Lake Charlevoix/Walloon lake

[motocross269]

Spent the week up in Boyne City fishing Lake Char levoix and Walloon lake with Team Bass..

I had a tough practice on Charlevoix. I spotted hundreds of fish on the breaks waiting to move up to spawn but getting them to bite was next to impossible. By the end of the week the fish started to move up in droves to spawn and The guys got into them pretty well breaking some Team Bass Records...First place was 22lb, 2nd 21 and third around 20lbs...If you have a chance to get up there this week I would take some sick days.. The fish that I caught were pale and it was pretty obvious that had only been on the bed for less than a day...

On Walloon my practice went well...I am not much of a bed fisherman and seeing that the water temps were over 60 degrees and not seeing much going on close to shore I headed for the breaks...I found some underwater humps and fingers that extended into the lake towards deep water....I got into fish pretty good in over 12-14 feet of water...After another half day of practice it was the best I had so that is the pattern I ran...On the morning of The Tournament it was the craziest first 2 hours of a tournament that I have ever had.  The Fish were sitting up on the flat and gorging on Mayflies...It was pretty much a fish every other cast, If I didn't keep having fish unbuttoned I would have been culling within 30 minutes.. I ended up with my limit by 730...18 lbs won, 17.5 was second and over sixteen was third...I think Third -10th place all had 16 something or close to that...

Like I said if you have a chance to get up to Charlevoix this week.. Do it....If I didn't just take a week off fishing and was behind on everything I would be in the truck headed back up..

If you decide to go just head to the largest flats on the lake....The guys pulled a lot of 4+ lb fish out of 2-3 feet of water...It was different than the deep water beds that you find on Burt and Mullet...

[FOB]

Nice report Motocross.  Hope you had a chance to stop in the Walloon General Store and have a sandwich.  Best in the area.

[djkimmel]

I did not know about that General Store sandwich deal. I've only been there twice (Walloon) so far, and it was cold and rainy both times. A nice sandwich would have helped! The fishing wasn't that bad for fall, icky conditions. I guess I'll have to hit it in the spring one of these days.

Hard to do that though with Charlevoix ON FIRE nowadays!!!! If that lake isn't loaded with more bass than any other lake not actually part of the Great Lakes, I don't know what is?!?

[motocross269]

I know there has been some guys lobbying to have the spring BFL on Charlevoix....I would like to see the kind of weights those guys would bring to the scales on that Lake...

[FOB]

Dan,
The general store is owned by my wife's cousin.  Ask for Linda, and the Walloon Sandwich - good eats.

Motocross - BFL won't go to Charlevoix since they won't let a Walmart be built there.

[motocross269]

Makes Sense...

By the way Ralph Congrats on your second place on Burt and Mullet.......

[FOB]

Thanks Moto. 

[djkimmel]

Dan,
The general store is owned by my wife's cousin.  Ask for Linda, and the Walloon Sandwich - good eats.

Shoot! And I'm a redhead. It will probably be made real good for me! Is that the Walloon Village General Store just before you get to the boat ramp on M-75?

[djkimmel]

Makes Sense...

By the way Ralph Congrats on your second place on Burt and Mullet.......

The version of the story I heard originally was they were all set to go there years ago (we had originally suggested they rotate between 3 locations up North). Charlevoix heard the word Walmart and told BFL they didn't want anything to do with them or Walmart. My understanding is they, like some communities, are trying to keep Walmart from ever getting a foothold in Charlevoix.

It does seem to be a good idea to go where you are wanted when you're running the events as long as enough anglers will still show up. In the old days, we lost support from Charlevoix for the federation so we just switched to East Jordan for a while. That worked that time. Eventually, Charlevoix wanted us back for a while.

But... there probably won't be a Walmart nearby anytime soon. There are some other possibilities but gas prices of the past 7 or 8 years make them less likely to succeed for now. More communities are starting to recognize the value of attracting bigger bass tournaments though. If we could just control the weather a little... we could do some things.

[FOB]

Dan,

It's the only general store I know of in Walloon. 

[djkimmel]

That would be it then. Unless we missed one.