3" Magnum Report - Houghton Lake

Donna

Well, after a short work week I packed up the family and headed back to Houghton Lake for round 2 of 2012 ice fishing on the east bay, I got my wife to come along to see what its all about and she had fun watching me and my dad catch lots of pike while her and the dog sat next to the fireplace keeping warm and hydrated.
We caught lots of 22" pike and a couple keepers, 1 big large mouth that we released on our 2 days of fishing but the Walleyes were hard to find. We jigged everything in our boxes and even tried cutting the heads off our minnows to try and entice those elusive Walleyes but we fell short all weekend. The pike seem to favor the tip ups and Lindy slick jigs.
If you head out on Houghton in the next couple weeks be careful of the ice and don't go somewhere just because someone else did, there are unsafe areas still. We also had heavy snowmobile traffic all weekend and some of them don't care about how close they are to you or your tip ups as we found out.

- Rich "3-inch mag"

Butch with his first pike of the day.

Butch

Rich loves pike...

Bones sleeping the day away

Butch hoping for a walleye

Slick jig pike

Houghton Lake Ice Fishing Report 1/20/12

Last fish of the day

Friday afternoon we fished the East Bay of Houghton Lake.  The ice conditions are still questionable on some parts of Houghton, so we returned back to our fishing area along the West side of the bay.  We picked out a new location in 10 FOW and then used the GPS to help us drill holes along the contours.  After drilling 30 holes we checked each one with the camera and set tip ups in the holes that we found fish.  The day was filled with pike action and lots of missed tip ups.  The walleye bite finally turned on at 6 pm when we had a twenty minute rush of action that resulted in us hooking one walleye on a tip up and losing two jigging.   If you head out on the East Bay this week be prepared to deal with slush and snow drifts. 

Good Luck...

   

Small pike hooked on a Lindy Slick Jig 10 FOW.

Looking for walleyes

East Bay

Houghton Lake Ice Fishing Trip 1-20-12

Houghton Lake Ice Fishing Trip 1-14-12

Houghton Lake 1/14 - 1/15

First walleye of the day.  Lindy Slick Jig

We fished the East Bay of Houghton Lake on Saturday and Sunday.  The ice conditions were better then expected after all of the warm weather last week.  We found 8 to 9 inches of ice in all of our fishing area this weekend.  Saturday we headed out one mile and fished along the West shore of the East Bay in 8 to 10 FOW.  The fishing action was ok at best and we ended up hooking two walleyes, one bass, and a load of small pike.  The best bite started at 3pm and ended by quarter to five.  Both of the walleyes we landed were hooked on Lindy Slick jigs tipped with small blues.  Sunday started out slow and cold.  At the start of the morning we added about 25 new holes in 10 FOW and setup to do some ice trolling.  The first round only produced one small pike and a few weeds.  After a break and a quick warm up in the shanty I made a second at pass at10am and found the fish active the bite very light.  The net result was three missed fish and two hooked walleyes lost at the hole.  We fished hard the rest of the day and monitored our tip ups only to end up hooking a few small pike.  I talked to several fishermen on Saturday and Sunday that were fishing closer to Burger King and they reported small pike and a few walleyes.  Overall we had a great time enjoying the cold weather and hunting for walleyes with our friends.  If the cold weather continues this week we will be moving out of the East Bay and heading West to fish better walleye areas. 

Good Luck...

 

Slick Jig

Mark with a catch and release bass hooked on a tip up 8 FOW.

Riches new creation.

Jason with his very first fish caught through the ice.  26-inch
pike hooked on a tip up in 10 FOW.



Warming Up

First fish hooked in the new shanty.

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Houghton Lake East Bay Ice Fishing Report



Mark with his first walleye of 2012.  Caught on a tip up 8 FOW.

We had a great time fishing on Houghton Lake Friday.  The weather was a little to nice for this time of the year, but it made for a pleasant day on the ice.  Mark and I parked at the beach and walked out about a mile into the East Bay.  The first spot we checked out was in 10 FOW West of the drop off.  We spent an hour looking over all of the holes with the camera and didn't find any structure of fish.  Next we moved West and checked over an old waypoint in 7 FOW and found a dead weed bed.  On our third move we found a fishing spot in 8 FOW that had what we were looking for.  After spending over two hours scouting we got setup and fishing by 10:30am.   Fishing action was good all day.  Overall we hooked two walleye, eleven pike, and lost three fish. On the camera we saw a few very nice perch and lots of pike. The best action was on tip ups fished 14 inches off the bottom.  


Most of Houghton Lake is froze up now but ice conditions are not real good.   In the East Bay we found 5 to 7 inches of ice everywhere we drilled holes. 

Good Luck...
 

Mark and Gary with two HL walleyes

Houghton Lake



Houghton Lake

So far we have hooked 8 pike and saw two nice perch on the camera.  Today were limited to the east bay but happy to fish....   About 7-inches of ok ice and a great day.

Houghton Lake

First flag of the day. 

