# Fletchers Pond - Hillman, MI - May 18th-21st



## littleking

Feel free to join us!!!

great pike, bass, crappie, bluegill and perch fishing!!! hopefully find some mushrooms too!!!


where: http://www.fishweb.com/maps/alpena/fletcher/dam.html

resorts:

http://www.fletchersfloodwaters.com/
http://www.fletcherspond.com/
http://lyonslanding.net/
http://jackslanding.com/

who:

Littleking
Leckig + 8 polish friends
Swollengoat
BigChessie
Chippewa

For more information PM me!!


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## BigChessie

I have 2 spots still open if anyone wants to join us!


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## littleking

1st to say, nice meeting you all, had a helluva time... weather sucked but hey, we caught fish!

sean (swollengoat) was the man this time... dood tore em up (as you will see )

and to the pix:






















































































































watch it boy!, get em fish! get em!














































these guys are migrants from west virgina









































































whew...


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## SwollenGoat

Hehe, yes had a great time - and first time I've ever caught any pike. Great fish, good fight - but stinky and slimy! Hope they eat good! Also, that bowfin was a 1st for me also - weird, weird fish. Certainly didn't like being pulled into the boat. Slayed the bass, if you ever just want to catch bass I can certainly recommend Fletcher's as a great spring trip. Caught perch, bluegill, crappie, pike, bass, bowfin....just about anything that swims! Weather wasn't the greatest, but still a great trip. Thanks to LK for the invite, and good to spend some time with BigChessie and met LeckiG also.


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## SwollenGoat

Hey LK! Just realized I'm missing those pike filets....don't suppose they ended up going home in your cooler, did they?


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## starcraft

Looks like u guys had a blast  Nice pics.


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## littleking

SwollenGoat said:


> Hey LK! Just realized I'm missing those pike filets....don't suppose they ended up going home in your cooler, did they?



sure did, i'll drop them by


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## bkr43050

It looks like you guys had a great time with plety of action. I have never been to Fletcher's but have heard a lot of good things about it.

By the way Little King, I am sure you will love those pike fillets as they are one of my very favorite.


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## littleking

yup, been eating them for quite a few years


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## bkr43050

Oops, I guess it was Swollen Goat that had not caught pike.


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## leckig

Nice meeting you Shawn (Swollen Goat) and others! We had really good time. Tomasz is really happy as he caught most pikes, I think 7 or so.

Here is a picture:









BTW - I am still not hungry, still working on those biscuits and gravy 

It was a great trip!

Greg


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## leckig

oh, a better picture of what Eric posted. Very convincing!


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## SwollenGoat

Nice meeting both of you as well. I look forward to our next adventure. Oh, and I promise we won't be eating as much next time.  I think this was the only fishing trip I've been on where I've *gained* weight.


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## crawdiddy

Leckig,

Did your Polish friends bring you some salmo lures? Which ones worked the best and for what? I have some and they are great.


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## leckig

Hey Crawdiddy, he did! He brought around 25 of them, went back with... 5. 
The first night he got 5 bass in just 30 minutes on Salmo, outfishing everyone. The next day he could not catch mutch at all, he lost almost all lures to snags. 

Now he said he will believe me next time when I tell him to use 20 pound line not 8.

BTW - he also got a muskie on Salmo at Alum a week ago.
Greg


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## bubba k

I have a trip planned for Sept 7th-9th. I hope that the fishing is good at that time. What type of lures work best up their? I plan to try to focus on pike and bass. I heard that the #s are great, but the size is only average????


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## littleking

use mepps 3-5's 

i go every year the weekend after labor day so you should be good to go. where ya stayin?


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## bubba k

We're staying at Jack's Landing. We have a party of 6. This is my first trip so I'm pretty fired up. About how many fish do you average per day per person? What are the biggest pike and bass that you end up catching on a given trip???


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## littleking

5-6lb bass are extremely common

24"+ pike are the norm

number of fish per day per person varies... and depends on what your using. trust me you'll have fun

i used to stay at jacks, a little too snotty and pricey for my taste.


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## bubba k

5-6 lb bass are what I like to hear!!!! Don't get me wrong, I'll be fishing for pike too, but I'd like some 4-6 lb bass......I actually booked the trip after reading some of your past posts about the lake....we do a trip every year.....Fletchers was one of the few lodges that had openings for 6 people.


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## littleking

fletchers is a great lake, trust me you'll have fun.

heres a map


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## Playbuoy

Little King,
I spoke with you about Fletcher's Pond in January. I appreciate all th info! I'm taking the family there July 15th for a week - not the greatest time for fishing I know, but have to go when the kids are out of school. Good to hear you guys did well. We're really looking forward to it. I'll let you know how we do. I may try to go back in September if all goes well.

Thanks!


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## littleking

cool, good luck thats for sure!!!


