First visit to Lake Menderchuck 4-28-2017

[djkimmel]

I was fortunate to meet a new angler named Randy at the 2017 Ultimate Sport Show Grand Rapids who lives on a private lake and wanted to invite me fishing to it this year! It's a lake I've never fished before though I've wondered about it at times over the years.

Lo and behold, before I could meet up with Randy and get their Zona and KVD go there on ZONA Live and whack a truckload of big bass on a windy, rainy, very cold spring day!! I will admit this made me more than a little interested now to hurry up and get there!!

Because it is a private lake having no public access with any parking I will follow their lead and just refer to it as the (infamous) Lake Menderchuck. I will say that it does have a number of similarities to many small inland Michigan lakes though so there are commonalities.

I met Randy at his house and we launched his boat right from the hoist and went to a point because one of my rules about fishing a new lake and not being absolutely sure what to do is to fish the points! I had rigged fairly heavy the day before with dreams that night of 'Bassmaster' hooksets galore...


I have to say, the day started off pretty darn good when less than a dozen casts into the morning I set the hook on a big ole toad!! We were fishing pretty deep on this steep point with sparse weeds so I had rigged an Angling AI Stinger (green pumpkin red flake or black-blue I can't remember which because I used them both) on a plain 3/8 oz ball head jig. I was slowly twitching it along the bottom of the break when it got heavy. I got to do a Bassmaster hookset and it felt GOOD!!! I admit it!

Unfortunately, I did not get to do very many Bassmaster (or any other kind of) hooksets after that...?!? We fished some great looking stuff moving from deep off the breaks up onto flats and points, in weeds, along the edge of weeds, and outside of weeds and not much happened. I spent a lot of the day scratching my head.

Granted, the water was almost 10 degrees warmer than when Z and KVD fished it but you wouldn't expect the bass to move too far just yet on a small inland lake... we did travel up shallower a few times even checking some known spawning areas but there just wasn't much happening on this different day. I still don't know for sure what to think of it.

I did catch just a few more solid keepers but it was definitely one here, one there. Even on another major underwater point with nice weeds I only managed 1 2 1/2 pounder in 10-14 fow water on a Dock Monkey jig and craw...


We only caught a few dinks even and maybe got pestered by a couple pike if I recall right now a month and a half later?? Randy was able to hook into 1 nice largemouth bass too but where the bulk of them were this day I still am not sure. We tried up high in the water column down to the bottom from a few feet deep out to 20+ and it all ended up having me scratch my head wondering if I still know how to find and catch bass??

Who likes a day like that...?? Still, it was fishing on a new lake with a new friend. We had a great day together despite not putting it together ever and I hope to fish some more with Randy in the future (in fact, we have made it out one more time so far together). I like a new lake challenge even if it leaves me wondering what the?? I will definitely try to get back to the lake and try some more because that's what we do, right?!?