Tips for long lake near traverse city?

[davedmg]

I have a boat with fish finder and GPS, but I've not been able to catch a fish in this lake. Can anyone give me some tips. My grandkids want panfish; I want walleyes or pike.:help:

[Wardo]

Fish after dark if you want walleyes. There is so much traffic during the summer that the bite is very good late. I would imagine Mickey Lake would be a good starting point if you want to get the kids on panfish, and you could target the monsters lurking.

[Steve]

It aint what is used to be. Silver or Pearl night crawler harnesses trolled in the northern bays or the bay to the west of the big island out there in 15-20 feet of water used to do the trick for me.

[davedmg]

Thanks for the tip. I have a hydrographic map of the lake which shows that the north area SHOULD hold more fish. I've not yet fished it, but I will. -- Dave

[Fishslayer5789]

During the day, concentrate on deep weed flats in 20-30 ft of water with slip bobbers and leeches or lindy rigs with leeches. Look for schools of suspended baitfish on the graph with big blips below them and those are feeding walleyes. If you mark big fish without baitfish, keep on moving until you find feeding walleye on your graph. Its been a great year out there and size is up. I've caught 0ver 100 walleye in the last 8 trips out there with some nights producing 15-20 fish. During June, I would say 3 out of every 4 fish we caught were of legal size. I guess all those little ones we were catching in the past few years grew up...

[Fishslayer5789]

My avatar pic is from long lake as well.

[davedmg]

Fishslayer:

I have trolled the southwest end of the lake for many hours, zig-zagging from shallow to p, and have yet to find many suspended fish. On the other hand, I fish from noon until eight or so; the worst times of the day. Nevertheless, I am clearly fishing where they ain't! Your technique is excellent, however, so I will try it again on the the north side of the lake. Thanks for the encouraging info. -- Dave

[davedmg]

Wardo:

Thanks for the info. Can a 16 ft Lund pass through the channel from Long Lake to Mickey Lake? -- Dave

[BryPaulD]

fishslayer...are you doing the slip bobber at night as well?? I'm with dave on this getting skunked thing. caught one this year @ 20" on a lindy rig with gold blade crawler harness with 5" jumbo leach..for some reason I keep going back to that lake.. i used to catch a few years ago.. but I've been thinking about jumping over to leelanau..need some more "fishslayer"ing help i guess :)

[Wardo]

Yeah you should be able to make it, my boat is a 16 as well and I can get through. Power trim will make it a lot easier.

[Dave H]

It's been a few years since I've fished the lake, but always did decent between fox island, south island, and the east shore using crawler harnesses off of bottom bouncers in 30-40 feet. Bright green and orange always worked well. Need a little wind and clouds though if you're going to fish through the day.

Good luck!

[davedmg]

Thank you fisherman for all your help. The grandkids had a ball in Mickey lake, and my daughter caught a big rockbass at night on a 6" MirroLure. I did not catch a walleye or a pike, but if I ever fish the lake again I will know where to go. Your tips were right on! -- Dave

[Wardo]

Excellent! Glad things went well for you guys!