LAKE POKEGAMA
Located southwest of Grand Rapids, Pokegama features a large diversification of species, including walleyes, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, pike and even lake trout. Pokegama also is home to a healthy supply of trophy walleyes.

“You have just as good a chance catching a 12-pounder in there as you do a 2-pound walleye,” Neustrom said.

Kavanaugh said Pokegama is a unique body of water with all of its structure, distinct bays and diverse habitat. That’s why it is home to so many species in healthy numbers.

“Given all that, we manage it primarily for walleyes and have an aggressive fingerling stocking program where we put in 1 pound of fingerlings per littoral acre -- that’s almost a ton of walleyes every year, and we’ve been doing that for several years now,” he said.

Because the lake is very clear and deep, it is slow to warm in spring and doesn’t really crank up for fishing until July and August. All that clear water makes Pokegama a great night-bite lake and the lake is dotted with boat lights throughout the summer evenings.

Helping feed the variety of species in the lake, particularly those trophy walleyes, is a massive forage base of tulibees, perch, whitefish and rainbow smelt. In a 2007 netting survey for rainbow smelt, the DNR caught 99 fish per gill net.

A good starting depth on Pokegama is 18 feet because walleyes tend to hold in that middle area throughout the summer. If walleyes aren’t there, continue to slide deeper down to the edge of the thermocline until you find them, he suggested.

Along the weed edges, he either uses a jig or a bottom bouncer with a crawler-tipped spinner on a 5- to 6-foot leader.

“I like to get the bait off the bottom,” he said. “There’s sand grass and short weed on the bottom and you want to keep your hook out of that mess.”

His favorite locations no matter the time of day or season include Drumbeat, Sugar Bay, Moose Point, Sherry’s Arm and Tioga. If that’s too broad a selection, Neustrom said Sugar Bay is a good place to start.

With more than a half-dozen boat landings spread over 6,600 acres, there’s also an ample supply of boat traffic, but luckily there are plenty of locations where walleyes are found.

“A good starting point on the lake is the 18-foot mark,” Neustrom said.

DEER LAKE
Eight miles west of Grand Rapids, Deer Lake is a 4,097-acre lake on the rebound from a diminished walleye supply. Neustrom said there are now good populations of walleyes in Deer and anglers that fished it several years ago when the fishing wasn’t as good should consider coming back to wet a line.

“The DNR has increased their stocking and it’s become a really good lake again,” he said.

In fact, the 2005 DNR survey showed eight year-classes, something not found on many other lakes in measurable numbers. The range of these walleyes varied from 10 to 28 inches and averaged about 15 inches. The majority of the fish were from the 2003 and 2001 year-classes and those fish should be about 20 inches this summer.

The first thing a Deer Lake angler will notice is that it’s very clear and rocky, so anglers must watch for the reefs in order to protect their motors, as well as locate terrific fishing locations. Deer is another multispecies lake full of walleyes, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, muskies, trophy pike and crappies