Thread: Baldwin Area

Welcome to the site! Just as an FYI, we have a spring/summer crappie camp at Croton Hardy in Newaygo this year (right down the road from you guys). You can see the information on the Main Michigan page. Would love to have you guys come even if it is only for Saturday. Great day on the water, get to meet plenty of good people, learn some new tricks, and eat some really good food!.

I grew up north of Baldwin (just north of 55 and 37). My grand parents lived over in Custer (my parents live there now) so I am familiar with the area. That is a hog crappie you have in that picture. Doesn't matter if it was private or not!

Idlewild is a great lake (as you are aware) and would have been my first recommendation for that area. I little west of you (over in Walahalla) is a lake called "Whalen" lake. It is tucked back up in the woods and has always been good for me. There is no boat launch so you need to carry down your boat and equipment. It also has primitive camping (but don't expect to get a camper up in that two track). I'm not sure about Wolf Lake as it has been a long time for me. Over towards Custer you have St. Mary's lake and Pliness lake. Both are good crappie spots.

I recommend getting the book sold in most Wal-Mart stores (someone will chime in with the name as I cannot remember). That book has great info on lakes, what is in them, stocking programs, and hot spots.

Welcome to the site and we look forward to your posts in the future.

Thank you for the response! I will have to look into the crappie camp as its only about 1 hour and 30 minutes away from our house in Sunfield. My girlfriends parents own property on Nugent lake in Baldwin and we love to spend time up there trail riding and fishing. We drove around Whalen one time looking for a launch but didn't see one so we headed to Leverentz and didn't catch a thing. I will look into Wolf, St. Mary's, and Pliness and give them a shot.
Thanks again!

Sunfield is actually pretty close to me. I work in Lansing. Most of the Michigan Crappie people are spread throughout the state. That makes it nice as you always have someone located close to wear you want to go. Steelguy (another member) lives over in Portland. The owner of the site (Slab) his wife is from the Leslie area (right down the road from my house).

Very nice I work in Lansing also I lived out in the country in Portland my whole life until a little over a month ago when we moved to Sunfield. What lakes do you hit around us? I either go to Sessions or Morrison.

That slab is a beauty! I'm in Lansing and drive by your area heading to Sessions and Morrison. I was poking around Sessions last week and a guy there fishing for catfish said they catch crappies from shore a bit later in the spring. Are you familiar with that? I'm going to check on it.

Originally Posted by jiggypop

That slab is a beauty! I'm in Lansing and drive by your area heading to Sessions and Morrison. I was poking around Sessions last week and a guy there fishing for catfish said they catch crappies from shore a bit later in the spring. Are you familiar with that? I'm going to check on it.

Thank you! Yes I do very well there all spring and summer long. If the weather is nice I plan on going out to see what we can do.

Ionia SRA is one of our favorite weekend camping/fishing locations. We get over there a handful of times each camping season. We do very well on both crappie and gills in the spring and early summer. Ready2fish (jim) fishes Morrison a bit too so you may have seen him on the water there. Wabasis is another good one over that direction. Steelguy, Ready2fish and I hit the spawn in early June on weekend year before last. Steelguy out fished us all tho.

A well known crappie magazine had an article on "crappie Hot spots" a few years back (might have been 5 or 6). I don't remember the name of the magazine but Sessions lake was listed as one of them. The article talked about bank fishing the spillway area for the spring spawn. I camped there last June but was a little late as the spawn had already occurred.
Morrison was OK for me and I have heard that Jordan lake is another good one in that area.

Most of my lakes that I fish are a little south east of you. I primarily fish more over in the Stockbridge, Chelsea area (Waterloo State game area). There are about 15 different lakes starting about 10 minutes from my house. Then you have the Pinkney game area as well. Sometimes I have the "too many lakes, too little time" mentality.

I pretty much ended my river walleye season. Open water walleye will be coming soon so now is the time to fish the crappies. Might try a favorite of mine over in Munith this weekend. I got a feeling this warm rain and winds will have the fish pushed up in a couple cuts and bays.

If I'm not working, I'm fishing. If I'm not fishing, I'm hunting.... or at least thinking of it.