Houghton Lake Fishing Report



Early morning catch.  Jeff and Bruce with an 18.5 walleye
and a big crappy.  Caught drift fishing with leaches.

 Lots of fishermen hit Houghton Lake over the Memorial Day Weekend looking for walleyes. The weather was on and off all weekend which kept a lot of fishermen grounded, but the guys who got out on the water caught fish.  The water clarity is remarkable these days and you can now see bottom in 8 FOW which is not the norm for Houghton and is changing the fish patterns. 

Trolling is working well just before dark in 7 to 9 FOW and white is still our best color.  The best bite is now happening on slip bobbers and leaches / minnow fished in the weeds 8 to 12 FOW.  

We have not be out fishing as much we would like this year because lots of start ups at work and bad weather conditions on the open days.  I'll be out this Thursday / Friday and will report back.

Good Luck...

Close Call (ELECTRICITY) - May 29th

Like everyone else in Michigan, we have been watching the storms and looking for windows of good weather to try to get out and do some fishing.

We tracked the storm all day Sunday waiting to see if it would come North and it did not, so we elected to go out and try to get a couple hours of evening fishing.

We set out working the south shore of Houghton Lake about 7:45 pm and the lake was very calm.  There were probably 40 or 50 boats on the lake fishing that we could spot off in the distance.

The fishing was slow and we moved to the SW side of the lake near Lyman's.   We began to hear a noise that we could not identify that sounded like a buzz and clicking or snapping sound.  We searched around for a moment until we realized that small sparks were coming down from the (6) six rods in the fishing rod holders to the boat.

It was about that exact time you could see every boat roaring toward the shoreline in every direction.

We quickly switched over from the trolling motor to the big motor and we were getting shocks from the fishing rods ( all graphite ) as well as the net.  Everyone was a bit freaked out as we headed FOR THE NEAREST LAND.

We were fortunate to find shelter at Tom's place - a great guy we met from the web site a couple years ago and we stayed at his place for a couple hours waiting for things to calm down.

There was never a lightning strike near by - but it did rain briefly after we got to shore.

I have never experienced anything like that - and I am glad to be able to write the story.

In the few seconds it took the 150 HP motor to get us to shore....  the seconds seemed like hours wondering if you were going make it safely.

I know others had a similar experience.... feel free to share your comments.

Douglas
Hot Hunting Spots

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.