Pictures from Michigan Bass Fishing Opener 2010 on Mullett Lake with spetersen

[djkimmel]

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 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.

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

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!

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!

Anyone can be happy with a 5 pound northern Michigan smallmouth bass!

[djkimmel]

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.


Like this little chubby guy (the fish) that was out roaming around enjoying the warm sun. A future football bass!


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.

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!!

[djkimmel]

And I didn't get a sunburn! Bonus!!

[bassfan586]

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:(

[djkimmel]

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!

[djkimmel]

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!