fishing the grand river by eaton rapids

 

I fished the Grand River near Eaton Rapids with my friends Jack & Doug.  We mostly caught Bass and we did our best using Black Lead Jig Heads with White or Yellow Twister Body.

This is a really neat place to fish on the Grand River if you are looking for some time away from the office.  

Good Luck!

Houghton Lake West Shore Fishing Report

Mark with a nice crappy on a TD 7 Taildancer

Mark & Danny Walleye White Flicker Shad

9am Walleye West Shore 9 FOW

We made a morning trip up to Houghton Lake to try out a few West shore fishing areas.  At 6:20am we headed out of the west launch one mile and started scanning in 8 to 10 foot of water looking for fish.  We found that the weeds on the West side of the lake are thinned a bit in areas making it possible to troll parts of Walleye Alley.  This area gets lots of fishing pressure and is not normally a location we fish, but when you mark fish suspended at 6 foot you have to try it out.  Fishing was slow at first and we took an hour or so to figure out a troll path around the thick weed areas.  We finally started trolling at 8am and to our surprise the bite was very slow.  After lots of change ups we finally found a setup that got down to the fish.  We found fish but didn't find repeat action.  We would hook a walleye then star pattern the area without hooking up on a second fish.  It turned out to be one of those days where you worked hard and waited for each fish.  Overall we hooked six walleyes 15 to 16 inches, two nice crappy, two undersized walleyes, and a few pike by 12:30pm.  The best action was from 10:30am to noon and the best colors were black / silver TD 7 Taildancer back 50 feet, white Flicker Shade back 30 feet all trolled at 2.1 mph.   We saw lots of fishermen on in Walleye Alley Friday morning which kind of confirms that fishermen are probably catching fish in the area.  I'll be out again next Friday and will be heading to the north shore.

Good Luck...

Last fish of the trip 11:50am West Shore

Houghton Lake Walleye Fishing 6/15/12

9 FOW First Walleye of the Trip 7:30pm

 We fishing Houghton Lake Friday after work from 7pm - 10:30pm.  The conditions were great and the lake was clear of floating weeds.  We headed  NE out of the West boat launch about 2 miles and started fishing in 9 FOW.  The fishing action was slow, but we were on a mission to locate new fishing ares for our July fishing trips.  We hooked three walleyes and a few pike in 9 to 10 FOW.  The best action was on natural colors.

Good Luck......

Danny's First Pike

Houghton Lake

Saginaw Bay

Aaron and Mark with a nice fish.

Aaron with the first fish of the morning.

Had a great time fishing the Saginaw Bay today with a great group of guys.  We launched out of Standish and made our way down to Pinconning to fish in14 to 17 FOW.  When we arrived we found lots of fish all through out the water column.  Fish were suspended at 7 foot all the way down to the bottom.  We setup and ran spinners on high lines back 25 on boards, spinners along the bottom 5 foot up, and deep diving tail dancers on divers back 20 foot.  We caught fish on all of our setups trolled with the wind 1.6 to 1.8 mph.  The best action was on orange and our best fish was 24 inches.  We lost a lot of fish reeling in and had a lot of short strikes on our spinner rigs.  Overall we kept 8 fish for dinner and had a great morning fishing. 

We started fishing this morning in 14 FOW and work NE with the wind.  Started at GPS N 43 50.378  W 83 50.414.

Good Luck....

Dubonnet Lake - 6/2 (Big Panfish)

Fished Dubonnet Lake (mudd lake) today in Northern Michigan.
We found some very nice pan fish action.
Lots of 8+ inch Gills with lots of fight in them.

Lake Mitchell Report

Lake Mitchell

Mark and I fished Lake Mitchell and Cadillac on Friday morning despite the cold and rain.  We got on the lake at 6:45am and started fishing on the South Shore.  At 8am the NE wind picked up, so we headed to the East side of Lake Cadillac.  We trolled and did a lot of casting and jigging without hooking a walleye.  At noon we hooked a monster pike and broke it off at the boat.  We hooked the pike trolling in 16 FOW.  The bad weather conditions made for a cold slow day of fishing, but we had fun learning more about the lakes.  

