Houghton Lake Ice 1/2/12

I visited Houghton Lake this morning to checkout the ice conditions around the lake.  The West side of Houghton has open water in mud bay and a few spots out further NW.  The Heights has open water along shore a few hundred yard wide.  The south shore is frozen and it looks like a few people have fished the shore line.  East Bay is frozen and had a few fishermen out in the wind and snow.  I talked with two fishermen and they reported up to six inches of ice in areas, but noted that they found a few thin spots with less then three inches of ice.  I made a trip over to Five Lakes in Clare and found open water and thin shore ice.   

Houghton Lake from the end of Clarence St. North of the Heights Marina

East Bay view from the boat launch behind the Pressure Crack Bar

Open water on Five Lakes

Budd Lake Ice Conditions 12/31/11



Budd Lake

The ice condition are not good on Budd. Open water and slush. 

Ice Trolling Setup

 

Waiting For Ice 12/29/11



Lindy Slick Jigs. 

Ice fishing season is starting out slow this year.  Today (12/29) we still have open water on Budd Lake and all of the surrounding lakes that we like to fish on first ice.  I've have heard two reports that the East Bay of Houghton Lake has up to 5-inches of ice in spots and guys are out fishing.  I plan to drive up to Houghton tomorrow and check the ice conditions and will report back. Like the rest of the waiting ice fishermen I have been stocking up on fishing lures and have all of my equipment ready to go when we have safe fishing conditions.

    

Pratt Lake



Justin with the first fish of the day

  With the whitetail rut in full swing it's hard to think about fishing, but after nine days of straight hunting all of us were ready for a short break.  We took the afternoon off and headed over to Pratt Lake to try our luck hooking a few walleye and marking spots for first ice.   Overall, we found one spot on the East Shore in 15 FOW that produced six fish all pike and bass.  I marked the spot and will check it out when we start ice fishing.  Water temp was a cool 46 F and the dock at the launch is pulled ashore for the winter.

Detroit River Walleye "3- magnum report"



9.1 pound Detroit River 10/10/11 

Monday October 10th:
Michigan State Trooper Mark Miller took a few hours off from chasing the bad guys to head out to the Detroit River to try for some fall eyes and landed this 9.1 lb lunker.
He was fishing with our friend Don Ferguson in his new sea nymph drifting with chartreuse hogs and crawlers in 8 fow.
Don't forget about the annual frog migration to the lakes where you should have great night fishing from the shore casting bright colored bombers, reflective and glow as the Walleyes wait in the shallows for unsuspecting frogs. Try rocky areas and be quiet, the fish will be very close to shore and will spook easily. You should catch a limit of hogs.

-Rich

Houghton Lake 9/2/11



First fish of the morning 15.5-inch walleye



We fished Houghton Lake on Friday morning from 8am - 12:20pm.  The original plan was to fish most of the day, but we were pushed off the lake by 30mph winds at lunchtime.  The fishing action was good for the most part.  We hooked one keeper walleye and six undersized fish along with a few pike.  All of our fish were caught trolling in 5 to 8 FOW on the North shore. 

Good Luck...

Hubbard Lake Fishing Report 7/16 - 7/23

Hubbard Lake




 

Great fishing fun on Hubbard Lake

Dennis,

Well we went to Hubbard Lake July 16 - 23rd and we slammed the Smallies.
We had 3 boats and we caught over 175 in the 6 days. The average size was 16 inches with several of them 18 - 20. The boats trolling said the Walleye fishing was slow but we boated 3 or 4 keepers every time we went out. The water Temp was 79 and the Walleyes seem to like the slow moving night crawler.
The first day we tried trolling and throwing lures with little luck. Day two we went to night crawlers in 8 - 15 feet of water and slammed then the rest of the week.

Thanks for all your tips!

Have a nice day,

Mike

Houghton Lake Fishing Report

 Fishing Report From Jeff and Tom:



Houghton Lake - Jeff and Tom 

Dennis - sorry we missed you this weekend, had a great morning Saturday…6 keeper walleyes, 12 non keepers, 13 keeper pans with 3 Gills over 10” and one perch 11” The one picture with the 3 walleyes was from Friday morning, 15”, 16 1/2” and 18”…same spot in 8-10 FOW…threw back 8

Drifting with Leeches seems to produce the best results, too many floating weeds for trolling.

Will be back up for Labor Day Weekend.


Jeff and Tom another good morning





Houghton Lake Walleye Fun

Budd Lake 8/5/11



Chachi and his Budd Lake Pike hooked in 23 FOW


Fished Budd Lake on Friday evening from 7:40pm - 9:30pm.  We trolled in 23 to 25 FOW and targeted fish suspended at 15 foot with Rapala Deep 20 Taildancers.  On our short trip we hooked a 24 inch pike, 17 inch bass, and lost one fish.

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

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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.