Houghton Lake Walleye Opener 2012

Calm water at 7:00pm

We had a great time fishing Houghton Lake on the walleye opener.  The morning was cold and the NE wind made fishing a little challenging.  Working with the wind we fished the South shore from the Limber Lost to the Heights  targeting 5 to 7 FOW along the weed edges.  We started out by trolling a slower presentation at 1.6 to 1.8 mph with TD 5 tail dancers, thunderstick jr, and 3-inch bombers without any luck.  On our second run we changed to TD 7 tail dancers and Berkeley flicker shads trolled at 2.0 to 2.3 and hooked four small pike and then a walleye at 11:20am.  We hooked our second walleye at around 2pm in 6 FOW South of the Elks Club on a white thunder stick and then the bite stopped. 

At 3:00pm we headed to the boat launch to cook lunch and meet up with the rest of the fishermen.  The reports were all the same.  Cold water, floating weeds, and a slow bite.  Out of five boats only two walleyes were hooked and not much else.  Our friend Joe who guides for Cal Stier's www.nofishnofee.com had a slow day on the south shore, but did note that they found walleyes in the channels while pan fishing on Friday. 

We started our afternoon fishing trip at 4:30pm and continued fishing the South Shore.  The wind died off and the water temp held at 48 F the rest of the afternoon but the bite never improved on the South shore.  We hooked two walleyes at 7:40pm and that was it.  After fishing all day we hooked four walleyes and a lot of small pike.  The weather and floating weeds didn't help, but overall it was great to be back on Houghton Lake. 

Good Luck...

Afternoon walleyes South Shore 6 FOW

Saginaw Bay 4/13/12

Mike "Elk Hunter" with the first fish of the day.

It's a great time of the year to get some early walleye fishing in before all of the lakes open up at the end of April.  We fished out of Bay City on Friday and had a great time searching for walleye.  Started our day fishing near the mouth of the Saginaw River and didn't find any active fish.  At noon we headed North of the State Park about 2 miles and trolled in 15 to 18 FOW.  The bite was very slow and ended up hooking three females that hadn't spawned out, we released them.  Best action was on tail dancers green, red, blue.  

3" Magnum Report Detroit River

Rich with a nice walleye

Over the weekend my uncle  came down to try out some Detroit river spring walleye action. We met up after work on Friday and hit the Trenton channel for the afternoon  strike and picked up a couple fish, one was in 13 fow on the drop off at north end of humbug island and one was in 9 fow on the glass house drift. We also had a couple fish lost at the side of the boat and a lot of short strikes. Saturday started at the same area and found lots of disappointed fishermen, so we worked our way north to mud island and great lakes steel. Fished in all depths and only got a couple strikes along with everyone else. We didn't see a single fish landed in those areas so we headed up to Bellanger park and finally found some fish. We drifted in 46 fow at the mouth of the Rouge River and picked up 2 nice fish and lost a few as well. All in all we had a great time fishing and I got to show my uncle how we do it Detroit River style. By the way my big fish was 28" and 8lb-12oz. Not bad.


-Rich

Earl with his first walleye of the year

Detroit River Walleye

Detroit River Walleye hooked on plastic

3" Magnum Report - Detroit River

We went out to the Trenton channel Saturday for a while and found fishing to be mediocre in the morning with only 1 big male in the box and a few lost fish. Afternoon was super slow with just a few strikes. The water temp was 46 deg in the am and 47 deg in the pm. The weather change, pea soup fog and NE stiff winds that changed to South wind played a big factor in the slow fishing this weekend.  I talked to a few fishermen that did catch decent numbers and a lot of guys got skunked.

Sunday morning I went out to Ohio waters in lake Erie between Turtle Island and the Toledo light in 10 FOW and picked up a few fish on yellow and orange blade baits and lost a few as well in the chocolate milk colored water. The water temp was 53 deg and the SW wind made jigging difficult at times but I was catching fish. I did check out the dumping grounds out from Bolles Harbor and found clear water and lots of people caught limits out there. I will give that a shot next weekend.

- Rich

3" Magnum Report - Detroit River

Well, they went out again this morning and landed 17 Walleyes and lost 35 near Turtle Island. Nice job mark.

