Curly's Photo and Fishing Blog
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tip-UP Town Starts this Weekend
We’re getting ready for another great Tip-Up Town USA! Michigan’s largest winter festival takes place on January 16th-18th, and 23rd-25th. It is in it’s 59th year and promises to be bigger and better than ever before! Bookmark this site to keep up to date with all the activities planned for 2009. And check the blog regularly for Tip-Up Town gossip and more. Once again you can participate in the best fun that winter can offer for the price of the $5 entry badge (valid both weekends). Mark your calendars now for the last two weekends of January in beautiful Houghton Lake.
We have had brutal weather this week with very little fishing pressure when it is 22 below with high winds. Crystal Lake is froze all the way so look for that lake to be great when we get back to normal winter
Higgins Lake has 10 inches of ice everywhere from the reports I got smelt are biting. The smelt fishing is still good with 100 smelt being caught at night on halis tipped with waxworm or spikes. Lots of small perch being caught, but we hope when they get out around the sunken island they will get into the bigger perch You can call Phoenix Park @ 989-821-7220 for info off the west access site and Sports Barn @ 989-821-9511 for info on the south-end of Higgins Lake
Lake Margrethe has good ice and fishing at a standstill with brutal weather. Call Skip??s Sport Shop @ 989-348-7111 for the latest info.
Portage Lake by Onekama has been great for perch and walleye , with some getting walleye during the day. Call Osborn??s Sport Shop in Bear Lake @ 231-889-3775 or Don??s Sport Shop in Manistee @ 231-723-5028
Hamlin Lake has a great gill bite with good pike and walleye action. Call Pere Marquette Sport @ 231-843-8676 or Hamlin Grocery @ (231) 843-2058
The Eyes Have It reports great fishing in the Leroy area call Craig @ 231-768-5653
Houghton Lake - The fishing has been good. Walleye are hitting on green and blue jigging rapalas and Swedish Pimples or hammered aluminum wobblers. The pike action has been good with the occasional keeper. The bluegill bite has picked up in 6 to 8 feet of water over the weed beds along the south shore. Use wax worms.. Call Lyman??s Sport and Shanty Rental @ 989-422-3231
Near the Kalkaska area, Lake Skegemog is good for perch action when using a Hali jig with a minnow and the crappie fishing is good with a blue tip up with a minnow. Lake Margrethe is giving up decent counts of walleye when anglers use blue or grey tip ups. Manistee Lake is producing nice counts of crappie and walleye and Fife Lake is providing nice catches for pike. Pike are biting on suckers or goldens. Call Jack??s Sport Shop for the latest info @ 231-258-8892
Lake St Helen has been good this week for pike, walleye and panfish and has great ice conditions. Call Malcoms Sport @ 989-389-2100 for latest info
Sanford Lake at the first fill has been hot for crappie this week with minnow working best. Call Sanford Sport Shop @ 989-687-5161 for latest info.Otsego Lake has a good perch bite with some walleye being caught and Bradford has nice perch being caught. Also some Stugeon being caught but no keepers yet. Call Stugeon Joe @ 989-732-5866 for the latest info.
Burt Lake has been good at Maple Bay for jumbo perch.
Green Lake by Interlochen has been good for smelt off both access sites with halis and waxworms working best.
Traverse City - Good angling action near Traverse City on Long Lake and most inland lakes for walleye, blue gill and pan fish. Minnows, wax worms and spikes are popular. Anglers need to check the ice before attempting to walk on the ice.
Little Glen Lake - Anglers are starting to fish for perch and pike along the weedbeds.
Betsie River - Those willing to brave the cold could very well hook into an occasional steelhead.
Lake Missaukee - Lots of fisherman out this weekend catching gills and pike with ice conditions great.
Lake Cadillac - Good to excellent fishing conditions for pike on Mitchell and Cadillac Lakes. Anglers are using tip-ups and spearing. Good action for crappie in the day and evening hours. Perch activity is good but plenty of sorting is necessary to find the keepers. Blue gill action is slow. Both Mitchell and Cadillac lakes have good ice ranging between 7-10 inches
East Twin Lake - Fishing pressure has picked up with everyone targeting perch. Not a lot of big numbers but some very nice fish have been caught when jigging perch minnows. Some are using small jigging spoons and doing pretty good, but most of those fish have been smaller.
West Twin Lake - Has lots of anglers but catch rates have not been that good. Those using live minnows on tip-ups or jigs were not having much success. Anglers using rapala minnows in perch colors and those jigging Swedish Pimples tipped with a minnow were doing fair for walleye. The last week has seen a slow down in the walleye bite on live minnows. Perch were caught on live minnows however most are too small to take home.
