HELP PLEASE! I'm taking two of my life long freinds to torch lake!

[kv750nitro]

The only problem is I have never even seen this lake we only have 1 day to fish this sunday .The kicker is these two guys are just gettin into bass fishing and to my knowledge have never even caught a smallmouth EVER! All's I really need is a good starting point, but any help would be greatly appreciated ,Torch lake near traverse city. Thanks' in advance!

[Dan]

Run a lot of shoreline. Look for wood or rock and throw spinnerbaits or lipless crankbaits at anything in the water. You would swear you could see smallies in that 5 foot or shallower water but until they move to look at your bait you can't see them. If you spot one moving off wood to check your spinnerbait throw in a tube. If they are not up shallow yet jerkbaits along drops of sand flats. Cover water move move move.

[fishndooder]

I would consider making the trek to skegmog or clam these lakes are part of the chain and are smaller and shallower thus the chance of finding spawners is greater.  I really dont know much about clam, but I talked to a guy that was out there pike fishing 2 weeks ago and saw a few smallies cruising the shallows.  I was also told that there are a lot of fish right now in the river between torch and skegmog.  As far as skegmog if I was forced to fish out there right now I would probably fish right out of the river mouth to the east.  It's about 6ft deep filled with stumps and has a lot of small gravel (prime spot for bedding smallies).
My guess is that right now elk and torch would fish pretty tough most likely temps would be in the 40's.
I hope this helps you out
Brent

[REEL_MAN]

I wouldn't consider Skeg, I WOULD FISH IT   It's an ideal lake for drop shot (where the river from Torch comes in) and tubes. The east end has stumps that are inverted and the smallies live under them. Not easy to fish but the size of fish is worth it. Skeg isn't deep lor large as Torch or Elk. If the wind comes up Skeg is easier and safer, especially if you are taking guys new to the sport. The 2 lane ramp and parking on Skeg are excellent.
Most of alll have fun and God Bless,
Reelman

[blakstr1]

Skeg is a great bet, but Elk is porbably my favorite in the chain, lots of wood laydowns out near the drop off.  As for Torch, start at the north end and work around all the points all the way down the lake.  check out a map.

[TritonTR20]

Spawn on skegmog should be over, but it will be just starting on Torch. Find the rock area and have a blast. Last year on opening weekend it took me 12 minutes to get my limit, and both my partner and I had our limits in 16 min. Both of us had beetween 17 and 18 lbs each.

[TheFishinPollock]

Put it on the trailer and take it to Bellaire or drive it to Bellaire. Its a much more structured lake with good depths and large weedbeds that survived the winter.  Out of all the trips, days off, guide trips I took people out on. It produced the best out of the lower chain of lakes. I was out on the chain this week , all of it, and water temps are lowwwwwwwww.   Specialy on Torch and Elk. Skeg is the next choice I'd make.  Torch , last year , coughed up big numbers of fish. But that was during the spawn and the temps were just right. Which can be a rarity out there.  Water temps on the other 3 lakes went from 54 degrees to 58 degrees.    Elk and TOrch have a lot of great drops, but the cover is isolated unless ya can find where log jambs occured and sank .

Good luck to ya and watch out for the LU out on Skeg and the stump fields at the mouth of the Torch river.

Matthew