12Mile 6/3/05

Good news and bad news……bad news is that the lake is currently being drawn down. It started tuesday and the lake is currently down about 4ft and will continue to go down. You will be able to use the ramps for a while still, but not sure how long. Be careful if you do go as the ramps are slimed with algae and gunk and are VERY slippery.

Good news is that fish are still biting….although all the folks I talked to down there hadnt caught much of anything or nothing at all. I had better luck, although I couldnt trigger the eyes (dropping water had them deeper in the main channel and the fronts had them “off” the bite….I didnt want to work that hard for them). However, we got quite a few crappies, some gills, and a bunch of cats. Cats were a BLAST! They seemed to be starting spawning feeding and were VERY aggressive when you found them. They had moved down the lake to the basin end as of this week. Ran into them on accident slip bobbering a road bed near rocks trying to find any eyes that might have been set up in the current that should have been there….what I found was cats off the shore about 3-6ft and HAMMERING my live bait slip bobber rigs. Such fun on med/light spinning tackle. No BIG fish, but up to 4lbs and great eater/stockers. Managed a livewell full that went to nice gentleman loading his boat the same time as us that had a few cats of his own to go with mine.

Again…get there while you can cuz it wont be boatable long I am afraid. Good luck!

goody

Goody,thanks for the report.We have a local lake that the DNR is going to start to drain also.It can make for some awesome fishing at times.
I have no doudt you are the catfish slip-bobber KING.I remember a guy catching a nice catfish out of my boat on Little River when slip-bobber fishing-any ideas???
Enjoy reading your reports Eric.
Any idea when you and Brenda are going to make it up North,June,July?
Ryan Hale

UPDATE

As of today, 6/6/05, 12 Mile is ALMOST inaccessible by boat. I dropped my tailer off the end of the ramp as it is down several more feet since friday. Was able to pull it out, but had to use 4wheel drive to do it. Wouldnt attempt it with a heavy boat without 4×4. As of this weekend the ramps will more than likely be of no real use without using planks or something to transition your boat up the ramp.

Fishing was a little tougher, but managed quite a few fish. Still a good bite on cats and we got them everywhere we were live bait fishing the eyes. They are still no-go, but the crappie, gills, and yellow bass were going well along with the cats.

This was probably my last trip there for 5-6years…until the new fish are going well. How sad.

goody

Dunno for sure Ryan….either late June or early July it looks like. Nutso schedule right now and some things going on (good things!) that are keeping us preoccupied. Will drop you and email and let you know whats what.

goody