Houghton Lake Fishing Report 5/18/11

First Walleye 7.5 FOW South Shore



Undersized Walleye 9 FOW North of the Heights Marina


Fished by myself after work from 7pm - 9:30pm and hooked six walleyes and four keepers.  My original plan was to fish the West shore, but the NE wind kept me contained to the South shore all evening.  I started fishing directly out of the South DNR launch and hooked my first fish just past the Elks club.  I spent an hour and a half fishing the South shore, hooked two walleyes, three pike, and one bass.  My next stop was the weed edge East of Lyman's where I started my troll North.  On my first pass I fished in close and didn't hook anything.  On the return back I started in 10 FOW and worked into 7.5 FOW hooking four walleyes along the way.  I wanted to fish later, but I had an early meeting I needed to prepare for, so I don't have any report on the late bite.  The water temp was 57 F when I arrived which is where it was last Tuesday. 

So far this year I've caught 90% of my fish in three locations which is odd for HL.  On the South shore I have an area about 60 yards long and 30 yards wide that I've hooked over twenty walleyes.  Spot two is a bit smaller and is just West of the Elks in 7 FOW.  Spot three is the area in front of the Heights Marina from 4 to 8 FOW which has produced twelve walleyes.  Overall most fish are 13 to 17 inches with the majority being undersized.  I'm looking forward to some better weather and calmer winds so I can get out to fish the East Bay and North Shore where I'm hoping the bigger fish are hanging out. 

Good Luck..

Fishing Report From Matt 5/20:

Well so far for today we started out trolling the south and west sides with limited success. Only boated 1 or 2 walleye trolling. After a lil thought we decided to still fish leaches under slip bobbers around weed beds we marked trolling. We ended up boating 20 walleye. 19 of which were 14 3/4" and 15 hammer handle pike. Overall, its been a blast so far. Thanks again man, were are still deciding if we wanna troll tonight, since I also boated one heck of a sun burn this afternoon. Lol. Thanks again man.


-Matt

Keeper Walleye 9 FOW in Front of the
Heights Marina.  Rapala Shad Rap 40 Foot back.





South Shore 7 FOW.



Budd Lake 5/12/11

Perch on a Deep 20 taildancer

Made it out on Budd Lake and fished from 7 to 10pm.  Fished the South end of the lake from 7 to 22 FOW and hooked everything but a walleye.  We had a great time fishing and enjoyed first warm weather of the spring.  Water temps ranged from 60 to 63 F on the South end and the water is very clear for this time of the year. 

Good Luck.... 



Small pike hooked in 20 FOW trolling 14 foot down.



Houghton Lake Walleye Report 5/10/11



Ed with the first walleye of the trip

 Fished the South Shore of Houghton Lake yesterday from 6:45pm -10:15pm.  We hooked eight walleyes in the 13 to 14 inch range and two keepers.  The SE wind kept us contained along the South Shore, so we made the best of the situation and fished from the DNR launch to Lyman's in 4 to 9 FOW.  Fishing action was slow for the most part and the walleye bite was concentrated in two locations both of which were small weed structures in 7 FOW.  We caught fish on TD 05 taildancers trolled back 50 foot, Berkley Flicker Shade back 25 foot and Berkley Frenzy Minnows 23 foot back all trolled from 1.9 to 2.3 mph.   The water temp is on the rise and up 2 degrees from Saturday afternoon to 57 F.  

Good Luck...

13-inch HL walleye

Houghton Lake East Shore Fishing Location

Walleye Trolling Area.  East Shore Line May - June Area.  (Click on the picture)

The East Bay on Houghton Lake is a great walleye area.  Last year in May we limited out on two times working these points.  Good Luck...

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 5/7/11



Houghton Lake Walleye

 We got out fishing for a few hours this afternoon (12 - 4pm) and hooked and released two walleyes trolling on the South Shore East of the Elks.  The water has warmed up to 55 F, so the bite should start getting good.  We worked our way in close to shore today and found lots of minnow on the sand which is a great sign.  I'll be out this week to fish the 6pm to 10pm time in shallow to see how many walleyes we can find in close to shore.

Good Luck....

Houghton Lake Walleye 5/7/11

Chachi and Holly having a fun time landing the first walleye of the day.  South Shore 12:42pm, 8 foot of water.

