Budd Lake Fishing Report 2-21-09 & 2-22-09

Had the opportunity to fish in the Budd Lake Fishing Tournament that was held on Saturday (2-21). I started out looking for bait fish in shallow water and on my second hole I found a monster school of small bluegills suspended over a weed structure in 16 FOW. After drilling a few more holes I found a school of larger bluegills and decided to fish the area to get my five bluegills that were required in the team event.

After thinking about the amount of bait fish located in area I decided to setup a tip-up just in front of the first school of small bluegills. The weed growth was about three foot off of the bottom, so I setup my bait at three and a half foot off of the bottom were I knew the bait fish were hanging out. My first flag came at 9:15am with no fish just a lot of line spooled off. The tournament judges were visiting at the time of my first flag and I think they were more excited then me. The second flag came at 9:50am and after waiting a few minutes I had my first walleye of the day. Right as the fish came through the hole she broke my 6 pound crystal fire wire leader, but I was able to grab her by the head and pull her on the ice.

Fishing has improved greatly on Budd this month. I iced forty 8-inch to 10-inch bluegills and one 24-inch walleye in three hours. Over all I saw two nice walleyes on the camera and a ton of bluegills. I took my nephew and his friend out on Sunday afternoon and we iced fifty keeper bluegills out in 17 FOW.

Ice conditions are excellent 14-inches in most areas.

Went back to the same spot as the previous post and braught up 2 more keeper Walleyes. Ended up fishing from 5PM to 6:30PM and fished the same holes. I was able to bring these two 18" Walley's up with a small fire nose jigging rapala and a northland flowage minnow. Had to throw back 2 undersized Walleye's but still was a good day fishing and not working. Good luck and tight lines. Field Staff Justin Brechtelsbauer

Houghton Lake Walleye Report February 2009

Here it was another 20 degree day on Houghton Lake. We started fishing on the east side of Houghton lake on top of a 10 foot deep weed bed were we found crappies and a variety of bass on the camera. Fished from 4pm to 6:30pm with the use of the bleeding nose jigging rapala and size 1 do jiggers. We threw back 5 large mouth bass, 1 small mouth bass, 6 undersized walleyes and 11 pike. Good luck and tight lines.

Saginaw Bay Walleye Report February 7, 2009

With the warmer temperatures hitting the Saginaw Bay area the walleye fishing is heating up. This was our second trip to the bay testing and exploring previously mapped areas from summer time. After many hours of locating the school, we had finally stumbled on a good number of "hog" walleyes. I was fishing with Brian pictured to the left with this 9.75 pound walleye which should place in the Shiver on the River contest in Bay City. Going to hard to beat the current 13-pounder leading the tournament. We did throw back a couple undersized but left the water with this nice walleye and 8 other keeper walleyes ranging from 18"-25". There is about 12" of good ice but after the next few days and the river breaking up the bay may be fished by boats. The school is moving closer to the mouth of the rivers and bigger numbers of walleye can be found in the 17 foot areas of the Bay. Good luck and tight lines. Staff Member Justin Brechtelsbauer.