We made a stop at the Pilgrims Village bait shop and found some good deals on stick baits.  The shop is very nice and they were very helpful. 

Next Friday we are planning to fish Houghton if we have good weather.

Good Luck....

Lake Mitchell Walleye Fishing

West Shore Walleye

Had a fun morning fishing Lake Mitchell.  Mark and I started fishing at 4am on the East shoreline in 5  to 6 FOW.  On our first pass we hooked a nice bass and one undersized walleye both on Rapala rap shads.  At light the wind picked up out of the West, so we moved over to troll with the wind on the Sough shore.  Fishing action was slow along the weed edges and we only hooked one walleye and a few pike.  At 9am we moved to the West and fished in 4 to 6 FOW in the weeds and hooked a walleye and a nice sunfish on Rapala Taildancers.  Later in the morning we fished in 12 to 14 FOW on the North side of the lake and hooked one undersized walleye on a high line (6 foot down) and a nice bass closer to bottom.  Fished the deeper water for 2 hours with limited action.   Perch and trout colors were our most productive patterns in shallow water trolled at 1.7 to 2 mph.  Overall we hooked four walleyes, lots of bass, sunfish, and a few legal pike.  Water temperature was 66 F and should be on the rise this weekend.  Good Luck.....

Nice Sunfish on a Taildancer

4:30am Bass East Shore 5 FOW

Early Morning South Shore Under Size Walleye 6 FOW

Lake Mitchell Walleye

Shallow water trolling path

Mark and I made an early morning trip up to Lake Mitchell to try out the night bite.  We got on the lake at 3:00am and setup to troll shallow  Our first stop was the South shore in 4 to 6 FOW.  The first hour of the morning we trolled stick baits high above the shallows without much luck.  On our second pass heading East we changed over to deeper divers and bumped them on along the sand bottom.  Our first walleye of the morning came at 4:15am out of 3.5 foot of water on new UV thunderstick.  We marked the spot and continued to expand our troll around the area and ended up hooking seven walleyes all 15 to 16 inches.  At light the walleye bite ended and the bass bite turned on.  We hooked a lot of nice smallmouth and a few pike as we worked our way around the lake looking for new walleye areas.  At 10am we headed over to Lake Cadillac to explore and found some nice looking walleye waters on the East side of the lake that we are going to checkout on our next trip.  Overall fishing action was very good early in shallow.  We hooked nine sunfish while trolling in shallow, so pan fishing on the beds should be good right now.  Fishing pressure was concentrated directly in front of the boat launch with most boats fishing in 12 to 14 FOW using slip bobbers. 

Good Luck...

Rapala Rap Shad 5 FOW

First fish of the morning.