Saginaw River DNR Launch 5/6/11

DNR Launch at the mouth of the Saginaw River

The DNR launch at the mouth of the Saginaw river has two docks in the water.  Eleven trucks in the parking lot at noon.  I talk to a group of fishermen that had just got in and they only hooked one fish.  They said the water was very dirty.  

Houghton Lake Walleye Area

North Shore Walleye Area

Here is a nice spot to try out later this month when the water warms a little more.  We started fishing this area back in 2008.

(Click on the photo to enlarge)

Houghton Lake May 4th

Houghton Lake Colors Storm Thunderstick



I took a vacation day today and headed up to Houghton Lake to try my luck walleye fishing after the cold front moved through last night.  I got on the lake at 8am and headed to the South shore to fish 5 to 7 FOW in some of my favorite early season spots.  When I started fishing the South shore water temp was 47 F and the wind was out of the NW.  I trolled all of my spots for 3 hours and never had a hit, so I decided to change up and do some jigging and still fishing.  Well after another 2 hours and no action I packed up and drove to the north shore to try fishing out in front of the Muskegon River mouth.  The water temp was 51 F when I arrived and I marked a few fish laying on the bottom in 6 FOW.  Again I fished for 2 hours and couldn't make a fish bite.  I continued fishing all over the lake until 7pm when I called it a day.   Overall report was no bites anywhere on the lake and a good reminder that I need to develop a new method for fishing after a cold front.  Fished all day trolling, jigging, still fishing and covered lots areas from 4 to 12 FOW.  Had fun practicing and enjoyed my day out of the office....

Dock report- four boats no fish.

Good Luck...



Tracker waiting for the fish to bite









 

 



South Shore Water Temp 50.6 F at 3pm

 

Early Season Stick Bait Collection

Rapala - Free Lure

Don't miss the opportunity to get a FREE Lure from Rapala!
Valid 1/1/2011 - 9/15/2011

We use plenty of Rapala Lure's on our fishing adventures and this is a great chance to pick up a free lure by just saving your receipts and UPC codes from the lure box.

We highly recommend the Black / Silver or Green / Silver colors for Houghton Lake Walleye.

Enjoy!

Saginaw River

Saginaw River Cass Boat launch Bay City.

Houghton Lake Opening Day 4/30/11

Another great Houghton Lake walleye opener.  We had a great time trolling with the wind and working all of our favorite early season walleye spots. My nephew and I started fishing on the South side just east of the elks club trolling our normal setup.  At 9:50am we hooked our first 19-inch walleye of the open water season on a white thunder stick trolled back 18 foot at 2.35mph.   We continued west and hooked our second fish in 5.5 FOW with the same white thunderstick.  The action slowed up till a little after 11am when we found a nice school of fish in 4 FOW on the sand in front of the Heights Marina.  We basically trolled off of the sand starting in 3 FOW and pulled our baits over the break into the waiting walleyes in 5 FOW.  Overall we hooked six fish and kept four.   We then moved back South to get out of the wind and hooked three more keeper walleyes by 3pm.   With nine keeper walleyes in the boat and hunger setting in we decided it was time to head home and deep fry our catch. 

The best colors for the day were all white and gold and black.  Speed was 2 to 2.5 and I know it seems fast for 48 to 50 F water, but it was working today.  Area to fish tomorrow is just south of the Heights Marina on the break 5 - 7 FOW.

Boat Launch Reports:
We talked to a few guys at the dock and the action was slow for jigging with most guys getting one.  The Hannson boat hooked 8 walleyes trolling shallow and we met Joe who had a slow day, but said he normally limits on each trip to HL.

Good Luck...

75th Annual National Trout Festival

http://www.nationaltroutfestival.com/schedule.html

Houghton Lake

Houghton Lake Canal fishing....

Walleye Season Opens Tomorrow!

Happy fisherman

Don and two nice walleyes

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Dons 2nd walleye

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Dons 1st walleye 27-1/2" about 9lb



Trenton Channel Walleye Action

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3" magnum report

Went out this morning to the Trenton Channel and picked up 2 walleyes on chartreuse in 15-18 fow. These were dons 1st walleyes ever and he is on top of the world. Yesterday his son Cody got his 1st ever walleye. It makes me happy to put people over fish and see them smile like that.

