Houghton Lake West Shore Fishing Report

Mark with a nice crappy on a TD 7 Taildancer

Mark & Danny Walleye White Flicker Shad

9am Walleye West Shore 9 FOW

We made a morning trip up to Houghton Lake to try out a few West shore fishing areas.  At 6:20am we headed out of the west launch one mile and started scanning in 8 to 10 foot of water looking for fish.  We found that the weeds on the West side of the lake are thinned a bit in areas making it possible to troll parts of Walleye Alley.  This area gets lots of fishing pressure and is not normally a location we fish, but when you mark fish suspended at 6 foot you have to try it out.  Fishing was slow at first and we took an hour or so to figure out a troll path around the thick weed areas.  We finally started trolling at 8am and to our surprise the bite was very slow.  After lots of change ups we finally found a setup that got down to the fish.  We found fish but didn't find repeat action.  We would hook a walleye then star pattern the area without hooking up on a second fish.  It turned out to be one of those days where you worked hard and waited for each fish.  Overall we hooked six walleyes 15 to 16 inches, two nice crappy, two undersized walleyes, and a few pike by 12:30pm.  The best action was from 10:30am to noon and the best colors were black / silver TD 7 Taildancer back 50 feet, white Flicker Shade back 30 feet all trolled at 2.1 mph.   We saw lots of fishermen on in Walleye Alley Friday morning which kind of confirms that fishermen are probably catching fish in the area.  I'll be out again next Friday and will be heading to the north shore.

Good Luck...

Last fish of the trip 11:50am West Shore