Bear Creek 3-28-09

Went over to Manistee River and Bear Creek looking for Steelheads on Saturday. We stopped at Tippy Dam to checkout the fishing action. Lots of boats fishing in front of the boat launch and as usual the banks of the river were full of shore fishermen. The fishing action seemed to be a bit slow, but we did see a few nice fish on strings.

We fished Bear Creek with about twenty other guys. Not many steelhead in the river just yet, but we did have fun catching small trout as we searched.

Detroit River 3-22-09

The beginning of the 2009 open water walleye extravaganza!!! Yesterday March 22 we went out to the Detroit River for the first time this season and man let me tell you the action was hot! We brought home 4 nice walleyes and the smallest one was 22" and the best one was 29” long and nine pounds. The official report is......... The Walleye are in the river south of the Grosse Ille free bridge in around 8'-12' of water hitting on purple and natural lead (no paint) jigs with a large shiner minnow.

Rich "CF Fishing Team"

Budd Lake Fishing Report 3-8-09

My nephew and I fished Budd Lake for a few hours on Sunday (3-8). We found a good school of blue gills in 11 FOW north of the island. No walleyes but we did pick up a few small pike.

The ice is still about 14-inches thick, but you need to use caution especially around the drains.

Budd Lake Fishing Report 2-21-09 & 2-22-09

Had the opportunity to fish in the Budd Lake Fishing Tournament that was held on Saturday (2-21). I started out looking for bait fish in shallow water and on my second hole I found a monster school of small bluegills suspended over a weed structure in 16 FOW. After drilling a few more holes I found a school of larger bluegills and decided to fish the area to get my five bluegills that were required in the team event.

After thinking about the amount of bait fish located in area I decided to setup a tip-up just in front of the first school of small bluegills. The weed growth was about three foot off of the bottom, so I setup my bait at three and a half foot off of the bottom were I knew the bait fish were hanging out. My first flag came at 9:15am with no fish just a lot of line spooled off. The tournament judges were visiting at the time of my first flag and I think they were more excited then me. The second flag came at 9:50am and after waiting a few minutes I had my first walleye of the day. Right as the fish came through the hole she broke my 6 pound crystal fire wire leader, but I was able to grab her by the head and pull her on the ice.

Fishing has improved greatly on Budd this month. I iced forty 8-inch to 10-inch bluegills and one 24-inch walleye in three hours. Over all I saw two nice walleyes on the camera and a ton of bluegills. I took my nephew and his friend out on Sunday afternoon and we iced fifty keeper bluegills out in 17 FOW.

Ice conditions are excellent 14-inches in most areas.

Went back to the same spot as the previous post and braught up 2 more keeper Walleyes. Ended up fishing from 5PM to 6:30PM and fished the same holes. I was able to bring these two 18" Walley's up with a small fire nose jigging rapala and a northland flowage minnow. Had to throw back 2 undersized Walleye's but still was a good day fishing and not working. Good luck and tight lines. Field Staff Justin Brechtelsbauer

Houghton Lake Walleye Report February 2009

Here it was another 20 degree day on Houghton Lake. We started fishing on the east side of Houghton lake on top of a 10 foot deep weed bed were we found crappies and a variety of bass on the camera. Fished from 4pm to 6:30pm with the use of the bleeding nose jigging rapala and size 1 do jiggers. We threw back 5 large mouth bass, 1 small mouth bass, 6 undersized walleyes and 11 pike. Good luck and tight lines.

Saginaw Bay Walleye Report February 7, 2009

With the warmer temperatures hitting the Saginaw Bay area the walleye fishing is heating up. This was our second trip to the bay testing and exploring previously mapped areas from summer time. After many hours of locating the school, we had finally stumbled on a good number of "hog" walleyes. I was fishing with Brian pictured to the left with this 9.75 pound walleye which should place in the Shiver on the River contest in Bay City. Going to hard to beat the current 13-pounder leading the tournament. We did throw back a couple undersized but left the water with this nice walleye and 8 other keeper walleyes ranging from 18"-25". There is about 12" of good ice but after the next few days and the river breaking up the bay may be fished by boats. The school is moving closer to the mouth of the rivers and bigger numbers of walleye can be found in the 17 foot areas of the Bay. Good luck and tight lines. Staff Member Justin Brechtelsbauer.

Saginaw River Walleye Report 1-21-09

Fished the Saginaw River this afternoon from 3:30pm to 6:45 pm directly out in front of the Boy's Club in 16 FOW.

The walleye bite was slow and soft tonight, but I landed three keeper walleyes along with many dropped at the hole fish. I re-rigged my jigging setup last night to help detect the soft river walleye bite. My new setup is 6 pound test on a very sensitive with excellent backbone jigging rod. The river bite is lite and if you don't have a jigging method in place you will miss a ton of the light bites.

With the weather holding in the teens the river should be a great fishing location for the next two weeks. We will be fishing Houghton Lake on Friday afternoon and will report back. Good luck and be safe on the river.....

Saginaw River Walleye Report 1-20-09

Fished the Saginaw River this afternoon from 3:30pm - 6:00pm and iced five keeper walleyes and eighteen undersized fish between the three of us.

We fished a half mile South of the Boy's Club in 15 FOW. Best action was on Blue & White Jigging Rapalas and White Do-Jiggers all tipped with minnow heads.

Ice condition are good in most areas, but use caution. We fished on six inches of ice, but found spots as thin as three inches.

