Walleye Fishing Improving

We got out and fished on Houghton Lake Friday (5/18) & Sunday (5/20) and did very well. We caught a total of sixteen keeper walleyes on our two evenings of fishing and had six that were undersized. Most of the fish were 16" - 18" with the two largest fish being 22".Friday evening we had a gusty west wind and 62F water temps. We started fishing in 7FOW off of the light house point trolling East to West 1.75mph. We didn't have our third pole set when we picked up our first walleye on a red and white 3" bomber set back 65 foot. The walleye bite started at 7:00pm and stayed good as long as we worked the east side of the point inside 7FOW. I'm thinking the walleyes were on the point letting the wind blow the bait fish in for an easy afternoon dinner. We were also fishing after a cold front and we found our smaller baits to be the most active. We caught walleyes on small trout colored tail dancers, wonder bread color 3" bombers and red and white 3" bombers. I experimented with other baits but could only produced small pike and rock bass.Sunday started out warm with no wind, but by 7:00pm we had a strong east wind that was giving us a fun ride. We worked 11FOW out in front of the Comfort Inn and did not pickup one fish. We moved back in to our GPS marks from Friday and started picking up walleyes again on 3" red and white bombers. We fished the point for two hours before giving up at dark when the wave action had beat us down. The next fishing report will not be until June 1st because our fishing team will be up in Curtis this week to fish the big man, South man, Autrain, and Forest Lake. This is our annual start to the UP. I'll report back with the fishing action and GPS points on the lakes that produce.

Have fun fishing...

Baits That Are Catching Walleye This Week

We are starting to catch walleyes now that we have located them.

Rapala tail dancers small 2'-4' deep runners in 6.5 FOW and when we are out in 10 FOW we use the medium tail dancers that run at 8' deep. All of our trolling rods are setup with 8 lb test mono.

During the day blue / white and black / gray are working well. One hour before dark and after we are using the trout color. You will notice some of the hooks are red. We are experimenting with new hooks and only change to them after the standard hooks are destroyed by pike.

Bomber Long A minnows. We use 3" baits that dive 3' -4' when we fish in 6- 7 FOW and the walleyes are on top of the weed cover. I like to use the larger 4" minnows 2' -3' divers in the early part of the season when the fish are in shallow and feeding on larger prey. These baits make a lot of noise and have worked well for us on Houghton Lake over the years.

Typically white / red out produces all colors, but this year the 3" wonder bread color and the 4" trout color are on fire. Blue with the clear body is also a standard producer, but this year its been 100% pike pounder.
Also wanted to add a photo of the variety of Bomber Long A 4" minnows we use on Houghton Lake early in the year. We change our storage containers to the individual holders and it's working great. Quick changes are faster and no more tangled hooks. Plus if you have an empty slot you know your missing a bait.

For jigging this year and in the past 3" Berkly Gulp minnow have worked very good. When I jig for walleyes I use Berkly Gulp about eighty percent of the time. This stuff really works
well. Sometimes when the fish are slower I cut the tail off and use the
body with a leech. It seems to work. I prefer the metallic jig heads over the painted and set my weight as light as I can.

Walleyes Are Back

We found the walleyes!

My brother and I made it out fishing Sunday evening (5-13) and ended up catching nine walleyes (15" - 22") from 8:00pm - 10:45pm. We launched out of the west DNR landing and headed east to fish 7.5 FOW. Weather conditions were good with a steady South wind and 64F water temps.

We started out jigging leeches and 3" Berkly Gulp then changed over to dragging spinner rigs with night crawlers and only picked up a few pike. We changed our location and moved off of the south point and again fished 7 to 8 FOW. The steady south wind allowed us to drift along the 4 to 7 foot break and keep our baits in front of the fish but we couldn't get a bite.

Our original plan was to work small baits with a very slow presentation. We used this plan because of the cold front that moved in on Saturday night and we figured the fish would be less responsive to fast moving big baits. After working our setups for over 2 hours with no walleye activity we change over to trolling.
We setup using 3" wonder bread color bombers 2-3' deep and the smallest size trout colored tail dancers 3-4' deep on 8 lb test all back 65'. Our troll plan was to work from 8 to 6.5 FOW at 1.7mph. Before I could get the third rod set we had a pike on the line and as we were landing it our second rod went off. The walleye bite started at around 8pm and was steady until 10:45pm. All of our walleyes were caught in a 100 yard area in 7 FOW directly off of the point. We landed five fish that were under 15 inches and one perch.

I did fish Saturday afternoon for about five hours and ended up landing one 18" walleye in 5 FOW West of the Elks club. The fishing was very rough with a strong NE wind. Over all this year the fishing on the south shore along the Elks to the light house has been very slow for us.

I will be fishing Houghton on Thursday and Saturday this week and trying out my new 9.9 pro kicker....

Good luck.

Walleye Still Missing

The walleyes are still hard to find on Houghton Lake. I fished Thursday (5-10) from 5:00pm until 10:30pm and once again caught numerous small pike and no walleyes. Two other fishing teams I talked to had the same results.