3" magnum report

While waiting for hard water I couldn't stand it any more so I decided to head over to the marinas in gibraltar for some open water dock fishing.  We caught over 100 keeper bluegills over the long weekend. Let me tell you, if you don't mind spending a couple dollars in bait and a couple hrs cleaning fish there is nothing better than a bluegill fish fry.

I'll see everyone in a couple weeks on the hard water on Houghton Lake in my new ice house.

Houghton Lake Ice 1/2/12

I visited Houghton Lake this morning to checkout the ice conditions around the lake.  The West side of Houghton has open water in mud bay and a few spots out further NW.  The Heights has open water along shore a few hundred yard wide.  The south shore is frozen and it looks like a few people have fished the shore line.  East Bay is frozen and had a few fishermen out in the wind and snow.  I talked with two fishermen and they reported up to six inches of ice in areas, but noted that they found a few thin spots with less then three inches of ice.  I made a trip over to Five Lakes in Clare and found open water and thin shore ice.   

Houghton Lake from the end of Clarence St. North of the Heights Marina

East Bay view from the boat launch behind the Pressure Crack Bar

Open water on Five Lakes

Budd Lake Ice Conditions 12/31/11



Budd Lake

The ice condition are not good on Budd. Open water and slush. 

Ice Trolling Setup

 

Waiting For Ice 12/29/11



Lindy Slick Jigs. 

Ice fishing season is starting out slow this year.  Today (12/29) we still have open water on Budd Lake and all of the surrounding lakes that we like to fish on first ice.  I've have heard two reports that the East Bay of Houghton Lake has up to 5-inches of ice in spots and guys are out fishing.  I plan to drive up to Houghton tomorrow and check the ice conditions and will report back. Like the rest of the waiting ice fishermen I have been stocking up on fishing lures and have all of my equipment ready to go when we have safe fishing conditions.

    

Pratt Lake



Justin with the first fish of the day

  With the whitetail rut in full swing it's hard to think about fishing, but after nine days of straight hunting all of us were ready for a short break.  We took the afternoon off and headed over to Pratt Lake to try our luck hooking a few walleye and marking spots for first ice.   Overall, we found one spot on the East Shore in 15 FOW that produced six fish all pike and bass.  I marked the spot and will check it out when we start ice fishing.  Water temp was a cool 46 F and the dock at the launch is pulled ashore for the winter.

Detroit River Walleye "3- magnum report"



9.1 pound Detroit River 10/10/11 

Monday October 10th:
Michigan State Trooper Mark Miller took a few hours off from chasing the bad guys to head out to the Detroit River to try for some fall eyes and landed this 9.1 lb lunker.
He was fishing with our friend Don Ferguson in his new sea nymph drifting with chartreuse hogs and crawlers in 8 fow.
Don't forget about the annual frog migration to the lakes where you should have great night fishing from the shore casting bright colored bombers, reflective and glow as the Walleyes wait in the shallows for unsuspecting frogs. Try rocky areas and be quiet, the fish will be very close to shore and will spook easily. You should catch a limit of hogs.

-Rich

Houghton Lake 9/2/11



First fish of the morning 15.5-inch walleye



We fished Houghton Lake on Friday morning from 8am - 12:20pm.  The original plan was to fish most of the day, but we were pushed off the lake by 30mph winds at lunchtime.  The fishing action was good for the most part.  We hooked one keeper walleye and six undersized fish along with a few pike.  All of our fish were caught trolling in 5 to 8 FOW on the North shore. 

Good Luck...

Hubbard Lake Fishing Report 7/16 - 7/23

Hubbard Lake




 

Great fishing fun on Hubbard Lake

Dennis,

Well we went to Hubbard Lake July 16 - 23rd and we slammed the Smallies.
We had 3 boats and we caught over 175 in the 6 days. The average size was 16 inches with several of them 18 - 20. The boats trolling said the Walleye fishing was slow but we boated 3 or 4 keepers every time we went out. The water Temp was 79 and the Walleyes seem to like the slow moving night crawler.
The first day we tried trolling and throwing lures with little luck. Day two we went to night crawlers in 8 - 15 feet of water and slammed then the rest of the week.

Thanks for all your tips!

Have a nice day,

Mike

Houghton Lake Fishing Report

 Fishing Report From Jeff and Tom:



Houghton Lake - Jeff and Tom 

Dennis - sorry we missed you this weekend, had a great morning Saturday…6 keeper walleyes, 12 non keepers, 13 keeper pans with 3 Gills over 10” and one perch 11” The one picture with the 3 walleyes was from Friday morning, 15”, 16 1/2” and 18”…same spot in 8-10 FOW…threw back 8

Drifting with Leeches seems to produce the best results, too many floating weeds for trolling.

Will be back up for Labor Day Weekend.


Jeff and Tom another good morning





Houghton Lake Walleye Fun

Budd Lake 8/5/11



Chachi and his Budd Lake Pike hooked in 23 FOW


Fished Budd Lake on Friday evening from 7:40pm - 9:30pm.  We trolled in 23 to 25 FOW and targeted fish suspended at 15 foot with Rapala Deep 20 Taildancers.  On our short trip we hooked a 24 inch pike, 17 inch bass, and lost one fish.