Fishing Reports 7/21 - 7/23 (Budd Lake, Long Lake, Houghton Lake)



Holly with her first muskie.   Caught in 23 FOW on a Red / Yellow / Silver
Deep 20 Taildance while trolling for walleye.



Fished Houghton Lake on Thursday (7/21) from 9am - 1pm with my nephews.  The weather was hot and the west wind made it almost impossible to fish in our areas, so we took a few hours and did some swimming on the sand bar.  At 2pm we packed up and headed south to fish Long Lake in Harrison.  When we arrived at the lake we found lots of pleasure boaters trying to beat the heat.  We fished until 8pm before calling it a day.  Overall we hooked seventeen bass, one pike, and Chachi broke off a big fish on a slip bobber rig.  I'll head back to Long Lake later in the summer to try and catch a big walleye off of the East side of the lake. 



Holly and I fish Budd Lake tonight Saturday (7/23) from 7:30pm - 10:00pm hoping to find a big walleye.  Last Sunday we fished Portage Lake and found lots of walleyes suspended down 12 foot in 20 FOW and hoped to find the same conditions in the 82 degree (F) Budd Lake water.  We fished the South shore at the start, but quickly moved to get away from the heavy boat traffic.  At 8:15pm we moved out into 25 FOW and trolled with deep 20 taildancer targeting set above the fish that we marked at 16 foot down.  We hooked our first fish and then lost it close to the boat without making an ID.  Then at 9:14pm Holly hooked her first tiger musky and did a great job getting it to the boat on 8 lb test.  We found out that tracker the dog is not a fan of catch and release.  As the muskie started to swim away tracker jumped in and chased after it along with tangling up two lines.

Good Luck....

  




Budd Lake trolling path.



Tippy Dam Pond 7/16/11



Tippy dam pound backwater




Shore lunch









We took a long weekend and headed up to fish the backwaters of Tippy Dam Pond.   Tippy Dam is a very popular fishing location for Spring Steelhead and the Fall Salmon run, but most people never venture behind the dam to fish the remote backwaters.  A backwater trip is a great adventure and if your looking to fish in the woods and get away from people this is the place to checkout.   As you travel the lake you will find camping spots and nice areas to swim and hangout.  The lake is very deep and drops off quickly from shore.  You will find lots of structure, logs and standing timber in this lake.  In some location you will see trees very close to the surface which are also great fishing areas.  We spent the entire day on the lake and fished it from 8am to 11pm taking lunch on one of the islands and swimming during the hot parts of the day.  The small mouth bass fishing is great everywhere you go on the lake and with the steep drop offs we used deep diving crank baits at shore bringing them back in 8 to 10 foot of water which was about 6 foot off shore.  My focus was finding the walleyes and what I learned is that I need a few more days on the lake.  We did catch three small walleyes and a big catfish while we were bass fishing around the shore.  My next trip to the lake I'll focus on fishing suspended fish closer to shore and around the points.  If you have side imaging / down scan you will be amazed at the standing timber and fish holding around the structure.   Tippy Dam Pond is a beautiful lake in the woods that will test your fishing skills. 



Standing Timber viewed with Down scan





Long day of fishing









Backwater of tippy dam




Leon helping Chachi clean his catfish



Portage Lake 7/17/11



First Walleye of the afternoon TD 7 Blue/Silver/Red

We fished Portage Lake in Onekama on the second day of our camping trip and had a great time.  We arrived in Onekama in the morning and stopped at Andy's Tackle Box bait shop on our way to the boat launch.  The owner is a great guy and was very helpful pointing us in the right direction along with telling us a few great stories one in particular that my nephew will never forget.



Walleye fun.



Best Bait Shop in Onekama.  Stop in to get fishing reports.



We started out bluegill fishing at the West end of the lake and had some luck hooking a few nice fish.  During the afternoon we explored and fished in deeper water looking for perch.  At 6:30pm we setup to troll in 17 to 20 FOW where we had marked some suspended fish in the morning.  We hooked our first walleye at 7pm and lost it at the boat.  After marking the spot we started trolling the area and ended catching four walleyes and losing three more.  We targeted fish down at 14 FOW early with deep taildancer.  Closer to dark we brought up two of our lines in the 6 foot range and hooked two more fish.  The action slowed up at dark and after a full day on the lake and lots of sun we called it a day.  I plan on fishing Portage in the fall and hope to find some big Lake Michigan walleyes.



Lunch on the fly.

Doug's Boat Pictures

I wanted to post some photos of the boat we are adding to the HHS Fishing Team.
We are packed up and ready to head for some Northern Michigan Walleye Water.

Doug's boat. 

Douglas

Rapala and Navionics Team Up

Houghton Lake 7/7/11

Night bite double header 10:40pm



Undersized walleye caught on a leech
with a slip bobber rig.

