Lobdell Lake looks better than I've seen it in years 7-11-17

[djkimmel]

Derek has to start our weekly fishing session with an errand to fish a leaky tire first. Since the repair place was on the way to Flint along I-69 he suggested we give Lobdell Lake another try (first time this year though). I've been dreading this because the past few seasons Lobdell Lake has been closer to a mud puddle than a lake with the wipe out of most of its aquatic plants!!

I have a long, close relationship with Lobdell Lake as I consider one of my childhood home playgrounds. Having grown in Flint Lobdell Lake is one of the main lakes we fished when I was young. For many of my early Michigan bass season openers, Lobdell is where you would find me. For a number of years we would hit the lake late Friday night staring at the watch with Jitterbugs raised waiting for midnight to strike signaling another bass season open!!

So I have many, many memories from Lobdell. Many fond memories! I learned some of my early bass fishing lessons chasing largemouth bass through the many nice weed beds throughout the interestingly configured waters (including also Bennett Lake - where I saw my first ciscoes and caught some of the few pickerel I've caught - and the mysterious Hoisington Lake).



But lately, I barely recognize the once great bass lake - with the attack on aquatic plants of the past number of seasons the lake has been very spare on cover and tending to be from very off-colored to muddy every time I've visited. The bass fishing has seemed pretty poor to us too each time we've visited. Tiny fish need cover. Big fish need cover. Take away almost all the cover and you mess up the balance of everything.

So, I was pleasantly surprised as we motored to our first spot to 1st: be able to see down up to 4+ feet in places, and 2nd: to see a fair amount of still standing weeds we were passing over??

For old times sake, we decided to start really shallow at the end of one of the bays - a spot we generally fish more earlier in the year but seeing some live weeds leading into it I had some hope we might find some fish though it was already past 10am when we got there. It was overcast all the way to the lake so that seemed like it would help but as soon as we started to fish the clouds broke up and it got sunny and the heat poured in!!

Still, I started with my new 2K Jigs buzzbait and a fish blew up on it twice in the first few casts!! That was interesting... not sure what kind of fish it was but it looked like a decent sized fish?!? There were as many weeds in the very back but there were pads, some moss, a little bit of scruffy grasses and even a few tiny clumps of milfoi here and there.


I figured the bite might not last long back there with the limited cover and the now bright, clear skies. It ended up being a decent start though as Derek landed the first small keeper bass tossing his spinnerbait towards the shallower weeds. Moments later, my buzzbait got smashed but it was a hammer handle, which I landed, of course...


Only a few minutes after that I turned around and made a cast with the Titanium Freak Buzz out towards the middle of the back end of the bay even though there didn't appear to be any cover. The buzzbait was only a few feet away from the end of my rod when this decent keeper largemouth bass shot up and overran it!! I shortlined it a few minutes and was able to grab hold of it for a quick picture. I forgot about turning the right way but I guess this picture gives an idea about how hot it was going to be as the day progressed!

We seemed to be off to a decent start...

Things went downhill from there though... we ran to the back of the lake and found very few weeds left along the whole big sloping flat there. But, the water didn't look too bad - a little murky but visibility was several feet, maybe 3 to almost 5 feet in spots. With very little cover though there wasn't a big reason for lots of bait to be there nor lots of following gamefish.

Since it has been a good spot in the old days and there were a few clumps of weeds - mostly tiny, but a few the size of a small boat - and a fair amount of grassy stuff out deeper we gave it a go. I'll just shorten this bass fishing report a little by saying it right here - Lobdell Lake is turning into one heck of a PIKE lake!! #@#$%@#$% dangit!!

We started getting hammered by pike! On almost everything we threw from 5 feet out to 12-14 feet deep... I tried throwing a moderately expensive soft swimbait about 5 inches long way up towards the shallow water and it got pounded!! A medium-sized pike inhaled it! How I didn't lose it I don't know...

Throwing deep diving crankbaits was an exercise in frustration as pike after pike after pike pounded every color and depth of crankbait we threw whether it was up closer to shore or way out offshore from 10 to 14-15 feet. We did catch a few bass - mostly dinks - but it was 4 or 5 pike to each bass!!!

We did inch out to about 16 feet of water and I actually hooked a nice bass on the green gizzard shad Strike King 5XD on a long cast. I knew it was a bass because it just stopped the crankbait like a big chunk of weed and then headed right for the surface... finally! A nice bass!! It tried to jump once still quite a ways out and after it turned back into the water it was just gone... shoot. No more bites out there deeper and as soon as we got a couple feet shallower the pike started hammering us again...

