Do the lakers in Gull successfully spawn? if so when? I didn't see anyone else targeting lakers this morning, does anyone on here go after them? If so I am curious what your program is--please PM (I think they call it a "conversation" since the program change) and we can compare notes.
I don't fish it very often and up until today I haven't hooked any lakers, just pike & bass which are a lot of fun, but this morning I got lucky and hooked up to a 17 lbs fish that was 34 inches long and was full of eggs. The eggs were pretty loose, which leads me to think they may be almost ready to spawn. The fish did not have its fins clipped (at least not the one on its back that hatcheries tend to clip). It was a pretty slow morning, besides the one in the picture, I only had one other release and it broke the line before I could tell if was a laker or a big northern. http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/media/img_3411.114833/full
Holy crap! That's a dandy. I only live a few miles away so, I better go try it again. No pike huh? Used to catch them 70-90 ft. down in the smelt clouds. Monsters!
Did you fish the north or south end? I found scattered smelt but no real concentrations. I was surprised that I didn't catch any pike since in the past they seemed to really like what I was offering.
Mostly north end. In the rainbows days, north, middle (that 110 ft. hole) and in the hole south of the island. I was fishing with a friend one time in his 19 footer with down riggers and we got this pike up to the back of the boat and it was as long as the transom....I swear. Nobody wanted to try and land it, let alone we didn't have a net that big anyways, it finally broke the line. Biggest dang pike I've ever seen. That's a dandy laker tho! biggest I've caught was around 10 lb.
I got a laker at Higgins a few years ago that was a little over 26lbs and was 40 inches long. It broke the net when we landed it. It sounds like I was fishing the same general areas. I wish I could say it was great today because it was slow and besides what I believe were smelt there were no large fish marking on the graph & there were no significant bait balls like we key in on when fishing Higgins.
Last year, I got two 40 inch pike the same day, one was three times as fat as the other. Very few fight like a big pike.
I might try to go out there tomorrow. It's been tough the last few months with a broken ankle. Just been catching some nice gills on my lake. I'll update you if I go.
I was trolling spoons 60 to 100 feet of water. Started real early but caught the fish around 8am. I typically fish Higgins Lake and ran the same program we have used for years. I did not find the big smelt schools I did last year , I might have just got real lucky.
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