Lake Mitchell - Has good ice also with lots of fisherman heading out after panfish and pike.
Indian Lake by Manistique has a good perch and walleye bite this week. South Manistique Lake - Still has good walleye action when jigging or using tip-ups. For those spearing, try the southeast side between the access site and Norton Island in 5 to 10 feet of water.
Brevoort Lake - Anglers are ice fishing for walleye and pike. The pike are hitting on tip-ups with minnows and the walleye are hitting on jigs with spikes or minnows. Some nice bluegills have also been caught.
Munuscong Lake has decent ice at this time but the temperatures are extremely cold. A few brave soles are getting out and fishing for perch using minnows and reeling in some good sized fish.
Around St.Ignace a few anglers are getting out on Christiansen Bay and pulling in a few perch and walleye on minnows.
Lake Gogebic near the Bergland area is giving up a few walleye, pike and perch on minnows. However it has been so frigid that most anglers are staying indoors. Ice shanties are appearing on the north and south ends of the Lake as anglers are getting geared up for ice fishing this weekend.
Little Bay DeNoc Has lots of angler activity with over one hundred ice shanties reported. Walleye and perch fishing are good once you locate some fish. Try 10 to 18 feet of water off Kipling or south of Gladstone.
Near the Alanson and Boyne areas, Burt, Crooked, Pickeral, Mullett, and Walloon lakes are all freezing up nicely, as well as most of the rivers and parts of Lake Charlevoix. Ice fishing should be able to commence this weekend; however anglers should use extreme caution when attempting to walk out on any body of water.
Saginaw Bay - At Palmer Road, walleye anglers are going about 3 miles out, probably fishing around the Catfish Hole. At White’s Beach, anglers are going out to 12 or 13 feet of water. Off Erickson Road and Linwood anglers are making it out to about 14 feet of water for walleye. Right now the average is one or two fish per angler with dawn and dusk the best times to fish. On the east side of the bay, there’s not much activity at the Hot Pond right now. That’s open water fishing, and it needs to warm up to do that comfortably. At Quanicassee, anglers going out of Vanderbilt Park are getting a few perch in 5 to 6 feet of water, and also spearing a few pike. At Thomas Road, guys are going out 1.5 to 2 miles for walleye. Small perch and the occasional pike have been caught in the Sebewaing Marina. At Rose Island and Geiger Road, anglers are reporting pretty good walleye fishing 3 miles out in the Slot past the islands. This is primarily an evening bite. At Mud Creek, perch fishing was kind of slow. A few pike were being speared. For Caseville, the Pigeon River is still pretty muddy from the recent thaw, and fishing in the marinas there is slow right now. Fishing should improve as the cold snap tightens things up and stops the runoff.
Tittabawassee River - No fishing activity. The boat launches are iced in and the river moves too swiftly to get safe ice on it.
Saginaw River - As of this report, ice on the river was not safe in Saginaw. Up in Bay City, anglers are creeping out on both sides of the Independence Bridge and getting a few walleyes off both the Golson and Municipal launches. They are also getting some perch off the Patterson Road access site at the mouth of the river. Anglers are reminded to use extreme caution on river ice!
Muskegon Lake Has ice however avoid the area where the freighters are moving through. Enough perch for a meal are being caught along the south end of the lake in waters 45 to 55 feet deep. Bluegills are hitting on bright colors or anything that glows off the State Park on the northwest corner of the lake. Those setting tip-ups for pike have caught the occasional walleye.
AAA Fishing Report
Upper Peninsula:
Indian Lake near Manistique has a solid 12-18 inches of ice. Fair to good angling action is taking place for walleye and perch on minnows.
Munuscong Bay is producing fair to good counts of walleye on minnows and Mosquito Bay is giving up fair to good numbers of whitefish near Sault Ste. Marie.
In the Munuscong Bay area, extreme weather doesn??t seem to be a problem for anglers on Munuscong Lake where the walleye action is excellent. Anglers tell AAA that it is the best activity in years. Fish are biting on minnows. And on Cedarville the perch action is fair.
Off of the St. Ignace area, Cedarville is giving up good quantities of perch and walleye on minnows. Brevort Lake anglers are finding good fishing with minnows, wax worms and spikes for walleye and blue gill in the Bays. Coming February 14, ??Free Fishing Weekend? and the ??Brevort Ice Jamboree?, to pre-register call 906-643-7289 or 906-643-6743.
