Budd Lake 12-28-10

The start of a new season and the anticipation of what is to come kept me focused on 2011 ice fishing season all hunting season. The lakes in our area have been iced over and safe for 2-weeks now, but work and hunting season has kept all of us on land and away from the walleyes.

This afternoon we finally made it out on a short trip to Budd Lake and used the opportunity to check all of my equipment and get things ready to go. We arrived on the lake at noon and headed north to fish in our normal early ice area. Walking to my fishing spot I check the ice in several areas and found a minimum of 8-inches of solid ice, so the Polaris will be pulling the shanty on the next outing. I got to our area and drilled about 30 holes in varies depths before setting up and doing some camera work. We normally find perch, gills, and walleye in about 15 – 17 FOW this time of the year on Budd, but after a lot of looking I was shut out. Giving it a bit more thought I moved in closer to shore and started looking in 4 to 8 FOW and on my second hole I saw a nice walleye on the sand and the next hole had lots of small perch. Not having all day we decided to set the shanty up and then cover 15 to 4 FOW.

We caught two fish on our trip today. First fish of the day was a pike caught on our favorite Budd Lake walleye setup which is a small spoon and a large perch minnow. Second fish of the day was a nice walleye from what I could tell caught on a tip up in 6 FOW on a large perch minnow. I got it to the hole and dropped back in as was pulling it through the hole. We also did a little pan fishing, but didn’t find anything worth keeping today. I added a picture of our fish camera screen and lots of 6 inch blue gills. Early season brings lots of fun and for me personally when I head to Budd Lake I’m looking to hook one of the 12 pound plus walleyes that live their. Budd Lake is a great ice fishing lake because it has tons of food and it’s difficult to fish in the summer do to boat traffic. I have seen several 10-pound walleyes on my camera over the years of fishing Budd. If you don’t believe it look on the 2008 Michigan Master Angler and you will see a 12 pound 38 inch walleye accounted for. If your looking a for limits of eaters head to Houghton Lake, if your looking for a trophy walleye Budd Lake is a good choice.

Good Luck…