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## LiquidTension

discgolfer and i are making the journey north june 3-10. cant wait. those pics wet my appietite. its really is a fine fishery. seems i've read, all bass are catch'n release this season and theyre having some invader type milfoil weed problems. 5-6 pd bass are in there for sure, but id say 2-3's "are extremely common". small mouth are a bonus fish, seek out the ol' RR tracks. we release everything we catch, after a quik photo, if worthy. take lots of plastic worms  after this trip, coming back to our local pools, depression sets in  might have to seek out new place after all this advertising... 

is anyone going up june 3-10? we will be @ jackslanding. last trailer on the point bend. look us up.


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## leckig

in the summer be ready to clean your lure after each cast. This milfoil or whatever pretty thick by then. They introduced those worms which suppose to eat it, but it may take some time. 

make sure to have so night crawlers, too!

Eric - how much they pay you for advertising fletcher? It seems to me that this year at least 50 people will go there only because of you. Heck, there was 15 of us this there already this year!


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## bubba k

LiquidTension said:


> discgolfer and i are making the journey north june 3-10. cant wait. those pics wet my appietite. its really is a fine fishery. seems i've read, all bass are catch'n release this season and theyre having some invader type milfoil weed problems. 5-6 pd bass are in there for sure, but id say 2-3's "are extremely common". small mouth are a bonus fish, seek out the ol' RR tracks. we release everything we catch, after a quik photo, if worthy. take lots of plastic worms  after this trip, coming back to our local pools, depression sets in  might have to seek out new place after all this advertising...
> 
> is anyone going up june 3-10? we will be @ jackslanding. last trailer on the point bend. look us up.



Are you sure that all the bass are catch and release???? I don't eat bass so it doesn't matter to me, but I read that they are having a bass tournament on Fletchers in August.


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## bubba k

leckig said:


> in the summer be ready to clean your lure after each cast. This milfoil or whatever pretty thick by then. They introduced those worms which suppose to eat it, but it may take some time.
> 
> make sure to have so night crawlers, too!
> 
> Eric - how much they pay you for advertising fletcher? It seems to me that this year at least 50 people will go there only because of you. Heck, there was 15 of us this there already this year!


leckig,

What were you catching on the nightcrawlers???? I usually don't use them for bass because the panfish at my local spots tear them up before the bass can even get to them.


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## Weekender#1

On your way up or a side trip while at Fletchers, try some fishing in the AuSable river where you crossed it on 65(the new bridge). That is called Cooke Pond it is loaded with Small Mouth, Pike and Walleye with panfish of every type. No one fishes the water other than through the ice, but it is exceptional. This is some of the water, the impoundment is 1,970 acres without a single cabin or house on its shores. The ramp is right off 65 on the North east side of the bridge.


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## LiquidTension

bubba k said:


> Are you sure that all the bass are catch and release???? I don't eat bass so it doesn't matter to me, but I read that they are having a bass tournament on Fletchers in August.


i thought i read it here a few weeks ago. its been updated as of yesterday though...

http://www.fishweb.com/recreation/fishing/reports/fletcher.html
the wording was kinda vague but i thought i read that and that dnr would be conducting catch surveys.... we had a on the water survey last year. 



> They introduced those worms which suppose to eat it


actually they are some kind of weevil and they love this eurasian milfoil over other milfoil... seems they burrow right into the stem of the plant and lay eggs and do what bugs do best... eat,fart,kill plants,mate go thru thier bug stages and the like...


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## littleking

wow, ill have to check that lake out, looks nice!


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## bill_gfish

Going june 8-11, Have been going there for about 15 yrs I think. We stay at Lyons landing, good people. Don't forget your top water baits when ya go, a favorite of mine.


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## discgolfer

I refuse to post in this thread due to the overexposure of my yearly vacation spot that already exists. Every freakin vehicle at Jacks Landing has ohio plates.


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## leckig

bubba k said:


> leckig,
> 
> What were you catching on the nightcrawlers???? I usually don't use them for bass because the panfish at my local spots tear them up before the bass can even get to them.


Well, that was very very strange. Friday nigh each case with a NC would produce very nice (I mean very nice!) perch or a big crappie. It was very difficult to set the hook, so we managed to harvest maybe 10 fish out of easily 50-80 bad hook sets. 

The next day, the same spot would produce bluegills, and not very big! But the most surprising was when I set up my bottom fishing gear for a catfish - I baited it with NC as well, set up the carping alarm and in 30 minutes got two... LM Bass, one 13" and one 15". 

I think people do not appreciate NC's here enough, I never go fishing without them.


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## Jackfish

Glad you guys had a good trip - I really do have to try that lake out sometime - just have to get one of the hall passes from the wife 1st


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## ch23119

I am going to go there july 29-august 4.. any other advice for that time frame as far as baits or spots? I appreciate all the info I see here and it sounds like a great lake.


