Lake Report: Gun Lake – Shelbyville, Michigan

Fishing with my brother-in-law and Bad Poncho on our favorite lake out of Uncle Kurts boat not to keen on giving up the front of the boat but wow did it turn out well.

Gun Lake

6-24-11

8pm-3am

Really exited to fish with my old fishing partner and Bads uncle again since we have made a lot of cool memories together over the last 30 years. This trip will be remembered for a long time for many reasons. One of the biggest is we made a plan and it worked just as scripted we all know that does not happen most of the time. Another is three family members fishing together and all being successful, we never know how many more times we will all be able to have our schedules match-up for such an awesome adventure. Enough of the mushy stuff let’s talk about the fishing. 

We set the tone for the trip right out of the gate with a pike on the first cast followed up with a couple more in the first 15 minutes. By the time we hit the 30 minute mark we had already put 5 pike and 3 small largemouth in the boat we were starting to figure out what we would need to do to get the big ones we were looking for. We had to resist the urge to fish our best spot right away since we knew the fishing in that spot would be much better if we could hold off for two more hours. To fill in the time while we waited we looked for some new spots it seemed every spot on the lake was holding fish so we kept looking for bigger fish every time we moved the bass got bigger and we would get less pike. The pike seemed to be running the bass off the weed edges and pushing them to shallow cover or to suspend over the deeper water. The action on the suspended fish was fast and furious but the size was not exactly what we wanted. So up on the flats we went. With most of our fish coming on spinner-baits the fishing was pretty easy. Most of the early fish though many it seemed they had to be fed the bait by this I mean they did not slam the bait you had to drop the lure back to get the bite.

With two other anglers in the boat catching a lot of fish on spinners I thought it was time for a gamble. Most seasoned anglers know the gamble you take when switch to a buzz-bait can pay off big or leave you fishless with everyone else catching fish around you. What makes this worth the risk is the chance to catch the big ones that seem to ignore other presentations. Many times my kicker fish have fallen to the buzzer this makes me willing to take the chance more often than not. On this trip it payed big dividends the second cast produced a 13 inch largemouth and the fish got bigger with every bite. With fish still biting the spinners the buzzer was putting the bigger fish in the boat. Boating the fish was not as easy as it might have been if a net was in the boat instead of in the truck but we were still able to land all of the big ones thank goodness.

A lot of the fish we caught came on chaotic baits custom spinner-baits thanks to the great work of Dan Bonnayer!! These worked just as he promised under the conditions we faced on this day. Having someone that can make you a bait that gives you confidence in a very specific condition can make a big difference. The other big performer of this trip was the assassinator buzz-bait I have fished a lot of buzzers the assassinator baits are among the best I have ever used with some innovations that will be brought to light in an upcoming review you won’t want to miss. As far as rods and reels the Revo Premier and Veritos rod worked flawless as expected with a lightness that was much appreciated by the end of the trip.

The final numbers for the trip were good with 20 keepers the best being a smallmouth at 5 pounds with a bunch of largemouth up to 4 pounds. With 60 fish caught we had to weed through a lot of smaller ones to find the best ones, but every fifth fish was a good one. Lots of action with big fish possible at any time makes for a really nice trip. Can’t wait to fish with Kurt again we always seem to put fish in the boat. Until next time fishem if you got em.