Around the Copper Harbor area it is severely cold and not much activity is taking place. On Lake Superior the ice has been flowing in and out due to windy conditions.
Extreme cold temperatures are hampering angling activity. Brave anglers on Lake Gogebic are pulling in fair to good numbers of walleye on sucker minnows and fair to good counts of perch and crappie on small shiners.
Angling action is very slow on inland lakes in the Marquette area.
Around Escanaba the temperatures are cold and the ice is solid and walleye activity is good on most of the lakes and rivers within the area. No particular hot spots to speak of, but you will catch your share.
Northwest:
Anglers in Alanson are pulling in all types of fish out of Burt and Crooked lakes in 30-feet of water. Action is rated good.
Near Boyne City, Lake Charlevoix has good action for perch and walleye along the east arm when perch minnows are used. Along the south arm, the perch, walleye and trout are biting on blue and gray tip ups, and minnows. Walloon Lake anglers are finding good activity for perch and walleye when using wigglers, minnows and blue and gray tip ups.
Anglers near Traverse City have some good fishing action going on. Green and Cedar lakes are producing good smelt activity and Cedar Lake is also giving up a few pike.
Off of Frankfort, some good action is taking place on Arcadia Lake for pike and perch on minnows. Portage Lake is also good for perch, rainbow trout and whitefish with wax worms, minnows and wigglers working well. Crystal Lake near the Beulah end is providing good numbers of perch.
Kalkaska is a hot spot for all types of fish on live bait. All of the lakes have good solid ice and providing plenty of activity anywhere you go.
Good action throughout the Gaylord area. Otsego, Bradford, Burt and Mullett lakes are all producing nice numbers of walleye and perch. Sucker and blue minnows are working best.
Lakes Mitchell and Cadillac are producing good numbers of pike and blue gill on golden shiners, wax worms and spikes. Fair crappie action is taking place with anglers using minnows and red spikes. Perch fishing is decent with fish hitting on perch minnows, but plan on sorting.
West:
Ludington has lots of good ice for the anglers braving the very cold temperatures. Hamlin Lake is giving up blue gill, but not too many anglers out due to bitter cold. Pere Marquette anglers are doing ok on northern pike and steelhead using golden and blues on tip ups, and frozen smelt.
It??s cold on Muskegon Lake but anglers are doing decent for perch on the south side, around the docks, towards the channels and in 45-55 feet of water. Minnows, mousies, wax worms, eyeballs and cut baits seem to be working well. Anglers fishing the Muskegon River and the Croton Dam Pond are pulling in good catches of walleye, perch and blue gill.
Anglers fishing Chippewa Lake are doing great on specs in the evening hours. Good action for blue gill and pike is also taking place. Anglers are keeping hush about walleye, but they are out there. The ice is solid enough to hold cars and trucks at this point.
Slow activity around Baldwin due to very cold temperatures. The ice is very good with just a little bit of snow cover. Anglers can see large size bass under the ice, but the fish just are not biting.
The Grand River near Ionia is producing some steelhead, but anglers will need to watch for a lot of ice flow.
Northeast:
Perch and walleye action is fair to good around the Alpena area. Good numbers are hitting on Hubbard Lake, while fair activity can be had on Grand and Long lakes when using minnows.
Good fishing available around the Oscoda area. Cooke and Foote Dam Ponds are both producing good counts of walleye, pike, pan fish and perch. Walleye prefer golden shiners and pike like sucker minnows. Mousies, spikes and wax worms seem to work well on pan fish and perch. Below Foote Dam, steelhead action is fair and anglers are using spawn, wax worms and wigglers. Tawas Bay has some good angling action for perch and walleye while Van Etten Lake is producing good perch.
Fishing runs the gamut around Grayling where action ranges from fair to excellent. Lake Margrethe is giving up fair counts of walleye and pike on minnows in 20-feet of water, and in the early afternoon and evening the blue gill action is good using wax worms and spikes. River Lake is good to excellent for pike on minnows and spearing.
Houghton Lake is frozen over and the fishing is good. Walleye are active near the north shore and east bay. Pike are found all over when using minnows and near the south shore near the weed bed line, blue gill activity is good on wax worms and spikes.
It??s happening on Higgins Lake, plenty of angling action. The ice is solid and measuring five to eight inches. Perch are biting on perch minnows in 40-feet of water, and lake trout are good in 100-feet of water and hitting on grey shiners. A few pike are being caught while trout fishing.
Au Gres anglers are finding good activity for walleye in 9-21 feet of water near Point Au Gres. The cuts and channels are giving up good numbers of crappie, blue gill and perch. South of the River pike action is good.