I was planning a trip with my one man pontoon to michigan in late june for musky. Wanted to hit a few different lakes. I was thinking of one day getting a guide for st clair since that is too big of a lake for the pontoon. I was wanting to know if anyone had any recomendations on lakes that might be better than others. Was trying not to go to the upper peninsula but will if it is a better idea. Just trying to make the most of my trip. Thanks ahead for any info.
You have a couple options for inland lakes without going to the UP. You could fish the SW part of the state and fish a number of smaller lakes in that area. You could also fish the east central part of the state and have access to a number of small to medium size lakes. I would guess travel time is similar for you to either area.
No, there are a good array of lakes around. Just depends on how far you are willing to go and what kind of fishing you want to do. Numbers, or size. I would pick 1 side of the state and stick around there. The only "dead zone" of water is really central MI. You have lakes that are just north of Grand Rapids and Lansing. Then, nothing for a few hours until you hit the Traverse City area. If you stay on the East side of the state, you've got the Tittawabasee, Sanford, Secord, Wixom, Hudson, etc. If you go to the west side, you'll have Austin, Campau, Murray, Long, etc. If you pick a spot in either Grand Rapids, or say, Flint or Saginaw, you could have over a 1/2 dozen lakes all within 1-1.5 hrs of driving.
As far as a guide on LSC Will Schultz & Chad Sandy will put you on fish. Like Jim said when you come into MI. you have Diane & Hudson. A hour to a hour and a half north is Ovid. Hudson & Ovid have campgrounds and are no wake. Your only 1&1/2hrs from Thorn, Austin Murray and a bunch more. I guess it depends how much time you have.
All we are goign to do is musky fish. I will more than likely try to stay with no wake . It will be a little nicer with the one man pontoon. Of course maybe michigan guys are a little nicer than bucknuts and dont come within 10 ft of you at full speed. I can't wait to get up there and try my luck though.
"Steve S" said:
As far as a guide on LSC Will Schultz & Chad Sandy will put you on fish. Like Jim said when you come into MI. you have Diane & Hudson. A hour to a hour and a half north is Ovid. Hudson & Ovid have campgrounds and are no wake. Your only 1&1/2hrs from Thorn, Austin Murray and a bunch more. I guess it depends how much time you have.
Not Will Schultz, he doesn't guide on St Clair.
"Steve S" said:
Will, sorry about LSC. He'd be worth going guiding on Thorn. I fish Hudson alot and can help you with that, nobody likes Hudson except me. 🙄
Aw, I like Hudson…. It's just that I can get skunked at lakes that are nearer to me than that.
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I dont think it realy matters where your at. there are D.Bags everywhere!!! If you want to fish thorn, campau or murray let me know… I just need an excuse to go fishing. just realize that most lakes on the west side of the state are all sports lakes and dont give a crap about fishers, plan on fishing early and late especialy on weekends.
Thanks for all the input guys. When I get a plan together I will post it and see what you guys think. I plan on fishing during the week to cut out on the weekend crowd. I have been know to chuck musky baits at boaters that I feel are to close. Usually you throw some 6/0 hooks by their head they get the idea
Spencer Berman will be the only legal casting guide on LSC the beginning of this year. He fills up pretty quick, so I would get a hold of him soon. FYI – if you were to search around, you would find other casting guided, but like I said, Spencer is the only LEGAL one that I know of. He WILL put you on fish. You wont be disappointed.
"Jim tenHaaf" said:
Spencer Berman will be the only legal casting guide on LSC the beginning of this year. He fills up pretty quick, so I would get a hold of him soon. FYI – if you were to search around, you would find other casting guided, but like I said, Spencer is the only LEGAL one that I know of. He WILL put you on fish. You wont be disappointed.
What about Chad? Is he hangin' it up?
"ricky sox wrangler" said:
[quote="Jim tenHaaf"]Spencer Berman will be the only legal casting guide on LSC the beginning of this year. He fills up pretty quick, so I would get a hold of him soon. FYI – if you were to search around, you would find other casting guided, but like I said, Spencer is the only LEGAL one that I know of. He WILL put you on fish. You wont be disappointed.
What about Chad? Is he hangin' it up?
For this year at least
Twice in one thread guys are talking about themselves in the third person.
Jeff thinks that's funny. 
All joking aside, I might just suggest you consider picking a body of water and stick with it. You can miss a bite really easily by "ya shoulda been here yesterday" when you were on another lake, or if you get to a lake and nail a bite, it's never wise to leave fish to find fish. I'd rather have multiple shots at one lake than singular shots at several lakes.
If you're just wanting to see new water and you're wanting to road trip, then hit as many lakes as you can. But if you're wanting to put together a plan and fish efficiently, I'd pick a lake and hit it, especially since you're limited to a pontoon boat; you're not going to be able to cover alot of water, scout the lake and all that stuff that would take you a morning in a powered boat, it'll take you all day or more in a pontoon. Sure if you get here and that lake is trashed or temps are too high or it's just not happening you can adjust your schedule but to hop from lake to lake just puts you at sqare 1 each day and doesn't allow you to build on the previous day's work and patterns. Heck, it may take you all morning just to paddle (or kick, I kick) around and get out of muddy water. You just wasted half that day on that lake and you're already moving onto the next lake the next day. That's not efficient.
Now if you want to hit LSC for a day with a guide, sure. The guide will have all that work done for you and you can start at square 1 and just enjoy your fishing as it's the guide's job. But for me, I'd want to hit a lake and learn it and fish it well. Get back on here a week or two before you come and get an idea on temps, water levels, trends, etc and make your decision then. Heck, you might even get someone to offer to take you out in their boat for a morning and give you a quick lay of the land and then you can hit it in your pontoon boat after you've seen the whole lake and can eliminate some spots.
But yeah, get with Spencer if you're doing LSC. He's still got some summer dates open and he's not doing MN this year so that'll help with availability. If he's not available, there's a couple of us here on LSC. If I don't transfer this year, I'll still be here and I could probably give you a heads up on what's happening on the lake. And believe it or not, guys fish this lake in kayaks and there are productive muskie waters on LSC that you can do in a pontoon. So worse come to worse, you could still do LSC is Spencer isn't available.
Just a suggestion.
Go with Jon Bondy if your looking for a LSC/Detroit River guide. The guy has fished this system for 30 years and guided for 18 years. He doesnt just jig and will cast as well. Spencer would be another option but I would want a guy who has put some serious time on this system. Jon and several other guides have helped guys like Spencer understand how to fish this massive body of water. Nobody's more dialed day to day than Bondy.
Or as Jef mentioned if you enjoy learning a system on your own then give it a shot. There's fish everywhere and it's a fun body of water to fish.
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