20150927-KERSWILL LAKE - Fish were shallow - deep and in between

Started out cloudy, mild and calm winds water temp at 71 degs… I quickly scanned the depths to look for schooling fish or any activity… fish were everywhere. I marked a few waypoints and continued to the shallow weedy flats to start the day fishing. The flats were loaded with algae blobs due to the few weeks of sunny, warm and calm period Michigan just experienced.
Food being generated is my first thought. We proceeded slip bobbering baited with Gulp and nite crawler segments. We were catching fish but at a very slow pace…I decided to attach my chain n crank rig and the action increased significantly for me. I saw fish race to attack this presentation from over 10’ away. Caught many fish with this presentation b’gills from 6 to 8.6” Hybrids including a bonus chunk LMB. What an exciting way to fish!
Fish caught with the ULTRA LIGHT "Bait Dropper Chain 'n Crank"
We eventually eased our way to the deeper breaks tagging fish with varied presentations… UL jigs with plastic tails, drop shot and deep jigging with ice jigs tipped with gulp. Using my sonar and presenting my bait in 30 FOW I tagged a B’Gill that was a foot off the bottom… just like ice fishing. Lifting the fish to the boat I suddenly felt a huge tug and some screaming runs with my UL 2# braid setup. A huge Northern grabbed the b’gill and took off with it. Nearly brought the fish to the surface when it let go and left me with an injured b’gill. Exciting nonetheless. After losing a few jigs to pike with sheared lines on hooksets… earl tied on a spinner bait and quickly connected with a 36” class pike… nearly made it into the boat when the spinnerbait pulled free. Kind of glad it didn’t make it into the boat … without proper handling these fish can do a lot of damage.
So the overall breakdown for the day is the fish were widely scattered with no concentrated schools and require a variety of presentations to “tag” them. A generally nice fish outing.