Open Seat in the Morning

[Durand Dan]

Thinking about Maceaday or my secret lake tomorrow morning. PM or cell or e-mail. in my profile. OH, 5am start

[fiker]

I didn't know that they still made a 5 AM.  Are you sure?

[Durand Dan]

Well, I didn't get any takers, so at 5am I headed to Lake of the Dead,(Ovid). It's a 20 minute ride and I must have asked myself 40 times, "What am I doing, going to the lake that has skunked me more times than any? As I approached the main entry on Price Rd. I noticed a boat going by and though that he didn't know about the night entry area. That's when my day brightened! The sign at the night launch indicated BOAT RAMP CLOSED FOR PAVING. Life was looking up! I stopped for a moment and thought about what lake I was off to, Morrison, Lansing, and maybe Park? Then I remembered Round Lake, only a few miles away. As I pulled into the party store that sells the launch tickets for the state of Michigan I saw the acres of Lilly pads and my frogging rod was trying to bust out of the locker!! I launched and spent about an hour throwing that frog at every pad I saw. These pads were boardered by drop-offs to 8 fow! WTH! I decided to Carolina Rig it. I hate fishing that way. Well I started catching small bass, not what I was there for. After a while I switched to crank baits and moved out to deeper water. FISH ON! In 5 casts I nailed 2 to 3 Lb fish. After that it was just dialing into the color, Perch broken back Rapalas were the ticket.
Did I mention I hate Ovid?

[djkimmel]

So they really did improve the boat ramp on Round Lake? How is it for bigger bass boats for large pickups (dually) that get stuck easy?

The time or two I've fished it, I either caught bass right on shore or off the break. Not much in between.

BTW, the last time I went to Ovid, the night entrance on Shepardsville Road said it was closed permanently, but they had the new boat ramp entrance on Price Road open. It is close to Shepardsville Road before you go around the curve to the tube bridge. Much quicker entrance to the boat ramp.

[Durand Dan]

Dan,
I wouldn't call the ramp at Round Lake improved, but it is launchable. As far as Ovid, it appears that they are working on the night launch as well as the new entrance. I don't think that the state would want to cut off night access to one of the top 5 catfish lakes.

[djkimmel]

My understanding is that the new ramp access road will be open all the time and the old night access will be permanently closed.

The new ramp access will only get you to the ramp and nowhere else. It doesn't make sense to have two entries to the same place maintained. That is what I was told last time I asked.

[djkimmel]

Where is the secret lake again?? I wrote it down somewhere but forgot?

Did you see the news about your real secret lake?!? C'mon, we know Ovid is your REAL secret lake! The new ramp off Price Road is the only entrance and open 24 hours a day!! So you go for it!

Thanks for the tip on the Round Lake ramp. Someone else told me a couple weeks ago that they had fixed it. Long time since I'd been there and the person was a non-boater unfamiliar with the special needs of my non-4x4 dually and heavy Great Lakes rig so I wasn't sure. I may have mentioned last time I was there it was a bunch of piles of dirt, some mud and a marshy shoreline that didn't drop off enough to launch a cartopper.

cameraguy and I went there this morning and were able to launch the big Ranger okay. No dock and gravel/dirt, but it was firm enough though I might not launch there after a good rain. It was actually almost too steep for a long trailer like mine. I hope no one powerloads there or it will be ruined quickly.

We had a pretty nice day. Only two jetskis and a handful of pontoons and small boats. Maybe 3 other bass angler boats out there all day. Though still kind of busy for a tiny lake on a Monday.

We didn't catch any toads, but caught bass all day up to decent keepers from the pads out to 14 feet. Pretty much every depth in between on maybe 8 or 9 different presentations. Missed or lost a bunch. Probably also caught 7 or 8 hammer handles (literally, though one was almost 20 inches), but only got bit off once all day so not too bad. Hottest presentation was Power worms Texas-rigged on a light weight off the deeper weed edges for the best average size.

We saw a big toad chasing one catch but couldn't get it to bite. Lots of small bass. I think I still liked the pad bass the best. Fished about 1/2 the pads in the lake. Nothing Earth-shattering, but probably had 8 or 9 pad bites though most were misses and lost fish. Still exciting. I think I landed 3 of the pad bites. Maybe 4 and only 1 was probably a keeper. Maybe a 2nd squeaker. Fat bass, but stubby. I think 2 more I had multiple shots at where keepers.