Tip-Up Setup

Over the years we've tried all kinds of Tip-Up combinations when targeting walleyes. Here is one combinations that works well for us.

First thing we do is to install a in line bobber stop with a foam bobber in front of the barrel swivel that connects your main line to your mono leader. The bobber is used to mark your bait depth once its established and then keep re baiting after a strike easy and repeatable.

The next thing we do is to attach five feet of 8-pound P-Line from the main line to the start of a flasher or spoon. To keep the line in good condition I use barrel swivels on both ends of the flasher. Lastly attach a seven inches leader of 6-pound vanish for the bottom of the flash to the treble hook.

**If you are targeting pike you will need to change the 6-pound vanish leader to steel wire or 8-pound P-Line.**

Houghton Lake Walleye Report 1-16-09

Fridays Fishing trip to Houghton Lake was cold and windy with temperatures around zero all day. The good news is that the cold weather is building ice, we had 16-inches today.

We started out scouting for walleyes in the east bay about a half mile from Harvey's Marina. The area looks good, but we couldn't find any fish or thick weed cover. After an hour of scouting we packed up and headed west to fish a few of our walleye spots.

We ended up fishing in nine FOW about 1.25 miles directly out of Zephyr Trail. Fishing was on and off all day. Total fishing we picked up three walleyes that were 12 to 14, five pike, and only one keeper walleye at 5:22pm. The best colors today were white and gold tipped with a gray.

Saturday is the start of Tip-Up-Town, so I'll definitely be fishing somewhere on the North side of the lake to avoid all of the sled traffic.

Houghton Lake Walleye Report January 9th & 10th

Fished Houghton Lake on Friday (1-9) and Saturday (1-10) and caught a total of seven keeper walleyes, fifteen pike, and six nice perch. We fished the north shore about one mile out directly off of the end of Flint Road. We setup in 9 FOW and worked the weed clumps and open areas around the weed bed. The best fishing was from 1:30pm till dark. This year we have had great luck jigging with buckshot rattle spoons and Do-jigger spoons is white or purple all tipped with a whole gray minnow.

Fishermen on the ice reported to us that walleye fishing is very good right now in the East Bay straight out of Harvey’s Marina. We will check it out this week.

Fishing Report 1-5-09

Budd Lake: Finding lots of small perch and bluegills, but no big ones after five trips on the lake. We fished Budd on Sunday (1-4) for six hours to get 40 good sized bluegills. Best fish were found directly in front of the state park in 21 FOW.

Pratt Lake: Fished Pratt on Saturday (1-3) and only caught one 14-inch walleye. Spotted numerous good size pike on our fish cam in 15 FOW off of the drop off on the South end of the lake.

Higgins Lake: Team member fished Higgins Lake on Sunday (1-4) and picked up 20 good perch and several large pike. The best pike was 35-inches caught on a tip-up in 25 FOW.

Good Luck and be safe on the ice.

http://www.hothuntingspots.com/

Ice Fishing Report 12-24-08

Ice fishing season started early in Northern Michigan this year.

Budd Lake: Fished Budd on 12-14 and 12-24. We were after perch on both trips, but didn't find many fish over 10-inches. As of 12-24 Budd Lake had about a foot of snow on 8-inches of ice.

Pratt Lake: Fished Pratt on 12-23 and picked up two walleyes in 12 FOW jigging a white DOJIGGER with a whole shiner minnow. As of 12-23 Pratt had 6-inches of ice.

Houghton Lake: Fished Houghton on 12-20 and couldn't find a walleye. We worked an area 2.25 miles east of the West public boat ramp. HL had 10-inches of ice.

We just purchased a MarCum 825c fish camera to replace the old Auquview, so we should have some great fish pictures in the next reports.

Good luck and be safe on the ice.

Houghton Lake 9-19-08

Walleye fishing continues to be very good on Houghton Lake. It's been two weeks since my last trip, but the walleyes are still just as active as they were at the beginning of the month.

We trolled in 6.5 FOW with tail dancers running them back 45 and 52 foot. My father and I fished for three hours and boated seven walleyes the best one being 20-inches. On top of the walleye action we hooked a 38-inch or larger norther pike that broke off at the boat. The fishing conditions are changing and as the water temperature continues to drop we will be moving in closer to shore to fish our spring areas.

8/30 & 9/1 Fishing Action

The walleye action was redhot again this weekend on Houghton Lake. With 8 keeper walleyes on saturday and 18 keepers on monday. We boated over 60 fish monday between the three teams boats on the water. A lot of 14" fish, so next year should be productive also.

All of our fish were caught in 4 to 6 FOW, dragging Storm thundersticks and Rapala tail dancers. The most productive lures being the white thunderstick and the blue/silver taildancer. This is in an area we have been fishing most of the summer with some really good success.

It's getting closer to the well antipated hunting season with early goose season starting 9/1. So get out on the water before your hanging in a tree or laying in a cornfield. There is still plenty of good weather to go catch fish.

We plan to fish Houghton Lake as much as possible before our Wyoming trip in October, we will reply back soon with more great fishing action.

Houghton Lake 8-29-08

Walleye fishing is still excellent on Houghton Lake. We made it out for three hours Friday and boated twelve keeper walleyes fishing with the North West wind. Trolled taildancers 55 foot back and D.A.M. 3" minnows 30 foot back at 1.95mph.

The D.A.M. baits are a new bait to our collection and are working very well. I purchased them at Northwoods in Pinconning for $1.99 each which is a great price for a lure of this quality.

I'll be back on Houghton tonight and will report back.