Morrison Lake report. 7-13-06

[waterfoul]

Oops. I mean 8-13-06 of course.

Fished Morrison this morning. Never been there before. There was a local club (Wolverines??) having a tournament at the time so we tried to stay out of their way. I managed 6 bass, biggest about 13". My partner managed one bass about 12". I also caught the biggest dogfish of the season. Man, I go ~15 years without catching one and now I've gotten 4 this year alone~~~ This one had to go between 13-15 lbs. It was friggen huge!! Hit a blue and black t-rigged sweet beaver. Dragged the boat around for a while too. Did he go back in the lake alive??????? Hmmmm.....
Most of the guys we talked to were struggling. We did see one guy catch what looked to be about a 3 pounder on a crank bait.

Had a hard time finding weeds in this lake. Seems many lakes in Michigan have really been successful in killing off the weeds this year. Brooks, Reeds, Morrison, Hess, and I'm sure many others.






Oh, and the dog got back in alive ONLY because as I was trying to grab the hook with the plyers he straightened it out enough to self release. Sam was all poised with a knife in each hand! Looked positively midevil!! LOL!!!

So, of the 4 I've caught this season... only one has fed turtles. One broke the hook, one bent the hook straight, and one broke off while trying to be netted. The other......:evilsmile

[Whit1]

Thanks for the report Mike. Take a photo of your next dogfish.......they year you're having I'm sure you'll get another one........:lol:. They are an interesting looking creature and some members may not know what they look like.

They put up a dandy tussle, strong and staying deep.

[waterfoul]

Sam took a picture but hasn't emailed it to me yet.

[sfw1960]

Only one went to DaWgfEEsH heaven???
:evilsmile
D@mn... you're slippin' Mikey...LMAO.....
:lol:
BAD!!

[dtg]

Glad to hear you got out today. I REALLY want to that monster dogfish.

I didn't make it out today due to blowing my elbow out again, first on the big carp on the river with you in the morning and again in the afternoon on the big lake. After hearing from everybody that was taking their boats out in Grand Haven in the afternoon that their coolers were empty, the guys were getting worried. I told those guys I wasnt' going to be reeling in any fish, but I'd make sure they got the skunk out of their boat for the year. With their brand new Eagle 320fishfinder not reading depth for some reason, I had to do it blind. We managed 3/3. The fish that I had the pleasure of reeling in was unexpected. The dipsey was set back 180' went it went off and just happened to be right next to it when it did, so I grabbed it with the intention of handing it off to whoever was next closest. However as I got it out of the holder that fish started peeling line off, so I held it at 45 degrees and let it run. By the time he stopped, I looked down at the line counter and it was out to 380'+. Not want to riskany slack in the line I decided to take one for the team and reeled it in myself. It ended up being 16#, not my biggest but definately the one with the most fight. Anyway, I woke up with the intention of going out today, but I can barely bend my elbow now. With bow season coming up, I've got to let this thing heal up, so fishing for anything other than still fishing for panfish. I really did a number on it yesterday afternoon. I didn't get any pics of the fish, my camera was at the office and we got to their house around midnight and one of the kids was going to take a pic, but forgot when we got inside. All of us were so tired and as always, I clean the fish, we all forgot to take a pic.:sad: Good news is, since I got some fish in the boat for his dad, I'll be getting invited back out. I don't have to take any fish, I just like being out on that big lake piloted the boat. Oh yeah, I got to put it into the dock too. Man I missed the big lake, it's been 2 years!!!!

[waterfoul]

Thanks for the report Mike. Take a photo of your next dogfish.......they year you're having I'm sure you'll get another one........:lol:. They are an interesting looking creature and some members may not know what they look like.

They put up a dandy tussle, strong and staying deep.

I caught this thing under an overlay in about 2' of water. Took off straight UP when I hooked him... thought he was going to hang himself in the tree he was hiding under!! Then we never saw him again till he came up to be slaughtered... I mean unhooked.