 

10 FOW Berkley Frenzy Minnow







Headed up to Houghton Lake to check out the late afternoon bite.  Started out slip bobber fishing in 10 to 12 FOW on the North shore.  During our two hours of drifting we caught four small walleyes and two bass.  At 9:30pm we moved West and started trolling in 10 FOW.  We found several spots that were loaded with 13 to 14.5 inch walleyes and ended up catching lots of them as we trolled to the West.  At dark the bite turned on and we had a hard time keeping our rods set.  The action was great, but we didn't find many legal fish.  Overall we caught 27 walleyes with three of them over 15 inches.  Best bite was from 10pm to 11:30pm.   Our friend Tom was out last night and we trolled by him as he was landing a nice walleye.  He reported the same type of action and ended the night with four keepers.

Good Luck...

Pratt Lake Report 7/5/11 - No walleyes, but we did catch bass in every area of the lake. Bass action was best on the SE shore in 8 to 17 FOW.  Lots of boat traffic and the 7:30pm wake law is not followed.

Five Lakes 7/4/11



Bluegill fish fry on the camp fire.

 

Shore Fishing

We did some shore fishing for bluegills on busy Five Lakes today.  Overall we hooked twenty-five nice gills and then cooked them up on the campfire for our 4th of July dinner celebration.  All of the gills were caught with Berkley Gulp.


Good Luck.....

Budd Lake 7/4/11



Tommy and his 23-inch Budd Lake Walleye




Adam and a nice Budd Lake Crappy

 
Fourth of July action on Budd Lake.  Tommy and his fishing crew had a great afternoon on Budd Lake hooking a twenty-three inch walleye and a large crappy.  Both of the fish were caught fishing the weed edges with live bait.

The NEW Hot Hunting Spots - Bowfishing Team

Hot Hunting Spots is proud to present the BOWFISHING Team.

Keep an eye out for updated information on the sport and our team as they continue to update the Bowfishing report at http://mibowfishing.blogspot.com/.http://mibowfishing.blogspot.com/

Houghton Lake 7/1/11



Jig tipped with a Gulp minnow 10 FOW



 Fished Houghton Lake on Friday morning.  We started out trolling in 7 FOW, but got shutdown by the floating weeds.  After we packed up we moved to the East and fished in 10 FOW with jigs and Berkley Gulp minnows.  We hooked two undersized walleye and one keeper in 2 hours of fishing.  At noon we moved into the East Bay to get out of the wind and try fishing along the drop off with out any luck.  Our last stop was the weed bed just East of the Limber lost in 10 FOW where we hooked two keeper walleye and one pike.  The water temp held at 67 F and the floating weeds were a pain to work around. 

Good Luck...



Undersized walleye hooked on a TD 7 Taildancer



Only Pike of the day. 



Houghton Lake 6/29/11

12 3/4 - inch Perch hooked on a TD 7 Taildancer in 9 FOW

My nephew and I headed up to Houghton Lake yesterday at 7:30pm to try out the night bite. On our last trip to Houghton Lake we found a good concentration of walleyes holding in an area of scattered weeds in 9 to 11 FOW.   We headed back to the same spot to work on developing a trolling path around the weeds.  When building a trolling path I change the track color on my GPS when I arrive at the location so I can clearly see where my boat has been.  Then we drive the boat East and West over the area and then North and South to basically build a grid of the area we want to target.  While we are making the grid we mark weed structures that would cause trolling issues with GPS points.  Next, I change the track color and start trolling.  When we find bad spots trolling we mark them with GPS points.  After a few hours of driving the area the map starts to show a clear path around the weeds and at that point I go back and save a course.  It's a fair amount of work to develop trolling paths, but it pays off.

The fishing action was very slow for the most part.  We worked on  our trolling path during the daylight and hooked two bass, one pike, and a nice 12 3/4 - inch perch.  At dark we headed in close to the west shore and trolled in the dark without any luck at all.  The water temperature last night held at 67 F on both sides of the lake.  I suspect that the cold front and quick water cool down helped slow down the walleye bite yesterday. 

Good Luck...

Great Getaways Fishing Houghton Lake

Here is another video clip showing some Tips for Fishing Houghton lake.... Enjoy!

Lake Erie Walleye

A Nice Video from Mike Avery's Outdoor Magazine... Enjoy!

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 6/26/11

 

We got out on Houghton Lake Sunday afternoon to get some sun and do some fishing.  Started fishing at 1pm jigging in 10 FOW.  We hooked three keeper walleyes on gold jig heads tipped with a leech. The action slowed up at 4pm, so we moved to the West shore and trolled around the weeds clumps with stickbaits and hooked 3 walleye (1 keeper) and two pike by 8pm. 

Good Luck....

Littlefield Lake 6/24/11



Waiting for the fish to bite.



Littlefield Lake Shorline


Friday afternoon we headed down to Isabella County to fish Coldwater Lake, but our plans got changed.  When we arrived at the county park boat launch the ranger informed us that we could not go out on the lake because the sheriff had closed the launch for the day do to bad weather.   We made the best of the situation and headed over to Littlefield Lake to try our luck.  Not knowing much about the lake we spent an hour driving around marking out fish and structures.  The lake is very clear and deep, so we fished along the defined drop offs that you find all around the lake.  Overall in 5 hours we did not hook a fish jigging and trolling.  We saw lots of carp and a few bass in in the shallow. 