-Rich

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Cody with a nice detroit river walleye

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3" magnum report

This morning Cody and I went to the Trenton Channel and got 1 nice male for the freezer and quite a few lite hits and lost 1 hogg that broke Cody's line. This afternoon I went back out by myself and got 1 more nice male and lost 5 half way up to the boat. This was very disappointing to me and I almost threw my pole in the water. All 5 lost fish were within about an hours time. The fish were in deeper water today and had little action with chartreuse and found the magic color of the day to be orange. Hand liners were filling their boats up today and the Bliz and Kieth had there limit within 2 hours this morning pulling fire tiger baits. The water in the entire river is muddy due to heavy rains all week but the fish don't seem to mind. I will have a boat load tomorrow morning and see what the river will give us.

-Rich

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3" Magnum report

I spoke with the bliz just now and they caught 4-9+poud males and a small female for a net weight of 43.49 lbs fishing 9-10fow south of edison in the trenton channel using 1/2oz chartreuse jigs tipped with minnows or berkley 4" shad. They used their trolling motor to keep a vertical jig, laying the jig on bottom for a few seconds and softly raising up about a 1/2". You can read more @ the master walleye curcuit website or walleye central.
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3" Magnum report

What a weekend! The cabelas masters walleye tour came to the detroit river and braved all that mother nature could throw their way. As it turns out my life long freind greg bliznik aka "the bliz" took 1st place against all the pros. Greg is a long time tournament fisherman that usually places highly at the weigh in scale and it is no suprize that he smoked the field last saturday on his home court. I haven't spoke to him yet but I will be soon to get the full story and report and pictures. I'm looking forward to posting his reports in the future as he is an excellent fisherman that knows more about these fish we love so much than most. Great job bliz!

3" Magnum s/e michigan field supervisor
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The love of fishing

 

My nephews new shirt the Periodic Table of Fishing Lures and Flies. 

3" Magnum report

I went to Marina Gibraltar boat yard on Wednesday afternoon to check on my boat and was talking to the owner of the gas dock.  Bill told me that he has been seeing lots of customer in his bait shop the last two days who have been hooking 3 to 5 fish and sometimes a limit.   The warmer weather is helping and fish activity and it should be great fishing in the Trenton channel from here on out.
I will be out both mornings this weekend to capitalize on those eater males, hope to see you there. On a separate note a friend of mine was in the dwf tourney last Saturday and took 6th place with 3 walleyes. Nice job blizz!

-Rich

Live Web Cam from Detroit River

Here is a link to the Web Cam on Belle Island in the Detroit River.

http://www.detroithistorical.org/webcam/

3" Magnum Detroit River Report

Trenton Channel Early Moring Fog

Rich and his first open water walleye 4/10/11

It's on! Spring walleye is on the upswing in the Trenton channel of the Detroit River. We loaded up the skiff Friday night in preparation for a weekend of excitement on the river. Saturday morning we were in our favorite fishing hole by 7:00 am to find no less than 300 boats within a 1/4 mile radius due to the DWF tournament going on. Its was fun and unbelievable. The best way to describe it is organized chaos as you have all these boats drifting downstream sometimes inches from each other. Most of the people out there have been doing this for years and manipulate their trolling motors around each other without a problem.  We had a great time and saw a few nice fish hooked.

The fishing report is as follows:

• Saturday,  we got shut out.  Had a few hits and lost two on plain lead 5/8 oz jig tipped with minnow.  Lots of light bites.

• Sunday started with slow action for most anglers until the fog lifted and then it turned on for about an hour. We landed 1 fish during that time and had countless hits on chartreuse jigs tipped with white twisters / minnows. Purple and Plain jig heads were also working tipped with motor oil color grub or minnows.and minnows.

Good luck and we'll see everyone next weekend on the river.

-Rich

Walleye 101 Fishing Seminar

Lance Valentine Walleye 101 Seminar at Saginaw Gander Mountain

You can never know too much about walleye fishing no matter what your level of experience.  And when you have the opportunity to attend a free fishing seminars held by experts it's a great way to expand your knowledge base.  As my boss always tells me "you never lean anything when your doing all of the talking" and with that in mind it was great to listen to Lance Valentine and his staff from Walleye 101 put on an excellent three day free informational seminar at Saginaw Gander Mountain.  Lance is a good as they get and he is also a great speaker who will keep your attention and help you learn in the process.  The free three week seminar covered topics from open water trolling, GPS and Sonar tips, to river walleye fishing methods.  Lance and the Walleye 101 staff have a great seminar format setup with lots of video and PowerPoint presentations that really go into detail and keep you glued to the topics.

