I met up with FirefighterJeff at Indian River to try and end the year on a high note with some fat hard fighting smallies. The wind blew 15-25mph every day and the trip started at 2PM with lake effect cells that would drop sleet and rain every half hour. Best 5 went 24 pounds and big fish was 5-12 probably 25 good fish in 5 hours of fishing, this came on a smaller lake close by. The second day we spent on Mullet and the wind blew 20-25mph sustained out of the W/SW and the only time we had sun. We hammered on them all day and ended up with 63 half of them went 4-5 pounds. Best 5 went just under 25 pounds and big fish was 5-5. The third day was another half day of fishing and was overcast and windy again. We went back to that smaller lake and the bite noticeably slowed down, think we ended up with a dozen fish best 5 went 23 pounds and big fish was 5-4. No monsters that we were after but a bunch of quality fish, another stellar trip with Mr. Regina and mission accomplished on ending the year right. Thanks again for the invite Jeff! Here are some pics of some of the better fish I got. I don't have any of Jeff's maybe he will add his to this thread.
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/2012-10-08_10-07-18_251.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG954031.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG956726.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG953323.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG954130.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG952945.jpg)(//)
Nice.....Those are some toads..
Man that photographer takes good pics !!!! :) I'll work on adding some.
How come there are no pictures of Jeff holding fish?
Looks like a few of the fish came out blurry when enlarged. Sorry Tim. Still not bad for a camera phone. Not sure why it is, but Tim and I have had some really great fishing trips together !!!!! (Twice on St. Clair and now twice in Indian River) We were very fortunate again this time. Tim can flat out fish. It was nice that one of my spots turned out the 63 fish day. :) The fishing tapered off after the first few days. I ended up staying another three days after Tim left. Didn't even fish one of them because of the rotten weather. I think anyone that has fished up around there the last week and a half have paid their weather dues for at least a while. I then headed to Ludington for a couple more days and it proceeded to rain over 3 inches there. At least I got the water lines winterized in the trailer.
Water temps ran 52 to 56 depending on the lake, the day and the winds. All but one fish were caught on tubes and cranks. Here are a few of my pics.
This was the second morning before the wind picked up. Those dark clouds are lake affect rain/sleet.
(http://i47.tinypic.com/8x3i92.jpg)
Here's a 4.12 from the same area.
(http://i46.tinypic.com/125td82.jpg)
Here's a 5.1 later that day
(http://i46.tinypic.com/345ex3a.jpg)
Here's Tim riding back up for another drift.
(http://i48.tinypic.com/mc9hrr.jpg)
The one on the right is 5.4, can't remember the other one.
(http://i49.tinypic.com/rbw1v5.jpg)
This was taken last Friday morning. The nicest day of the trip. Sunny and little to no wind.......... yep I couldn't catch much of anything. Just two with one running about 4 lbs. When I took this pic at 9am it was 25 degrees out.
(http://i45.tinypic.com/e5fhc6.jpg)
On the way to Ludington I dumped the boat in at Manistee Lake for a whole 20 minutes of fishing before dark. Probably took longer to launch and pull back out then I had to fish. Second cast I got this 4.2 I ended up catching another 16 inch keeper, a short smallie and a short largemouth. It was worth the stop. :)
(http://i45.tinypic.com/2dgtfuh.jpg)
I'm totally jealous...
I was up fishing the Indian River area (Walloon and Mullett) last Thursday to Saturday and had a hard time finding the smallies...Last year got blown off Mullett and this year was a bust..10 bass in 3 days...
I tried the gravel/boulder areas in the lake from 2ft to 8ft..
I guess I must have been doing something wrong..
Later
Blue Devil
Anyone fished up that way in the last few days? Wondering how the bite has been and where the water temps are at. I might be heading back up before this cold front hits.
I was on burt Sunday for about four hours, water temp was 51 to start and moved up to 53, bite was slow it was really windy. Quite a few follows only a couple if fish, my son did get a five and half. Sorry not to much to give you. It's supposed to be warm Thursday and Friday and get cold again Saturday???
Webber
Quote from: TCook on October 17, 2012, 05:22:57 PM
I met up with FirefighterJeff at Indian River to try and end the year on a high note with some fat hard fighting smallies. The wind blew 15-25mph every day and the trip started at 2PM with lake effect cells that would drop sleet and rain every half hour. Best 5 went 24 pounds and big fish was 5-12 probably 25 good fish in 5 hours of fishing, this came on a smaller lake close by. The second day we spent on Mullet and the wind blew 20-25mph sustained out of the W/SW and the only time we had sun. We hammered on them all day and ended up with 63 half of them went 4-5 pounds. Best 5 went just under 25 pounds and big fish was 5-5. The third day was another half day of fishing and was overcast and windy again. We went back to that smaller lake and the bite noticeably slowed down, think we ended up with a dozen fish best 5 went 23 pounds and big fish was 5-4. No monsters that we were after but a bunch of quality fish, another stellar trip with Mr. Regina and mission accomplished on ending the year right. Thanks again for the invite Jeff! Here are some pics of some of the better fish I got. I don't have any of Jeff's maybe he will add his to this thread.
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/2012-10-08_10-07-18_251.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG954031.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG956726.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG953323.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG954130.jpg)(http://)
(http://)(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg308/tcook1238/IMG952945.jpg)(//)
What was the smaller lake you mentioned? Douglas?
Im sorry Ed but I cant give that lake up