-Rich

3" magnum Report - Detroit River

These fish were caught near Turtle Island in southwest Lake Erie. All males staging near Maumee River for spawning, by the way they did have four people in the boat. I will be heading to this spot on Saturday morning to check out this hot action for myself. Good luck everyone its on!

- Rich

3" magnum Report - Detroit River

1/4 oz Tube Bait. 

This 1/4 oz tube bait caught a limit of walleyes in the Trenton Channel on Sunday.

-Rich

3" Magnum Report - Detroit River

It's on!
The annual circus we call the spring walleye run in the Trenton Chanel is here. Get your jigs and Wyandotte worms ready and get out there. The water is 43 degrees as of Sunday and getting warmer, the males are in and biting. As far as presentation I've spoke to a lot of anglers and they are biting on a lot of different things; yellow, purple, blue Orange jig heads tipped with Wyandotte worms with or without a minnows and 1/4 oz jig heads with yellow tube baits seem to be the most active presentations. I marked lots of fish over the weekend south of Trenton Edison in all depths of water. Use your extricate motor to keep a vertical jig and bounce it off bottom. There will be a ton of boats congregated in relatively small areas but don't let that stop you from jumping right in the mix, there are certain areas that are usually really active and us locals know exactly where they are so keep in mind that the conventional wisdom of just because there's boats there doesn't mean there's fish there does not apply. They are there, trust me.

I have also heard of lake Erie Ohio waters just off Turtle Island limits being caught on blade baits.

Good luck and happy fishing.

-Rich

Saginaw Bay

SAGINAW BAY

MARCH 16, 2012

 

The Hot Hunting Spots Crew hit the Saginaw Bay for some Walleye Action.  This year the ice is out early and the fishing action has been heating up to go along with these high tempratures.

 

We tried several techniques to get fish and found our most effective way was to drive around with the fish finder & side scan looking for fish in 10 - 18 foot of water near the state park area.  We did not fish dirty water near the mouth but instead headed out to clear water on the flats.

 

Once we spotted fish - we used the following SNEAK ATTACK.

We used the wind to move our boat, we slipped our anchor off the bow and we tied a loop for bottom and also a loop 3 foot up the line.  ( pulling the anchor only slightly off the bottom to move )

 

We then used minnows on Jigs to work slowly in the area.

 

After a few minutes, if we did not get strikes, we would lift the anchor to move quietly.

As the sonar picked up more fish, ( reading off the back of the boat ) we would slide our anchor back down quietly holding the bow. 

 

Prior to going into our Stealth Mode - we tried multiple techniques, including our favorite troll methods.  The fish were not responding to those methods:

 

We spoke with many others at the boat landing who were frustrated they could mark fish but not get them to bite.

 

All the fish we caught were heavy females - Wow what a fight!

 

But we needed to really slow down to entice these fish - We also noticed that even drifting, we did not get the same response from the fish.  We had to pretty much sit down on the fish before they would respond.

 

Hope that helps you on your next trip out to the Bay.

 

Douglas, Dennis, Mark, Nicholas & Chachi

Eight Point Lake

Budd Lake Fishing Contest 2/19/12



Dennis & Chachi 

The 2012 Frost Bite Open Fishing Tournament had a big turnout and a great day for ice fishing. My nephew Chachi and I got on the lake at 6:45am ready to fish. Our first stop on our way to registration was at Riches sleeper shanty to meet up with Millais and Rich for the tournament. They moved their shanty to the South shore Saturday night after a two day stay on Houghton Lake. The sleeper shanty experience has added another level to ice fishing all together. Fishing started at 8am and we were setup on South shore along with lots of other fishermen. Things went well early and we hooked all of our pan fish by 9 am. Then we worked the rest of the day trying to find a walleye or a pike to complete the stringer. Everyone in our team and as far as I could see fished hard without ever producing a fish. It turned out to be one of those days and we ended up hooking lots of pan fish, but no big fish. At weigh in no walleyes were caught and the winning team of Mark Reinkee and his wife won the tournament with 9 lbs, one pike and a 10 pan fish. Another fun even made possible by Kens Landing and the Harrison Chamber.

