I'm interested in this too. I've been trying to get outside of my comfort zone, so I've tried tossing jigs but the thick weeds on the bottom make it annoying and frustrating. 

 

I have been throwing a 3/8oz Strike King pure poison bladed jig thanks to @A-Jay. Last Sunday was the first time I've really had a chance to throw it. Results were mixed. I was getting bit quite a bit but quite a few come off close to the boat. Any thoughts or ideas from anyone is much appreciated. 

 

Mr. Frog has been producing some decent ones.

 

 

Thanks

Anyone have any interest in participating in an annual meet-up tournament for us MI folk?

I'd be interested. Possibly fall? Some place centrally located?  I think it would be cool to do a get together and meet everyone and fish. 

Sounds like a good idea

Are things slowing down for anyone?  On the water that is.

Bite windows on the northern inland lakes are really small for me on smallies and have been for a while.

About an hour long starting right at day light and then again either right at or just after sunset.  

This is all mid-week as the weekend have been dead. 

Night ops have proven to be much better - usually are this time of year.

I'm expecting (insert hoping) things pick up here mid-or perhaps 3rd week of August.

In the meantime, we're just hanging . . . .

A-Jay

Slower for sure and big bite is harder to find in GR area. Still ok but not great

Definitely slow here on the SE side. I’ve noticed they’re holding tight to the thickest, nastiest cover possible. And man are they getting picky about their free meals. 

wil find out saturday/sunday,  Still took over 24lbs to win on st clair sunday

I won't make it over to St Clair for probably a month.

 

I was on Portage and Manistee over the weekend.  Slow but manage to do alright.  Pike only got one chatterbait and a few spinnerbaits.

Found some smallies on the flats (shallow) yeaterday here in northern lower.

However they took me to school ! 

Had them hammering my spinnerbait - but only I land 1 of 7 - lost 3 at the boat.  Others jump off. 

At least two were 'Toads'.

So I have a handful of mangled baits and a single keeper to show for 8 hours of chunking & winding.

 Good news is - they are already shallow and should be there for several weeks, at least until most all the weeds die back and the bait bails.

I'll be looking to enact some revenge -  every chance I get.

Which will need to be very soon. 

Get out there bassheads, it'on !

A-Jay

 

It's a Strike King KVD Swim N Shiner - one of 5 on an umbrella rig. 

A-Jay

 

 

I have a question for you michigan guys. Me and the old lady and 5 year old are heading to Holland this weekend. I was wondering if it's worth it to bring the spinning rod and try for smallies off the pier? Also, I heard I cant drop shot it if I do, is this true? I would pry only get to fish for an hour, so I wouldnt bring much more than a couple tubes and drop shot if I can. Thanks

I'm a couple of years late to this party but I mainly do a lot of running around Livingston (chain or any rec area lakes), Washtenaw (mostly Huron River and all I catch after June is pike) and SW Oakland (mostly rec area/Kensington but used to go to Lake Sixteen a lot way back when) counties. Every now and then, I get up to Clare/Midland counties and hit up any random spot that looks like it may hold fish, mostly any rec area type lakes or river sections. I haven't been in any of the lakes in a long time and haven't fished the Tittabawasee, or others, when I had a good knowledge if what I needed to do. I'd like to give those another go now that I'm hopefully a little wiser. If I'm already in the area, I go to St. Clair. No boat but I still do ok. 

I've heard that some of these pits down here around Ann Arbor have some age to them AND fish. There isn't much obvious cover and I've confirmed, if I believe the people I've talked to, that these were pits that filled up before equipment could be gotten out. So, they're BASICALLY just big, fairly deep holes. 

 

After a few very short trips and a couple of creative techniques fishing near the bottom...I managed to get one on and lose it. So, I have proof that they hold decent fish. At others, that must be even older, the fish are in the obvious spots that you can locate visually. Has anybody else had any luck in these things around this area, that are the big, deep hole type, or found anything specific to go on? 

Action has REALLY slowed way down for me up this way.  The super warm weather doesn't seem to be helping much.  

Besides keeping the recreational boaters on the water more and longer, seems the brown bass, who were shallow & chewing just a couple of weeks or so ago, have relocated.  Where they are and what they want to eat has been alluding me for almost 2 weeks.   I'm planning on just camping out in the prime locals during prime times and waiting them out.  

More to follow, hopefully . . . . . . . 

A-Jay

I have faith that you'll find them sooner than later. 

Thank you my friend. 

If all goes according to plan - they'll find me . . . 

A-Jay

Going to otsego lake at the end of the month. Anyone done any fishing there?

It’s pretty crazy you said that. I went out the week you posted this (after having a terrible couple of weeks on the water) and hammered em 2 days in a row. I had to be pried off the water.  Then this “winter preview” weather came, and they all became anorexic.

 

I thought we skipped the fall bite! It’s my last season here in the north, so I was gonna be pretty upset to just not get the fall transition bite. But so far, the weather has only been on my side twice in the past 2-3 weeks. 

New in this group, from SE Michigan.  Got a boat this year and have been trying to take advantage of it.  Absolutely love catching SM, which is perfect with St Clair so close.  However, i've been out ~5 times and haven't caught them yet!

 

Planning to go out Thursday for one last hurrah.  I've heard tips of The Firecracker as well as the Ridges.  Going to go out and get lost and hope to stumble upon them!

 

Any tips for finding workable structure on LSC?  Does it come down to just having "tribal knowledge"?  Do you use graphs and cover an area looking for anomalies?  The last time I went out I drifted across Anchor Bay for ~90 minutes and never saw anything besides 9FOW!

 

 

I've never fished LSC, but I've watched Zona's Awesome fishing show where he's been out there several times. He never says where on the lake but says to look for anomalies like a rock in the middle of nowhere, a piece of wood, a patch of weeds, a contour change even if it's a foot, a change in bottom composition. All these will hold fish. 

 

That's the extent of my knowledge of LSC.

You’re not really looking for structure, per se. Find where rock meets grass, or where different grasses meet. St Clair is pretty much just an empty bowl, there ain’t much “structure”. 

what are "the ridges"?