If you have the chance to attend a Walleye 101 event you should do it, you'll have fun and learn in the process.  Check them out at http://www.walleye101.com/ or at http://www.walleyekid.com/ .

2011 Lake Erie Creel Limit for Walleyes is ( 6 ) Six - May 1st

Lake Erie Dally Creel Limit for Walleyes Is Six Beginning May 1

Contact:  Liz Hay-Chmielewski, 734-663-3554 or Mary Dettloff, 517-335-3014 
Agency: Natural Resources

March 28, 2011

The daily creel limit for walleyes in Michigan's waters of Lake Erie will be six beginning May 1, the Department of Natural Resources announced today.

Michigan has adopted a process for setting regulations that allows the DNR to use real-time population data instead of using year-old survey results. This process parallels one adopted by Ohio last year.

"This change to the regulations process is critical to helping us manage walleyes in Lake Erie in a timely manner," said DNR Lake Erie Basin Coordinator Liz Hay-Chmielewski. "In order to do that, we have to set regulations in March instead of the previous autumn."

Michigan's daily creel limit for walleyes on Lake Erie is based on its share of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the lake, which is determined by the Lake Erie Committee under the aegis of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The TAC is generally based on overall abundance of walleyes; the Committee establishes quotas for each jurisdiction based on the percentage of habitat for adult walleyes in each jurisdiction's waters of the lake. The daily limit is based on a formula that projects how many walleyes anglers can keep but still remain within the quota.

See the attached table for an explanation of the formula used to set the daily creel limit.

The Total Allowable Catch for Lake Erie for 2011 is 2.919 million fish, making Michigan's quota 0.17 million fish.

The new regulations process means that the creel limit for walleyes on Lake Erie will not be set until TACs are determined each March, after the Michigan Fishing Guide goes to press. Anglers will need to check for changes annually.

There are no changes to either the fishing season or size limit for walleyes on Lake Erie.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state's natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. For more information, go towww.michigan.gov/dnr.

If Michigan's share of the annual TAC is	Then the daily possession limit for walleye shall be
greater than 108,364	six (6)
96,958 to 108,364	five (5)
85,551 to 96,957	four (4)
74,144 to 85,550	three (3)
62,737 to 74,143	two (2)
less than 62,737	one (1)

Lowrance Rebate

REBATE Lowrance® HDS-8 Fishfinder/GPS Chartplotter

Lowrance HD-8

Lowrance is offering rebates on most models up to $200.00 until 3/27/11. 

I'm updating the electronics in the Tundra this year and adding an HD8 and a HD7 with the structure scan. 

Saginaw Bay Ice Floes On St. Patrick's Day

UPDATE: U.S. Coast Guard rescues 12 people from Saginaw Bay ice floes on St. Patrick's Day

Published: Friday, March 18, 2011, 11:15 AM

By Michael Wayland | The Bay City Times

 ESSEXVILLE — A dozen people were rescued by U.S. Coast Guard officials from ice floes on the Saginaw Bay.

Lt. Justin Westmiller, of the U.S. Coast Guard Detroit, said from 7-11 p.m. Thursday crews from theStation Saginaw River, along with three fire departments, assisted with four rescues.

Westmiller said two of the 12 people rescued fell into the water and were sent to a nearby hospital to be treated for hypothermia.

The Coast Guard advises all ice-sport enthusiasts to check the weather prior to going out on the ice and to recognize that warming temperatures can make for extremely unsafe conditions.

“At this point the ice is extremely unsafe," Westmiller said. "We can’t force people to stay off the ice, but we ask that they be extremely extremely cautious and stay off the ice.”
Westmiller said fire departments from the townships of Bangor, Kawkawlin and Pinconning assisted with the rescues.

New UV Bright Lure Finish

Open water fishing is just around the corner and its time to get ready to go.  Last night I purchased a few new Storm stick baits with the UV Bright finish to add to my collection.  The UV finish is a new concept that will be fun to test out this year.  

