Pratt Lake Fishing Trip 12/30/12

Mark and I fished the East side of Pratt Lake Sunday afternoon.  The ice conditions around our fishing area were 3 to 3.5 inches at best.  Had lots of action but didn't catch any walleyes on this trip.  We had lots of fun catching small pike and bass until dark.  My MarCum 820 camera stopped working on this trip killing our scouting plan.  I've used the MarCum 820 for three seasons now and had tons of problems with it, so now that it's dead I'll replace it with a different brand before my next trip. 

 

Good Luck....

 



Pratt Lake 12/30/12

Pratt Lake 12/30/12

Pratt Lake

Pratt Lake 12-27-12

Holly and I ventured out onto Pratt Lake this afternoon to check the ice conditions.  The lake is completely frozen over and on the South East shoreline we found 4 inches of ice in close.  As we moved out 50 yards into 8 FOW we hit 2 inches of ice which was not enough ice to make me comfortable.  I'll check the ice again in a few days.

We did see fishermen out in front of the beach and on NE shoreline.

Houghton Lake 12/26/12

Houghton Lake South Shore 12/26/12

Houghton Lake Heights Shoreline 12/26/12

Houghton Lake is not completely frozen over as of 12/26/12.  We did see fishermen out a few hundred yards in mud bay and two shanties in the SW corner of East Bay.  Lots of open water all around the lake which means we will not be fishing HL for a few more weeks.    

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 8/24/12

13.5 inch HL Crappy Caught Trolling on
the North Shore

 

After a very busy month at work Mark and I finally made it back to Houghton Lake fishing.  We headed out of the North DNR launch at 8:45am and targeted fish in 8 to 12 FOW.  The first half of the morning we trolled around our fishing areas without much luck.  Trolling produced a few pike and two nice crappy down around 8 foot in 10 FOW.  At noon we took a trip across the lake to the South shore to get out of the wind and do some casting.  The South shore report was slow and by 2pm we called it a day.  Overall we hooked some nice pan fish while walleye fishing.  No walleye on this trip, but a great morning on the lake.  The best action this year has been close to weed cover in 8 to 12 FOW.

 

Budd Lake Report:

Winning Bass Team (Haskell, Wade, Matt),
Largest Bass 19 inches Matt Mondue

Saturday morning we fished in the Second Annual Summer Classic Bass Tournament on Budd Lake.  We had a great time and hooked a lot of bass our best was 17 3/4 hooked on the East shore with a drop shot rig.  The best bass of the tournament was a 19 inch bass  hooked on a drop shot rig by Matt Mondu.  Only two pike were hooked during the morning event, the winning Pike was 34 inches hooked on the South shore. 

Releasing the Winning Pike 34 inches

Houghton Lake 7/22/12

North Shore pan fish. 

Headed to the North Shore this morning looking for walleyes and ended up finding a nice school of pan fish in 12 FOW.  We hooked all of the gills on jigs and slip bobbers fished 18 inches off bottom.  The bite was hot until the rain moved through.  Overall we hooked 26 gills and a few nice perch.  No walleye action today.

Good Luck....

Houghton Lake 7/20/12

Gold jig / Leech 12 FOW

Last Friday we fished the Saginaw Bay from 7am to 2pm and hooked one keeper and a boat load of 14 inch fish in 26 to 30 FOW Straight out of Standish.  The hot weather and the bugs made the trip a challenge.  

Houghton Lake Report 7/20: We started our morning on the West end of the lake trolling in 9 to 11 FOW working with the NW wind.  We trolled around the weeds for two hours and ended up hooking three pike.   At 9am we headed to the East end of the lake to get out of the wind and do some jigging.  The walleye bite was slow at best until noon and then we found good action in 12 FOW just south of Harvey's Marina.  Best action was on gold jigs tipped with leeches fished about 18 inches off bottom with a slow presentation.  Overall we hooked 5 keepers and 2 undersized by 3pm. 

GPS point for Harvey's area  N 44 19.232  W 84 38.295

Good Luck.....