5am South Shore Smallmouth

Lake Mitchell

7.5 FOW first walleyes of the day 4:15pm. 

Finally made it up to Lake Mitchell to try out the walleye action.  We started off slow scouting the lake with the map and structure scan looking for fishing areas.  The plan was to map out some shallow areas for night trolling and then visit some of the deeper structure and check for fish with the structure scan.  We mapped out our night trolling area on the NW shore in 4 to 8 FOW first.  Lots of weeds and open pockets made the location idea for our trolling setup.  After studying the shallows we were ready to start fishing some of the deeper structures.  At 2:00pm we found some fish hanging a foot off the bottom in 12 FOW on the West side of the lake.  The wind had picked up so we anchored on the fish and tried our best to make them bite.  We found several spots along the west side of the lake that had fish holding in 10 to 14 FOW but we never hooked anything.  At 4pm we were scanning along the South side of the lake trying to get a break from the wind when we marked a pod of bait fish with bigger fish following them.  We made a quick map of the area and then setup to troll.  On our first run through the area we had a double and hooked to 19 inch walleyes on thundersticks run down to 6 foot.  Thinking we had found our limit area we fished the spot and hooked bass, pike, and one undersized walleye.  On our last troll over the area Mark hooked a very large pike that ended up stealing our white thunderstick.  Ready for a break from the wind we headed into the launch at 7pm and cooked dinner.  At 8:30pm the wind died off and we headed West for the night troll.  We caught lots pike early and then the action shut down at 10:30pm.   Continuing on we kept expanding our trolling area as we learned the shoreline.  The best night bite took place between 12am and 1:30am.  We hooked seven undersized walleyes and lots of bass in 4 to 7 FOW on the West shore.  The best night fishing cranks were black / silver original floating Rapalas and wonder bread colored bombers all back 50 to 60 foot.  Overall, we had a great trip and a wonderful day of fishing.  Few notables from the trip: we only hooked fish on larger cranks and when we cleaned the walleyes we found the were eating 3 to 4 inch perch.  The water was stained making for good shallow water daylight trolling.  We didn't have any luck using slow presentations with live bait or cranks on this trip.

Small walleye 5 FOW at 1am.

Lake Mitchell

Good Luck....

Houghton Lake Report



Mark North Shore Walleye. 7 FOW

South Shore Lunch Grilled Mule Deer 

Justin with his first walleye. South Shore 4 FOW

We made a trip up to Houghton Lake on Friday morning to scout out some new walleye fishing areas.  We started fishing at 9am on the South shore to see if we could hook a few walleyes before heading around the lake.  The South Shore action was slow and we weren't finding any fish in the normal 6 FOW areas.  We changed up our setup and ran into the thick weed cover with shallow running cranks.  After a lot of line cleaning and some work we hooked two walleyes and a few pike.  Overall on both trips to the south shore the walleye have been hanging in the weeds which is not the norm for this time of the year.  After lunch we headed across the lake to explore the North Shore.  The fishing action didn't get much better, but we did catch fish around weed structures in most areas we focused on.  At 6pm the wind picked up and we moved over to try fishing in by Harvey's Marina.  When we arrived we found five other boats fishing in close to shore in the weeds.  We setup and made a troll along the  9 FOW mark where the weeds were manageable.  The weather conditions were better, but we did not hook a fish in the area and didn't see any of the other fishermen do any better. 

Overall fishing was slow in the 57 degree water.  Our best bite was on black / silver shad raps, x-raps, and TD 7 tail dancers.  We didn't hook any fish in open water on this trip.  Best action was trolling close or in  weed clumps in 4 to 8 FOW.  We hooked six keepers, four undersized, and lost a few at the boat.  Next Friday we are planning to fish Lake Cadillac.

Good Luck....

Eight Point Lake

My fishing partner Tracker

Eight Point Lake South Shore

Fished Eight Point Lake Wednesday afternoon.  This was the first time I have been on the lake since the DNR put in the new public boat launch and it's a nice one.  I spent a lot of time using my side scan reviewing the lake early.  I found two areas that where holding fish and looked like my kind of fishing spots.  The first area was on a flat on the South East side of the lake in 8 to 11 FOW.   I setup trolling rigs to run down to the fish at 7 foot and trolled the flat without any success.  After an hour of trolling I setup on the fish and did some rip jigging with gulp and again couldn't buy a bite.  Closer to dark I moved up the North shore and fished off of a 5 foot shelf that dropped out into 12 foot.  This area had several fish hanging in 8 FOW,  but like the last spot I couldn't buy a bite.  Back in 2006 we fished Eight Point three times and caught walleye each trip, so I'm hoping that with a little work I can figure out the bite again.  Overall, no fish caught, the water temp was 57 F and I was the only boat on the lake last night.  The lake is looking good and the DNR walleye stocking should make for some fun walleye fishing.

Good Luck...

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