Houghton Lake Walleye Report 6/29/10

I made it out fishing last night with my nephew Chachi and his buddy Angelo. When we got to the lake we were greeted by a strong NW wind and cool temperatures. On my last trip out on Houghton we found a good number of walleyes in the East Bay. This trip we headed out into 15 FOW and marked a lot of suspended fish hanging from 6 to 11 foot. We setup to troll our baits down in the fish zone after 45 minutes of trolling we caught our first fish. The fishing action was steady most of the afternoon with the best action happening from 9:30pm till 10:15pm. Best bait was thunderstick jr. dark colors back 24 foot. Overall we boated 23 walleyes and eight keepers with the best fish being 19-inches.



We have started fishing deeper and we are finding more league fish along with a better daylight bite. The shallow game is not as good as it has been in the last three years. I’m not finding a lot of fish in 4 to 7 FOW and the ones I do find are smaller. I will tell you that I found a school of fish in 15 foot of water on my last three trips and after cleaning the fish I found that they were eating larger then normal minnows. I have a feeling that the weed treating last year on HL has changed the minnow behavior and the walleyes are following the minnows just like they always do.


Good Luck…

Houghton Lake Walleye Report 6-19-10

We haven’t fished Houghton Lake much this month because we have been spending all of our free time finishing up our fields and setting up tree stands in preparation for archery season. I did make it out fishing on Thursday morning (6-10) and ended up catching five undersized walleyes and zero keepers on the North Shore. We headed back up to Houghton Lake on Saturday (6-19) and changed up our fishing plan by heading out into 12 FOW in the East Bay. Fishing action started out slow with three 13-inch walleyes in 2 hours of trolling, but as the sun set we had nonstop action for about 45 minutes and ended up catching 10 walleyes 15 to 16 inches all of which we released back. Best action was on Green and White TD 7 Tail dancers back 65 foot at 1.9mph.  Best bite of the night was at 10:00pm when we had four fish on at one time.

Good Luck…

U.P. Report

Autrain and Forest Lake report. I’m working in the UP this week on a windmill blade install in Ishpeming, so I figured it would be a great chance to fish some of my favorite UP lakes. Well we started out early this morning and arrived in Autrain in the early afternoon to find that the bait shop is out of business and the only boat launch is closed until June 18th. After evaluating the situation we headed south down to Forest Lake with high hopes of jigging up a few walleyes. When I arrived at the lake I was in shock and amazed to find the water level had been dropped by the power company and that the lake was unfishable for my boat. After looking at Forest Lake and remember the old days of walleye fishing up and down the six miles of lake I came to the realization that we have lost a resource forever.




I’ll report tomorrow on a new lake.



Good Luck.

2010 Budd Lake Fishing Derby

Date:

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Time:

6:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Location:

Budd Lake

Details

Catch-and-release fishing tournament. Prizes:

• Largest legal muskie: $1000.
• Largest bass: $250
• 2nd-largest bass: $100
• 3rd-largest bass: $50
• Largest walleye: $250
• 2nd-largest walleye: $100
• 3rd-largest walleye: $50
• Largest string of bass: $250
• 2nd-largest string of bass: $100
• 3rd-largest string of bass: $50
• 3 $20 wild-card prizes

Children's prizes:

• Largest pan fish: $40 + a tackle box
• 2nd-largest pan fish: $20 + a rod and reel
• Largest perch (new category): $10 + a rod and reel

Children are also eligible for the main prizes.
A shuttle bus will be provided from 5am-8am and 1pm-3pm.

Registration

Advanced registration is $20 per adult / $10 per child age 12 or under; registration day of the event is $25 per adult / $15 per child.
For entry registrations, stop by any of the following locations or call the Harrison Chamber of Commerce Office @ 989-539-6011 or 1-877-539-6011

• Harrison Chamber 809 N. First St.
• Ken's Landing Outdoor Sports 704 N. First St.
• Henry's Corner Store 6976 E. Townline Lk Rd.
• KD Quik Stop 235 N Clare Ave
• Trestain's Long Lake Store 8036 N Clare Ave

Budd Lake Walleye Report 6/7/10

Budd Lake continues to produce nice walleyes. We made it out on Budd Lake last night after work to get one more practice in before Saturdays fishing contest. The weather was bit cool and breezy, but the fishing started out very hot when we hooked two 20-inch walleyes in 19 FOW. After releasing the fish and marking the location on the GPS we made a few more passes over the area to get the troll path recorded. We ended up catching two walleyes and three small bass in our two hour practice session on Budd.  And now that we have a few good areas mapped out we are ready to fish the tournament Saturday.




Good Luck…

Hubbard Lake Walleye Report

Had the chance to spend a few days fishing on Hubbard Lake. We got on the lake Monday afternoon and spent a few hours checking out the lake with the sonar. The lake is very deepand  it has lots of defined breaks in depth with minimal weed cover along and very clear water. While scouting the lake we marked lots of suspended fish in 15 to 40 FOW. On the NW shore we found a good supply of bait fish in 5 FOW and lots of scattered fish holding just outside of the drop off suspended in 15 FOW. Overall it’s kind of clear that Hubbard Lake lacks weed cover so the fish use the water column as cover. We caught walleyes in 40 FOW suspended at 15 foot and then moved into 25 FOW and caught more walleyes at 15 foot.