Keeper 1:15pm gold jig / leech 12.5  FOW

Mill Lake fishing trip

http://www.mytriprecorder.com/myTripRecorder.html#userid=1372001&trip=Mill%20Lake

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 7/1/12

West Shore Pan Fish and Walleyes

The West shore of Houghton Lake is heating up. We started fishing at 9:30am this morning in 11 FOW slowly working our way around the weeds jigging Berkeley Gulp minnows and leeches. No wind and 80 degree water temps made ideal conditions for working in and around the weeds. We setup slip bobbers with leeches 18 inches off bottom as our secondary rods. At noon we stumbled across a nice school of pan fish that ended up producing four gills at the ten inch mark one at 10.5 and a nice mess for our dinner. The walleye action was best on Berkeley Gulp minnows orange / yellow jigs fished up off bottom. We hooked 10 walleyes and 4 keepers by 1pm.

I talked to a group of fishermen at the dock that had a few walleyes and some big pike. They said they were jig fishing east of the Limber Lost in 10 to 12 FOW.

Crooked Lake:  Saturday morning we fished in a bass tournament on Crooked Lake in Lake Station and had a wonderful time.  This was our first time on the lake and we found lots of bass and big pan fish.   I marked out a few spots and plan to return in January to try hooking some of the big crappy the lake is known for.  Overall the lake is worth fishing if you like to catch bass.

Good Luck.....

Berkeley Gulp Minnow Walleye

  

Alex with his first fish 11 FOW

fishing the grand river by eaton rapids

 

I fished the Grand River near Eaton Rapids with my friends Jack & Doug.  We mostly caught Bass and we did our best using Black Lead Jig Heads with White or Yellow Twister Body.

This is a really neat place to fish on the Grand River if you are looking for some time away from the office.  

Good Luck!

Houghton Lake West Shore Fishing Report

Mark with a nice crappy on a TD 7 Taildancer

Mark & Danny Walleye White Flicker Shad

9am Walleye West Shore 9 FOW

We made a morning trip up to Houghton Lake to try out a few West shore fishing areas.  At 6:20am we headed out of the west launch one mile and started scanning in 8 to 10 foot of water looking for fish.  We found that the weeds on the West side of the lake are thinned a bit in areas making it possible to troll parts of Walleye Alley.  This area gets lots of fishing pressure and is not normally a location we fish, but when you mark fish suspended at 6 foot you have to try it out.  Fishing was slow at first and we took an hour or so to figure out a troll path around the thick weed areas.  We finally started trolling at 8am and to our surprise the bite was very slow.  After lots of change ups we finally found a setup that got down to the fish.  We found fish but didn't find repeat action.  We would hook a walleye then star pattern the area without hooking up on a second fish.  It turned out to be one of those days where you worked hard and waited for each fish.  Overall we hooked six walleyes 15 to 16 inches, two nice crappy, two undersized walleyes, and a few pike by 12:30pm.  The best action was from 10:30am to noon and the best colors were black / silver TD 7 Taildancer back 50 feet, white Flicker Shade back 30 feet all trolled at 2.1 mph.   We saw lots of fishermen on in Walleye Alley Friday morning which kind of confirms that fishermen are probably catching fish in the area.  I'll be out again next Friday and will be heading to the north shore.

Good Luck...

Last fish of the trip 11:50am West Shore

Houghton Lake Walleye Fishing 6/15/12

9 FOW First Walleye of the Trip 7:30pm

 We fishing Houghton Lake Friday after work from 7pm - 10:30pm.  The conditions were great and the lake was clear of floating weeds.  We headed  NE out of the West boat launch about 2 miles and started fishing in 9 FOW.  The fishing action was slow, but we were on a mission to locate new fishing ares for our July fishing trips.  We hooked three walleyes and a few pike in 9 to 10 FOW.  The best action was on natural colors.

Good Luck......

Danny's First Pike

Houghton Lake

Saginaw Bay

Aaron and Mark with a nice fish.

Aaron with the first fish of the morning.