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## Weekender#1

You are going to want to try Thunder Bay for Walleye while you are at Fletchers it is an emerging walleye power in the state. They have been stocking very heavy. The Thunder river is what flows out of Fletcher at the dam. Just look into it.


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## littleking

i dont have a boat big enough to go out on huron


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## Weekender#1

The Walleye action is in the bay and river not out in the lake. Just ask a local or visit the bait stores in Apena, for updated action report.
The State record Bluegill came out of Vaughn lake near Glennie, if you like pan fish. It is right out of the city of Glennie.


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## littleking

cool, maybe this fall i'll take a week off and fish the surrounding lakes as well


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## Weekender#1

Fletchers Fish Report 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Michigans sportsman site today. 

the fishing up at fletchers is amazing right now....we went out everyday last week and floated infront of lyons landing where all the stumps are and caught many bass...i caught a 21" 4.5# bass and my brother caught a 20" 5# bass within less than 30 minutes...my dad also caught a 22" 6# bass. in one morning in about 2 hours my dad and i caught about 50 bass all over 12"...the fishing was simply amazing


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## Weekender#1

A report from another site, how did you do on Fletchers 

Where Back! 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All,

We are back... I will keep this brief (yea right) as I am swapped at work.

Weather: Good, hot the first few days and only a couple brief storms. Wind picked up sometimes and blew from a different direction everyday.

Cabin: Good, small but had everything we needed, except air conditioning. We made due with the fan.

Fishing: Great, I will elaborate more later.

Boats: 14ft aluminum boat and motor was old but did fine. Pontoon needed a canopy but other then that, it was sweet.

Baby: Excellent, slept through the nights, started making new sounds, smiled at me for the first time. Never really made a peep on the boat. 

Wife: Excellent, she was a trooper putting up with the 4:30 alarm clock to be the first on the water every morning. Put up with all the fishing even though I could tell she was getting tired of it after the third day. 

Me: One of the best vacations of my life.

I will post pictures of some of the fish we caught tonight, but I will give you the low down now:

As I said the weather was tough with varying wind direction and speeds. We had 30mph out of the South one day, then 10mph out of the North the next. Thus, I never really figured out a good pattern. We had some full sun days and some cloudy days, drizzle another.

Though, no matter what the weather was doing I always seemed to catch roughly the same amount of fish every day. I would say I personally caught about 15 nice bass and pike each day (half and half). Some days 10 others 20. Most of the fish had good size to them, but no trophies (they all got away!). A few pike reached 3 ft and a couple bass close to 20". After the first few days I really only targeted them from 6-9 in the morning and 6-9 again at night. That was the only time I could get a consistent bite to keep the wife entertained. She skipped a few of the trips the last few days. People around said the fishing was about average for the week. I couldn't imagine it being better. As for baits, the winner of the trip was a Baby-M crank in autumn brown. Other Baby-M colors were hot too. Spinnerbaits worked well anytime. I also caught pike on spoons, mepps, etc. The weeds were tolerable for me. I started to remember better spots on the lake as the days went by. The wife did not like the weeds. The harder I reeled I seemed to have less of a problem and caught more fish.

Some highlights were:

Day 1: Lost a monster next to the boat (broke 8lb test), next cast I caught a 29" pike that inhaled my crank. I ate him due to him not making it. Also, stopped the boat just short of shore (100 yards) and landed another 29" pike in 3 ft of water in front of everyone on shore.

Day 2: Fishing in the middle of the afternoon just before heading in, had a 28" pike absolutely hammer a spoon about 3 ft from the boat in front of our eyes. As well, the wife landed the biggest bass of the trip ~5lbs 20" on a bobber and chub. This was cool.

Day 3: The wind calmed in the morning fishing by myself and I could see the fish coming to hammer my bait. Waves then open mouth, then kaboom. I lost 3 monsters in a row and two baits. I switched to leaders after this. I had a 3ft plus pike mangle a spinnerbait to the point where it was not functional anymore. I lost him next to the boat.

Day 4: Evening bite with a spinnerbait yielded me 4 nice bass on 4 casts before an approaching storm. I also caught a weird looking catfish.

Day 5: The wife landed a 29" pike fishing with a worm off the side of the boat for perch. This was great. I had a fish that would have been on my wall slip thorugh my hands. It was about a 16" crappie caught on a 3/4 oz spinner bait. Damn thing fought like a smallmouth. 

Day 6: Best fishing day as it cooled off. Wind was rough but ripping a Baby-M hard through the weeds produced a bunch of nice fish. Caught numerous 6lb pike and kept one that died. I froze the filets and brought them home. 

Overall, it was great and we will do it again. Likely only a weekend or 3-4 day trip though. 

Mike


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## littleking

sounds like you had a great time! where did you stay? jacks? lyons? etc...


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