[duckman#1]

Our tourney fished Morrison 3 times this summer and I know of at least two other divisions that fish it along with clubs like you mentioned. The bass fishing has really went down hill there. We can go out and catch 12"-13 1/2"ers day after day but no keepers. typical day is 6-10 bass. The first tourney there I could catch 3 blers, but not anymore. Infact I haven't seen a bass over 2 1/2lbs turned in all summer out of there.
Its just like wabisis. The DNR lets tournies hammer it, and hammer it and hammer it...........but you can't tell the biologists it has a negitive effect, they won't listen. The facts don't lie. It DOES impact the fishing.
Duncan is also very close to getting that way.
Heck our next 2 tournies are at Duncan.

[javelin]

The tournaments don't have the effect the weed kills do. As soon as they kill the weeds in some of our inland lakes over here on the eastside, the bass fishing takes a terrible turn for the worse. The overfishing doesn't help, but the killing of their habitat is WORSE!

[waterfoul]

The tournaments don't have the effect the weed kills do. As soon as they kill the weeds in some of our inland lakes over here on the eastside, the bass fishing takes a terrible turn for the worse. The overfishing doesn't help, but the killing of their habitat is WORSE!

Here in lies the dilema:

The residents want a weed free lake to boat, swim, ski. The fisherman want a weedy lake so they can catch big fish and make money. They will never see eye to eye, and since most of us don't own property on any of these lakes, we have NO say in what happens there. Sucks. At least on Wabasis they only spray half the lake. The entire north side is a protected wetland and they don't spray the lake there.

[duckman#1]

I have fished several other lakes that have had alot of tournies and NO weed kill...same results!
lets take Wabisis for example. If the tournies have NO EFFECT at all, then where are all these bass? each week that lake sees hundreds of tournament fisherman and very rarely will you see a 3 lb + come out and yet 99% of the bass that is caught gets returned so where are they? I check the Gander score board each week, I look up the NBAA results, the results show the bass numbers and quality are down.Your telling me their still there but don't eat? Fishermen are imataing every type of food source the bass feed on, shouldn't there be more & larger fish showing up considering how many lures are going in the lake?
Bottom line, the bass need to keep feeding right? then where are they?

I watched a t.v show where they did a study of what the impact is on bass in tournaments. It took place in Canada and they put tracking devices on them and proved that well over 50% of the bass never made it back to where they where caught. You can imagine the impact of this during spawning. It was on OLN or like about 5 months ago.

I'm not buying the weed kill as the sole reason.

[waterfoul]

Now, I didn't say it was the sole reason. I don't think Javelin meant it that way either. Contributing factor maybe, but not the sole reason.

As for where are they.... I guess we'd have to ask the fish. And since they aren't talking... we'll just have to keep looking. BUT, all my bigger fish this year on Wabasis have come from the north shoreline. I've won big bass 3 times at the Gander tourney... all three from the north shore. Maybe I should start fishing closer to the ramp then?? I have caught a couple decent keepers recently near the swimming beach... which isn't a long swim from the ramp. Either way, Wabasis is over fished, and Morrison seems to be also. I still have fun though... beats a day at work!

[Westlakedrive]

Fish are not fished during the spawn in Michigan like they are in southern states. Did these lakes get tournament fished in May during what used to be closed season and is now catch and release?

[ezyeric]

Fish are not fished during the spawn in Michigan like they are in southern states. Did these lakes get tournament fished in May during what used to be closed season and is now catch and release?

(Tournaments, unless somehow based on photographs could not comply with the catch and immediate release rules, which state the fish is not even to enter the livewell)

I dont think this year very many except for hardcore bass fisherman really fished the catch and release, I talked to many who did not know about it. And all the rest seemed to be waiting for opening day.

Both with the fact that most every other state especially in south doesnt have a season and the 6 lake catch and release study they did in MI over the last few years showing when immediatly released the fish returned to thier beds helped to create this new catch and immediate release early period.

I think if someone really wanted to they could put the blame on anything and who has not heard the "in the good old days we used to catch em X size X times in day" etc. Some believe that, some dont.