Got out on Cooke & Loud ponds Sunday & Monday morning. Mostly scouted the lakes & fished mainly for bass. Didn't see any muskies but man are those lakes beautiful. Saw eagles, loons, beaver, muskrat & an otter. Also saw a mink chase a vole down a hill into the lake. The vole tried to make a swim for it but the mink swam after it & finally caught it for breakfast. One of the cooler things I've seen while fishing. These lakes will be awesome in a few more years for muskies & the scenery reminds me of Canada. We did do really well on the bass even considering the heat. We caught over 35 bass, mostly smallies, on senkos & topwater with a couple 4 lbers. If smallies grew to be 40+ inches they may be my preferred species.
The ponds/lakes are dammed sections of the Ausable river. I believe Cooke is 1942 acres & Loud is 937. Although many areas of the lakes look like great places to fish at least you don't have to cover wide expanses to target them. There are very few houses or cottages on the lakes & it seems to me like it would be a great place for natural reproduction. Loud recd over 3700 muskies in 06 & Cooke recd about 7400 in 08. I would guess the Loud fish are around mid thirties. There is plenty of forage in the entire system & will hopefully turn out to be a great fishery. Too bad it's 4 hours away.
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