2008 Upper Peninsula Walleye Fishing Trip

Our fishing team headed up to Curtis, Michigan on May 19th for a week of walleye fishing on Big Manistique Lake and one day of fishing Autrain Lake.

The weather was colder then normal and the North wind never stopped blowing. Water temps were below normal and ranged from 50 - 54 degrees F everyday. All fishing methods produced fish, but the bite was slow. Best walleye of the week was 25 1/2 inches caught on a blue and silver tail dancer trolled back 55 feet on 8 pound. Total trip we landed 39 walleyes and 4 small mouth 3 lbs +. We had very our best success with blue and silver tail dancers and bomber. The other hot color was brown / red on Storm Jr. Thundersticks.

As always we had a great week fishing Big Manistique and our stay at the Buck Horn Resort was great.

Take a Kid Fishing!

May 9th, 2008

The other half of the fishing team produced some good fishing action for the kids.

We boated three keeper walleyes with two more getting thrown back to grow bigger.

We also landed six to seven pike, but by the smiles on the girls faces it didn't matter what we were catching. All of our fish were caught on the south shore in 4 to 6 foot of water and on the south point. Lures that were working well were the 3" Bomber white with red head and black and silver Tail dancers. We plan to be on Houghton Lake again on Tuesday the 13th. I will report back with our catch.

Walleye Report May 8th & 9th

Our fishing team headed up to Houghton Lake on Thursday and Friday night to work our early walleye hot spots.

Thursday night we headed out planning to fish the south point in 6 FOW. On our fist troll we picked up a 14-inch walleye on a blue / silver tail dancer running 45 foot back. Thirty minutes later the wind shut us down and we were forced to move inside the point. We moved in to troll the Elks run in 6 FOW around the wed masses but found a slow bit. We had water temperatures from 55 to 51 which contributed to our slow night of fishing. We fished for three hours and boated three walleyes, nine pike, and one bass.

Friday night we worked our south east point and again got pounded by the wind. The wind was blowing out of the NE and made trolling a serious challenge. We fished four hours and ended up boating five legal walleyes and three 14-inchers.

The early season weather patterns have made Houghton Lake walleye fishing a lot more challenging, but we are continuing to focused on the areas and techniques we know. We will report new way points to try as soon as the weather cooperates.

I'll be in South Caroline for normal work the week of 5-12, so our next report will come from the Crestliner team this Thursday. We will also be taking the week of 5-19 off to fish on our annual UP Walleye Trip on Autrain, Forest Lake, Big and Little Man, and any other walleye lakes that we can find. We'll report soon.

Good Luck! GO FISH HOUGHTON LAKE.....

Walleye Report 5-5-08

Despite the strong Northwest winds Monday night turned out to be an excellent walleye fishing night. We made it out on the lake by 6:45pm and headed out to 6 FOW to work two bumps that normally hold walleyes. Last night was an exception to a few walleyes. We fished for a little over three hours and landed 14 keeper walleyes, lost three, and put back 12 undersized fish.

The water temperature held at 55-degrees F all night and the fishing action was constant. We ran tail dancers (black / silver) 55 back, 3" bomber (red / white) (bubble gum) 60-65 feet back and Storm Thundersticks (White) (Black / Red / Gold) 20 foot off of the front of the boat.

We will be back on Houghton this Thursday night.

Trolling Baits

Early Season Houghton Lake Trolling.
We consistently boat walleyes using Bombers and Tail Dancers trolled 25 to 60 foot behind the boat during the first month of walleye season.

During daylight we like the blue / clear, red / white in bombers. Tail Dancers we use Black / silver, Blue / silver, and Green / silver.

Night troll we prefer Bubble Gum colored Bombers and Trout colored tail dancers.

Walleye Report 5-1-08

We made it out on Friday evening and landed four legal walleyes and one 13-incher fishing 4 to 6 FOW trolling bombers and tail dancers (Blue / Clear) (Trout Color Tail Dancers at Dark). Houghton Lake wed cover is spotty this spring which is making trolling the best production method.

2008 Houghton Lake Walleye Opener

Fishing action was excellent on the first day of walleye season. Despite the cold windy weather the walleyes were in full gear and our morning of fishing was action packed.

We started out the trolling our normal early season walleye area running 3" bombers (red/white) (blue/clear) 55 to 60 foot back and number 5 Tail Dancers (black/silver) (blue/silver) 35 foot back. We fished 4 to 6 FOW all morning and ended up landing six fish one of which had a DNR jaw tag. All of the walleyes we caught looked great and were 17 to 22 inches long a great sign for Houghton Lake.

Water temperatures started out at 54.3 degrees F and slowly dropped all day long. The cold SW wind chilled down the walleye fishing by dark and dropped the water temperatures to 52 by 8:45pm.

Our other fishing team members had a great day too. The total walleye count for the opener was 17 legal walleyes and one 14-incher. I have to also comment on the large number of small northern pike that we boated. In our boat trolling six rods we landed 64 pike, 12 bass, and 12 walleyes which made the bad fishing weather a great time.

We will be out fishing HL on Thursday (5-1), Friday (5-2), and Saturday(5-3). I'll report back soon.