Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Heading to stay on manistee lake in a few weeks with the family.  Looking for any information on the bass fishing or anything else that may be biting on manistee or portage.  General areas in mid August would be great for me or even a few spots to take the kids to catch anything.

The boat will be docked on manistee but I will have no problem trailering to portage.  Thanks in advance, pm if you want...

Sounds like fun. I haven't been to either lake in so long I can't really remember what we fished but from looking at the past few seasons the fishing on both lakes is really good! You should check out the channels going out to the big lake I'm sure.

Thanks Dan, I will post a report of how I do...

Great! I think Portage has some shell beds that are good if you can find them. Manistee has some old wood slab piles that are good too. I don't know where they are at but they are out there.

On Manistee, there are about 6 old slab docks underwater... most of them have either a red or green navigation marker pretty much right on the end of them so the freighters don't hit them.  Jigs and texas rigged baits dragged along them and then down the drop off will almost always yield a decent number of smallmouths, up to 6 lbs!!  If you have a mapping GPS they might be shown on there.  If not, check some online charts...

Portage can be really good for just about any species.  It has a good largemouth population... try the weeds and drop offs around Portage Point... which is on the western end of the lake and basically cuts the lake in half.  There is a nav marker right on the end of it.   We catch a lot of smallies in the channel area on tubes, darters, and drop shot (I know... not legal in Portage Lake, but no CO will give you a ticket for it and it's a dumb law that Dan Kimmel needs to get changed!).