Kevin Van Dam Forums

Most of the lakes I fish here in Mid- Michigan are man-made.  They have a pulpy peat bottom.  I’m not sure what that means.  Is it mucky?  My guess is that it’s dead or decayed vegetation.  Does anyone know what it is and how to fish it?

Never heard of that before. A couple lakes around here have a bottom that is all dead/decaying vegetation. I do good with weightless senkos since they dont fall into the bottom.

Thanks BBK.  I’m going to have to look at my graph better to see if the fish are off the bottom or not.  I was thinking I could drag a c-rig with a floating worm.  I guess that depends on how thick that stuff is.

Try dropshotting so your bait is not dragging along the bottom in the muck.

smash

With that kind of bottom I would fish moving baits and weightless baits.  Try to find hard bottom areas,  might be something as crazy downed trees and logs or maybe rock piles.  Bass need a hard bottom area to spawn and will spawn on these if they can’t find a sandy bottom.  Also look for pads should be an indication of a bottom compition change.

Smash - 14 April 2012 09:44 PM

Try dropshotting so your bait is not dragging along the bottom in the muck.

smash

X2…I fish a few ponds that have that kind of bottom and drop shot or topwater is the best way for me to fish them.

Pax - 15 April 2012 08:03 PM

Smash - 14 April 2012 09:44 PM

Try dropshotting so your bait is not dragging along the bottom in the muck.

smash

X2…I fish a few ponds that have that kind of bottom and drop shot or topwater is the best way for me to fish them.

The water is stained.  It’s mostly shallow with a deep bowl (20-25’) at the end.  Have you ever dropshotted a Senko or maybe a black/blue Smash tube with some braid and FC?  This is not the pattern I plan on fishing in a couple of weeks, but I’m thinking of this summer.

Here’s the lake:  http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/SPATIALDATALIBRARY/PDF_MAPS/INLAND_LAKE_MAPS/CLINTON/PARK_LAKE.PDF

Go fish that sand bottom with some plastics. Especially this time of year, they will spawn in the sand and they should be staging by now.

Although you can’t really count on vegetation from year to year, there’s a nice string of emergent grass positioned north to south leading into deeper water you could try. They may use that as an edge or highway to move in or out.

Every time I click on this post I can’t help but want to write a novel with the lead character being a cop named “Pulpy Pete”.

AAav8or - 17 April 2012 09:12 AM

Every time I click on this post I can’t help but want to write a novel with the lead character being a cop named “Pulpy Pete”.

LOL. Yeah, me too.  I thought the name was more of a cattle rustler who rode the hard country down by the New Mexico line.

You guys have given me some great suggestions.  The map is old and a generalization, but it gives me an idea where to start looking.  Awesome feedback.  Thanks again.

are there any lily pads?....Their roots can be a little like hard bottom if you can find some on a wind swept point start there.