Had a great time fishing the Saginaw Bay today with a great group of guys.  We launched out of Standish and made our way down to Pinconning to fish in14 to 17 FOW.  When we arrived we found lots of fish all through out the water column.  Fish were suspended at 7 foot all the way down to the bottom.  We setup and ran spinners on high lines back 25 on boards, spinners along the bottom 5 foot up, and deep diving tail dancers on divers back 20 foot.  We caught fish on all of our setups trolled with the wind 1.6 to 1.8 mph.  The best action was on orange and our best fish was 24 inches.  We lost a lot of fish reeling in and had a lot of short strikes on our spinner rigs.  Overall we kept 8 fish for dinner and had a great morning fishing. 

We started fishing this morning in 14 FOW and work NE with the wind.  Started at GPS N 43 50.378  W 83 50.414.

Good Luck....

Dubonnet Lake - 6/2 (Big Panfish)

Fished Dubonnet Lake (mudd lake) today in Northern Michigan.
We found some very nice pan fish action.
Lots of 8+ inch Gills with lots of fight in them.

Lake Mitchell Report

Lake Mitchell

Mark and I fished Lake Mitchell and Cadillac on Friday morning despite the cold and rain.  We got on the lake at 6:45am and started fishing on the South Shore.  At 8am the NE wind picked up, so we headed to the East side of Lake Cadillac.  We trolled and did a lot of casting and jigging without hooking a walleye.  At noon we hooked a monster pike and broke it off at the boat.  We hooked the pike trolling in 16 FOW.  The bad weather conditions made for a cold slow day of fishing, but we had fun learning more about the lakes.  

We made a stop at the Pilgrims Village bait shop and found some good deals on stick baits.  The shop is very nice and they were very helpful. 

Next Friday we are planning to fish Houghton if we have good weather.

Good Luck....

Lake Mitchell Walleye Fishing

West Shore Walleye

Had a fun morning fishing Lake Mitchell.  Mark and I started fishing at 4am on the East shoreline in 5  to 6 FOW.  On our first pass we hooked a nice bass and one undersized walleye both on Rapala rap shads.  At light the wind picked up out of the West, so we moved over to troll with the wind on the Sough shore.  Fishing action was slow along the weed edges and we only hooked one walleye and a few pike.  At 9am we moved to the West and fished in 4 to 6 FOW in the weeds and hooked a walleye and a nice sunfish on Rapala Taildancers.  Later in the morning we fished in 12 to 14 FOW on the North side of the lake and hooked one undersized walleye on a high line (6 foot down) and a nice bass closer to bottom.  Fished the deeper water for 2 hours with limited action.   Perch and trout colors were our most productive patterns in shallow water trolled at 1.7 to 2 mph.  Overall we hooked four walleyes, lots of bass, sunfish, and a few legal pike.  Water temperature was 66 F and should be on the rise this weekend.  Good Luck.....

Nice Sunfish on a Taildancer

4:30am Bass East Shore 5 FOW

Early Morning South Shore Under Size Walleye 6 FOW

Lake Mitchell Walleye

Shallow water trolling path

Mark and I made an early morning trip up to Lake Mitchell to try out the night bite.  We got on the lake at 3:00am and setup to troll shallow  Our first stop was the South shore in 4 to 6 FOW.  The first hour of the morning we trolled stick baits high above the shallows without much luck.  On our second pass heading East we changed over to deeper divers and bumped them on along the sand bottom.  Our first walleye of the morning came at 4:15am out of 3.5 foot of water on new UV thunderstick.  We marked the spot and continued to expand our troll around the area and ended up hooking seven walleyes all 15 to 16 inches.  At light the walleye bite ended and the bass bite turned on.  We hooked a lot of nice smallmouth and a few pike as we worked our way around the lake looking for new walleye areas.  At 10am we headed over to Lake Cadillac to explore and found some nice looking walleye waters on the East side of the lake that we are going to checkout on our next trip.  Overall fishing action was very good early in shallow.  We hooked nine sunfish while trolling in shallow, so pan fishing on the beds should be good right now.  Fishing pressure was concentrated directly in front of the boat launch with most boats fishing in 12 to 14 FOW using slip bobbers. 

Good Luck...

Rapala Rap Shad 5 FOW

First fish of the morning.

5am South Shore Smallmouth