Has Lake Menderchuck been found?

[12poundbass]

I drive a lot for work and living in Michigan I’m always passing boats during the open water season. I see a ton of nice decked out bass boats. The wife and I were heading to 6poundbass’s football game tonight and passed a familiar looking rig heading north on US-131….(I didn’t take this picture)

 

 

[MIbassyaker]

Need to ask @A-Jay if he has seen a certain familiar rig following him around on the water lately...

 

[A-Jay]

That's funny.

Since Mr Van Dam's retirement, I expect to bump into him a few time's in the near future.

I'm told he likes to chase the big brown bass too

and there's a few decent lakes up this way that fit the bill.

But timing is everything.

Just won't tell him that I'm selling all his KVD branded rods & reels this winter.

A-Jay

 

[Dwight Hottle]

I’m sworn to secrecy. 

[LrgmouthShad]

It really doesn’t matter. It’s just a lake. If @A-Jay wants to keep it secret, cool. None of us are any worse off

[A-Jay]

It's all good.

A-Jay

[ironbjorn]

So is Lake Menderchuck not even a real thing? I'm really confused. Nothing comes up the times I have searched it out of curiosity. Don't worry A-Jay, I'm never going that far north and I suck anyways. 

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

It really doesn’t matter. It’s just a lake. If @A-Jay wants to keep it secret, cool. None of us are any worse off

It’s just a thing we’ve had fun with over the years.

[Swamp Girl]

I've wondered about the etymology of Menderchuck. Sure, it's fabricated, but from what?

 

When it comes to catching big fish, it's more about the fisher than the lake. @Pat Brown catches giants on busy lakes. @T-Billy catches big muskies, bass, and walleyes in overfished Ohio. @AlabamaSpothunter catches monsters on water lined with mansions. @Woody B has to dodge jet skis and roaring bass boats and still catches many bass every single trip. Beauts too. And on and on. I figure that if I ever fished Menderchuck (I won't. If I were to fish smallmouth again, I'd return to northwestern Ontario and have a lake to myself because I'm a big, fat pig.), I wouldn't catch much anyway at Menderchuck because it's the know-how. It's the fisher. 

 

@PhishLI once said that some fishers don't have the gift. I think that's true. As I'm retrieving one cast, I'm already scanning the water for the next cast and there are times when my hair will prickle at a fresh cast because that particular location reminds me of a similar location where a bass erupted, even if I can't describe that particular memory.

 

I studied the brain at a renowned school where smart folks posit that our subconscious is a swarm of busy bees, seeking nectar without our knowing. What was once considered to be intuition or luck is often subconscious conclusions predicated upon memories that we can't articulate because they're buried deep in our brains' files. 

 

So, returning to @PhishLI's observation, the gift might be aggregate YEARS on the water, with hundreds of thousands of accumulated memories, and a subconscious busy-beeish enough to find the germane memory that entices the next big fish. 

[12poundbass]

44 minutes ago, ironbjorn said:

So is Lake Menderchuck not even a real thing? I'm really confused. Nothing comes up the times I have searched it out of curiosity. Don't worry A-Jay, I'm never going that far north and I suck anyways. 

Lake Menderchuck is within a few light years of Sneaky Lake.

4 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Sure, it's fabricated, but from what?

Here’s your answer.

[T-Billy]

I think a big key is the KISS system. Learn to locate fish, then find a couple techniques you're really good at and GRIND. 

[MIbassyaker]

36 minutes ago, ironbjorn said:

So is Lake Menderchuck not even a real thing? I'm really confused. Nothing comes up the times I have searched it out of curiosity. Don't worry A-Jay, I'm never going that far north and I suck anyways. 

 

I will now ruin the joke by explaining it: 

 

Originated from a Zona Live episode he filmed in Michigan a number of years back. Zona uses it as a stand-in word for a "not-to-be-named" lake he was fishing on, and they caught a whole bunch of very large pre-spawners. 

 

Because the word is funny and sounds like it could almost be a real place, it just stuck around here as a name for any other secret body of water with big fish.

[Swamp Girl]

40 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

I think a big key is the KISS system. Learn to locate fish then,find a couple techniques you're really good at and GRIND. 

 

That's it, Tim. Totally. As you know, I fish the idiots' lure, the Whopper Plopper. What you might not know is that I cast its two treble hooks into slop. I have to hit a wee pocket of open water and then steer the critter through lily pads and wood with my rod tip. I even plot the path for the Plopper, three turns ahead, like a good chess player. If I tick one weed, that cast is ruined and if I tick a tree, that area is ruined. I'm really good at this technique and I do grind, like you do, like all successful fishers do. 

