I will be staying on the West side of Mary Sat-Wed and need a few tips. I have read past Lake Mary posts and have a pretty good idea where to find eyes. However, I plan to bass fish most of the time. What are some hints for finding bass?

Also, I have heard Little Mary is good for panfish, but I am not sure where that is?

Lastly, which landing, North or South, can accomidate an 18 foot fiberglass boat?

I would look in the pencils first for bass then move out to the weedlines. I would just use a jig and pig for shallow and then a jig worm for deep we sometimes get a mixed bag of walleyes and bass. If little mary isn't fun of weeds its a gerat place to fish sunnies with bobbers and flu-flus adn with an 18 foot boat your only going to be able to use the south access. hope this helps out.

HH hit that one on the head, the bass are still in shallow depending on what time of day you're on the water. As far as where little Mary is, it's attached it's just on the south end, when you launch your boat at the south access you'll be on little Mary.

So looking at one of the satellite maps sites I see that the sand bar that creates the little mary basin pretty much runs across that whole area. It actually looks like most of it is above water? Are there bouys that direct boats through that sand bar and out into the main basin? How shallow is that area?

You can get across the bar on the south end. The first time I would just putt along and lay a track down on the GPS. Most of us run it on plan without a problem. But if you have never been on the lake take it slow the first time. The bar which divides the two basins is also a good starting point for bass.

yup Wayne got that one YOu will be able to see it it has pencils reeds and cattails and rocks on top.

Thanks for all the info...think I have a pretty good idea where to start. Also, good to know about the sandbar on the south part of the lake.

I will post my results when I get back. Will be traveling with the wife and kids, plus some other family so hopefully I can find some time to fish. It is my b-day while we are up there and I told the wife as my gift all I want is a few hours of alone time to fish. So at a minimum I have that.

Hello all!

I will be heading up to Mary the 3rd week in Aug. Eyes would be nice, but this will be my 3rd year there during this week and have never had luck finding any then. I'm actually more interested in the panfish bite. Last year it was not good. I have a 10 yr old son that LOVES to fish for ANYTHING (one of his greatest thrills so far has been a lunker dogfish 3 years ago in Mary (in June) if that tells you anything). Anyway, the panfish bite was VERY slow last year and although we still caught quite a few, the pike bite was down as well.

Any hope of an improved trip this year?... We stay at Maryview Beach and have spent most of our time in Sunset Bay, but if it means better fishing I'm not opposed to taking a few trips south to Little Mary although with 4 kids in a 17' boat...the trips may be few.

Thanks in advance!

If you pull small crawlers around the pencil reeds you can typically put up alittle of everthing and actually a walleye every now and then. Otherwise Pull a cralwer around the weed line for sunnies alot of teh big blue gills are moving out into the depths as of late.

I found a few really good pictures of the lake....they show pretty good detail and I can see that some of the pencil reed areas are pretty thick, and some look thin. A few of you said to target the reeds for bass, do you mean around the edges or right though the middle?

It depends on the day if its cloudy they will be out roam around the edges if its sunny head right in them. I would use heavier line if you do their green right now and tough to pull out.

Well back from Lake Mary and figured I would report on what I found...which is not much. Tried eye's early morning and late evening on the north sand bar and only found a few bass and small pike. Tried bass shallow, deep and in-between and found nothing. I found one small bass on the edge of the pencil reeds using a texas rig. I tried pitching a jig/pig around the edges and far into the pencil reeds..got nothing. Tried multiple lures around the weed lines and found nothing. Anyway, I couldn't figure the lake out. Really wasn't much of a weedline, just some weeds near the bottom in the 10 foot range. I guess I am used to more of a distinct weedline, where weeds are visible and you can fish the inside or outside. I heard reports of some fish caugh off the end of the dock so I gave it a shot..only got bullheads. Saw a few crappies come in but never gave panfishing a shot. Maybe should have since I couldn't find any of the bigger fish. Of the other boats fishing the traditional walleye spots on Mary, didn't see any caught.

On a side note, weather was beautiful, mostly light winds and I spent multiple hours in the water with my 4 year old and my 1 year old. Great family trip.

Thanks again to all for the info on Mary.