Budd Lake & Pratt Lake Report



Pratt Lake Blue Gills



Friday was the last day of ice fishing for Mark and I, so we decided to put in a full day looking for anything that would bite.  We started out on Budd Lake at 6:00am on the South shore in 14 FOW.   We saw lots of small blue gills, bass, and several nice walleye on the camera.  The action started at 8:11am when we had our first flag (lost it) and then at 8:40am a big walleye came in and checkout my jig before swimming off. The North wind picked up at 9:00am and I was cold, so went out and I did more camera work.  I checked out the flat areas and found two big walleyes laying on the bottom half buried in silt which was a sign that the bite was going to be slow.  I had to leave the lake at 9:30am for a quick meeting with a customer which kept me off the ice until 1pm when I met back up with Mark at Pratt Lake.  We started on the West side of the lake and checked out three areas that normally hold walleyes and after an hour of looking at empty water we packed up and moved East.  On the North East shore we found two walleyes and lots of blue gills in our first set of holes, so we decided to setup and try the area.  We had fourteen flags, four missed fish, six bass, and the rest were pike.  The blue gills fishing was hot and the fish were scattered from the bottom to 3 foot under the ice in depths of 7 to 16 foot.  Total pan fish action we hooked twenty three keeper gills for our dinner.  Mark and I spent the last three hours of the day jigging for walleyes and trolling all of the open holes in search of a big walleye without any luck.  The bite finally slowed down and so did we and at seven thirty another great ice fishing season for came to a close.

Good Luck....



Moxie Minnow, Bro Bug, Gulp 1" leaches, Sting'r Hooks




Pratt Lake Tip Up Action



Budd Lake Fishing Contest Video Clip

Video clip from the Budd Lake Fishing Contest.

 

Budd Lake Fishing Report 3/7/11

Two Bass Checking Out the Camera in 12 FOW

The weather was so nice today that I had to make a point to stop by Budd Lake on my way home from work and spend a few hours looking for a big walleye.  I fished in 6 to 17 FOW on the West side of the lake about a quarter mile north of the power dock.  I didn't catch any walleyes, but I did find schools of  blue gills in 6 to 10 FOW. 

Good Luck... 

3" Magnum report

Well, I braved the weather on saturday and left monroe county at 3:45 am to head up to saginaw bay for a day trip. Once I landed at my spot 3 miles out I coulnt get my auger to start. After 30 minutes of brutal effort I decided to head back to the truck to work on it. On my way back with shanty and jet sled in tow my sled broke through the ice on the pressure crack. Luckily I have a 1.5" paddle track on my sled that allowed me to pull out of the hole but my shanty wasn't so lucky, it nose dived into water breaking the floor in half and snapped the tow rope. Now its sticking half way out of water and I carefully retrieved it.
After all the morning troubles I ended up fishing till dark with no success most likely due to strong east winds. I did however have an 8 lb walleye swim between my 2 jigs, that was exciting.
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Budd Lake Fishing Report 3/4/11



Perch 10 FOW

We started fishing at 2:30am and put in fourteen hours of fishing time Friday in an attempted to catch a 10 pound walleye out of Budd Lake.  Over the course of the day we found walleyes and lots of bass in about every location we drilled holes, but just couldn't make the walleyes bite. 

Morning Setup

The weather turned bad at 8am and the rain hit hard keeping us in one location until noon.  Most of the fish we found around the lake were in 10 to 15 FOW with the best concentration of fish on the North East side of the lake. 

Good Luck...



On the move looking for fish



3" Magnum report

Hello fishermen and woman, just letting everyone know that me and my hot rod yellow snow machine will be making an appearance on saginaw bay 3 miles out from the state park on saturday. Hopefully I'll see some fellow hhs pro staff and freinds out there to help me slay some of them lunker glow-eyes.
On another note I've been hearing rumor that the michigan dnr is reducing walley catch limits to either 2 or 3 fish per day statewide. This is outrageous! It will kill the charter captains and make it difficult for regular sportsmen like you and me to justify the cost of fuel and tackle etc to go out and catch dinner. The impact will be huge for our mom and pop bait shops and trickle down is guaranteed. We need to come together and make our voices heard on this matter. This might not be so bad if it were a temporary change but when is the last time you've heard of the dnr raising catch limits or lowering size limits?
I'm very concerned and would encourage your comments on this matter. The thoughts of this message are that of the 3" magnum and not necisarilly that of hot hunting spots.
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