Perch on a Lindy Darter

Well it turned out to be one of those days were you fish hard, but never end up catching a walleye. We fished in 6 to 9 FOW in the weeds and on the flats and couldn’t produce a strike on minnow or darters. If you’re looking for HL perch we recommend that you start looking in 6 FOW in the North Bay.

Good Luck HHS.

Houghton Lake

No walleye action yet, but the perch fishing is picking up in 8 FOW.

Houghton Lake Report

Hit the lake at 3pm looking for walleyes. We headed up to the North Bay to avoide the wind and found a school of perch in 6 FOW. Best action was on small minnows. 

Big Manistique Lake

Walleye action has been steady on big man the last to weeks. We have been fishing mainly in 9 FOW on south side of the lake. Best action has been on tip ups 1 foot off of the bottom.

Good Luck HHS Saff..

Success on the MOVE!!!

Stop, Drop and Move Technique pays off.

We were fishing from the Shanty and kept seeing a number of fish swim by without getting any strikes.  We could tell from the direction that the fish were coming off the top of the shallow area and moving down the drop off we were setup on toward deeper water.

If you see this and you are not getting strikes.....NOTE The fish are FEEDING SHALLOW and moving to deeper water when they are full.  YOU NEED TO MOVE.

When we get time to fish ( like today for several hours ) we like to setup on the edge of a drop off or structure to wait for fish moving in to feed, HOWEVER we have seen this before and the fish were coming from a different area or they were already waiting in the feeding area.

YOU WOULD DO BEST TO GET UP THERE .... that is where the action is going on.

We watched a number of nice walleye swim past our primary shanty spot and show little to no interest in the food but they were coming down from the shallows.

Our best guess is the bait fish moved and the fish were feeding shallow and moving off to rest.

We are prepared for this so we reeled our rods up and grabbed our buckets.  Justin went one way and I went the other way slowly working from hole to hole very quietly fishing for about 3 - 5 minutes per hole.

If the fish are there, YOU DON'T NEED MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES.... the catch 22 of this moving concept is that the fish are also moving so "do I stay" or "should I go"....

About the 3rd hole I moved to.... I dropped the line and within a minute or two.... WHAMMO it was a nice strike and a good hookset.

We missed a few strikes ( always keep you line tight going down... fish will hit the drop )  IF YOU drop your bait and then reel up when it stops falling.... you may have missed the FIRST Strike and possibly the Only one you will get from that fish.

I am mainly sharing this technique with others to help them understand how I catch many of the fish you see photos of.

You can look back in our BLOG and see fish that are clearly caught in the shanty... and others you will know are outside during which I am normally doing some moving.

Good Luck and get out on the Ice.... IT'S PRIMETIME!
HHS Admin

Walleye Technique we Use

One technique that we use on Houghton Lake is to identify our area first.
Get our camera out and do some quick checks for fish in the area... ALWAYS TAKE YOUR FISHING ROD with you when you scout.  Many times our camera draws fish to it and you need to be able to drop your jig or lindy darter down the hole right away or they will swim off.

After we realize we have the right spot picked out.  We drill a series of holes around the area RIGHT AWAY so we can keep things quiet for PRIME TIME fishing.  We see how much loud noise impacts the fish having watched 1000's of hours of underwater video.

Our goal is to create a number of places we can move to quietly and do a STOP, DROP, Hit or Move technique when things are slow.  What we are saying is that we set up our primary spot early and get all our holes drilled around the area so we don't spooke off fish as they feed.

Unlike what many people think, the fish we see most of the time are MOVING or Crusing the areas.  Bait fish will often hang close to weeds or cover, but the preditor fish like Pike and Walleye will move to feed.  We also watch the behavior of baitfish in the area to anticipate bigger fish moving into the area.

Our goal is to setup a number of places covering up to 50 - 100 yards around the primary spot.  This technique works very well for spooky schools of perch that move around a lot.  We carry our bucket with some smaller container of bait and our rod going from spot to spot as we get a couple active spots.  When that spot dies off... the fish have moved and we do the same to keep our fishing action more regular.  It works very well if you have a few friends spread out so you can determine which way the school is moving and shift accordingly.

Good Luck

Just setup.

Wednesday was a fun day for Field Supervisor Justin B. and Hot Hunting Spots President Dennis R. as they got some time on Houghton Lake Fishing for Walleyes.

The underwater camera is GREAT for scouting and if you have one you know how cool it can be to check where you are and what the underwater structure is in that area.  For those of you that do not have a AquaView or other underwater cam... it's business as usual but keep an eye out for someone using a camera they will probably be more than happy to show you whats down there.

We are working on our video capture options to be able to do photo / videos and put them in the blogsite to show key spots that are great during summer or winter.

We have found many interesting things from rock piles to sunken shanties and other debries.

