Croton Dam Pond covers 1,380 acres, and stretches 14 miles end to end. Like many other reservoirs, it has plenty of white and redhorse suckers, and they're great snacks for growing pike. Jump into the action at access sites in the village of Croton.

For information, contact the Newaygo Area Chamber of Commerce at (231) 652-3068, or online at Explorenewaygo.com.

TITTABAWASSEE RIVER IMPOUNDMENTS
Dams stall this Saginaw River tributary four times, and each impoundment offers a great place to tangle with a pike.

"The whole Tittabawassee Chain -- Secord, Smallwood, Wixom and Sanford (lakes) -- is outstanding for pike fishing, with Sanford and Wixom kicking out the occasional 40-incher," said Esox specialist Don Bomba, while adding, "My best on Sanford is 44 inches."

"The whole Tittabawassee Chain -- Secord, Smallwood, Wixom and Sanford (lakes) -- is outstanding for pike fishing, with Sanford and Wixom kicking out the occasional 40-incher," said Esox specialist Don Bomba, while adding, "My best on Sanford is 44 inches."

These four backwater lakes have the typical pike features in abundant forage -- especially suckers -- and plenty of weedbeds, stumps and dropoffs.

First, moving downstream from Roscommon County, the Tittabawassee pauses behind Secord Dam. It forms a lake of about 2,000 acres, up to 40 feet deep. Access is at Bowmanville and Finkbeinder roads. Next is Smallwood Lake, about 300 acres of pike water.

Both of those lakes are relatively unknown. Not so with Wixom Lake, most of which is in Gladwin County. Wixom hosts bass fishing tournaments almost every weekend of the open-water season. Wixom Lake, where the Tobacco River merges with the Tittabawassee River, boasts an impounded arm of each river, with a combined surface area of just under 2,000 acres. There is a DNR public access site on the Tobacco side near Edenville.

Sanford Lake, lowest on the system, is about 10 miles long, covering just under two square miles. It has a maximum depth of 30 feet, with the vast majority less than 20 feet. Launch at Midland County's Sanford Lake Park near the dam, or upstream at Sanford Lake Marina.

DNR officials say all four lakes have plenty of northerns, with relatively low fishing pressure focused on them. All have rich weedbeds, and increasingly clear water, thanks mainly to zebra mussels. To top that off, they produce tons of redhorse and white suckers, which pike love to dine on.

"There are a lot of pike," said DNR biologist Kathryn Schrouder, "and I don't think they're utilized all that much."

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In truth, pike are "underutilized" almost everywhere. Thirty-five of Michigan's 82 counties put northerns on the Master Angler Award list since 2004 -- from Berrien County in the southwest to Wayne County in the southeast, and from Baraga in the far north to Chippewa in the eastern Upper Peninsula. Nobody in Michigan is far from a lake in which lurks a northern pike. Catch 'em in the act this year, especially now that you have the evidence!