March Fishing Report

I haven't posted a report in a few weeks because I've been busy fishing every lake I can get on.

Houghton Lake Report:

We are still catching walleyes from 4pm - dark using jigging spoons tipped with minnows. Our best spot has been 1.2 miles north east on Layman's Bait shop in 10 FOW. We are consistently landing walleyes, perch, and a few nice crappies.

Pratt Lake Report:

Walleye fishing has picked up. They are feeding in shallow water 7 - 8 FOW right before dark. Using jigging spoons tipped with a minnow. I have been getting a few pan fish but I haven't found the big ones yet. I'll focus on them after walleye season closes on the 15th.

Budd Lake Report:

Pan fishing is on fire. Every tip we make we are limiting out on blue gills, perch, and nice crappy. We are targeting 19 FOW outside of any weed bed we can find. Work the South East end of the lake. Our last trip out we found the walleyes but couldn't get them out of the hole.

Long Lake Report:

Walleyes and crappy are being caught daily on the North end of the lake in 20 - 22 FOW.

Sugar Springs Report:

This like has more blue gills then you can haul in. I fished the Springs two weeks ago and picked up two walleyes, some bass, several pike, and some nice gills. Fish the West end of the like in 10 FOW.

I'll report back on Monday after this weekends fishing action. We will be on Pratt Lake Friday looking for a few big walleye.

Good Luck.

2008 Ice Fishing Fun

2008 Fishing Video Clip.

Fishing Report 2-3-08

Houghton Lake 2-1-08

• Find the weed areas and you will find the fish. Caught three walleyes in 9FOW using a watermellon colored Northland jigging spoon with a 2-inch minnow. Fishing has been the best from 4:00pm to dark.

Stevenson Lake (Clare) 2-2-08

• Our fishing team spent the afternoon scouting and fishing Stevenson Lake without much success. We fished for six hours and only caught a few small bluegills. I used my camera all day and only saw small bluegills and a few bass. The lake has limited weeds and where you find the weeds is where you will find the most fishermen.

Budd Lake 2-3-08

• Perch fishing is still very good. We had to spend about one hour drilling holes and looking with the camera to find a good school of perch in 15 FOW. We caught some very nice fish and had a great time. I still see a lot of guys fishing in front of the power dock and on the north end of the lake.

January Ice Fishing Update

Ice fishing has been very good for walleyes on Houghton Lake and Pratt Lake.



Houghton Lake (1-19)

We fished out of the North DNR launch on (1/19) to avoid all of the Tip Up Town snowmobile traffic. Our team setup 1.2 miles SW of the launch in 10 FOW. We ended up landing seven walleyes with a 20-inch being the largest and a few small pike. The fishing was the best from 2:00pm - 6:30pm using Northland jigging spoons and a shinner minnow. I don't have any pictures this week because I lost my camera on our last Houghton lake fishing trip.



Pratt Lake (1-20)

Fished on the NE end of the lake in 16 FOW and had very good time. I caught some nice crappy and two walleyes. I found a lot of sign that other people have been fishing the same area, but I was the only guy on the lake Sunday afternoon.

Houghton Lake Ice Fishing Report 1-11-08

Houghton Lake has a solid 8-inches of ice with about 2-inches of snow on top as of Friday night. The new snow has made walking on the lake better, but if you are not careful walking you can end up slipping.

We headed out of Lyman's access point and continued out NE for 1.3 miles. When you head out of Lyman's you will see the shanty town we are fishing about 1 mile north of the town off of the point.

The action was the most productive in 10 FOW from 3:30pm to 6:15pm using Northwoods jigging spoons with a whole shiner minnow a foot off the bottom. Tip-up action was slow with only one flag. We ended up catching five walleyes, four big perch, and we lost three fish.

Fishing Report

Houghton Lake

Fished three days on Houghton and had a lot of walleye and pike action. Walleyes are biting on jigging rapalas and jigging spoons all tipped with minnow heads. We have been fishing in 9 to 11 FOW with our best action in the middle of the day and 4:30 to dark. I'll post some GPS way points next week. Pike are being caught in the same areas we are fishing walleyes and I did see a 38-inch fish landed.

Budd Lake

Budd Lake continues to produce perch every trip we make. The fishing pressure is starting to pick up especially near the power dock. I have been finding perch in 14 to 20 FOW and caught a limit every trip. I've been fishing near the state park on the west side of the lake and the south end of the lake. The best setup is a small hook and minnow. Ice conditions are good with about 7 inches.

Long Lake

Long Lake continues to keep its fish hidden. I fished for eight hours and never caught a fish. I fished for crappy and walleye without any luck. We did hear of a guy landing a 11-pound fish on 1-5 at the north end of the lake. Ice conditions are good with about 7 inches.

Pratt Lake

Not much fishing pressure on Pratt Lake. I spent a day traveling the lake fishing for crappy and walleyes. I did see several schools of blue gills on the camera but didn't fish for them. We ended up landing some nice crappy 8 to 11 inch fish and lost one walleye all in 17 FOW on the East end of the lake.

Wixom Lake

Ice conditions are not good so travel on Wixom with caution. I fished in areas that had as little as 2-inches of ice. We fished from day light to dark and only caught two crappy, three perch, and saw one walleye. Wixom Lake has never been nice to me and I find it to be one of the harder lakes to fish in the area.

Arnold Lake

We fished Arnold lake on 1-2 and never saw or caught a fish. I talked with several fisher men on the ice that also got shutout. I've been fishing on Arnold Lake since I've been nine years old and I have only been able to catch pike in the winter time. Arnold is a great bass and crappy lake in the summer and it has a great variety of depths up to 90 feet. The down fall is that the DNR has no planted fish in Arnold since 1980. I'm planning on fishing Arnold one more time in early March.

Budd Lake December 9th

The weather has been very cold here in central Michigan and the lakes are freezing fast.

Normally I'd still be bow hunting for a monster buck at this time of the year, but the deer hunting in our area is down right terrible. I have spent the last two weekends scouting deer and I can't find a track. I also have four trail cameras out in the woods and the only pictures I've got are of three bears.

With that side and out of the way it's time to talk about fishing on the ice. We made it out to Budd Lake on 12-9-07 and found 6 1/2 -inches of ice and no fishermen on the lake. I started out searching in 24 FOW on the rock piles and after drilling about twenty holes I didn't find a fish. We moved into 12 FOW and worked along the sandy breaks and found two big schools of perch. I drilled about thirty holes in a sixty yard area and we went to work catching perch.

We were using 2-lb test a small hook, minnow, and one split shot. On Budd Lake we have good succes fishing with natural bait presentations. The perch fishing was on fire from 1:00pm to 3:00pm and we landed over one hundred fish. The best fish was 13.5 -inches and the average was around 9 - inches.

Make sure you check ice conditions before you walk out on the lake.