[MadWags]

After reading all the reports and info about Kent Lake I decided to give it a go today. Keep in mind I have never fished it, so this is kind of like a "Day on the Lake" feature.
Put in at the west ramp.
Used primarily Crankbaits and Jerkbaits.
Red is my favorite spring color and it proved good on this lake as well.
Red Shad Fat Free Fry suspending crank.
Red Shad Manns Minus 8
Lucky Craft Pointers in American Shad and Bone w/ Green back. (forgot the name)
Target depth turned out to be 6ft.
Grinding bottom, banging rocks and ripping grass and weeds.
13 Smallmouth total. 4 on jerks.
Largest was 3lber.
Fished dam area.

 

[fishalot]

thanks for the report madwag good work i also was on the lake today and have very little exp out there i didnt fair as well could not get the stick or crank bait going even on those very windy pts did manage couple two pound sm and couple short lm mostly on tubes in approx 6ft water

 

[jcheetam]

Sounds like a pretty good day Wags...I went out today with a neighbor and boated a 3.01 and 3.11 smallie, a 3.11 largie, one dink LM, an 8 lb carp snagged in the back, one nice walleye, and a fairly large pike that busted off at the boat. All the bass were caught ripping rattling baits.

 

[Basschaser]

Where is the "DAM" at on Kent Lake? Is it at the farthest northeast or east end? I didn't even know there was a "DAM" on Kent Lake. Thanks

 

[jcheetam]

It is South of both the East and West launches...go under the I-96 bridge and head West...

 

[djkimmel]

You might be surprised how many 'inland lakes' in Michigan have dams. Some are true reservoirs and many are dammed just to maintain a consistent water level.

Some of these have been made larger than what they originally were too - like Lake Lansing which used to be a swamp and Lobdell which used to be ponds and swamp from what I can tell. You could probably technically call them reservoirs too.

 

[carpfisher]

I am probably "picking nits" here but if you went under 96 and headed west weren't you technically in Island Lake?
Sounds like a graet day on whatever lake it was. My kid is bugging me to go so I think we head that way ASAP!
Greg

 

[jcheetam]

Carpfisher, you would be in the Island Lake Recreation area, but you would still be fishing Kent lake.

 

[madman24]

jeff,

check your map. that is actually island lake. though it is connected to kent lake by a small channel, it isnt kent lake.

but the fish dont know the differance so who cares?!?!

madman himself

 

[jcheetam]

I don't have any maps that show that area as Island Lake...looks like I learned something new today...

 

[jcheetam]

Ok...are there two Island Lakes within Island Lake Recreation area? I can only find one, and it is on the West side of the park wedged between Fonda and Briggs Lakes, no where near Kent Lake or the water located south of I-96... Here is the only link I could find of a map that shows an Island Lake:

http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmap&...C+MI&country=US

 

[madman24]

i stand corrected.

i have two maps of the area that have the section of water to the sw of the I-96 bridge marked as island lake.

i went to the dnr website and did some investigating. mr cheetam is absolutly correct. island lake is at the west end of island lake recreation area.

for this, i owe him one dollar and smacky on the arm with the next fish i catch from his boat

madman himself

 

[cameraguy]

That's correct. The body of water right up to the dam is Kent Lake, and they both have a 10mph speed limit.

 

[MadWags]

I would love to see the take-off at a tournament on Kent Lake.

AND THEIR OFF.

 

[jcheetam]

Wags...it is one of the funniest scenes you will ever see....
It goes something like this...

"Boat one...GO!"...putt putt putt putt....

"Boat Two...Go!"...putt putt putt putt....

 

[madman24]

putt putt putt........until they get around the backside of an island or out of sight of the director.

not too many people obey the 10 mph speed limit out there.

i am one of them. but only on occasion. the other day was the first day i had my boat out. i launched and putted out to the river channel, then made a short run at around 40 mph. just wanted to get all the juices flowing.

Lt. dan kimmel was out there and he called me on it. i realized something. there were a ton of boats out there that day and i was setting a very bad example. i felt like an a$$.

usually, if there is no one on the lake ( which has happened many times out there ) i will crusie a little faster. but i have seen canoes tipped over from other boats wake. this is the main reason for the speed limit, or so i am told. and it makes sense. for those of you who fish kent lake regularly, you know how many people use it to canoe and kayak. it can be dangerous if everyone is flying around.

i apologize to anyone who was out there saturday. 98% of the time i cruise at or around 10 mph. my excitement got the best of me that day and my foot got a bit heavy for a minute. wont happen again.

madman himself

 

[djkimmel]

Way to go madman. I know you're basically a good guy.

There are certain things I have a low tolerance for. Personally, I wish everyone in a bass boat would be perfert gentlemen all of the time. It would help.

The 10mph thing is another example of a suspect rule. I don't mean run, but we could plow an incredible wake in cameraguy's boat legally and still not pass 10mph. I would bet anyone watching thought we were at least being idiots if not lawbreakers the couple times we tested to see how big a wake we plowed at 10mph.

Sometimes common sense overrides regulations, but only in a way that makes us look better. We spent most of the day pushing a small wake. We didn't need to go faster and no one looked twice at us. Makes me feel more relaxed.

 

[cameraguy]

I wonder if there are some small aluminum boats with small outboards that can actually get on plane and stay at or under 10mph. My boat (a Champion 202-which is for sale BTW

) really can't come close to maintaining a consistant 10 mph. At 5-6 mph the front end lifts up way too high and the wake is considerable. If the boat starts to plane then obviously the speed is much too fast. So rather than trying for 10mph, I usually just putt around. Fortunately Kent Lake is small so it doesn't take that long to get from one end to the other. There are many lakes around that do not have a 10mph speed restriction, so to have a couple that allow people to operate small sailboats, canoes, and kayaks without having to fear bigger, faster boats is just fine.

 

[jcheetam]

I love the fact that Kent is a 10mph lake...and that it doesn't allow waterskiing, PWC, etc. It makes for an incredibly enjoyable and safe day on the water. I can get my boat on plane and cruise at 10mph, but like camerguy says, it only takes you 5 minutes to go from when end of the lake to the other at idle, so why bother?