Rich and Chaci fishing 12 FOW

Great ice fishing weather

Houghton Lake 2/17/12

Mark and Tracker waiting for a bite

We fished the West Side of Houghton Lake Friday afternoon from 2 - 7pm.  Mark and I headed out 1.6 miles to one of our winter fishing areas in 9 FOW.  We setup and found good weeds and saw a few walleyes on the camera early.  The fish didn't cooperate at all and we had our fist shut out of the year on HL.  The ice conditions were very good with about 10 to 11 inches in most areas. 

Holly and Danny

West Side of Houghton Lake

Budd Lake 2/12/12

Chachi taking a break by the power dock

We spent seven hours today walking Budd Lake marking out fishing spots for Frost Bite Fishing Tournament that will be held next Sunday.  Chachi and I checked out a lot of new fishing spots and didn't find many fish.  We didn't hook any fish today, but we did find a few new areas that have nice fish structure.

Afternoon setup on the West side

Budd Lake 2/12/12

Underwater camera clip of a musky found in 15 FOW while scouting for walleye.

3" Magnum Report

After getting my boat uncovered and ready I headed for the boat launch at lake Erie metro park only to realize that my fuel line was bad so we decided to hit the Gibraltar Marinas. We ended up slaying the jumbo perch, lunker gills and crappies. We caught about 30 perch over 10" and about 50 gills over 8" and about 10 average size crappies over the weekend. It was nice to sit on the dock watching a bobber in February.

- Rich "3-Inch Mag"

Pratt Lake 2/3/12

 

Slow bite on Pratt Lake.  We made it out on Friday and found lots of fish but not much activity.  The blue gills were scattered in 10 to 18 FOW in most areas we looked.  Ice conditions are still good with about 8 inches in most areas.  If your heading out on the lake make sure you have ice cleats on.

2012 Houghton Lake Ice Fishing Tournament

2012 Sportsmen for Their Neighbors Ice Fishing Tournament

Brought to you by Central Michigan District Health Department

Saturday March 10th, 2012

South Shore DNR Boat Launch Houghton Lake. M-55 and Townline Rd.

Registration begins at 7:00 AM with fishing starting at 8:00 AM.

Weigh in is at 1:00 PM with prizes being given away at 2:00 PM.

Two-person teams

$15 per person prior to event

$20 per person day of event

Prizes for (legal caught):

u Largest Pike

u Largest Walleye

u Largest stringer of Walleye

u Largest stringer of Walleye

u Heaviest mess of pan fish

u Largest Sunfish

u Largest Perch

u Largest Crappie

All fish caught will be donated to local food banks in order to help decrease hunger in Central Michigan. There will also be a canned food drive as well as a wild game drop off to be donated to food banks as well.

Family events will also be going on for those not interested in ice fishing include:

Skating rink, Chili Cook Off, Professional Fisherman appearances, Dietitians

Hotel Rooms at a discount rate through the Beachfront Hotel

www.Beachfronthl.com or call 989-202-4700

(2 queen beds with a beachfront view for $69.99 with a Jacuzzi upgrade for $10 more)

Visit CMDHD.ORG for registration information or contact:

 Jake Trombley

(989) 615-3968

TROMBL49@MSU.EDU

A special thanks to our Premier Sponsor:

Lyman’s on the Lake Buy your bait at Lyman’s!  

Pratt Lake Fishing Report 1/27/12



Pratt Lake Gills

 

The original Friday fishing plan was to head over to Lake Cadillac, but work issues kept us close to home.  We made the best of our situation and drove over to Pratt Lake to try our luck. Mark and I started looking for fish on the South East side of the lake at noon and found lots of bass and sunfish.  We worked our way around the lake and found bass and pan fish in 10 to 18 FOW in most areas we checked out.  We took advantage of the gill fishing and caught a limit while we searched for walleyes.   Overall we caught lots of average sized gills and had a busy time with our tip ups unhooking bass and pike.  No walleyes hooked on this trip, but we did see two nice ones on the fish camera.  The ice conditions were good with seven to eight inches everywhere we fished. 

Lake 13 Report:  Friend of ours have limited out on gills and big perch on the last four trips out to Lake 13. 

Good Luck...

Lake 13 Farwell Michigan

Pratt Lake Ice Fishing Trip 1-27-12.