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| 20-inch Bass hooked on a Lindy Slick Jig 14 FOW |
Fished Budd Lake for the first time this year. Mark and I fished the South end of the lake looking for pan fish. We started out fishing at 11am and by 4 pm we had drilled over seventy holes from 17 FOW all the way into 4 FOW finding only small pan fish, musky, and pike. Found lots of musky and bass in all depths which is a great sign for summer fishing. The weed cover is way down this year and most of our favorite fishing spots are completely weed free. It looks like the lake had been treated at some point this year. At 4:30pm we stopped pan fishing and started jigging for walleyes. We hooked a nice 20-inch bass, saw a big pike, and missed the only walleye we could make bite. The ice conditions vary in most locations from 3 to 5 inches with only about half being good clear ice. I would not take an ATV of snowmobile on the lake at this time after what we saw today.
Good Luck...
Great site. I've really enjoyed the reads. My buddy and I were planning on heading to Budd to try from some of the walleye and perch. Any guess as to if the ice conditions will hold up after this warm spell?
ReplyDeleteJake,
ReplyDeleteWe still have good ice on Budd, Pratt, Houghton and the surrounding lakes.
Budd Lake is a great lake to catch big walleyes and pan fish. The walleye bite on Budd is normally one or two fish per day, but when you get one it will be 5 pounds +. The perch fishing has been ok, but mainly undersized fish this year.
Pratt Lake which is about 12 miles East of Budd has been producing good gills on the NE shore and we have seen a few nice walleyes.
Houghton Lake is your best option for walleyes. You will find lots of 15 to 20 inch fish when you find them. Houghton has great blue gills 10 +, but they are very hard to find.
My recommendations would be to fish Budd Lake the first day then fish Houghton Lake for walleyes. How many days are you fishing?
I have lots of waypoints for all of the lakes and will be happy to help you.
We are on Budd through Saturday night. The polaris won't start so we are on foot. We are open to the best options at getting a walleye though. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated. Today we caught numerous perch but all undersized like you mentioned.
DeleteFor walleye try fishing on the North end of the lake this time of the year. We normally find them in 12 to 17 FOW in that area.
DeleteFor walleye try fishing on the North end of the lake this time of the year. We normally find them in 12 to 17 FOW in that area.
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