If you fish for late-spring smallmouth in the incredible fisheries of Michigan’s Inland Waterway, you owe Dan Kimmel a sincere “thank you.” 

Kimmel is an enthusiastic bass angler who has a website design company and serves as “conservation director” for the Bass Federation of Michigan, as well as for three tournament organizations in the state. Basically, he is a watchdog for bass anglers.

Without Kimmel’s low-key activism before and during the November meeting of Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission, Burt and Mullet lakes, as well as the smaller lakes of Crooked and Pickerel, might have been closed to all bass fishing from May 1 until the Friday before the third Saturday in June. The closure would have included all the connecting waters, as well as Black Lake. All of these waters are part of Michigan’s Inland Waterway.

The issue started at the October meeting of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission (NRC) in the Upper Peninsula, when Commissioner John Walters asked for a new regulation on Burt and Mullet banning all bass fishing from May 1 until the Friday before the third Saturday in June. The reason? Members of the Burt Lake Preservation Association told him that they weren’t seeing many shallow smallmouth spawning beds, and feared that invasive round gobies were decimating the smallmouth population by devouring bass eggs when anglers caught the bass guarding the beds.

While no one doubts the little invaders from overseas do indeed eat eggs off of vacant bass beds, Kimmel knew of no evidence that gobies eating eggs affected the number of bass that grow to adult size anywhere gobies were found. 

In fact, baby gobies provide food for baby bass, helping them grow bigger, faster, which gives the bass a better chance of surviving their first winter. And most bass anglers know that adult smallmouths grow big by munching the foreign forage, which have been found in Burt and Mullet since 2010.

Kimmel rallied several anglers to write emails to the commissioners and, ideally, show up at the November NRC meeting and be prepared to talk. Several did.

At the November 6 NRC meeting in Lansing, Kimmel spoke for 5 minutes, pointing out the lack of any scientific evidence that showed the gobies were hurting population levels, and the potential economic impact to the area if bass season was closed. He also pointed out that the rule would be difficult to enforce, as anglers could catch-and-release bass while claiming that they were fishing for walleyes and pike. 

Also presenting was Lucas Nathan, Aquatic Species and Regulatory Affairs Unit Manager for the DNR Fisheries Division. The Fisheries Division also opposed the new rule, because there’s no evidence that gobies were hurting the bass population, noting that anglers in tournaments that report catches to the DNR were seeing that the fishery was holding its own or getting better.

A representative of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs also spoke opposing the new regulation, as it had no basis in science.

In the end, Walters withdrew the proposed amendment, but Kimmel feels that this issue is not over.

“The Burt Lake Preservation Association has some money and might be looking for an organization to do its own study; this isn’t going away,” Kimmel said.

He noted that this closure could have set a precedent that would let lake associations trigger partial season closures all around the state. The original amendment that commissioner John Walters proposed also included Elk and Torch lakes.

The 63-year-old Kimmel has been a bass activist for around 40 years, first speaking in favor of a launch ramp at Webber Dam near Portland, Mich. He had joined a local bass club and expected to join several other club members at a community meeting hearing by the DNR about the ramp.

“Nobody else from the club showed up, and I was the only person there to speak in favor of it against like 18 lake association people who opposed it,” he recalled, noting that he nervously spoke anyway.

“It was hilarious when the DNR played the recording back; I sounded like Mickey Mouse,” he said. “I was shaking as I drove home, and shook for the next two days, I think.

“The DNR was surprised and pleased that I had showed up,” Kimmel said. “They said that anglers rarely show up at those hearings to speak in favor of boat ramps.”

I got to know Kimmel over the years at the major winter sport shows in Novi and Grand Rapids, and had the pleasure of fishing with him once last last summer on Round Lake, north of Lansing. He’s a quiet guy with a quirky sense of humor. He fishes for bass a lot, and his seminars about bass fishing that he gives at shows are entertaining and informative.

His wish going forward is that more bass anglers would get involved in the politics of bass angling, keeping track of what the NRC is considering, and testifying when able so that bass angling regulation changes are based on sound science.

One area that he feels needs more activism is spraying public lakes for weeds. He says that it’s just too easy for lake property owners to get permits for herbicide applications and that spraying often goes too far, killing weeds that make prime habitat for bass and other fish species, well away from lakefront lawns.

“I actually got sprayed once, fishing on a submerged island that had good weeds out in the middle of a small lake,” he recalls. “I was trying to protect the weeds and the guy spraying didn’t care.”

He also noted that bass anglers, especially those in speedy boats, could do a lot to help themselves and the overall image of tournament fishing.

“For one thing, obey the speed limit; lots of bass boat guys don’t realize it’s 55 mph on all Michigan waters unless otherwise posted as lower,” he said. “You legally can go faster if you’re a mile offshore in the Great Lakes.”

He also said all bass anglers are ambassadors (no pun intended) of the sport and need to avoid conflict with lake property folks.

“If you’re casting under a dock and a cottage owner confronts you, just move along,” he said. “You don’t need to get in an argument, and YouTube has enough videos with ‘angry Karens’ screaming at anglers.”

As we head toward a new season, Kimmel hopes that more bass anglers will pay attention to what’s happening with the NRC, the herbicide issue, as well as launch ramp hearings. He hopes that more bass guys and gals will show up to comment whenever it’s appropriate. A good place to keep track of issues that affect bass anglers is Kimmel’s greatlakesbass.com website where he posts news stories.

Bass fishing in Michigan is overall pretty terrific. Guys such as Kimmel should be applauded for their time and efforts to keep it that way—and maybe even make it better.