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...