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 6/17/11



North Shore Walleye 11 FOW



North Shore 12.5 FOW



East Bay undersize walleye



South Shore Sunfish

Had lots of fun fishing Houghton Lake today.  Mark and I started our morning out trolling in 8 FOW on the West shore and quickly realized that the chopped up floating weeds that covered the lake were going to make trolling very difficult.  We packed up our trolling gear at 8am and made the best of a bad weed day by doing some traveling around the lake jigging and bobber fishing.  The best action was on the North shore in 12 FOW jigging around the weed clumps.  We used gold jig heads tipped with Gulp, plastic, and leaches.  Overall we hooked 7 walleyes and lots of pan fish.  If your heading to Houghton this weekend the water is holding at 70 F and you will find lots of dead mayflies and weeds on the surface.

Good Luck...

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 6/11 - 6/14

Jim's Monster 11-inch Sunfish.  Hooked on the North Shore.

Hothuntingspots,

Thank you for the tips on fishing Houghton Lake. Although the winds were high all week we made the best of it.

The Mayflies were out in force so we switch to fly's in 3 ft of water at night and we caught 7 keepers in about 90 minutes. Tuesday we went after bass and slammed them! Fished in 12 ft of water off the North shore twitching crawlers in the pockets of weeds. We boated 23 (15 smallies) with every one of them over 14 inches. The biggest was a 19 in Smally. Most of them were 16-17 inches. We ended the 3 1/2 days with 32 Walleye 17 of them keepers.

Attached is a picture of the 11 inch Sunfish Jim caught.

Have a nice day,

Mike Bennett

Pratt Lake 6/13/11

Fished Pratt Lake Monday night for the first time this summer.   We started on the South East side of the lake working leaches and crank baits in 10 to 14 FOW.  The bass and bluegill action was great on the South shore.  We hooked one small 10-inch walleye on a slip bobber rig in 13 FOW and a nice pike.  Closer to dark we trolled without any luck.  The lake is in great fishing condition right now, the water is clear and the weeds down. 
Good Luck...




 

Pratt Lake Sunset

 

Chachi and Grandpa



Budd Lake Report 6/10/11

Budd Lake in the rain

I fished Budd Lake from 7am to 1pm today checking out areas in preparation for the fishing tournament tomorrow. The fishing action was slow at best and it rained all day. Found some nice bluegills on the south east shore in 10 FOW. Water is fairly clear and 72 F at this time.



Good luck....

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 6/9/11



Bill with a nice walleye caught on a white Thunderstick.



South Shore 10.25 inch Bluegill caught on a black and silver TD5 Taildancer

                                                                                                                                                                      Fished Houghton Lake Thursday afternoon. I met up Bill Caldwell a gentlemen I got to know this winter after he sent us a very detailed email inquiring about how and where to catch walleyes on Houghton Lake. Bill and his fishing crew normally spend a week every year on Houghton looking for pike and walleye. Well, things worked out and Bill and I were able to spend an enjoyable afternoon fishing and talking about walleyes. The original plan was to head to the East Bay and spend the afternoon slip bobber fishing along the West shore, but when we got out at 6:00pm the wind was wrong. We changed plans and started out fishing on the South shore just west of the Elks club. The action was good and we hooked one walleye, two pike, and a 10.25-inch blue gill. After about 45 minutes of fishing the north wind and weeds shut us down and trolling was impossible so we packed up and headed to the north shore. On our way across the lake we marked some suspended fish in 9.5 FOW, so we stopped and trolled back with the wind. The area paid off with five walleyes and two keepers. We worked the area until 8:00pm then packed up and moved to the north shore where we fished in 6 to 9 FOW. The action was ok and we ended up hooking four walleyes and one keeper.

14.75 inch North Shore walleye. 

Nice walleye 9 FOW

Overall, we landed three keepers, seven undersized, lost six, hooked a 10.25 blue gill, and broke two lines along with having a great afternoon fishing in the cold with Bill. If you’re heading to Houghton this weekend the mayflies hatch is on so be prepared to work a bit. The water temp was 69 F on the South shore and 72 F on the north shore. Our best colors were white and black / silver. The fish we targeted were about 1.5 foot off the bottom and were holding in 7 to 9 FOW. I’ll post some GPS point tomorrow.



Good Luck…


Follow-up from Bill:

Hello Dennis, Thanks again for the truly great fishing trip on Houghton Lake. I have waited for a couple of days to try to understand various elements of the trip. I have a few more questions about what I perceived we were doing to catch Walleyes. Can you tell me if we varied speed of the boat and approx. what the range was (1.5 to2.2 mph) ? Also you wanted to try slip bobber fishing with leaches as a second method. This might be fine, but could you also have slow trolled with crawler harnesses after fast trolling with stick baits? Example:  fast troll- then slow troll- then drift with crawler harnesses? Or would this be too difficult to do in such weeded conditions and wind conditions? I hope all these questions doesn't bother you, but I am trying to learn more about walleye fishing. I am serious about fishing with you again  and my wife said she would just love to go. Do you fish Black Lake in Onaway, Mi.? The crew was talking about trying there again, (before you talked with them and actually caught Walleye). live)  Thank You for everything and take your time answering!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have a great Fishing year..... Bill Caldwell---