Return to Lower Crooked Lake to show dartag a good time 4-25-2017

[djkimmel]

dartag showed some interest in trying out Lower Crooked Lake with me though it is a looonnngg drive from his part of the state. He's been kind enough to take me fishing a number of times so it is only fair to share with him. I was actually kind of proud to show off one of my favorite Michigan early spring bass fishing lakes. If only things would go as planned?!?

We got there fairly early and launched his dependable Ranger boat! We headed back towards where I would expect the bass to move to by now with the warming weather (slowly). To make a long story shorter, the lake did what lakes can do anytime without warning... it threw me a curve... maybe a slider... I'm not sure??

We gave it a good effort but the scattered big bass of my first two trips seem to have found somewhere new to hide and weren't wanting to give out clues!!


After some searching, dartag helped make me feel a little better about not showing him quite the time I expected by catching the biggest bass of the day on a homemade 'ghost' spinnerbait as he calls it. I actually thought things were going to start happening but they never really did...

It wasn't like we only caught a couple bass but numbers were down and size was just flat out missing!! We hit all the spots where I had caught big bass the previous 2 trips, and checked quite a few spots that they generally move to or show up at later...

We would pop a nice bass now and then but not the big ones. These were mostly bigger, early spawning males.


I pitched into one of the normally big bass spots and popped this solid nice keeper largemouth bass from some lily pad roots on my dependable Nemesis Baits Bullet Craw - the B2 larger size (watermelon gold flake) on a Texas-rig!


We did find a few beds too. Some of the bass weren't real big and were very shy but a few of the bass were bigger and aggressive! I caught this one also on a Bullet Craw by making a long pitch to a bed up shallow near shore that I spotted. The bass hit almost immediately. I took a quick picture and got him back in the water so he could do his job.

We found a fair number of nice roaming males and caught some on the spinnerbaits (I was using my lucky bream 2K Jigs Deposit Spin). Also a few pitching various baits but the day was definitely a disappointment for me, and I expect dartag won't be asking anytime soon to come back...

Luckily, like many anglers, I always expect to figure it out next time and just hammer them!! It was a beautiful day, and we were fishing. We didn't get pestered much by the suddenly numerous pike. We did see a couple of those big muskies they've let go there this year but we stayed away from them.

I still want to thank dartag for making the long drive over and taking me fishing, letting me show him a real nice, soothing lake for the soul, even if the fishing didn't live up to my expectations and desire to show off a little, I admit...

[dartag]

The quality of the fish was definitely worth the drive.  Also seeing the Huge Musky they have planted was neat.  Thanks of guiding me .

[djkimmel]

Glad it wasn't a complete disappointment for you. Maybe we can try it again some day. The back end of the lake is probably completely choked with lily pads and stringy weeds by now. I don't normally fish it after that happens. Too much cover for too few fish maybe...

I wonder if some of those muskies will again find their way into the Upper lake as they seem to have done in the past? There's usually shore fishermen right by the tube under the road there. I wonder if they often see big fish swimming by? The one day I was on the Upper lake a few weeks ago I was fishing not too far from the tube when I heard a couple anglers on shore get excited because they said there was a huge catfish swimming in the shallows near the tube. I didn't even know either lake had catfish in it?? You never know in Michigan what you'll catch next!