SANFORD RESERVOIR

[Lip ripper]

THIS IS THE LOWER SECTION OF SANFORD RESERVOIR IN MIDLAND MICHIGAN I FISHED IT MY LAST VACATION PLANNING ON FISHING IT AGAIN THIS FALL. CANNOT FISH THE NICE POINT BY DAM AS IT'S BARRELED OFF APPROXIMATELY 80 YARDS FROM DAM. IT IS SAID THAT THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST LAKES IN MICHIGAN FOR MUSKY I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE ANY OPINIONS HOW TO APPROACH THIS RESERVOIR THIS FALL

[site admin]

Looks like a flatlander 1 or 2. Not very deep (less than 25ft?) No major feeder creeks to speak of.
Probably has very good water color. I'd mostly work the original channel breakline, spending a lot of time on any sharp turns I come across.

Good Luck! Let us know how you did!

[jwt]

Looks like a lot of trolling water. I'd check out the causeway where US-10 crosses the lake. Note the 26' slot on the east side(your map is rotated left 90 deg, i.e. N is on the left side, N side at the base of the causeway where the channel swings in close, 24' with a breakline at 16', another at 18, and shallow water along the causeway. Causeway goes all the way from the shallows to the deep water on the W side with a little finger on the SE corner of the causeway. Sharp break into the slot on the E side. Channel breakline and bar on the E side where it follows the slot down toward the dam. Your map and the Navionics map are quite different ergo you can't rely on bathymetric(contour)maps; as Buck says they are simply guides. Ya gotta check it out.

John Zaborney of the Leoni Spoonpluggers is the man to consult.

[John Bales]

Google earth shows good water color. Sounds like you need to stay in the channel when going to the upper end away from the dam because they say that there are a lot of stumps outside the channel. Check all the channel swings where they come off the bank and swing to the other side where it creates a bar. These areas will be short . Stay in the areas that have the sharper breaks and if you go too far out they will peter out. Fish some of the steeper banks where the channel comes in close to the bank also. I doubt if you need to go much deeper than a 250 or 200 on no bo to catch some fish. Looks like a decent population of largemouth and smallmouth also. Fish for the bass and the musky will just get in the way. Sounds like mixed feeling about how many musky are actually there. Some say good and some say bad. I don't pay much attention to what others say till I fish it myself. Troll a lot of 8-10 feet of water, always a good depth to check. If it has the water color, you should spend some time with a 500 and 400 if its safe to troll. John

[Lip ripper]

Your right water color good . Also right on stumps and cut off trees further up RESERVOIR zebra mussels bad cut my braid like scissors spent most of my time on dam side the map i posted was at the launch i took a picture of it thru my fishing i found it pretty accurate. Thanks for the feed back lipripper.