They weren't just hitting crankbaits! When we tried Texas rigs and jigs those got pounded too! BAM!! Pike! Or your crankbait would go completely dead and then be ripping right at you 90 miles an hour...

WARNING! VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED...

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!!!


As if hooking pike isn't bad enough... one of them did this to me!!! Our day  almost ended in disaster on only our second spot. The thing is many of these pike were 20-24 inches, so big enough to put up a good fight and pull the sneaky pike 'I'm done fighting now, go ahead and try to unhook me... it's okay... honest... I won't go crazy jumping twisting and twirling all over the place like a hyperactive tornado!!!' Nooooooo...

It got to the point I was reaching for the hooks with the pliers and then jumping (and maybe squealing a little too... I admit it) every time the #$%@ pike would twitch or roll an eyeball... This particular pike was one of the bigger... more like 25-26 inches and I knew it wasn't done fighting... but I was sick of the time wasted unhooking pike, retying scared line and straightening hooks back out... so I kind of rushed this one... I grabbed one of the crankbait trebles with my pliers and lifted it halfway out of the water. Didn't want to pike-slime Derek's fancy Ranger Boat (he doesn't appreciate that for some reason...)

Of course, the pike was sandbagging it... as soon as I tried to pop the first hook point out it kicked its tail shooting right at my face!!! It all happened in less than a blink of an eye (so this is also a safety warning for handling fish with lots of hooks around them...) I jumped back as fast as I could. I felt the pike smack me in my... well... my unmentionables... and then it was back in the water and gone!!! What the...?!?

I thought it broke or bit through my line and stole my crankbait... until I looked down... I may have wobbled a little... maybe felt an uneasy queasy feeling pass through my bowels... possibly the world even tilted just a wee bit for a moment...

I hadn't lost my crankbait... there it was... oh boy. You know, sharp hooks that get stuck in you real fast... you don't even feel it much of the time... I gingerly, oh so gingerly pulled on my pant leg to see what was hooked to where exactly (and to see if there was any accompanying jolt of pain anywhere...).

Whew... I think I'm going to make it! I felt nothing (except a loss of my pride maybe...). The hooks had gone all the way through my new jeans but apparently not through anything else of mine... whew again! The points were tangled good through lots of pants material so I had to mash the barbs down through my jeans to work the hooks back out without too much tearing (or accidentally sticking anything else!?!).

Then, of course, I had to rebend a couple points and retie since the exciting activity had snapped my line too...

Have I mentioned I'm sick of catching pike this year...?? Just wondered.

So, no one was seriously hurt the rest of the day but it turned into basically an incredibly annoying pike fest! If you like pike, go to Lobdell Lake! Please!!

We moved around the lake from shallow bays (nothing except a few small pike - plus I'm thinking Lobdell might have Starry Stonewort in it...), to 20 foot+ deep drops. Most of the action was from pike. They seemed to be everywhere at every depth! At one point we were fishing jigs and Texas-rigged worms/creatures (they like the B2 Bullet Craw a lot!) from 12 to 20+ and the pike were just hammering them!!

The only part that might have changed things was both us for some reason repeatedly had the same thing happen - we would get a deep bite from mush to a WHAM, set the hook hard! The rod would double over! Good fish!! Finally! And then it would be gone...?!? Can't remember how many times it happened to Derek - 2, 3, 4? - but I know it happened to me 4 or 5 times!! Almost had to be some bass because we didn't seem to have a lot of problem hooking and landing the pike...

Some of these mystery fish felt really, really good! But we'll never know... so hardly any pictures from this day since most of the bass we landed weren't very big and who wants to see pictures of babies? Not me. I do know I've never caught that many pike - even close - in one day before on Lobdell... 

If Derek says he wants to go back I'm voting for heading right to Bennett instead... someone else can have the pike!

[detroit1]

GLP.com....

[dartag]

Glad it cleared up.  I was there in late May and was met by 2 spray boats coming down the center of the bay spraying pellets.  On another shore was a boat spraying some kind of liquid.  When I went back on the 27 of May the lake was a stinky mess of floating weeds.   

[djkimmel]

Yeah... it looked better. Thinking back, they have killed quite a bit of the weeds... Just appears they left more than usual compared to the past. They'll probably come back out and finish it off now...