I decided to make my opening day of the regular Michigan bass season for 2010 a pleasant one by visiting one of my favorite lakes in the whole wide world - Mullett Lake. I met up with new member spetersen for the day Saturday May 29 at Aloha State Park around 8:30 AM.
Here's a pictorial story of some of the action. Some of you may have already seen these pictures on the Great Lakes Bass fan page (http://www.facebook.com/greatlakesbass) on facebook, but I know many of you don't make it over there, so here we go.
It was a picture perfect day weather-wise. Bright. Sunny. Warm. Light breeze. The water was pretty clear. Almost as clear as it gets.
spetersen wanted to get a taste for the lakes up there in case he was able to fish the upcoming BFL event. Since I was already up there and know him through Outside Hub (http://www.outsidehub.com).
Right off the bat, spetersen lands a nice smally almost 5 pounds! That's the way to start out the day. We caught several bass over 4 pounds to almost 5 in the same general area.
Here's what you look for early in the season out there on Mullett Lake
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/20100530mullett-lake-smallmouthbass-bed-boulder03.jpg)
That arrow is pointing right at the bed on one of my favorite boulders. Always a bass pushing 5 pounds on this boulder every year.
And today was no exception! Here's spetersen with a bass over 4 3/4 pounds with only 1 eye. I believe I have caught this same bass in previous seasons from the same boulder!
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/20100530steve-petersen-mullett-lake-blind-smallmouth05.jpg)
You might find that hard to believe, but many smallmouth bass will try to use the same bed each year.
spetersen really wanted a 5 pound trophy smallmouth and though I try not to make promises I was pretty confident we could do something about that. A little while later in another part of the lakes he hooks this beauty!
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/20100530steve-petersen-mullett-lake-smallmouthbass01.jpg)
Anyone can be happy with a 5 pound northern Michigan smallmouth bass!
For a while spetersen had the big bass of the day. I was catching a few 4+ smallies, but as usual, I was also getting the small ones out of his way. Spinnerbaits, some tubes - though not working as good as normal, Erie darters where hot, and a few other techniques.
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/dan-kimmel-catch-small-bass2010-3.jpg)
Like this little chubby guy (the fish) that was out roaming around enjoying the warm sun. A future football bass!
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/dan-kimmel-smallmouthbass-marker2010-6.jpg)
Or this decent, hard fighting smallie that was nice enough to smack my lure.
Finally, a little later in the day, I got my own toad 5 pounder.
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/dan-kimmel-mullett-lake-smallmouth2010-8.jpg)
Not a giant by these lakes standards, but a beauty nonetheless so both spetersen and me can feel real good about a very nice day on the water.
We ended up catching a respectable number of Mullett Lake bass over 4 pounds. That's why Mullett is one of my favorite lakes!!
And I didn't get a sunburn! Bonus!!
I must have just missed you. WEnt out same day. I had a bearing sieze on my trailer at 5:30 am in indian river. Got it back on the road and on the water by 11:30. Had a great couple of hours out there. I was so bummed watching all the boats go by while i looked at races welded to the spindle:(
There were quite a few boats out that day. Got checked by a MDNRE surveyor early in the day. We never got real close to many bass boats. After I dropped him off I went back out for a while to catch some more. Got checked by a couple COs later in the day on another part of the lake. They seemed the suspicious types. Asked me if I had any bass in the livewell. No... Asked my DOB to see if it matched my license. Good thing I could remember this time!!
Love that lake!
One more nice smallie spetersen picked off while it was roaming over a spawning area. I was trying to catch one off a boulder that was playing hard to get (later I came up with a hot new presentation that toasted a bunch of finicky bass like they'd never seen a lure before - more on that coming soon...). spetersen says, hey there's one right there and tosses out and nails it!
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/20100530steve-petersen-mullettlake-bass08.jpg)