Houghton Lake Fishing Report 6/9/11



Bill with a nice walleye caught on a white Thunderstick.



South Shore 10.25 inch Bluegill caught on a black and silver TD5 Taildancer

                                                                                                                                                                      Fished Houghton Lake Thursday afternoon. I met up Bill Caldwell a gentlemen I got to know this winter after he sent us a very detailed email inquiring about how and where to catch walleyes on Houghton Lake. Bill and his fishing crew normally spend a week every year on Houghton looking for pike and walleye. Well, things worked out and Bill and I were able to spend an enjoyable afternoon fishing and talking about walleyes. The original plan was to head to the East Bay and spend the afternoon slip bobber fishing along the West shore, but when we got out at 6:00pm the wind was wrong. We changed plans and started out fishing on the South shore just west of the Elks club. The action was good and we hooked one walleye, two pike, and a 10.25-inch blue gill. After about 45 minutes of fishing the north wind and weeds shut us down and trolling was impossible so we packed up and headed to the north shore. On our way across the lake we marked some suspended fish in 9.5 FOW, so we stopped and trolled back with the wind. The area paid off with five walleyes and two keepers. We worked the area until 8:00pm then packed up and moved to the north shore where we fished in 6 to 9 FOW. The action was ok and we ended up hooking four walleyes and one keeper.

14.75 inch North Shore walleye. 

Nice walleye 9 FOW

Overall, we landed three keepers, seven undersized, lost six, hooked a 10.25 blue gill, and broke two lines along with having a great afternoon fishing in the cold with Bill. If you’re heading to Houghton this weekend the mayflies hatch is on so be prepared to work a bit. The water temp was 69 F on the South shore and 72 F on the north shore. Our best colors were white and black / silver. The fish we targeted were about 1.5 foot off the bottom and were holding in 7 to 9 FOW. I’ll post some GPS point tomorrow.



Good Luck…


Follow-up from Bill:

Hello Dennis, Thanks again for the truly great fishing trip on Houghton Lake. I have waited for a couple of days to try to understand various elements of the trip. I have a few more questions about what I perceived we were doing to catch Walleyes. Can you tell me if we varied speed of the boat and approx. what the range was (1.5 to2.2 mph) ? Also you wanted to try slip bobber fishing with leaches as a second method. This might be fine, but could you also have slow trolled with crawler harnesses after fast trolling with stick baits? Example:  fast troll- then slow troll- then drift with crawler harnesses? Or would this be too difficult to do in such weeded conditions and wind conditions? I hope all these questions doesn't bother you, but I am trying to learn more about walleye fishing. I am serious about fishing with you again  and my wife said she would just love to go. Do you fish Black Lake in Onaway, Mi.? The crew was talking about trying there again, (before you talked with them and actually caught Walleye). live)  Thank You for everything and take your time answering!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have a great Fishing year..... Bill Caldwell---