The key things we focus on are finding areas that show structure and searching for other ideal conditions such as bait fish, water temp or clarity.  On one lake we fished it had a break that you could see clear water down to 10 foot but the bottom 4 foot was very murky and if you watched the fish they swam up the bank feeding at about 4 - 5 foot.

It is very exciting to continue to enjoy the outdoors hunting and fishing and LEARNING more with the use of technology.

In closing I highly recommend that you use a GPS when fishing so you can MARK key structure and return to them again and again to check for fish.  We have marked rock piles, steep breaks or just areas in weed beds that have holes where fish often hold up.

Good Luck and see you out there....
HHS Admin

Big budd lake walleye

Mike with his tournament winning 27 inch seven pound walleye caught on Budd Lake.

Budd Lake Walleye

Chachi checking out Mike's walleye.   

Budd Lake Big Walleye

Happy Fishermen celebrate with their 27-inch seven pound Budd Lake Walleye that was caught on 2-pound test and a crappy minnow. Mike Meir and Mark Reinke were fishing in 12 FOW enjoying the day when at 11:50am Mike yelled to Mark that he had a big fish and needed help getting it out of the hole. Mike had been fishing for his fifth crappy when he hooked the big walleye. He fought the walleye for eight minutes trying his best to keep the walleye from breaking his 2-pound line. The first time the fish surfaced Mike and Mark knew they had a good fish, but they were both unsuccessful at getting the fish out of the hole. On the final attempt Mark reach his whole arm down the hole and managed to pull the big fish onto the ice.

Chachi

Chachi caught his first perch of the day on a sand flat in 4 FOW.  We normally target Budd Lake perch in 15 FOW on the South of the Island, but after drilling a lot of holes and only finding small fish we moved in close to shore.  Overall we caught fifteen keeper perch then moved on to look for walleye.

Big perch

First perch of the day caught in 4 FOW on the West shore of Budd Lake. 

Tournament Sign in

The Budd Lake Ice Fishing Tournament - February 21, 2010.
Harrison, Michigan

Team members on site:
Hot Hunting Spots Pro Staff - Dennis Resseguie
Hot Hunting Spots Junior Pro Staff - Chachi (Valdez) Hubbard

GOOD LUCK TEAM!

Budd Lake Fish Tournament

Chachi ( Valdez ) the Hot Hunting Spots Junior Pro Staff member is a "Fishing Machine"
This is a picture from the sign in location at the power dock...getting ready sor the start of the fishing tournament.

Detroit River

Rich ( 3 Inch Magnum ) with a Nice 43 inch Muskie!

Great Job Rich!

There were 192 people fishing in this tournament in SE Michigan.

Houghton lake action

Nice Houghton Lake Walleye.  Garret, Jeff, Tom, and Lynn fished hard all weekend.

 

Houghton Lake Sunset! Breaking down and packing up after a FUN day of fishing.

A special Visit from Tommy and Mark made the day very memorable... you know that fishing alone


is never as much fun as with friends.

Perch on

A nice Houghton Lake Perch caught fishing the South Shore west of the Elks Club.

Houghton Lake tip-up Action....FLAG!!!!!

time to watch the line go out... and be patient....NOW SET THE HOOK!

Walleye on.

Walleye action on Houghton Lake. Caught on a lindy darter...

Crappy caught in 10 FOW using a Lindy Darter. 

Sunrise on Houghton Lake

Beautiful view of a great Houghton Lake sunrise as we get ready for the walleye action to happen.

Houghton lake Morning Setup

It's a nice cool morning drilling holes and getting set to fish.  The walleyes are just getting up...

Winter Walleye Fishing Area

Were heading out on Houghton Lake on Friday morning to fish some new areas.  If you are looking for an area to find a few walleyes you may want to try this area.  Good Luck..

Lake Margrethe Report

We put a good fishing day in on Lake Margrethe and spent from 7am - 7:30pm on the ice. In the early morning we fished the South East shore in 22 FOW and never marked or saw a fish. At 1:00pm we moved around the lake scouting for new areas and finally ended up on the North side of the lake in 14 FOW. During my scouting I found an area on the West side of the lake that had ice thickness differences ranging from 16 inches of ice to 5 inches. That was unusual for this time of the year and a bit of an awakening. Overall we caught a lot of small perch and had one walleye hit at 6pm. The water on Margrethe is extremely clear which makes ice fishing a bit challenging during the daylight hours. Fishing pressure was low mainly local guys setup in ice houses.

Good Luck.

www.hothuntingspots.com Fishing team.
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Lake Margrethe

Heading up north this morning to try our luck on Lake Margrethe in Crawford Country.

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Pratt Lake Morning Action

Pratt Lake

  

We have been finding good bluegill action in 15 to 17 FOW on the East shore of Pratt Lake.  Best action has been on wax worms and white teardrops.