Irish hills

[BIGSHOW]

Looking for suggestions on a good fishing lake in the Irish hills area. Heading over there next week to fish. Never been on a boat there. Fished loch erin before from shore. Thx

[21XDC]

Loch Erin is private, But can be pretty good. I have fished it for 20+ years from my aunts lake house... I couldn't use my boat though.    Now she sold the house and I'm cut off as well. 

[BIGSHOW]

Ssme here. My buddy had one there. But sold it. I would really like to fish lake Columbia.  But its private.  I heard there's some big ones there

[21XDC]

My friend Tim just bought property on Columbia....... Just to fish.  He does well there.

[BIGSHOW]

Nice fish!

[djkimmel]

No sense in using up too much energy wishing on all the 'private' lakes we'd like to fish when there are many really good PUBLIC lakes to fish! Thank goodness!

I used to like to fish Devils Lake over there. Haven't in a long time. Seems like I'm not hearing a lot of excitement over it the past few years but it can be a fun lake to fish sand breaks and flats.

Wamplers Lake is the best lake over there I think. I don't fish it a lot but it has some big bass including BOTH largemouth and smallmouth bass in it. Despite an 'aggressive' weed 'control' program lately over there bass anglers still like to fish it. The weights can be real good. Another good flats lake along with a number of interesting structural elements. Some people make the slow drive to Iron Lake for smallies too. I've never gone there yet, but one of these days.

I've been trying to make it Sand Lake nearby for the 1st time a lot this year, but we are starting to believe in curses... I think we've tried 6 or 7 times now and something keeps happening to keep us from getting there. Very weird. I hear it has a zillion small bass and pike but there are a few real big bass too. Last year, the biggest bass weighed in in a bass tournament - 8 pounds! - was caught there. From what I hear in many tournaments one team will whack them really good and everyone else has 7-8 pounds total or less so I wouldn't go there expecting to whack them but it does intrigue me.

A 3-hour tournament earlier this year was won by over 21 pounds! No one else got them good though from what I hear.

I haven't been on most of the smaller lakes in that area. I used to fish Clark Lake and thought the fishing was pretty good. The ramp has always been so-so with challenging parking. I haven't checked in quite a while (haven't been there in quite a while) on the ramp situation. Maybe someone else knows?

[BIGSHOW]

I ended up at Wamplers.  Got one 4+ lb largemouth  one 3lb and some smaller ones. Not to bad for a 50 degree day. That was 4 weeks ago

[djkimmel]

There are some good bass in Wamplers - both kinds. Can be tough at times but at least one really good angler I know who likes to fish there often catches a good number of bass. Fun lake during the spring too. I haven't fished it during the summer in a long, long time. I do keep hearing about the locals killing all the weeds. That won't help if true. Seems like we are talking more lately about trying to do something about improving the weed treatment situation in Michigan.