Houghton Lake Fishing Report 6/21/13

Beautiful Houghton Lake

Fished Houghton Lake from 7pm - 11pm on Friday.  The SW wind limited our fishing areas and kept us on the south shore.  We started out fishing in front of the Limberlost and trolled to the East in 8 to 12 FOW.  The action was ok at best and we netted lots of pike and a few small walleye.  At dark we moved to the Heights shoreline and fished in 8 to 10 FOW just outside of the weeds and hooked three keepers and lots of 14 inch fish.  The night bite was very good and we found fish from the bottom up to 3 foot below the surface. 

 

Good Luck.... 

Joe and Mark with another small walleye

Keeper off of the bottom

 

Houghton Lake 6/14 / Coldwater Lake 6/15



Houghton Lake West Shore



Houghton Lake



Coldwater Lake Fishing trip with all the kids

 

Houghton Lake Friday 6/14:  Fishing was slow at best.  Started out fishing in 10 to 13 FOW on the North shore and hooked two undersized walleyes while drifting.  At 8pm we moved to the West shore and fished in 8 to 10 FOW and didn't hook a fish.  We gave up on drifting and trolled at dark and caught and released one legal walleye.

Coldwater Lake Saturday 6/15:  Saturday afternoon we headed over to Isabella County to try out Coldwater Lake.  This was our fist time on the lake so we spent most of the evening scouting around.  We did not find any fish activity in the 20 to 40 foot depth which make up most of the lake.  Close to dark we fished the narrow strips of shallow water near the boat launch and hooked five undersized walleyes and lots of bass.  Overall the lake is very nice and appears to have a good walleye population.

Good Luck...







Coldwater Lake

Houghton Lake 6/7/13

Trolling the North Shore with the Minn Kota Terrova  

Rapala Scatter Rap 10 FOW

North Shore Walleye

 

 

We launched out the North boat launch at 5am this morning hoping to get a few hours of fishing in before the wind picked up.  Our first trolling areas was in 8 FOW along the shoreline heading out to the East Bay.  The area was missing all of the weed cover that normally holds a few walleyes, so we didn't spend a lot of time searching the area.  At 6:30am we moved out into 10 to 13 FOW and marked fish suspended at 8 foot.  We setup to troll and hooked seven walleyes by 9am.  All of the fish were caught on the new Rapala Scatter Rap minnow bait trolled at 2 mph.  

 

Todays trip we found the fish were hanging in 10 to 13 FOW suspended over the weeds.  We are finding that the weed areas have changed, some are gone and areas we could never troll have thinned out.  These weed cover changes will make for some new fishing opportunities and will shutdown some of our old favorite shallow water spots.   Water temp on the North Shore this morning was a cool 61F today. 

 



Houghton Lake 5/24/13

10:20pm 8FOW West Shore

Small fish

First Walleye of the night.

Rapala Scatter Rap

The Houghton Lake walleye bite was back to normal on Friday night.  We started our trip on the South shore at 7:45pm trolling in 7 FOW.  The pike were active and on our first pass we hooked six pike and a ton of floating weeds that the NW wind had blown in.  We moved West and fished with the wind until we hooked our first walleye in 8 FOW.  From 9pm to 11pm we hooked sixteen undersized walleye and three keepers.  The best bite was on gold and black scatter rap minnow trolled back 55 foot.

 

Lake Mitchell Walleye Fishing 5/17/13

Lake Mitchell 4 FOW

 

 

Lake Mitchell 4 FOW

Lake Mitchell afternoon walleye trips.  We fished Lake Mitchell on Thursday and Friday afternoon hoping to find the walleyes in shallow after dark.  Thursday we started fishing at 7pm and caught lots of pike and a few sunfish while trolling in 4 to 9 FOW on the south shore.  At dark we moved in closer and hooked our first walleye in 4 FOW and lost another.  The walleye action was quick and right at dark.  By 10:00pm the bite was over and we fished on till 1am without another hit. 

 

Friday afternoon we got out at 7:30pm and trolled the East side of the lake in shallow and hooked two pan fish and one pike.  No walleye and a very slow evening of fishing.   The water temp was  57 to 59 F and the weeds are down.   We will be back on Houghton Lake Thursday night.

 

Good Luck...

 

East Shore Lake Mitchell

Houghton Lake 5/5/13

17 inch walleye 7 FOW North Shore

 

 

Opening day of walleye season started out with great weather and cold water.  We fished from noon till 10:00pm and never hooked a walleye.  The last time we had a shutout on the opener was back in 2007. At the launch we met up with Joe and his crew that had done well fishing up on the north shore by the cut river and Jason and his partner hooked two 17 inch fish on the south shore.

 

 On our second trip Sunday (5/5) we found good action on the north shore in 7 FOW in the weeds.  Trolling 1.8 to 2mph we hook a lot of pike and one walleye.  We only had three hours to fish and found the walleyes right when we had to go. 

 

 

Good luck..

 

 

 



Pratt Lake



Pratt Lake

Fished Pratt Lake on Sunday afternoon.  No walleye action but we found lots of bluegills as we searched the lake.  We found bluegill action all around the the lake.  Most of the bigger fish were in 20 to 27 FOW and from bottom suspended up to 15 foot.  Best action was on wax worm and orange tear drop.



Mark with the bass that broke
his fishing pole



Add caption

Saginaw River 3/1/13

Mark with his first Saginaw River Walleye of 2013



Slick jig walleye

Mark and I fished Saginaw River from 2pm - 6:50pm out of the Independence Bridge Launch.  We setup in 24 FOW along side of the ship docking area.  Lots of fishermen setup in the shipping channel fishing in 27 to 31 FOW.  We marked lots of fish all day from bottom to two foot off bottom.  The best bite was on a slow approach with whole minnows and a slick jig.  We hooked six keeper fish all 15 to 15.5 inches and lots of undersized fish.  The best bite today was from 5:50pm to 6:20pm. 

Good Luck.....



Sunset on the river

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.