Saginaw River 2/26/13

Fished the Saginaw River out of Independence launch after work.  The ice conditions were good with close to six inches in our fishing area out in 25 FOW.  Started fishing at 4pm and marked lots of fish all afternoon.  The best action was on perch colored moxi minnow.   We hooked 4 walleye one keeper and lost two in two and a half hours of fishing. 



Saginaw River

Moxi minnow walleye 25 FOW

14 inch fish 4:45pm

Houghton Lake 2/22/13




Mark with his first tip up walleye of 2013

Friday afternoon Mark, Matt, and I  fished the West side of Houghton Lake.  We headed out of the West boat launch about 2 miles and started looking for fish in 11 FOW.  After an hour of drilling we found a good weed area and setup.  Fishing action was good from 3:30pm to 7pm.  We caught two walleyes and lots of small pike on tip up rigs set 18 inches of bottom.  Jigging was also working well and we hooked two walleye and lost a few on buck shot spoons with whole minnows.  Overall we caught two keeper walleyes, two throw backs, five perch and a lot of small pike.

Good luck...




Small walleye buck shot spoon / minnow.  11 FOW




Perch on Tip up 11 FOW

Budd Lake Fishing Report 2/24/13:

Four of us fished the Frost Bite Open fishing tournament on Sunday from 8am-2pm.  The weather was great, but the fishing action was super slow.  Thirty plus teams entered and the winning fish was a 5.08 lb pike caught by Mike Meir.




Mark and Chachi Budd Lake

Houghton Lake 1/17/13

Small walleye caught in 12 FOW on a
 jigging spoon

Fished the north shore of Houghton Lake on Thursday.  Headed out to check some of my summer spots and did lots of hole drilling without finding any fish.  After three hours of searching around I headed back toward the boat launch and found a good looking spot on the map to drill.  On the first hole I check I saw two walleye, so I setup and got out of the wind.  I fished the area for three hours and hooked 4 walleyes all 14 to 14.5 inches and a few pike. 

 

Ice conditions are very good 8 to 10 inches with very little snow cover.

 

Good Luck.....



First Pike of the day.

GPS Location N 44 19.791    W 84 39.949

Lake Mitchell 1/11/13

Lots of water flowing to the hole.
 Floating Tip Up. 

Lake Mitchell. 

Fishermen in front of the boat launch.  Lots of fog and slush.

 It seems like every time I get a day to go ice fishing this season mother nature doesn't want to cooperate.  Despite the warm temperatures and rain on Friday I made a trip over to Lake Mitchell to try out the walleye action.  When I arrived at the lake the ice had 2 inches of slush and the fog was thick enough that I couldn't see across the lake.  Ready to fish I headed out of the launch to fish on the south shore.  After searching for an hour I saw a few walleyes on the camera in 10 to 11 FOW.   The fishing action was just as bad as the weather.  In six hours of fishing I saw five walleyes and never hooked anything.   Lake Mitchell had 9 to 10 inches of ice and should be good fishing when the weather straightens up.

 

Good Luck....

Pratt Lake Fishing Trip 12/30/12

Mark and I fished the East side of Pratt Lake Sunday afternoon.  The ice conditions around our fishing area were 3 to 3.5 inches at best.  Had lots of action but didn't catch any walleyes on this trip.  We had lots of fun catching small pike and bass until dark.  My MarCum 820 camera stopped working on this trip killing our scouting plan.  I've used the MarCum 820 for three seasons now and had tons of problems with it, so now that it's dead I'll replace it with a different brand before my next trip. 

 

Good Luck....

 



Pratt Lake 12/30/12

Pratt Lake 12/30/12

Pratt Lake

Pratt Lake 12-27-12

Holly and I ventured out onto Pratt Lake this afternoon to check the ice conditions.  The lake is completely frozen over and on the South East shoreline we found 4 inches of ice in close.  As we moved out 50 yards into 8 FOW we hit 2 inches of ice which was not enough ice to make me comfortable.  I'll check the ice again in a few days.

We did see fishermen out in front of the beach and on NE shoreline.

Houghton Lake 12/26/12

Houghton Lake South Shore 12/26/12

Houghton Lake Heights Shoreline 12/26/12

Houghton Lake is not completely frozen over as of 12/26/12.  We did see fishermen out a few hundred yards in mud bay and two shanties in the SW corner of East Bay.  Lots of open water all around the lake which means we will not be fishing HL for a few more weeks.    

