caught a ton on a hair jig too, might be worth a shot. Fish in the wind and suspend that jerkbait as long as you can, you should get bit.

[PineLk 49]

Hi Jason!! It was a pleasure meeting another GLB member last Sunday on Pine.

The guys that won were fishing docks.13.50. I think they were throwing sinkos.

We had 12.50 for 2nd and were 12 to 23ft of water throwing plastics. Flappers,Vibes and Power Craws on 1/4oz jig head using 8# flouro.

We are not fishing Gull. Partner has to take son to a show and my boat is winterized so this is what I would of thrown.

Suspending jerk bait. Not sure of water temp but figure out how fast they want it moving 6ft to 16ft.

Next would be Vibe or Power Crawl in jig head. The rate of fall is key. Watch your line closely.

Black Hair Jig 1/4 to 3/8 with black or black n blue Zoom chunk.

Silver Buddy ripping through the weeds. Same Depth.

Spinner Bait with Indiana Copper Blade slow rolling off bottom

No. 1 bait should be jerk bait mag size. Do not give up on this bait. Change colors and speed of retrieve. The fish will tell you what they want.

These are the baits and techniques I would have used. The above mentioned should work on many lakes this time of year.

Good luck and fill us in

Dave

Ps... If you throw that jerk bait for 6 hours be prepared to be sore the next morning

[Waterfoul]

Try the bay around the backside of the island.  Keep boat in 20+ feet of water and fish from the drop off all the way back to the boat to find out where they are holding.  Blade baits (silver buddy), jerk baits with loooong pauses, erie darter on a 1/4 oz jig head, beaver texas rigged, and a lipless is what I'd have on deck.  Maybe a weighted hook/senko too... have done well on that combo over the years in colder water.

[JPawloski]

Thanks for the awesome, detailed suggestions. Looking forward to trying them out.

Hit Cabela's last night. They didn't have any power craws in stock, but I picked up some YUM craws and I have some rage tails I'll try. I grabbed a few more suspending jerk baits as well, and some black hair jigs. Everything else I should have in the boat already.

Thanks again - will send a report after Sunday.

[Dan]

I was working at Cabelas last night. Should have checked in.

[Waterfoul]

There you go, stop into Cabelas when this "Dan" guys is working.  He'll give you the skinny on what ever you want to know!  If he doesn't know... he'll just ask me!  LOL!!   

[Frank-o]

JP,
I had a great day this past Tuesday on Pickerel Lake on the windblown side where the wind had blown all the baitfish and the hawgs were just stacked up in 2-5 FOW. They were hammering my white chatterbait (no trailer) and eating it deep ! That's the only lure they wanted, so give that a shot, too. Here's a pic of my 1st one that day.

[gmetime24]

Is that pickeral lake near Petoskey??

[Frank-o]

No, it's near M.I.S. in Lenawee County off Round Lake Hwy.

[JBASS]

I am about 25 minutes north of Gull ....Pm me if you wish as I go by myself most of the the time and like a fishing in the fall and I do not hunt and have my boat always ready in a heated area ready to fish.

This is the time of the year that the fish gang up and when found it can be very fun....Plus when you find those areas they will most likely be around that same spot every year..Smallies for sure.......It is also very important that those fish be released as one could put a hurting on those big bunches of fish...

As FAR as baits the colder the water the more I slow down but then again I always let the fish tell me as I have been amazed what they do eat..

It can be a real deep bite this time of year and a real shallow bite this time of year plus no fudgeies  and the rest are hunting...Got to love it..Just my 2 Jay

[JPawloski]

Turned out to be a good day - we won the tourney with 16.42, five fish. Second place was 15.55. I thought for sure we had big bass too with 5.07 but someone brought in a 6.22 smallie and bested us (didn't catch their name but nice fish!).

Tips were very helpful, so thanks again to everyone who replied. Plastics worked slow in 20ft of water was our pattern of the day. Here's a pic of our two biggest.

[JBASS]

Turned out to be a good day - we won the tourney with 16.42, five fish. Second place was 15.55. I thought for sure we had big bass too with 5.07 but someone brought in a 6.22 smallie and bested us (didn't catch their name but nice fish!).

Tips were very helpful, so thanks again to everyone who replied. Plastics worked slow in 20ft of water was our pattern of the day. Here's a pic of our two biggest.

You look like my nephew in the picture...