Cadillac or Traverse bay?

[countryboy]

I am planning on coming up to the area in August probably the second weekend. I will only have a couple of days to fish and have never been to the area before. Orginally I was thinking of fishing the bay but after some research I am thinking I would be better off to fish some of the smaller in-land lakes, just because of the time restrains.

Here is my question is the fishing a lot better on sliver, long, green and duck then at Mitchell or cadillac?

From what I have read it appears that the in-land lakes around Traverse bay are pretty awesome. I will be fishing for smallmouth and largemouth.

What are green and duck lakes like? shallow and weedy or sandy and clear? I have read that long lake is an awesome smallmouth lake and is very clear. Are any of the lakes better for largemouth then others?

Just looking for some general info on the area and what the lakes are like, thank you.

[Dan]

I would not recommend Cadillac and Mitchell in August. With the State Park there, it gets a lot of traffic. If you want a family lake then maybe. Cadillac area is great to spend time in and if you pull through make sure you stop at Pilgrim's Village on Lake Mitchell. Best little tackle shop for many miles around that area including Traverse City.
I would advise you to fish Duck, Green and Long. Very traditional smallmouth lakes and yes they do have largemouth. In our August tournament up there they caught a 5+ largehead. Check out my teardropbass.com website. I have a number of articles on Duck, Green and Long from several years. There are articles on Cadillac as well. Cadillac has a late summer weed problem that really makes things a mess for a few weeks. They have been working on cutting them back but August can be very weedy. Still some good largemouth there though. I just would rather fish it early or late in the year.

[countryboy]

Thank you Dan, looks like you guys had a good tournament on Green.

I will only have a couple of days to fish, keeping that in mind which of the three (Green, Duck or Long) lakes would you suggest I concentrate on?

I fish a lot on Lake Michigan for smallmouth and several natural lakes for largemouths so I can usually figure something out when I get to a new lake. I would think at that time of year though I will need to find some off shore structure for smallies and fish weed lines for largemouth, what say you?

[hunlee]

All of the above lake mention have grate eating bass in there!!!!Hunlee has ate bass from about all the lake!!!!!!

hunlee

[Dan]

I'd say Long. Start at the ramp, (the crappy one that you have to back across the road to access the lake) and fish that shoreline down to the north. Then run straight across the lake to the east shore. Watch out for the skinny water. There is some good wood in the lake along the north east shoreline there. Fish the deeper water off that real skinny (south edge) water back into the cove on that side. Then start hitting the flats and edges. Fish the flats between the islands as well. Spinner baits are a good search bait there and can be the go to bait. Green is good that time of year as well. It can be a tough lake to figure out though even if you know it. Duck has some good fishing as well, but tends to be more of a numbers vs size lake.