 

Thanks, @MIbassyaker. To be frank, I don't know what Zona Live is, but I appreciate the explanation. I assume Zona is a person. I'll google that now!

[MIbassyaker]

50 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I fish the idiots' lure, the Whopper Plopper.

 

There's nothing idiotic about making a successful presentation!

 

50 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Thanks, @MIbassyaker. To be frank, I don't know what Zona Live is, but I appreciate the explanation. I assume Zona is a person. I'll google that now!

 

Mark Zona, Bassmaster host.  Zona Live is a youtube series where he goes on the water, often with a guest, and they fish for a few hours while livestreaming (although I don't think he has made a new one for a couple years).

[Darth-Baiter]

1 hour ago, 12poundbass said:

Lake Menderchuck is within a few light years of Sneaky Lake.

Here’s your answer.

i heard the surrounding woods, or desert, or swamp is pretty good for Snipe hunting. 

[T-Billy]

51 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I fish the idiots' lure, the Whopper Plopper. What you might not know is that I cast its two treble hooks into slop. I have to hit a wee pocket of open water and then steer the critter through lily pads and wood with my rod tip. I even plot the path for the Plopper, three turns ahead, like a good chess player. If I tick one weed, that cast is ruined and if I tick a tree, that area is ruined. I'm really good at this technique and I do grind, like you do, like all successful fishers do. 

An idiot can't do what you do with that bait. You've also added to your bag of tricks this year and put up some truly impressive numbers. You're a pretty well rounded angler IMO. 

Maybe add a heavy action rod to your bag of tricks next year and fish that deeper thick stuff more vertically would be my only suggestion. Even from that tippy canoe you'll land a high percentage of those big bites.

[MIbassyaker]

11 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

i heard the surrounding woods, or desert, or swamp is pretty good for Snipe hunting. 

oh yes, the Common Snipe, Cryptomythus jocularis, is native to this region.

[12poundbass]

12 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

Snipe hunting

I fell for that at age 8 or 9 in the woods of Kalkaska when I was camping with a friend.

[Darth-Baiter]

1 minute ago, MIbassyaker said:

oh yes, the Common Snipe, Cryptomythus jocularis, is native to this region.

nobody remembers its original common name.  the yellowbelly spectulous. 

[Functional]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

As you know, I fish the idiots' lure, the Whopper Plopper.

 

Jeeze now I feel like even MORE of a fishing failure ?.

 

Only thing I've ever been able to catch with a Whopper Plopper is a tree and some poor guys dock!

[ironbjorn]

20 minutes ago, Functional said:

 

Jeeze now I feel like even MORE of a fishing failure ?.

 

Only thing I've ever been able to catch with a Whopper Plopper is a tree and some poor guys dock!

It no longer works for a lot of people in a lot of places. This is a pretty common experience. It's still killer in unpressured waters.

[Swamp Girl]

23 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

An idiot can't do what you do with that bait. You've also added to your bag of tricks this year and put up some truly impressive numbers. You're a pretty well rounded angler IMO. 

Maybe add a heavy action rod to your bag of tricks next year and fish that deeper thick stuff more vertically would be my only suggestion. Even from that tippy canoe you'll land a high percentage of those big bites.

 

I've tried it a couple times and got a couple bites, but I think I'm setting the hook too slowly. It's hard for me when I feel that tick-tick-tick to immediately set the hook, as I was raised to wait a couple secs before doing so. An old, bad habit to overcome.

 

19 minutes ago, Functional said:

Only thing I've ever been able to catch with a Whopper Plopper is a tree and some poor guys dock!

 

We're just fishing different water. You'd catch them in Maine on a Whopper Plopper. My best times are four and five in the morning. I'm guessing two and three in the morning would also be great times. 

[king fisher]

My lake Menderchuck south was discovered last year.  The increased pressure forced me to either drastically improve my angling skill, or find another Lake Menderchuck South.  The fact that this spring I was still catching big bass, while casting with the accuracy of a sawed off shotgun, means I have found a new lake, and and for once in my life am going to keep my mouth shut.  I'll take luck and stupid bass over skill any day.

     

[Darth-Baiter]

Me too! @king fisher me too!

 

i wont say a thing!  

[Woody B]

7 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I fish the idiots' lure, the Whopper Plopper.

 

Don't belittle yourself like that.  You catch more bass on a Whopper Plopper than many of us (including myself) catch on all of our lures combined.   

 

I know where the top secret Lake Menderchuck is.  I'm not allowed.   People who need FFS/Active Target/Live Scope aren't allowed there.   FFS pings at ~1100kHz.  The bass in Menderchuck are tuned in to that frequency.  When they hear it they immediately call the game warden.   (The bass in Menderchuck have cell phones)