Fishing was great on both days. During the afternoon 12 – 4pm we fished in 40 FOW and targeted suspended fish with TD 7 taildancers 80 foot behind a board. Oddly in two days of fishing all of our walleyes were caught on taildancers TD 7, 8, and deep 20’s. The best colors were blue / silver and perch. In a attempt to test the waters I ran Thunderstick Jrs, Berkley Flicker shad, shad raps, tots, live targets, and about every other stick bait and never had a hit. Monday afternoon we caught 21 walleyes and 14 fish of the fish were 15 inches or better. On Tuesday we caught 34 walleyes 28 over 15 inches the best fish being 21 inches.

We will be heading back to Hubbard Lake in July to do more exploring.
Good Luck..

Budd Lake Walleye Report

We went out last night after work to pre fish Budd Lake and get prepare for the June fishing contest. The plan was to troll 17 to 22 FOW and study the graph looking for fish then setup and jig. Well we got luck 45 minutes into the trip and caught and released a 27-inch walleye in 19 FOW on a Strom Deep Thunderstick. It was a nice surprise and the area also produced two nice bass on our next three trips over the GPS point. Budd Lake is very enjoyable to fish and a great place to practice your structure fishing techniques.

Houghton Lake Walleye Report "Fishing in the Rain" Friday May 21st

Walleyes in the Rain

I got the chance to fish Houghton Lake on Friday the 21st and Saturday the 22nd of May with my Brother Dennis.  We haven't been fishing together very much lately due to my work and activities downstate, but we planned for a couple weeks to fish on the 21st.  Knowing Michigan and how quickly the weather changes, we agreed that we would fish unless the conditions looked unsafe.

When Friday finally arrived, the weather was very still and the clouds were showing rain was not far off, however after checking with NOAA it appeared we would only have showers.  We NEVER fish during any electrical storms.... That is a no brainer.

We left the south boat launch at 8:15 PM to take a shot at the "Nite Bite".  Dennis has been doing very well this year on many spots but he had one in particular in mind for the night to get his brother into some fish.

We had flat water and the Tracker Tundra pulled into the spot in less than 5 minutes.

We dropped the trolling motor and began putting the rods out at about 8:30 pm.  We had a fish on immediately as we didn't even get all the rods set ( Running 6 lines - No Boards or Birds ) and it was a nice 16 inch walleye.  That was a pretty good indication of how the night would proceed.

We got that fish in the live well and two more rods went off... we caught 8 more small fish all about 14 to 14 1/2  inches.

We continued to work the area and began to produce some bigger fish.

We were done fishing and had the boat on the trailer by 10:30 PM.

THE FINAL COUNT was 42 Walleyes in the Net of which we kept a limit of 15 fish and the average fish was 17 inches.  We didn't get any big Hogs, but the ones we got tasted GREAT!  We had a HHS Team Fish Fry Saturday Afternoon at the Ranch.   

Best of Luck!
Douglas Resseguie
www.hothuntingspots.com

Houghton Lake Walleye Report 5/18/10

We had an opportunity to get out fishing on Houghton Lake last night (5/18). The fishing was a bit slow on the north shore, but we managed to catch one keeper and 7 undersized walleye. After spending 2-hours on the north shore we headed over to the South shore and trolled along the shore by the Heights Marina until 9:30pm. The action was also slow but we had a good bite right at dark and picked up two keepers and five undersized fish. Water temperatures are still all over the place making fishing difficult on HL. I found 57 degree water on the North shore and 63.5 degree water on the South West shore last night, hopefully the weather conditions will stabilize soon.

I added two pictures the view of the Crawford County fire from Houghton Lake.

Good Luck......

Houghton Lake Walleye Report 5/12 - 5/15

There are benefits to being late for work like bumping into your all time favorite walleye fishermen at the gas station. This morning I had the pleasure shaking hands with Gary Parsons and checking out his boat while pumping gas. I must say wow, it was awesome to finally meet the guy I have read about and studied from for years, it made my day. Ok, now on to the Houghton Lake Walleye report for the last week.

Last Tuesday the fishing action took a turn for the worst when the water temperature dropped 10 degrees overnight on shallow Houghton Lake. I made it out fishing on Wednesday and caught six walleyes on the South Shore and really didn’t notice a major change in bite.

Friday we stared out of the South lunch at 7:50am and didn’t catch a keeper walleye until 9:40am. The morning action was super slow the wind was terrible and after changing up a few times we hit a spot in 6 FOW just west of the Limberlost that ended up producing eight walleyes by the end of the day. Saturday we headed out at 9:00am and did some exploring around the lake. We setup on the North shore in 7 FOW and picked up three walleye the best on being 18.5 inches. After marking a few areas we headed to the East Bay where we trolled the East shore and ended up catching seven walleye two of which were keepers. Fishing friends Jeff and Tom were out on HL Saturday and reported 3 keepers after fishing all day.

Overall the weather and the extreme 10 degree drop in water temperature made catching Houghton Lake walleye a bit difficult last week. I’ll be out fishing on Wednesday and will report back.

Good Luck….