Many multiple shots today on the shallow bass (and a few pike). Probably the hazy cloud cover. Had one blow up in a tiny hole. I threw the horny toad back out and dropped it into that same hole. Bass on! As soon as it fell into that same hole! Just sitting there waiting for a 2nd shot at the frog. Gotta like that!

Fun, cheap day, but too small a lake to fish very often. It is literally about a round lake with minimal structure. Park Lake is a much better pad lake though lots of small bass. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that 'our favorite' ( ) Lake Ovid picks up into the summer bite. It has been kind of funky since early last summer. It's not like we have tons of choices right around Lansing! I have a hard time bringing myself to fish Lake Lansing because of the crazy boat traffic during the summer months. They just go round and round and round...

You're lucky you live a lot closer to the hallowed grounds of Lodbell. So many memories on that lake from the distant past... and a few good ones over the past few seasons too. More nooks and crannies to try to hide from the speed boats and jet skis on that chain anyway.

[djkimmel]

I hope cameraguy doesn't want to wring my neck for telling a little of the tale before he does anything with pictures and video...

[cameraguy]

I hope cameraguy doesn't want to wring my neck for telling a little of the tale before he does anything with pictures and video...

Not at all.  Just something to look forward to...I hope.

Fun, fun day.  Love catchin' 'em on that Power Worm.

[MIBassKid]

Thanks for the repot on Round. I was actually all the way out there last night and decided that I would go fish some ponds instead.  Sounds like a decent day out there, it has been quite slow this summer.  Not sure how it is in the summer but the bass stack up on the hump in the south west part of the lake in the winter.

[djkimmel]

There were bass there. There were bass in the pads. There were bass in the mid-depth weeds. Bass on the weed edge. And bass outside of the weed edge. Pretty much everywhere. I imagine a lake that small can be real tough at times. There's not much structure.

[Durand Dan]

Thanks for the repot on Round. I was actually all the way out there last night and decided that I would go fish some ponds instead.  Sounds like a decent day out there, it has been quite slow this summer.  Not sure how it is in the summer but the bass stack up on the hump in the south west part of the lake in the winter.

That is where I caught most of my larger fish last week.

[MIBassKid]

Well I guess I'm going to have to get over there sometime later this week.

[djkimmel]

We actually had a hot spot on the break on the north side that produced a number of bass early in the day, and a few more later in the day when we fished it again. Not sure why that area produced a bunch of bass? cameraguy also had on a nice on along the north break farther east. But we didn't fish that part long. No bites when we checked it again later.

There were fish busting small bait to the top all day that day, but we couldn't really figure it out since it never produced much than a few small bass and small pike, so that may have been most of that.

We caught mostly smaller bass that hit hard around the bigger hump and a few decent ones around the smaller hump, but the bigger bass we saw were out deeper around scattered weed clumps along the bottom in the deep water, not the actual hump or break. Very hit and miss.

Lots of hard hits we missed maybe the best way to explain it though some of those were pike - 1 bite off and a few times we got the little suckers. They seem to be everywhere in that lake!

DD, you forgot to PM me the coordinates of the secret lake you told me about the other day... remember... sure you do!

[Durand Dan]

We actually had a hot spot on the break on the north side that produced a number of bass early in the day, and a few more later in the day when we fished it again. Not sure why that area produced a bunch of bass? cameraguy also had on a nice on along the north break farther east. But we didn't fish that part long. No bites when we checked it again later.

There were fish busting small bait to the top all day that day, but we couldn't really figure it out since it never produced much than a few small bass and small pike, so that may have been most of that.

We caught mostly smaller bass that hit hard around the bigger hump and a few decent ones around the smaller hump, but the bigger bass we saw were out deeper around scattered weed clumps along the bottom in the deep water, not the actual hump or break. Very hit and miss.

Lots of hard hits we missed maybe the best way to explain it though some of those were pike - 1 bite off and a few times we got the little suckers. They seem to be everywhere in that lake!

DD, you forgot to PM me the coordinates of the secret lake you told me about the other day... remember... sure you do!

Sent. Gravel ramp. But you probably already guessed that

[djkimmel]

Shoot! Must have gone to my spam folder...??

Not a big deal. If you say gravel ramp it is probably a 5 foot vertical dropoff off a big rock!!

[Durand Dan]

I sent it to your Great Lakes address

[djkimmel]

Yeah. I got it. I was just being my usual odd self. Lack of quality sleep or something.