Mbirdsley

i don't know how much info would be out there really. Bass fishing is finally coming into its own in the state. Bass for along time have taken a back seat to the silver fish, perch, and walleye. My guess is such fish exist but, I think it will come out of either lake Michigan and lake Huron /the Saginaw bay. Fishing big platte in Benzie county over this last week and I saw absolute monster cruising the shallows. id throw to them and they just go the other way. Plenty of people fishing but, another boat and I were the only ones out for bass. Everybody else on the lake was after the walleye. I got some really strange looks when a couple of people asked me how I did and are the walleye biting? I said " I dunno about the walleye as I was fishing for bass and did alright" Starting to see more bass tackle in the tackle stores

Went BACK to big platte lake in benzonia county Michigan. Fished for 3.5 hrs before we had to head home. Went 0 for 3 on smallies the day before. Water is very clear and you can see down 15 feet. This first picture was a smallie I caught on zoom green pumpkin salty tube 1/4 tube jig. Underneath a dock in 3 ft ofvwater. Day before I saw monster smallies cruising 4-3 ft Fow. Water temp was 66 degrees and I think spawning is just wrapping up on this lake. This 2nd smallie was 17.5 inches. Caught on a bandit silent root beer either 200 or 300 crank. Caught another smaller small mouth and a bunch of rock bass on that crank. This bass was on the drop off where it went for 5-6 to 25 feet of water bank. First real success I’ve had with cranks so far. I bought that bandit at a surplus store that is getting into fishing tackle heavy. Paid 2.99 for it. I’m thinking of going back and buying the 2-3 they had left

What mold are you using? I’m looking for a new swim bait/ swim jig/ chatterbait mold

For wacky rigging and light t-rigging on my spinning rig I use 10 lbs power pro neon braid with a 10lbs seagar flouro leader ( Seagar is just what I have at the moment. I have used stren FC before and it works). The real is a size 30 quantum accurist pt on a 6’6 Berkley tactix wacky rod. My fav combo and has landed me a lot of bass. This combo along with a pumpkin zoom swamp crawler t-rigged with 1/8 oz tungston weight netted me 15 large mouth in the 14-16 inch range out of quinacassee last Saturday. Could have had more but, weather moved in. I only have one rod for this right now. so I’d rather go a little heavier for when I’m fishing the slop like I was at quinacassee.

Green pumpkin tube for any lake or river connected to the Great Lakes and even lakes and rivers that arnt. The green pumpkin tube mimics a goby very well. Natural colors have worked well for me. I would fish them the same way you did in pa. Only thing is northern Michigan has some really clear lakes where you can see 20 feet down

I have really been liking yum products this year. Christie critter, yum dinger, and one of the craws ( can’t remember right now ). Price is good too

Went to little platte lake in benzie county Monday night. It’s a big lake but, the deepest it gets is 8 feet in a couple of holes. Water temp was 67 degrees and water clear. Took one 15incher on my home made chatter bait green pumpkin with blue tips on the skirt. Than 12 inches cane in a bomber 4a sexy shad crank. The 16 inches and 16.5 came on a water Mellon red flake 7 inch yum dinger t rigged with 1/8 tungsten weight. I may hit little platte up again before I leave. I can’t get the other 2 pics to load. I’m up north at the moment without a computer

I’m fishing big platte tommrow. I fished little platte Monday night which, I’ll post pics later and took 2 16 inches , 16.5, and a 12 inche large mouths

First time fishing for smallies in crystal lake in benzonia county Michigan. Water was crystal clear and can see down 15 feet. Water temp was 55 degrees. Locals have been kicking the crap out of the smallies. I only managed this one and couple monster rockbass on a 4 inch zoom green pumpkin tube. I wasn’t bed fishing but, they are on the beds in northern Michigan

in my mind I don't really have a problem with people catching and immediately releasing bass back to the beds. tournaments are another story. just seems like they are slitting there own throughts by taking a big bass off of their beds and taking it across the lake for weigh in. IMHO except for the big money tournaments within 10 years the smaller tournaments will be using bump boards like the kayakers do. The technology is there to do it. Than there really wont be a debate about catching bedded bass. measure it on the board and back in the water it goes.

I finally started throwing jerk baits this year. I have a ton of rapala's in the smaller to medium sizes and did ok mainly in the rivers. I have started buying smithwick rogues perfect ten and the pro model and have had good success plus they are about 6.99 a piece. Recently I bought a 3 pack of KVD deep diving 300's in chrome blue, clear ayu and chrome gold. the chrome blue has been on fire until I think a northern pike took it so I need to re order that one. I was hesitant on the more expensive jerk baits but, now im becoming a believer. I would like to try the mega bass offering's

I’m going warranty the rod but, what you have said will be good to know for the future

Actually, dobyns will replace if it’s my fault for thirty bucks. I was just looking at the warranty section. That’s a good deal.

