Burt/Mullett/Indian River

[Skulley]

I'll be going up to Burt/Mullett/Indian River in mid-July.  Camping and vacationing with the family.  Going to stay at one of the state parks in the area.  Never been fishing there.

As far as the fishing goes.......Where are the bass that time of year?  Any good largemouth water?   I got a couple of maps.  Hot Spots and Sportsman Connection.  Any other info would be helpful.  Thanks.

BD       

[djkimmel]

You could probably shoot over to Crooked and Pickerel (drive to the ramp in Conway on the West end of Crooked) and just go around the lakes reed beds and at least whack some largemouth and smallies during the morning. After that, you may have to fish the drops. There are some dumb largemouths in the Crooked River mouth area off of Burt Lake too.

There are only 23 largemouths in Mullett Lake and most are in the Pigeon River bay or the mouth of the Indian River.

I have not fished Burt or Mullett for bass in July. It might be challenging, but a local told me he just fishes a little deeper with red traps/spots and catches them in the North end. I imagine there are bass moving in and out of the deeper rock edges all the time, just probably more early and late in the day.

Black Lake might be interesting, but I've only been there twice. Tomahawk Creek Flooding is pretty big and cool to fish. Tons of flooded trees. Lots of largemouths. They get hit pretty hard on opening weekend. The ramp is kind of tricky to find. A cool looking lake.

Another fun day trip is to fish the Black River between Cheboygan and Black Lake. There's a couple impounded stretches with boat ramps that have shallow weed flats with pike, smallies and largemouths. I've only been there once a while ago - we didn't tear them up, but we caught a bunch of pike on the bigger size and a few nice bass. I think it would be easier to fish more consistently if the big lake fish are playing hard to get.

[Savage]

If you can get into Aloha, go there!  The campground on Burt is OK, but Aloha on Mullet is just nicer all-around.  I like to fish Mullet lots more than I like Burt, anyway.  If your going to be up there around the shutdown, PM me and I'll give you my phone number.  I'm originally from the Onaway (Black Lake) area, and I spend the whole 2 weeks of shutdown up there fishing.  My family has a place just down the beach from the union center, if you've ever been there.  We can hit a lake or two, there's a couple smaller local lakes that can really throw some good fish.