Fishing conditions were good yesterday with 63F water temperatures and a light West wind. I started out by working the East bay for a few hours in 7 to 11 FOW and then moved to the South shore and fished from the Elks west. We trolled and jigged without a walleye, but the small pike action is out of control and I would say we were catching a pike every ten minutes.

I was surprised by the number of fishing boats on the south end last night, I would say their were at least 25 boats working from the Elks to the West. One notable was the fact that around 8:30pm only three boats were still fishing which leads me to believe that the walleye fishing is slow for everyone.


I'm heading back up to Houghton this afternoon and I'm going out of the West launch to try some areas that we normally fish in the later part of the summer.

Walleyes Hard To Find

The early May Houghton Lake Walleyes have been putting up a good defence against every fishing trick I have. I made it out fishing Friday evening (5-4) with two of my friends and once again had the pleasure of dealing with a gusty NE wind. Once we made it out of the South boat launch we headed directly to the East bay to avoid and started jigging the front weed bed directly north of the Pressure Crack Bar. Right off the bat we were hooking pike as normal, but we were picking up some legal sized fish with one being 27".

We continued to work from 8 - 12 FOW and found a majority of our fish were in 10 FOW suspended one foot off of the bottom. After two hours of pike jigging and mapping out the structure we setup to troll. I setup four rods, two with Rapala tail dancers 8' running depth and two with varying lures. After two hours of trolling we landed seventeen disaster pike (line tangles) and no walleyes. The pike were killing any lure with blue and our favorite Blue Diamond tail dancer was the best producer for pike action.

I'm heading back up to Houghton Lake on Thursday and I'm heading to the East bay to continue to work the weeds in 10 FOW. I'm hoping for a normal day with no wind...

Good luck.

No Walleyes YET!

Got out and fished Houghton Lake Thursday evening and had another Pike Fishing Festival, we ended up landing twenty four pike in three hours. We had a strong NE wind which made jigging impossible, so we ended up trolling. Over the course of the evening we fished the North shore by the airport and then when the wind calmed down we trolled the South shore weed bed across from the elks with no luck. This was our third time out on Houghton Lake this year without catching a walleye.

I'm heading back up to Houghton Lake this afternoon with more ideas and areas to try.

GO Fish.

Houghton Lake Walleye Opener

The 2007 Houghton Lake Walleye Opener was unlike the past years of sorting pike and walleye. We fished two and a half days and didn't put one walleye in the boat.

Over the weekend we fished the north side in 8FOW with 55F water temps the south side along the Elks club in 7FOW with 51F water temps the East Bay and other random spots we have marked on our GPS and only produced pike and bass.

Depending on weather condition early in the year we use a few different methods for catching walleye on Houghton Lake.

• Jig heads with leeches and half of a Berkly Gulp body. (Used around structure areas)
• Jig heads with only Berkly Gulp. (Used around structure areas)
• Trolling with 3" Bomber on North Shore 6 - 7 FOW. 1.8mph 70- foot back 8 lb test.
• Dragging Storm Deep Storm ThunderStick 20 - 30 foot of the side. (Used when drift is .7 to 1.3 mph)
• Trolling North Shore off the edges of the old river bed. Use a variety of body baits, but Rapala Tail Dancers are the best.
• Slip bobber with leeches or minnows and then casting crank baits when fish are located.
  

After visiting and revisiting many of my favorite fishing locations and only landing pike I started using my Aqua View camera to locate new fishing areas. During my observation times I only viewed two small walleye which made me rethink my fishing plan for my next trip. Along with our bad luck the other two boats in our fishing group did not catch a single walleye either.

I love fishing Houghton Lake and it's by far my favorite lake to fish walleyes on in central Michigan. I'll be back on Houghton Lake Tuesday after work and will report back.

Pounded by Pike!

Pounded by Pike!
Northern numbers on the rise

I wanted to take a moment to add this short posting about our Walleye Season Opener at Houghton Lake. I enjoy fishing Houghton Lake very much have fished this lake for over 20 years now. I have noticed an increase in the amount of small northern pike over the last few years. For anglers headed to the lake be prepared to see high numbers of Northern Pike.

We track our daily fish numbers and generate productivity ratios and trend forecasts for each lake we fish in Michigan. Northern numbers in Houghton Lake have been on the rise see our Ratios listed below for 2005 – 2007.

Average ( Pike to Walleye ) on the line count.
2005 – 15 to 1
2006 – 20 to 1
2007 – Starting ( over 70 Northern Pike first day )

Our rule of thumb ratio for 2006 was 20 to 1 – so we averaged about 20 northern pike to one walleye on the lines as we averaged the daily fish count during 2006.

This year we found a significant increase of small Northern Pike on April 28th we caught and released over 70 pike. We DID NOT catch a legal pike and most fish averaged in the 18 – 20 inch range. This will be good for future anglers and will keep people busy as they fish for Walleye.

Make a point to Get Outdoors!

Well we finally made it out fishing on the Saginaw Bay last Friday [4-20-07]. We started out looking for fish in front of the man made island and didn't mark much, so we worked our way west over toward Linwood.