I was fishing a lake near gladwin Michigan today. I know where I was at the high water temp was 54-55 degrees The majority of the 7 bass caught today came on a zoom 4 inch green pumpkin tube Texas rigged. I was throwing near stumps. All you do is cast it out let it hit bottom and than drag it back to the shore or boat. Caught 1 one on a kvd jerkbait. I have caught bass on a green pumpkin tube every where in all types of cover

Went fishing on Wiggins lake today. Only real thing worth mentioning of the 7 bass I caught is this humpback large mouth. I thought it was cool. He obviously dosent have any issues surviving. Caught most of the bass and one pike on zoom 4 inch t-rugged green pumpkin tube

So I did something stupid and busted maybe 2 inches off the top of my 7 ft dobyns colt rod. I think I can save it by putting a new tip top on it. It’s just going to go from a 7ft m/l to a 6’9 medium What do I do about the line guide right below the break? Lesson learned. Any other thoughts of wisdom?

Managed one more 17 inches yesterday (Friday) at sleepy hollow. This Time on a green pumpkin ned rig on a near shore drop off. I started this year with 3 main goals 1 obviously get my avg size up. 2 stop being a fair weather fisherman. 3 keep learning. I almost called it quits an hour into but, pushed on for another 3 hrs so far I have been able to do all 3 of the goals I have set. Friday was a down right dreadful day on lake Ovid. High was supposed to 56 with light and variable wind and partly sunny. It was cloudy and the Temp only reached 47 degrees and with a constant 12-15 mph wind ( which blows my 14 tin boat around quite a bit). I’ve only been out three times in the last month mainly due to weather on days I could get out. However, that is three times more I’ve ever been out this early in the season in previous years. Years past I would wait for perfect sunny conditions. This year I’m pushing myself to get out there in all weather ( within reason). So far it has paid off. My avg this year is 17-18 inches when last year I was in the 14-15 in range. I just need to get my numbers up.

Here is the newest chatter bait I call blue gill. I bought some already made zman blue gill skirts from LPO. The powder paint is called anti-freeze. I’m preatty sure the paint is pro tech but, it dosent have a mfg name on the bottle. The paint was bought from TJ’s tackle which, deals mainly in walleye stuff tackle and jig making m) I may go with Jannsnetcraft water Mellon next time ( forgot I had that color) . I’m actually getting preatty good at bending the wire to form a loop for the snap to hook onto and it’s becoming more eye pleasing. I’m just using a pair of round bend plyers. For the wire I’m using a .030 dia 4 inch long open eye stainless piece. I start by putting the open eye through the blade than twisting down than around with the plyers. Than I go maybe 1/2 and form the eye with the plyers usually wrapping it 2-3 times around the wire. I’m having fun. I dunno if I’m saving money but, I can make more with the same money rather than 5 bucks a pop at Walmart for the regular z man ones. If I loose one I just make another. When the fish bite they hammer them.

yeah I would expect zero chance of exchanging them if they are wrong

Is a Christy critter considered a brush hog? I’ve had very good success on them especially the black and blue flake, and green pumpkin colors. I’ve only tried t- rigging them so far.

Two more on my chatter baits today on muskrat lake in Michigan.. This time the green and white one. 17 inches and another smaller one. Also picked up another on a ned tube. So far this jd the most success I’ve ever had in the month of April One on the left

Caught two more on my chatter baits. This time a green and white one with. It was a 17 inches. Might be a female seems way fatter than 16 inch one I caught last week One on the left Any body bought the Chinese blades off of eBay? You get 50 of the for like 10 bucks and free shipping just takes a month. Any feed back?

I was catching bass yesterday in 5-4 feet of water using a silver and black chatter bait. Water had warmed up to 49.85 before I left. Casting towards shore to shallow water and bringing it back to the 4-5 feet of water. Also parallel in same dept of water. I like using twister tails for trailers

Only issue I have is some times it doesn’t want to start vibrating right away. Also it dosnt start re-vibrating after impacting a rock or log in the water. I might try down sizing the split ring and see what happens . I think the next one I make is going to be a green pumpkin one

First large mouth of the year from Murphy lake michigan on Easter Sunday. Makes it even sweeter that I caught it on a chatter bait I poured ( do-it mold), painted, cured, and assembled. Jig is silver, skirt silver and black, with a 2.5 inch twister tail for a trailer. I lost another about the same size. Made it all worth while is both nailed the lure as 2 separate group of guys came motoring up to ask how I was doing . Now I eventually need a differnt mold to eliminate the split ring. Also, the wire on the blade for attaching to the main line was all bent by hand ( kinda a pia) however, I see lire parts on line has a rosco drop shot clip that is very similar to what the name brand ones use. I’ll be ordering those on Thursday