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 8/24/12

13.5 inch HL Crappy Caught Trolling on
the North Shore

 

After a very busy month at work Mark and I finally made it back to Houghton Lake fishing.  We headed out of the North DNR launch at 8:45am and targeted fish in 8 to 12 FOW.  The first half of the morning we trolled around our fishing areas without much luck.  Trolling produced a few pike and two nice crappy down around 8 foot in 10 FOW.  At noon we took a trip across the lake to the South shore to get out of the wind and do some casting.  The South shore report was slow and by 2pm we called it a day.  Overall we hooked some nice pan fish while walleye fishing.  No walleye on this trip, but a great morning on the lake.  The best action this year has been close to weed cover in 8 to 12 FOW.

 

Budd Lake Report:

Winning Bass Team (Haskell, Wade, Matt),
Largest Bass 19 inches Matt Mondue

Saturday morning we fished in the Second Annual Summer Classic Bass Tournament on Budd Lake.  We had a great time and hooked a lot of bass our best was 17 3/4 hooked on the East shore with a drop shot rig.  The best bass of the tournament was a 19 inch bass  hooked on a drop shot rig by Matt Mondu.  Only two pike were hooked during the morning event, the winning Pike was 34 inches hooked on the South shore. 

Releasing the Winning Pike 34 inches

Houghton Lake 7/22/12

North Shore pan fish. 

Headed to the North Shore this morning looking for walleyes and ended up finding a nice school of pan fish in 12 FOW.  We hooked all of the gills on jigs and slip bobbers fished 18 inches off bottom.  The bite was hot until the rain moved through.  Overall we hooked 26 gills and a few nice perch.  No walleye action today.

Good Luck....

Houghton Lake 7/20/12

Gold jig / Leech 12 FOW

Last Friday we fished the Saginaw Bay from 7am to 2pm and hooked one keeper and a boat load of 14 inch fish in 26 to 30 FOW Straight out of Standish.  The hot weather and the bugs made the trip a challenge.  

Houghton Lake Report 7/20: We started our morning on the West end of the lake trolling in 9 to 11 FOW working with the NW wind.  We trolled around the weeds for two hours and ended up hooking three pike.   At 9am we headed to the East end of the lake to get out of the wind and do some jigging.  The walleye bite was slow at best until noon and then we found good action in 12 FOW just south of Harvey's Marina.  Best action was on gold jigs tipped with leeches fished about 18 inches off bottom with a slow presentation.  Overall we hooked 5 keepers and 2 undersized by 3pm. 

GPS point for Harvey's area  N 44 19.232  W 84 38.295

Good Luck.....

Keeper 1:15pm gold jig / leech 12.5  FOW

Mill Lake fishing trip

http://www.mytriprecorder.com/myTripRecorder.html#userid=1372001&trip=Mill%20Lake

Houghton Lake Fishing Report 7/1/12

West Shore Pan Fish and Walleyes

The West shore of Houghton Lake is heating up. We started fishing at 9:30am this morning in 11 FOW slowly working our way around the weeds jigging Berkeley Gulp minnows and leeches. No wind and 80 degree water temps made ideal conditions for working in and around the weeds. We setup slip bobbers with leeches 18 inches off bottom as our secondary rods. At noon we stumbled across a nice school of pan fish that ended up producing four gills at the ten inch mark one at 10.5 and a nice mess for our dinner. The walleye action was best on Berkeley Gulp minnows orange / yellow jigs fished up off bottom. We hooked 10 walleyes and 4 keepers by 1pm.

I talked to a group of fishermen at the dock that had a few walleyes and some big pike. They said they were jig fishing east of the Limber Lost in 10 to 12 FOW.

Crooked Lake:  Saturday morning we fished in a bass tournament on Crooked Lake in Lake Station and had a wonderful time.  This was our first time on the lake and we found lots of bass and big pan fish.   I marked out a few spots and plan to return in January to try hooking some of the big crappy the lake is known for.  Overall the lake is worth fishing if you like to catch bass.

Good Luck.....

Berkeley Gulp Minnow Walleye

  

Alex with his first fish 11 FOW

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.