We started out trolling in 9 FOW (48.5 water temp) and worked our way into 7.5 (50 water temp) FOW without any luck. During our trolling time we watched other boats cover a ton of water without any hook sets.

About 4:00pm we found an area in 8.5 FOW that we marked eleven fish ranging from 1 to 1.5 feet off of the bottom. We marked the area on our GPS and then setup to jig (metallic 1/4oz gold jig with a shiner minnow). Shortly after we started to jig we were landing walleyes. Our plan was to present our bait slowly with very little action and it worked. We boated 23 walleyes the biggest was about 6 lbs and all were males. We kept the smaller fish for our first walleye fry of the year.

Good Luck Fishing....

Houghton Lake Hot Spots

Current Walleye Hot Spots for Houghton Lake

Night Bite

Houghton Lake Night Walleye!

This year we have been successful trolling for walleye just before dark until about 11:30 PM.

We troll at 1.5 - 1.7 mph with large bomber's running 2 - 3 foot deep. This allows us to travel into the weed bed areas and trigger suspended walleyes that are feeding.

Hot Colors this year - White & Red, Silver & Red and Natural colors.

After dark trolling seems best from the Elks to the West.

Good Luck & See You Out There

Hot Hunting Spots

Windy Weekend

Walleye Season opened up this year with a east wind that didn't let up. This created problems for many anglers who wanted to still fish.

We caught a total of 10 walleyes for the weekend with sizes between 15 - 19 inches. We caught all our fish trolling on larger body baits. Troll speed 1.5 mph which you could almost do going west without your motor. The weekend hot spot was trolling 10 - 15 foot of water in front of the Limberlost and just to the East of this area. Fish were picked up around the scattered weeds in this flat area.

On Saturday we caught all our fish on natural colors. Sunday the fish were most active on Red & white as shown in the photo or silver with red.

We will keep you updated on where to look for walleyes this year on Houghton Lake.

See You Out There...
Hot Hunting Spots

Fishing At 12:01 AM

Good Luck to Everyone!

We will be on the water and ready to fish at 12:01 AM to start the 2006 Walleye season at Houghton Lake. Keep an eye on our web page during the weekend and we may be doing a live wireless webcast from the boat for all those that can't get into the water this weekend.

See You Out There!

Hot Hunting Spots

Houghton Lake GPS Tips

Hot GPS Spots

Here are a few hot spots to start out fishing during the Walleye Season Opener.

We did very good here last year and we will be hitting these points again in 2006.

Just before the Walleye season closed on the ice, we also did pretty good in this area.

Good Luck!
Hot Hunting Spots

Houghton Lake Map

Houghton Lake Map Overview!

Here is a neat little map for those of you that don't already have one.

We put this together for our Houghton Lake Trip and hope that others will enjoy the tool.

For those of you that have GPS units in your boat... we specialize in providing Hot GPS spots and troll patterns for lakes we fish.

Good Luck!
Hot Hunting Spots

Walleye Opener At Houghton Lake

Walleye Season Opener!

It's only a few short days until we can start fishing for Walleye on Houghton Lake.

This year our team will be fishing the south shore and middle grounds for the opening weekend.

We look forward to sharing our reports with others and for those that enjoy the Limberlost look for our Tracker to be dockside for lunch and dinner stops.

Hot Hunting Spots

"Very Good Friday" - from 11:00am to 1:15pm we boated seven walleyes with our best fish being a 9.4 lbs at 12:30pm. We started the midmorning out in front of the man maid island in 9 FOW and didn't have to go too far before we started marking pockets of fish. We used green and silver shallow reef runners and green and silver original storms at 1.25mph targeting 5 - 7 foot deep walleye. I know it sounds crazy but it seems like the brighter the sun the higher the fish are hanging.

The SW wind increased by 3:30pm and we moved in close. We worked the shipping lane in front of the river mouth and picked up two 22" walleyes in 24 FOW with silver and copper crawler harness 3-foot of bottom.

Good luck!

Hunting Hot Spots Team

Houghton Lake Walleye Season

It is almost time to enjoy Houghton Lake Michigan for the 2006 Walleye Season Opener.

The team from Outdoor Creations will be on the lake ready to fish at Midnight and we will be staying on the lake for the weekend. We will be stopping off at the Limberlost for food and refreshments for those of you who would like to get a live update.

We will be posting reports, photos and hot tips for all you anglers who enjoy fishing Houghton Lake.

See you out there!

Outdoor Creations

Saginaw Bay Walleye

April 9, 2006

I really want to encourage all you anglers out there that are thinking about getting out to go fishing.... It's Time!

If you look at our fishing photos you will see that my brother and I are pretty much die-hard outdoorsmen. We fish on the ice, wade the river and on the lakes... it's time for some great early season Walleye fishing.

Michigan is such a great place to fish for Walleye, Steelhead and other game fish, if your not out there... you are missing out! We will continue to keep you posted with all our current fishing reports, hot fishing spots, techniques we use and even a few underwater camera shots.

I look foward to seeing more of you outside enjoying the wonderful state you live in.

Sincerely,

Douglas Resseguie
Outdoor Creations & Hot Hunting Spots

PS. Green & Silver... HOT COLORS!