Where did you fish this year?

[detroit1]

Ibought a Bill Dance bobblehead a few years back at Bob's lure swap's auction table. I don't remember who donated it..(mojo?)....

[fishstick]

Grand River
Spring Lake
Muskegon Lake
White Lake
Cadillac
Mitchell
Charlevoix
Platte
North
Portage Chain (every lake on it)
Leelanau
Lake Michigan
Macatawa
4 more that will remain nameless and I think that's it.

Wait why is Mona Lake nameless?? 🤔🤔

I could be there in 5 minutes but I drive right by it every time. There's never any weekend tournaments there so I just don't bother with it most years. Actually thinking about it now I was there one time for a couple hours last year.

[Bill Dance]

Grand River
Spring Lake
Muskegon Lake
White Lake
Cadillac
Mitchell
Charlevoix
Platte
North
Portage Chain (every lake on it)
Leelanau
Lake Michigan
Macatawa
4 more that will remain nameless and I think that's it.

Wait why is Mona Lake nameless?? 🤔🤔

I could be there in 5 minutes but I drive right by it every time. There's never any weekend tournaments there so I just don't bother with it most years. Actually thinking about it now I was there one time for a couple hours last year.

I figured you had to be right by it with a list of every lake north and south of it. It's actually one of my favorite lakes! Super underfished, seriously a sleeper lake over shadowed by Muskegon and White.

I see a few small club tourneys every once in a while, and I think I saw one of the West Siders 1 on 1's is there this year.

[fishstick]

Sounds like I need to spend a little time there, I know there were some decent weights that came out of it in weeknight WMB tournaments. I think you are right about the Westsiders 1v1, I want to say it is opening weekend. 

[djkimmel]

I always like Mona Lake, though it was sometime kind of quirky for me. It also used to have a dangerous population of big pike that would show up just about anywhere!! Don't know if that is still the case?

[Frank]

Butler Chain Florida         Cass Lake
Sylvan Lake                 long lake, Hale
Atlantic Ocean             Crescent Lake
Loud dam pond            foote dam pond     
West londo                  george lake
Sanford Lake                rifle lake
Lake Huron                  van etten lake
Middle Straights Lake     cedar lake, oscoda
Londo lake                    watkins lake
Union Lake                    duck lake             
Long Lake                                 Lobdell Lake                   
Wolverine Lake                          Orchard Lake
Kent Lake                               cooley lake 
Pontiac Lake                        loon lake, oscoda
Maceday Lake                      sage lake
Heron Lake                         a pond in florida
Big Fish Lake                       st lucie river florida
Cedar Island Lake                the lake tyrell lives on
Lake Oakland                       clinton river
Lake Orion                           the other crooked lake
Crooked Lake
Loon Lake
White Lake
Big 7 Lake
Lake Fenton
TIpisico Lake
Ponemah Lake

[fishstick]

I always like Mona Lake, though it was sometime kind of quirky for me. It also used to have a dangerous population of big pike that would show up just about anywhere!! Don't know if that is still the case?

Plenty of shad for them to eat in there still, it received a muskie plant a few years ago too.

[robhj]

Spring Lake
Grand River
Mona
Muskegon
Hart
Pentwater
Pere Marquette
Hamlin
Manistee
Portage
Platte
Skegemog
Elk
Bellaire
Mullett
Burt
Crooked
Hubbard
Long
Thunder Bay
Cooke
Foote
Loud
Cedar
Van Etten
St. Helens

I really like Mona because of the opportunity for smallies & largies, plus it's 15 minutes from my house. I like lakes where you can fish for the opportunity to catch both 5lb+ LM & SM. I rarely catch pike, but it has gotten several Great Lakes Spotted muskie plants over the past several years and should eventually be a very good muskie lake. I haven't really targeted the muskies in Mona, Muskegon, Grand River, or White, but will probably spend some time fishing for them this year since their size should be getting pretty big.

[djkimmel]

I've been curious how well the muskies will actually stay in the lakes attached to Lake Michigan that they have been planted in? It's been a recurring challenge over there planting some fish that leave where they were planted, sometimes ending up who knows where?

[robhj]

No question some of them will travel. We've seen fish from Green Bay in our lakes & rivers along west MI and have also seen muskies travel from Macatawa, Thornapple, etc over the years to other W. MI lakes connected to lake MI. For the the most part, however, most of the fish that are stocked will stay in the lakes that they were originally planted in. Tracking studies have shown that muskies aren't afraid to swim great distances though. One of the reasons that the MIDNR has decided to now only stock the Great Lakes Spotted strain is because they are native to our Great Lakes & connecting waters. Should be interesting to see how the fishing is over the next several years, but the ones that have been getting stocked in the west MI drowned rivermouth lakes & the Grand River will no doubt have a huge area to call home.

[djkimmel]

Might be like finding a needle in a haystack for some time.

They are still raising some of the Northern Muskies I believe. Maybe those will be used for some disconnected inland waters still? Wasn't it the Northern Muskies that they moved some adults from Hudson Lake to several additional inland lakes - like Orion, Lower Crooked, etc.? The ones I saw haunting some of my good bass fishing spots on Lower Crooked this spring appeared to be the Northern strain.

My understanding is that the Northern Muskellunge is native to Michigan but maybe originally only the Western end of the Upper Peninsula? I've always thought they were naturally a river fish so they are also prone to travelling, maybe following the current?

[dartag]

Guess I should keep a log this year.   Already fished in 5 Fla lakes.  The Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.   Just hoping the ice melts some day so I can fish in Michigan.  Had at least 3 days in last year at this time. 

[djkimmel]

I had thought about going fishing this week myself. That was before I caught this darn virus or whatever it is though. I did make a short road trip from the pharmacy to Round Lake only to see it is still very flooded.

The boat ramp is now about 150-200 feet from the 'new' shoreline. I would need full waders just to get out to the spot the rental boats are tied up at (good thing he tied them to a fence or they'd all be floating out on the lake or sitting on the bottom!!). The entire back parking lot for trailers and shore/row boat anglers is completely flooded... The little lake is wide open however!! It's a lot bigger than 80 acres right now too!! Lots of new 'ponds' and bigger wetlands along Round Lake Road also!