inland lakes in general

[Ranger801]

New to the forum and also new to Michigan fishing.  Spent a week in Frankfort area searching for smallmouths.  Was there June 18 to June 25.  Did not find many smallies, but did have a blast with the largemouths in several area lakes.  Seems we missed the spawn and all of the bed fishing by at least 2 weeks.  Really liked the area and plan to return next spring.  Need some advice on which lakes to concentrate on and best time to make the trip.  We have a group from Kentucky and would be bringing our bassboats so need reasonable launch sites and some depth for comfortble fishing and running on the lakes.  Any advice would be appreaciated regarding timing, lakes to target, lodges or resorts with dining facilities etc.

[djkimmel]

All of the bigger lakes up there are great! Good smaller lakes are Duck, Green, Long, Skegemog, Bellaire. There's fewer so-so lakes than there are good lakes up there. You'll need to just shoot for it as far as hitting the peak of the spawn. Might help to shoot for the week of a full moon in late May for smaller lakes to early June for bigger lakes. Then you need to takes some pictures, get all your buddies to sign up on GreatLakesBass.com and post some fishing reports!

[jacksonmj]

Ranger801 where did you fish in Frankfort to catch the largemouth. I was just there over the long weekend and fished Crystal lake a had a blast catching smallmouth but wouldn't mind to catch some largemouth when I'm up there next year. Thanks Mike

[djkimmel]

Where they still on beds on Crystal or post-spawn?

[Ranger801]

Jacksonmj,  We caught most of our largemouths on Platte and Little Platte.  The weedbeds on Little Platte were just full of largemouths.  Tried to fish the bay in Frankfort, but did not have any success. 

When were you there fishing Crystal Lake?

[jacksonmj]

I was there from the 1st of July until the 5th. Fished only in the mornings until around 11. The fish weren't  on their beds anymore and we could never find a deep bite but fished all the docks and they were holding close. Saw so many beds that I have made my mind up to go up there next year and fish it when they are still on their beds. We did see two that were on beds and they were huge!