DNR Launch Mouth of the Saginaw River

The launch has one dock open and guys are getting a few fish.  I'll be out on the water Friday and will report back. 

Chippewa lake

Jehnsen Lake

Looks nice. Several islands to fish around.

Big Evans Lake

Today we are out scouting for new lakes to fish this year. 

Last Ice Fishing Trip

Spring is here to stay so that means this is my last ice fishing trip for the year. With all of the warm weather my thoughts have been turned to getting my boat ready for the early walleye action. In the next few weeks I’m going to be down jig for monster walleyes on the Detroit River and then I’ll head to the mouth of the Saginaw River to troll for walleyes.

Pratt Lake

Pratt Lake Bluegill action in 16 FOW on the East Shore.   

Mark having fun catching bluegills on his first trip to Pratt Lake.

Houghton Lake

Slow start this morning. Fishing the north shore in by the river. If the action doesn't improve were heading down to Pratt Lake.

Open Water Tonight

With open water fishing right around the corner and the nice weather were having I was driven to stop by the Sanford Dam on my way home from work and try out some of my new crank baits. I spent about four hours casting for walleyes without any luck, but it was sure nice to get out and fish on the river. I also found that the 3-inch Rapala x-rap has awesome flicker action when worked against the current. We will be adding this lure to or walleye crank bait collection and trying this year.




Good Luck..

Pratt Lake

Fished Pratt from 5:00pm - 7:30pm and ended up with 14 sunfish and no walleyes.  I did hook a nice bass on a tip up and lost a pike.   I spotted two walleye on my camera both in 10 FOW, but couldn't make get them to hit my bait. 

Pratt Lake Pan Fish

While I was scouting for walleyes I found a school of sunfish in 10 FOW on the South shore and ended up with 14 fish all caught on waxworms. 

2010 Spring Walleye Opener Just Around The Corner

2009 was a great open water fishing season for us on Houghton Lake.  We had great action on about every trip and most of the time we caught our limit.  With only two weeks left of winter walleye fishing were gearing up for the 2010 April opener.  Early on we will be focused on fishing in 5 to 6 FOW on both the north and south shores.  You have to love the walleyes on Houghton Lake.  Good Luck... 

Perch on a Lindy Darter

Well it turned out to be one of those days were you fish hard, but never end up catching a walleye. We fished in 6 to 9 FOW in the weeds and on the flats and couldn’t produce a strike on minnow or darters. If you’re looking for HL perch we recommend that you start looking in 6 FOW in the North Bay.

Good Luck HHS.

Houghton Lake

No walleye action yet, but the perch fishing is picking up in 8 FOW.

Houghton Lake Report

Hit the lake at 3pm looking for walleyes. We headed up to the North Bay to avoide the wind and found a school of perch in 6 FOW. Best action was on small minnows. 

Big Manistique Lake

Walleye action has been steady on big man the last to weeks. We have been fishing mainly in 9 FOW on south side of the lake. Best action has been on tip ups 1 foot off of the bottom.

Good Luck HHS Saff..

Success on the MOVE!!!

Stop, Drop and Move Technique pays off.

We were fishing from the Shanty and kept seeing a number of fish swim by without getting any strikes.  We could tell from the direction that the fish were coming off the top of the shallow area and moving down the drop off we were setup on toward deeper water.

If you see this and you are not getting strikes.....NOTE The fish are FEEDING SHALLOW and moving to deeper water when they are full.  YOU NEED TO MOVE.

When we get time to fish ( like today for several hours ) we like to setup on the edge of a drop off or structure to wait for fish moving in to feed, HOWEVER we have seen this before and the fish were coming from a different area or they were already waiting in the feeding area.

YOU WOULD DO BEST TO GET UP THERE .... that is where the action is going on.

We watched a number of nice walleye swim past our primary shanty spot and show little to no interest in the food but they were coming down from the shallows.

Our best guess is the bait fish moved and the fish were feeding shallow and moving off to rest.

We are prepared for this so we reeled our rods up and grabbed our buckets.  Justin went one way and I went the other way slowly working from hole to hole very quietly fishing for about 3 - 5 minutes per hole.

If the fish are there, YOU DON'T NEED MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES.... the catch 22 of this moving concept is that the fish are also moving so "do I stay" or "should I go"....

About the 3rd hole I moved to.... I dropped the line and within a minute or two.... WHAMMO it was a nice strike and a good hookset.

We missed a few strikes ( always keep you line tight going down... fish will hit the drop )  IF YOU drop your bait and then reel up when it stops falling.... you may have missed the FIRST Strike and possibly the Only one you will get from that fish.

I am mainly sharing this technique with others to help them understand how I catch many of the fish you see photos of.

You can look back in our BLOG and see fish that are clearly caught in the shanty... and others you will know are outside during which I am normally doing some moving.

Good Luck and get out on the Ice.... IT'S PRIMETIME!
HHS Admin

Walleye Technique we Use

One technique that we use on Houghton Lake is to identify our area first.
Get our camera out and do some quick checks for fish in the area... ALWAYS TAKE YOUR FISHING ROD with you when you scout.  Many times our camera draws fish to it and you need to be able to drop your jig or lindy darter down the hole right away or they will swim off.

After we realize we have the right spot picked out.  We drill a series of holes around the area RIGHT AWAY so we can keep things quiet for PRIME TIME fishing.  We see how much loud noise impacts the fish having watched 1000's of hours of underwater video.

Our goal is to create a number of places we can move to quietly and do a STOP, DROP, Hit or Move technique when things are slow.  What we are saying is that we set up our primary spot early and get all our holes drilled around the area so we don't spooke off fish as they feed.

Unlike what many people think, the fish we see most of the time are MOVING or Crusing the areas.  Bait fish will often hang close to weeds or cover, but the preditor fish like Pike and Walleye will move to feed.  We also watch the behavior of baitfish in the area to anticipate bigger fish moving into the area.

Our goal is to setup a number of places covering up to 50 - 100 yards around the primary spot.  This technique works very well for spooky schools of perch that move around a lot.  We carry our bucket with some smaller container of bait and our rod going from spot to spot as we get a couple active spots.  When that spot dies off... the fish have moved and we do the same to keep our fishing action more regular.  It works very well if you have a few friends spread out so you can determine which way the school is moving and shift accordingly.

Good Luck

Just setup.

Wednesday was a fun day for Field Supervisor Justin B. and Hot Hunting Spots President Dennis R. as they got some time on Houghton Lake Fishing for Walleyes.

The underwater camera is GREAT for scouting and if you have one you know how cool it can be to check where you are and what the underwater structure is in that area.  For those of you that do not have a AquaView or other underwater cam... it's business as usual but keep an eye out for someone using a camera they will probably be more than happy to show you whats down there.

We are working on our video capture options to be able to do photo / videos and put them in the blogsite to show key spots that are great during summer or winter.

We have found many interesting things from rock piles to sunken shanties and other debries.

The key things we focus on are finding areas that show structure and searching for other ideal conditions such as bait fish, water temp or clarity.  On one lake we fished it had a break that you could see clear water down to 10 foot but the bottom 4 foot was very murky and if you watched the fish they swam up the bank feeding at about 4 - 5 foot.

It is very exciting to continue to enjoy the outdoors hunting and fishing and LEARNING more with the use of technology.

In closing I highly recommend that you use a GPS when fishing so you can MARK key structure and return to them again and again to check for fish.  We have marked rock piles, steep breaks or just areas in weed beds that have holes where fish often hold up.

Good Luck and see you out there....
HHS Admin

Big budd lake walleye

Mike with his tournament winning 27 inch seven pound walleye caught on Budd Lake.